Andoni Iraola

He’s our most high profile managerial appointment ever you would have to say looking at the other teams in England annd Europe who have had interest. Andoni was identified, as many have been, and eventually hired. He isn’t a second choice.
Surely if we want a stable club developing an exciting brand of football now is the time to back the manager rather than fold early in the tough time.
 
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redskins said:
He’s our most high profile managerial appointment ever you would have to say looking at the other teams in England annd Europe who have had interest. Andoni was identified, as many have been, and eventually hired. He isn’t a second choice.
Surely if we want a stable club developing an exciting brand of football now is the time to back the manager rather than fold early in the tough time.
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Totally agree. It's time for Foley to make it clear that he totally backs AI so the players don't think that they can undermine his authority. He hasn't failed at his previous clubs, unlike any other candidates we might be able to find if he was fired now. Two key players let him down yesterday when the team was performing reasonably well, so the loss was not down to the manager
 
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DJ said:
I’d go along with that.
Although right now I’m still leaning towards giving him the full season and just letting it play out.
I don’t see any other options, the limitations we have in central midfield is going to see any manager work with one hand tied behind his back.
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I liked what I saw from our side with Brooks and young Scott both included and making his debut in the first half.

What the manager cannot account for are silly or costly errors by his players, Cook losing his cool and Neto, which cost us the goal yesterday.

With 11 v 11, it may have been a different story when the referee final blew his whistle for the end of the game.

The discussions on this thread re the game may have taken an entirely different slant.
 
Firstly, apologies for a pretty long post.

I'm afraid AI can easily become a scapegoat but is he really only one to blame? It's not like he's not to blame for the poor performance of the whole team but IMHO he was placed on a ticking time bomb.
Coach with a pretty low experience - from abroad with nearly no one from his old coaching staff around him. At least give him his old assistant he could relay on!
Also, I've a strange feeling that most of us (including myself) overestimated the strength of our team. Please ask yourself a question how many of our players would find a place in the first 11s of other PL teams (not including newly promoted). Now answer to yourself and be very honest! So, how many?
What AI has got from Blake and other people who're responsible for our transfers is... Pretty much nothing. Mostly rejects from other clubs like Radu from Rome (they kicked him out) or Kluivert who already played in few leagues and couldn't find a permanent place. On the top of that trying to copy Brighton without a good scouting team behind and buying a very expensive players like Traore (I still recon he's a good player but completely not suitable for PL, good technically player but no physical attributes at all! Should stay in Italy.) is not going to go well without already fully established PL squad. Another one is Dango who might be on day a good player but not ready for PL yet as well. Then we can go through all the injured players who cost as a lot of money to the last one which no one probably understands - Sinisterra for Anthony who plays only for his national team instead for us. Why? The only two good transfers would be Aarons and Kerketz but again should they be the only choice we've got and relay for whole season on? I'd like to also add Kelly on the top of that who will probably go for free to Tottenham at the end of the season, unless we've a gentleman's agreement with him and have a new contact prepared but trying to avoid FFP punishment. Speaking about Brighton they would probably bought much cheaper and even better players for what we spent. Also, what they normally do perfectly is loaning these new young talents for 1-2 seasons, for instance to Belgium to make sure they're ready for PL before they come back.
Another issue is lack of strong characters in our team and it looks like a lot of them have no heart to play for the club! Are they really listening to AI? Would they listen to other coach for longer period?
I know we all love Brooksy but, unfortunately he's just a shadow of the player he was (not his fault and fingers crossed he'll come back to previous form). Our arguably most suitable player who always gives at least 100% on the pitch is probably Christie. Again, he's got heart to play but is he a really "PL standard/quality player"? He can't even shoot from 16 yards as his every single shot looks like a pass to GK.
Btw. not sure what happened to Neto but did we managed to improve any GK at all? I think Boruc said once, that he had a better and harder GK trainings in Polish league, so take whatever you like from it.
We could go more and more into details but as long as we (Bill where're you now?) don't clean the mess from behind the scenes we'll go backwards instead of going forward.
 
DJ said:
I’d go along with that.
Although right now I’m still leaning towards giving him the full season and just letting it play out.
I don’t see any other options, the limitations we have in central midfield is going to see any manager work with one hand tied behind his back.
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I agree. I can’t see it happening though because I sense we have an impatient owner if his track record is anything to go by.
 
redharry said:
Lerma was an absolute beast for us. I cannot understand those who thought he was overrated. As you say it was all the unseen stuff, the covering, the up and down the pitch, the blocking off of opponents as they are trying to break. I really don't think Wolves would have scored that first one with him playing. There have been a few others this season where players have just skipped through our midfield at will. Lerma would not have allowed that. We knew last xmas time he would be leaving and we are suffering because we failed to replace him.
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Its the usual thing of players not playing, being sold effect.

There was/is a feeling that he's good in a more attritional side, but not one thats looking to play more expansively. Not that attacking football means you shouldn;t have a DMC, just perhaps that Lerma was a little too limited in posession for our excting new dawn...

Obviously no-one knows (I assume) but wonder if results would have been the same with Adams, or Lerma... or if the setup is so 'broken' at present it would make little difference.

If we had Adams available and playing to his ability, Lerma would likely barely be mentioned, apart from his thread being bumped every few weeks when he gets another booking :)
 
rikki39 said:
I'm starting to think AI assistant is more important then anyone realises, it's almost like he is the real brains behind the partnership, AI is like Tindall and his assistant is like howe maybe and we know Tindall can not work without howe and maybe its the same for AI
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I often wonder if ex-players enter into a management partnership as the 'face' even if they're not the main trainer/tactician.
 
I don't know where this idea has come from that Foley is quick to pull the trigger. He stuck with GON through what was a pretty up and down season and only sacked him it seems because he was told that AI was the manager they'd been hoping and waiting for and was advised he'd be a better long term bet. I hope he sticks with AI and I think he will but after signing Adams, Traore, Django and Sinesstra and not signing Jackson he might not stick with B&H.
 
Kudos said:
I often wonder if ex-players enter into a management partnership as the 'face' even if they're not the main trainer/tactician.
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yeah a big name player becomes a manager to attract players but behind the scenes others do the real work, it's entirely plausible which can be used to raise profile of a club as well
 
redskins said:
He’s our most high profile managerial appointment ever you would have to say looking at the other teams in England annd Europe who have had interest. Andoni was identified, as many have been, and eventually hired. He isn’t a second choice.
Surely if we want a stable club developing an exciting brand of football now is the time to back the manager rather than fold early in the tough time.
Click to expand...

ordinarily, I'd agree, sacking a manager after 9 games would be bonkers but i've seen nothing from this bloke to suggest he's up to it, both short or long term
and blaming his missing assistant is laughable

capable players have gone backwards, they're a bag of nerves almost as though they haven't a clue with whatever plan they're supposed to be following

lose next week and take tonkings in the following 3, he could be gone before the sheff utd game
 
When I think back, the (so far) defining moment of this season was the own goal which came from absolutely nowhere just before half time at Brighton. Everything which happened before then, even the defeats, I was completely OK with and could accept, and since that precise moment we've basically been a mess. How to get such a defining moment in reverse?
 
Am I the only geezer about who actually thinks we were second best, albeit marginally, even before the madness that ensued?

Granted, we scored a well worked goal from a lovely team move, but I never felt like we really threatened them other than that one moment

Wolves on the t’other hand I felt looked a threat on every occasion they came forward and had acres of space to play in. We, in comparison, were finding it difficult to penetrate (hehe) their resolute and compact defence

I think that little chef’s crazy moment has distracted from the reality that on the balance of play, we were quite likely going to lose that game anyway

Sorry!!
 
SteveM1956 said:
Kelly’s frustration was pretty obvious too.
As a Cherries supporter since the mid 1960’s who has never seen a home Premier League match I can only go on brief highlights on Sky and the excellent Radio Solent commentaries. We’ve had some great goalkeepers over the decades - my earliest memories were of Roger Jones and David Best, moving on through Gerry Payton to Aaron Ramsdale, our current guardian is definitely the worst I’ve seen. He even makes Jimmy Glass look good!
Previous management managed to knock the confidence of Mark Travers. I was dismayed that he has gone on loan to Stoke where he appears to be performing well. We need to get him back or give Radu a run in the team (not Randoph for god’s sake) as Neto’s mistakes are becoming costly and our defence clearly lacks confidence in him. Goalkeeper captains rarely work unless they are exceptional players and Neto doesn’t fall into that category.
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Great post but, personally, I thought last season that travers lost a lot of confidence while Neto was excellent.
DJ said:
I’d go along with that.
Although right now I’m still leaning towards giving him the full season and just letting it play out.
I don’t see any other options, the limitations we have in central midfield is going to see any manager work with one hand tied behind his back.
Click to expand...
I stayed loyal to GON during the bad run post the World Cup because you could see progress despite the results and I would do likewise with AI if we see similar progress. Arsenal and Everton were disappointing performances but thought first half showed a lot of good elements.

Most of second half showed a great effort by the team after that dumb first minute until some key errors were made. AI now needs to be ruthless regardless of cost or reputation to ensure players who don’t perform lose their place
 
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