What a

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Gets harder each year as the top 15 or 16 have definitely much better squads than the bottom 4 or 5.

To think not that long ago we were in the EFL with

Villa
Fulham
West Ham
Bournemouth
Brentford
Palace

All of whom have kicked on and sit in that comfortable mid table zone (or sometimes a little higher).

We would probably need at least 8 players to stay up and possibly a new manager. Farke?s style seems to work in the second tier but he hasn?t been the greatest success in top leagues.

[whitestomper45]

Gets harder each year as the top 15 or 16 have definitely much better squads than the bottom 4 or 5.

To think not that long ago we were in the EFL with

Villa
Fulham
West Ham
Bournemouth
Brentford
Palace

All of whom have kicked on and sit in that comfortable mid table zone (or sometimes a little higher).

We would probably need at least 8 players to stay up and possibly a new manager. Farke?s style seems to work in the second tier but he hasn?t been the greatest success in top leagues.

Yes those clubs have overtaken us helped with great appointments of Managers and Players as well as avoiding relegation from PL and the clubs growing revenue and stature.

Though Spam no longer own a ground and there was a cloud over Bournemouth financial arrangements when getting promoted.

With regard Farke in the PL, he wasn't backed by Norwich in the transfer market when winning promotion. He may want to change style but realise afair few find it a bit stilted presently.

I note 3 of our previous managers currently ply their trade in Lge 1 !

[Monaco_Totty]

Sadly the consequence of all these hirings & firings see the average length of service of PL managers is 750 days now.

So lots of pressure with many Coaches seeing such short stints as gaining work experience.
Fans add to pressures on Coaches as well as players & owners far quicker now alongside 24/7 media too.
With supporters now organised into social media groups, alongside weekly podcasts everything is so 'immediate' & very well organised to put pressure onto owners & CEOs.
Like Man U currently, you cannot ignore such pressure as an owner or CEO cos you gotta stay in touch with your fanbase, end of.

Looking at PL club managers history stats ☺ sees that West Brom averaged a new manager every season they have been in the PL with 13 bosses in 13 campaigns.
There is no doubt that changing managers can lead to success tho as Chelsea have been the prime example with 14 permanent bosses in the last 20 years winning 17 major trophies in that same timeframe !

So is there value in giving a manager time to prove his worth & develop his team nowadays with such huge money invested into such fleeting appointments trends ?

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Yep - we had a few sliding door moments too.

Slot and Iraola were both managers we looked at but couldn’t persuade.

We were in for the likes of

Ben White
Gvardiol
Cunha
Paquetta
Bowen
Watkins

I think Farke works well in the EFL as it’s all about his system and not the players and if the players are as good as we have then his system will work.

Joffy has alluded already to some of the limitations of how Farke manages a squad.

The idea that he is a good top tier coach would need a lot more evidence for me.

[spaldy]

A couple of issues here. I think Farke is a different issue from the squad. If we make the prem and we want to be a player then we need a better manager. I'm all about Loyalty but there are very few, if any, players that he makes better. This is the opposite of Bielsa that made quite a few players way better than they would be under the average coach. That's not going to work with our squad in the prem. We need someone that can take them to the next level and keep them there. Farke can't do that.

Not sure the squad, under the right coach, needs the overhaul that some say we do. With a stud coach like some of the teams listed on this thread that were in the EFL with us many of our players would be more than adequate:

Gnonto
Ramananzi
Tanaka
Rodon
Strujik
Joseph
Solomon (if we can sign him)
James
Gruev


I think the right coach probably brings out the best in Rothwell (if we sign him) and some of the youth players that have never been given a chance. I don't think Piroe is quick enough and Byram may not want to go another year. I think this squad, as is, including the coach, is good enough to avoid relegation. Not really something that you want to strive for but better than Sotown and Ipswich's fate.

[whitestomper45]

A couple of issues here. I think Farke is a different issue from the squad. If we make the prem and we want to be a player then we need a better manager. I'm all about Loyalty but there are very few, if any, players that he makes better. This is the opposite of Bielsa that made quite a few players way better than they would be under the average coach. That's not going to work with our squad in the prem. We need someone that can take them to the next level and keep them there. Farke can't do that.

Not sure the squad, under the right coach, needs the overhaul that some say we do. With a stud coach like some of the teams listed on this thread that were in the EFL with us many of our players would be more than adequate:

Gnonto
Ramananzi
Tanaka
Rodon
Strujik
Joseph
Solomon (if we can sign him)
James
Gruev


I think the right coach probably brings out the best in Rothwell (if we sign him) and some of the youth players that have never been given a chance. I don't think Piroe is quick enough and Byram may not want to go another year. I think this squad, as is, including the coach, is good enough to avoid relegation. Not really something that you want to strive for but better than Sotown and Ipswich's fate.

That list i think is stretching it a bit to say they are all PL standard, if they are some are at the very lower end. Joseph is not fully functioning in the Championship, him and James suffer from poor awareness (maybe greed) with their on ball options, Solomon stands out a mile when he is in attacking third compared to them. Also the PL players being that little bit quicker as McCormack found out when he left us, he suddenly lost his biggest asset..speed.
With PSR restrictions, more than ever it will all be about staying up. Promoted teams are limited on what they can spend, the gulf between PL and Championship is ever widening as can be seen by tables.

Bogle is improving, he didn't seem much rated by Blunt fans, tho maybe some sour grapes. Struijk seems better also to me. Rothwell has proved a good signing, i'd rate him mostly 7 out of 10, not sure how he would do in PL.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

We had so many sliding door moments both during the Bielsa years in the PL and then post Bielsa.

We tried to get in Slot and Iraola who are both tearing it up in the PL.

Player wise we were in for so many who have turned out to be excellent- Watkins, White, Gvardiol, Paquetta, Cunha etc.

It?s not that we didn?t spend money it?s just we didn?t spent it wisely and often over paid.

Rodrigo 30m
Adams 25m
Aaronson 25m
Sinisterra 22m
Rutter 30m (which at the time seemed way too much for that stage of his development).

We seemed to be useful at bringing in free transfers or hidden talent players (the current scouting system seems better at that).

Have to respect the Brighton and Brentford models of identifying value others don?t see and then selling on at a profit whilst keeping the pipeline flowing.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Sorry site was glitching and not showing first post had worked so posted the second one instead and now see it had actually worked.

What with the apostrophe glitch this site seems to have more gremlins than the movie