Cjay

I quite like David Moyes. Cant really judge him on his Manchester United spell, 2 of the most successful managers of all time followed him and neither have really made a great success of it, following Ferguson was impossible. And, if he was good enough for Alex Ferguson to recommend? Cant really judge him on Sunderland either, they were in freefall. The job he did at Everton was brilliant, on a budget, he managed a 4th placed finish dont forget. He was named LMA Manager of the year 3 times, which is 2nd only to Alex Ferguson who won it 4 times. West Ham were in the relegation zone when he took over last season, a club in turmoil and at war with its own fanbase, he finished 13th, pretty decent really given the circumstances. His stock has definitely fallen since his Everton days, but wasnt that long ago most people would have said he was one of the best young managers in the country. COuld be a lot worse.

Atleast your selections for odds are a bit exciting ? Henry, Arteta, Fonseca, Smith, exciting names. Now imagine this for a scenario, you are waiting for a managerial legend to make a choice, sitting pretty at the top of your odds is his glorious name ? And then you scan down the list, and tears start to fall down your face as you realise that if it isnt this great then it will be one of many erm, cabbages. Marcelo Bielsa Mick McCarthy- Steve Bruce- Simon Grayson- Jaap Stam- David O'Leary- Steve McClaren- Nigel Pearson- That genuinely was the odds at one point after Heckingbottom. Just be grateful for small mercies!!!!!!

Bielsa talking about Steve Bruce having a cabbage thrown at him on Tuesday night: "I don't see this as barbaric as you do. But that is because you have better habits."

Katie Hopkins?

Didn't Paulo Fonseca sign an £8million pound a year 2 year contract with no release clause in the summer? So you'd have to buy out his contract.

Id be quite envious if you got Quique Sanchez Flores. WOn trophies as a manager for big clubs, won trophies as a player for big club, wont be intimidated by being at Villa. And did a really good job at Watford. Was who i wanted us to get (before Bielsa became a possibility of course).

Surely a lemon, or a piece of fruitcake would have made more sense? Cabbage, strange choice. ?Or maybe that was the point, cabbage is a strange choice, some of you think some of Bruces selections are strange? All makes sense now

Thanks? I think he is brilliant, critics dismiss him for his lack of trophies. That hasnt stopped Poch, Zidane, Pep, Simeone all seeking him out for advice. Didnt stop Barcelona considering him in 2012 and then appointing one of his many disciples Tata Martino. Didnt stop Real Madrid considering him either or Inter Milan. Widely accepted Bielsa would have had one of the top jobs if he would have been more flexible, but he refuses, he is a man of principle, i respect that.

No but they spent about £9mil, i got my maths wrong. Bielsa spent about £8.8mil on Ander Herrera and Aritz Aduriz, thats it. Madrid were the current Europa League and Super Cup winners from the season before and had spent about 10 times as much as Bilbao that summer. Lost Javi Martinez in his second summer (they only paid money for Aduriz that summer) He had his hands tied behind his back financially, with the talent pool he was allowed, limited the depth of the squad to, not sure what you think he should have achieved. Lack of depth is a problem, hardly his fault he has never been at a club that allowed him the funds or room to build a capable squad.

They were beaten by Pep and Diego Simeone and there multi million pound squads, nothing to be ashamed of there imo. Considering he hardly had any money and only had a talent pool of about half the size of the West Midlands to find players from, i think his job at Bilbao was pretty brilliant. On McGinn, Nyland and El Ghazi Villa have spent £2mil more in one summer then Bielsa spent during his 2 summers at Bilbao. Whether we have the depth to do a 46 game season i dont know though.

Perhaps, but its got us to a level of fitness seemingly far above anyone else so far. May take its toll as you say, but strengthen in January and that could help in that regard.

Most managers peddle excuses, the further up the finance chain you go it looks more pathetic imo. Got Mourinho doing it at Scumchester. Bruce should have built a promotion capable squad quite easily with the funds he has had. If your defence is light thats his fault. He has had time and money. Cant keep peddling excuses like a manager on a tight budget in the job for 3 months

We have yes, which isnt ideal, but its only 1 defeat in 7 to. Vs Swansea we lost our captain in the warm up and had no recognised cb in the squad because of that. By the time we played Boro we had lost our best attacking player Pablo Hernandez and by the time we played Millwall next we had lost Kemar Roofe to and Gaetano Berardi who had been very good at cb. Hernandez and Roofe took knocks in games i think and were taken off, Berardi i think was a non game injury. And we lost Bamford to in an u23 game. Less then ideal and very well may be partially down to the intensity of Bielsa and his ways There's no doubt we miss those 4 players, Millwall, Birmingham and definitely vs Wednesday had they been available we would have won imo, we battered Birmingham and Wednesday especially 2nd half, just wernt clinical. Cant really blame Bielsa for that , be like you losing Grealish, Chester, Kodjia and Abraham. Not so sure burnout is fair, missing key players definitely is, not having replacements of similar quality especially in attacking areas. Its not like we are playing poorly, we are the better side still overall, Wednesday fans are full of praise for our 2nd half performance (which clearly wouldn't be easy for them to say). Goes back to squad strength imo. If Wolves lost Jota last season they had Costa. If you lose Adomah for example you have Bolasie. We lost our 2 main forwards and only have a 19 year old. Our main creative player we have a talented but unproven 21 year old. I think depth is our main issue.

While its to early to declare him a resounding success it is quite incredible what he has done. People focus on the start we had last year as a way to promote caution, which is fair. But what doesnt happen enough is using our form in the later months as a way to praise Bielsa. 2018 pre Bielsa. Played 21-won 4-lost 11-drew 6 .scored 22 conceded 36. 18points. We were bottom 3 of the form table for the entirety of 2018. BPF, Cooper, Jansson,Berardi, Ayling, Douglas, Phillips, Forshaw, Baker, Klich, Alioski, Hernandez, Roofe, Roberts, Harrison, Saiz, Shackleton, Dallas, Edmondson and Bamford. Only those in bold have been regular starters, every one except Harrison and Douglas have been on our books for the entire calendar year at least, and only Klich and Roberts who were loaned out or injured played no part in our form 2018 pre Bielsa. Shackleton and Edmondson are youth players, Bamford hasnt had a league start and is now out probably till 2019. Tyler Roberts signed in January but was injured and has only come in because of an injury to Roofe. Harrison is a loan from Manchester City but only starting because of Hernandez being injured. So Barry Douglas and Mateusz Klich are the only real changes if all fit from last season. With mainly the same squad as last season Bielsa has taken us from bottom 3 of the form table to top 2. He has taken an attack that scored 22 in 21 games and scored 20 in 10. He has taken a defence that conceded 36 in 21 and conceded 8 in 10. He has taken a group of players who looked like strangers and made them into an organised energetic fit as a butchers dog passing machine. This organisation and fitness is evident when you consider Bielsa isnt a huge fan of defending. But his high press and overload style means teams struggle to create chances against us. With Brentford we concede the fewest goal scoring chances per game. We have the best pass block percentage in the league. We retain possession better then anyone but as evidence by us having the highest shot ratio in the league its not passing for passings sake, its incisive and attacking. Whether we have the squad to cope for a full season i dont know. But what i would be willing to bet money on is if Bielsa had the funds Bruce and others have had in this league or the access to the talent Nuno had, then Bielsa would walk the league. He is an incredible coach, to do what he has done with largely the same players in such a short space of time is phenomenal. And it makes someone like Steve Bruce look frankly ridiculous when he complains about needing time and whatever. As i said, you give Bielsa the funds Bruce, Nuno etc had then the league would be a foregone conclusion.

Yes. When Steve Bruce took over i thought "thats the club for me".

Reading some stats earlier (for us actually but looked at yours). Your 1st for shots per game, 1st for crosses per game, 1st for goals from crosses (unsurprisingly) 5th for bad touches, 4th for dispossessed. 10th for total passes, 10th for accurate hoof, 7th for accurate short pass, last for inaccurate short pass. 3rd for key passes (passes leading to a shot), Youre quite low for shots conceded per game to ,18th i think it was. So you dont make many tackles, tackles made in total bottom 3, tackles successfully made bottom 3, interceptions bottom 6, but clearances you are top 3. Blocks, crosses, shots and passes are low across the board, dont do that much. Possession your top 4, pass accuracy your top 5. I dont have a clue if this is of any interest to anyone, but thought id share

"Danny Devito shaking head saying nope GIF" Gave up trying to upload the thing.

Not sure a frog is the right choice to replace Bruce tbh

?

Could it be that the owners are keeping Bruce till the end of the season. Then if no promotion (provided you meet FFP somehow). They sack him. Get in a new manager and give him huge funds ?

You're going to sell Bruce to medical science?

Just curious to know. Is this another all or nothing season? New owners i get but they cant just pump money in, so there has to be some sort of way for the club to comply with ffp, so you would expect a tightening of the belts. But, you appear to be offering Grealish a new deal which will make him the highest paid permanent member of the squad apparently, so thats got to be a significant wage, 50k plus? Bolasie you are paying all his 70k wages. thats nearly £4million alone on wages presuming no loan fee. McGinn couple of million plus he wont be on peanuts either . Tammy Abraham, you must be paying some of his 50k a week wages to. EL Ghazi you paid a loan fee of 2mill plus id assume a major part of his 30k wages if not all seeing as part of the reason for the sale is Lille needed to save cash. So, what is the new owners plan? Intelligent businessmen, they must have one, but they dont seem to be doing much tightening of belts which i found odd from the outside looking in.

I fully agree, it is better then the Wimbledon goal, although that ball would still be travelling. Agree on the Liverpool one being the better of the Yeboah goals to and i think its that one that is better then Mcginns imo. Mcginn took his standing still, had time to set himself and watch the ball. Yeboah was on the move having to watch the ball and get into position. Both great goals, as you say if thats Salah in the Prem its going to be on tele for years.

Lot of swerve, lovely hit. Imo the Yeboah one vs Liverpool was better though.

Didn't realise you had played our u23s and u18s?