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Agree some of the signings looked good at the time (and even if they haven't worked out yet like Poku they are understandable risk-reward). But at the same time, there have been signings which seem poor, whether arguably gratuitous (Saito - called it at the time, like the guy and rated him off last season but not a priority position to spend 2-3m on... Edwards has also been flagged as gratuitous), Obikwu (how can you sign a replacement which is injured?), or very likely not up to standard (choose from your southern hemisphere signings).
Importantly the whole model has fallen down this season because either players are injured, or they are not improving. Apart from Madsen, no one is looking better than they did last season (notably Morgan, Morrison and Kolli); as someone raised elsewhere, dev squad results have not been great; and it's not like we have young players out on loan getting great experience, beyond Cooper.
Against that background I think we're in a tough spot.. we've spent a lot of money and it's tough to find a player we'd manage to sell for more than we paid for them. The buy to sell model relies on fast rotation... and that cannot support seasons like we've just had.
Morning after reflection - I reckon Nourry's a goner by season end.
His "model" is well and truly broken. While the acquisition part of it was so so, players are now either getting worse (not just in first team but also dev team judging by results) and/or not playing cos they're injured . So we're basically stuck with a lot of players losing value and no money to spend. I'd say it's just as likely Nourry walks away this summer as he's fired. I mean, is he really going to want to oversee another season but with no money to spend this time, trying to find another head coach when probably no-one wants to come to our basket case setup? Even if he finds some money down the back of the sofa, I'd be surprised if any good young players look at us after this season and say "yes, that's where I advance my career".
That's the good news part. Now for the bad news part.... I think we're in serious trouble. Would not be surprised if there is a fire sale of sorts end of season, Nourry's whole idea seemed to be based on big sales... not seeing any big player sales this summer based on injuries and performances, hence possible fire sales, led probably by Field. Then we've got to find another CEO and DoF, and our board's track record of decision making is pretty horrific. Given they tend to lack imagination / go for whatever's been dangled in front of them, I would not be surprised if they tapped up Warburton for DOF on the basis he's been as good as it gets under them. Beyond that god knows what they'd think is a good idea.
Top point on dev squad results. Has gone largely under the radar but they've not had a great season, and if success is seen as developing young players then dev squad results are surely key to judging that success.
While I agree with your logic for what should happen next, based on what's happened so far I fear a bit. Hiring CN already felt like the board saying "we've tried everything, we're basically out of ideas so let's go for a bit of a hail mary"; so what happens when this hail mary idea fails too? The owners are distant but have been benevolent; god knows where we end up if they get tired of being benevolent. That combined with the ability to consistently make impatient, bad decisions (I'd say we've had 2.5 good managers over the last 15 years... Warnock obviously, Warburton arguably, and Cifuentes the 0.5.... in each case there has been progress followed by impatience things are not moving fast enough leading to them being fired and taking us backwards, often with massive misadventures on the way.
Grim times. Now, where are we going to get 6 more points from this season?
West London Sport post match interview - that guy does not look happy.
Hearing that it does feel like he might leave end of season.
In terms of performance, I think he's done ok but Cifuentes did slightly better IMO as not only did he have worse options at his disposal but also some players emerged or played better under Cifuentes. Madsen's the clear exception, but we saw the emergence of Morgan, a different Saito, a world beating Edwards and some proper Varane performances under Marti.
Neither Stefan or Cifuentes are top managers but I tend to agree that the manager is not the main problem at the club (how can he be with an injury list like that for the second season running?)
Agree on the pitch this season begins to look done. And if it's not, just as likely we get pulled close to the bottom 3 than we float towards the top 6.
But off the pitch I think there are some important months coming up, which will decide whether or not the general direction of travel is working. We've spent a lot of money over the last 18 months (last 6 in particular), and there's a good chance we end up with exactly the same result as the two season before - 15th to 18th in the table and out in the 1st and 3rd rounds of the cup. The test then is if the sell upwards model working? To prove it probably needs us to sell about 3 players at a fair to good profit - my guess would be Varane, Madsen and probably Kolli (now Dembele has an ACL injury so no-one will take him). If we can't do that, one may begin to wonder what the last two years have been about.
Interesting, but long, interview with him, a good peek behind the curtain of the football world.
Few interesting bits on his time with QPR. Seemed to really rate Holloway, tells some funny stories about him, at the end in particular. Apparently QPR was the peak of his earnings as well, he was on 1m per year.
Also reminder how bad football owners can be, his Leeds stories are nuts.
Don't we have one already - I thought we hired during summer? Which makes it even more shocking if we do... I don't think we've scored off any corner or indirect free kick (1st phase this season) while leaking goals from oppo set pieces. Stark difference from last year when, while very predictable, i.e. put it on Jimmy's head, we were pretty threatening.
While I think there are things to be fairly happy about this season such as some pretty good recruitment and Stephan doing ok after a shaky start, got to ask some questions about the whole football set up. We have a head of methodology when we don't play the game model, and (if not mistaken above) a set piece coach overseeing set piece disasters; as well as obviously the apparent treatment of some people.
Grew up around there and till a couple of years ago was there many times a year. Lots of scum and Palace fans indeed.
Second the comments on Carshalton pubs, Hope in particular has always been a good one, Sun also good. In Sutton, the Sudstone and Shinner was about as good as it gets when I was around a lot just after Covid. Old Bank has always shown most footy games historically (have watched many QPR games there over the years, albeit without fellow fans).
If you have a car may be worth considering country pubs on weekends... Woodman in Banstead, Sportsman at Mogador, Box Hill pubs... anywhere between 10 and 30 mins drive away.
First game in three I've managed to (more or less) properly watch.
On one hand, pretty standard lower championship stodge. On the other hand, got to give credit to Sheff Wed to put in performances with that with the (complete lack of) resources they have and crisis they are in.
Agree with others, Frey looked like he needed oiling after too much time unused. WTF has happened to Dembele? He had a good 5 mins after coming on but otherwise, like in every other game this season so far, poor and a shadow of the star who we had at the start of last season.
There have been multiple good signings in isolation over the last 18 months or so, but the sum of the parts is far less than the parts themselves. Indeed overall I'd have a moderately negative view of overall recruitment for three reasons, all of which have been mentioned many times on the forum: 1. The times that big money has been spent, it has been spent very poorly. Madsen the absolute case in point (somewhere between 2 and 4m on a player profile which was not then answer to any of our problems, before we even saw him play). 2. Recruitment is entirely unbalanced, it does not focus on where the team is actually lacking. We have only three CMs in the team, we played them all on Sat and got dicked 7-1. 3. Let's just say for a minute we're on board with the idea of a "play out from the back game model". In this case, players should be recruited to fit that game model. And yet we keep recruiting players who can't hold the ball and progress it forwards.
The rumoured Saito signing is a case in point. I like Saito, rate him highly, and in isolation he's a good signing albeit maybe a bit expensive at the rumoured 2.8m. But the problems we are facing are everywhere but AM/wing. If anyone watched Sat and thought "the answer here is to get another winger" they are simply mental. I'd also say he maybe fits the "game model" better than e.g. Dembele, but I'm not sure he's a great fit for the game model... and if we need players to hold and progress the ball, why did we pay 2m for Dembele again?
While there are clearly questions to be asked of Belk, I'd say the flaws in the transfer plan highlighted above come more from the top...
Think there are way more of us who appreciate your work Clive than there are those idiots out there... but the idiots sadly tend to be louder. Take care of yourself.
It increasingly looks like that, both metaphorically and literally.
Post Plymouth interview conveyed the metaphorical for me. This kind of glazed smile saying "I was told to play this team".
Now it can be argued that it's a poor metric as they are 5-10 min snippets of the week, but the inside training vids ring alarm bells... it is mainly drills walking balls past de facto dummies into pop up goals or hammering past helpless keepers.... the kind of stuff I did at different non-pro levels. Compare that to the intense and fascinating (or at least I found them) exercises under MC.
A more cynical man than myself may say that a French CEO hired a French manager working outside his native country for the first time as that's a lot easier to control than a Catalan who's worked in half a dozen countries / leagues or a manager of any nationality who's already experienced England...
We're absolutely loaded with attacking mids at all levels of the club. Most of the senior ones will legitimately want to be starters (Chair, Poku, Dembele, Vale, Smyth... thats before even getting to Madsen) and we've got Kolli (part AM part striker), Sutton, Bennie and maybe at some point Trujillo knocking on the door.
So for me has to be 4-2-3-1, probably similar line up to Dannyblue, just swapping the CB and striker from time to time.
And I'd be absolutely screaming to sign at least one centre mid. We are about 1.5 injuries and suspensions away from having to stick Madsen back in there. Would also ideally want a left back, though would depend a bit on how Larkeche and Esqurdinha do pre season.
I've really not been a Nourry fan, but on paper there are some pretty impressive moves been made here (the nuts Ben Williams fudging aside) and I'd say getting Steve Bould in is top among them. If transfer rumours are true, it even sounds like big lessons were learnt from last year's incoherent, inexperienced trolley dash.
Also getting quietly excited about the season... words I'll probably regret by October! Now if we can just get a refund on Madsen...
Stephan will be a strange one if true. On one hand I can see the potential, some good runs and a record of player development. On the other hand, wasn't a key criterion for the club experience of the many 3 game weeks we get in the Champ? 3 roles in Ligue 1 France is not going to help with that. Decision influenced maybe by Le Bris coming from Ligue 1 last year and getting promotion? (are our 28 year old French CEO and Sunderland's 28 year old French chairman close?)
Southgate had a win percentage of 20 something percent at boro, far from setting the world alight. But he's the second most successful England manager ever.
Sven and Capello won more or less everything going at club level, and arguably with the players at their disposal, both underperformed for England. Not even a semi final between them across their 10 years.
Good club manager does guarantee a good national manager. While only a gut feeling, I think Potter with a good range of experience, including importantly in English leagues, would have been a better option than Tuchel (with Howe probably the best option).
Yeah also though it should have been Howe or Potter.
This does so far have a very Capello feel to it.. hopefully it will change, but Tuchel is known for his falling outs (generally with hierarchy admittedly rather than players), and the treatment of some players so far and the reaction of others does not bode well.
I do find it bizarre that we are the only "major" football nation which keeps hiring foreign managers... not seeing France, Italy, Spain, Germany or Netherlands doing that. Yet our best runs in competitions have come under English managers, even if some of them like Southgate have club records which could be called average at best.
In the end though, I guess around this time next year we'll find out if the Tuchel experiment worked or if the FA is facing a multi-million contract payoff.
Funny, I thought of that quote on the club having a list of managers to replace Marti yesterday while wondering when we'll get news. When comparing that quote to the situation we are in - Marti 6 weeks into gardening leave and no replacement with some names rumoured to be on that supposed list getting new jobs - it does suggest the decision was hasty and/or poorly thought out.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, Nourry needs this next appointment to go very well given we're in a mess of his own doing, and that is probably just adding to delays. While not a CN fan, looking at ins and outs I don't think it's beyond him to get the next appointment right; though there is probably an equal chance he gets it very wrong. I'd say the time to start really worrying is if we get to late June and there is no news.
Nice idea on paper, but surely it has some major flaws.
1. If working across teams, it means we're likely to trial new set piece ideas in the youth and dev teams before rolling them out in the first team. So as an oppo championship scout, if I wanted to know what unique set pieces might occur then I'd watch the youth and dev games to get ideas. 2. This person might be highly confidential, but is the rest of the club, including coming and going players e.g. loans going to be as "confidential" 3. 40 hours a week just on this? Honestly?! Gonna look mighty silly when throws still don't clear the first man.
I can imagine Arsenal with their massive setup can afford to do something like this, but do we know if any champ teams do? (I'm doubtful)
Two things stick out: 1. As one of the comments on YouTube says, it looks like they've been taken hostage! 2. With Xavi, it's like hearing Marti's words come out of Xavi's mouth. As has been the case the few times he did media duties in Marti's place. Makes me think its unlikely that he stays on, more likely he goes wherever MC goes next.
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