Abacus

I'm veering back to wanting Ragnick as manager short term, then stepping up as a DOF to set an overall vision. Because I think we need to decide on a style of play, and then bring in managers who can deliver that style. At the moment, they'd have a fairly blank slate since we're a formless mess, so I'm open to whatever that is. But I guess if you look at Man United as an example of what not to do, they've appointed managers in a fairly scattergun way recently, each with very different ideas about how they should play, and therefore buying players to fit. Which, after two or three different managers gives you a real problem in terms of how your squad fits together. It doesn't help that they've also gone for a few statement signings, seemingly as much for name as any football logic. Hope we manage to avoid this pitfall too.

I don't care if ten Hag will be the next Man U manager or not. Not least because they've proven they have no idea how to appoint a manager, so they are completely irrelevant. I'd take him at Newcastle straight away, and let the Mancs squabble over Lampard or Bruce.

I can't read enough about Newcastle right now, particularly from people that care about the club. But actually my interest in football in general has come back too. So, it might not work, but it's surely worth a shot.

That's a fair point. You could argue though, that a bit like Ferguson, he left behind a really unbalanced squad. Ferguson won the title with the sheer force of his personality, but then left a mess where he hadn't strengthened in key areas and almost the whole squad needed refreshing by the time he was done. Likewise with Wenger, except he managed them into decline. Fine, he didn't have the resources Ferguson had, but he also did not strengthen in the right areas even when he had the funds to do so. Certainly, every Arsenal fan I knew wanted him gone long before the end and he was given more than enough time, to my mind. Great manager in his day, they played some of the best football you've seen, for a period, but think his time is past.

It would be a big no from me for Wenger. Watching him unravel at Arsenal suggests his time has long passed - maybe as a DOF, but even then I'm not convinced. Take his 2 yearly World Cup plans for one thing, as to his football ideas. He achieved great things, but that was on a defensive bedrock that was already built for him, and which we don't get to start with. Give him a Viera and a Petit in midfield, then yes, but those kind of players don't come around every day and for the last 5-10 years of his time at Arsenal, the only thing you could hear from the Emirates was the sound of their fans complaining.

Ten Hag > Emery > Rodgers > Benitez > Fonseca > Favre > Howe > Gerrard > Martinez/Lampard.

He's certainly not the long term answer, but I'm already much happier now with him in as a caretaker. It's good to hear someone give actual reasons for their team selection even though I didn't agree with the line up, particularly in defence. You'd hope the new permanent manager brings in their own coaching team, but hopefully Jones can help bridge the gap as he does at least know the players and can point out where we need strengthening from day 1. Although, if he starts Shelvey next week after his ban, I'll take it all back and want him fired into the moon.

He's on the bench, though.

A capable operator indeed. Let me put you on hold while I find the right department Mr Messy. Oh no, Amanda! I cut them off again!

Seems like every man and Harry Redknapp's dog has an opinion on this.

True, but the whole point is that it's sort of a fiction anyway because there's no way of demonstrating how much naming a stadium is actually worth, still less the order of the words. They can pretend it's worth X amount, buy whatever players they want and we still get to have it as St James' Park.

I think you just call it "St James Park with XXX" I'd be fine with that.

I'm in 5 out of 10 flip of a coin territory. Firstly, we're already 3 points adrift with a squad with a few obvious weaknesses and there's a huge rebuilding job here. Also, I do think most other teams will be gunning for us now. On the other hand, with Bruce finally gone and talk of various competent managers instead, we should be doing better than we are. It's a lower mid table squad, but I'd honestly take 17th right now if offered it. And hopefully, we act early in January to plug those gaps, before a proper rebuild in the summer.

The level of personal abuse has been less than the norm, though. Chants of 'we want Brucey out' are hardly personal abuse. The Twitter stuff, fine, I don't know what that is. But 'stupid, inept cabbage head' I don't see what part of that isn't even just factual. More than that, for someone who bragged about not being able to use a computer, not paying attention to social media, having a thick skin, and loving the abuse 'in a sick way', he's remarkably precious. And can have presumably only been told about it by his own son, who does use social media.

I think it'd be great for Brucey and the Steves to get another job on the back of this, completely mismanage everything yet again, and set another set of fans raging. I would actively look forward to watching his press conferences and laughing my head off, knowing we've wiped him off our shoe for good. Please don't retire, Brucey!

I thought the statement was fair enough and politely worded. You don't get the sense they were offended at all, but are responding to and seeking to head off wider criticism. Pretty sure it was just a day 1 celebration thing anyway and you wouldn't have seen much or any dressing up at the next game regardless. Maybe the odd daft stag party every now and again.

Well, obviously I'm not everyone's cup of tea and it'll be very very difficult, but hopefully I can get more points than the mighty Bruce.

We're world news now. No problem with sponsorship at all.

He'll probably have to tell Janet to stop making his packed lunch in time, hence the delay. There will be supply chain issues with that, and lorries jacknifing back up the A1.

What a way to destroy that nation's love for the sport.

Phil Brown

The more I think about it, the more hilarious I find it that after making such a song and dance about his 1,000th game that he marks it forever more by putting in such a completely shit performance. A goal head start, a full strength squad, the world's cameras on you and playing in front of your new bosses. You've even put on a suit. And then, over the course of 90 minutes you demonstrate to literally everyone just how utterly inept you are, with an unfit team that doesn't know what it's doing, gets ripped apart at will and making bizarre decisions that make things worse, like having his hopeless little pet substitute first of all make no difference and then get sent off. Hahaha! Mind, I can laugh about it now, but I won't be if his gormless face is still there at Palace.

Well, Bruce doesn't do either attack or defence. So having a coach that could do either of those things would be an improvement beyond the dreams of man. Yes, you wonder about the capabilities of the squad, but they'd all improve under someone with a working brain.

Not sure how representative a Talksport fan is. We've had plenty of our own fans going on there with daft opinions, who don't represent the majority. What I do think is that it's a heck of a job to turn Everton around, and there will be bumps in the road. The trouble Rafa has is that so many were hostile to him in the first place, and people in general don't like to be proven wrong. So, every setback is amplified because it supports their previous view, and every step forward filed away with a shrug. For what it's worth, they were really poor against West Ham. They have an expensive squad that doesn't really work and Rafa hasn't the budget for a radical overhaul. So it'll take a while for his coaching to pay off, and I'm not sure he'll be given that time. For what it's worth, I do think he can be pig-headed at times, sticking to players he shouldn't and fiddling around with systems until one works. Not sure Rondon is one to stick with right now, given his time away from elite football, for example, though not sure what other options he has right now. He'd have been ideal for us right now of course, but that ship has sailed, so I'm more excited to see what the next thing is rather than hark back to him.

Probably wrong, but isn't there a maximum pay off for that?