Rousseau

3 minutes ago, Frankie said:

With regard to Rangers.

 

I'm confident he's fully aware of where we are players-wise and what's needed in short order in the transfer market.

22 minutes ago, Frankie said:

To be honest, I think the deal has been done for a while.  OK, maybe not 100% but certainly enough that Gerrard has being doing preparative work for around 2-3 months I'm told.

 

Obviously there's always the chance people can change their mind late in the day but I'm hopeful it won't this time.

With regards to Rangers, or general managerial prep?

I still don't want to get my hopes--

Screw it:

When you see @der Berliner has posted the Summer Transfer Thread...

Just now, craig said:

Too many players are mentally weak.  We need a number of changes.  The easiest thing to do is ask who you would keep and whether they would be good enough to challenge.  Not many would pass muster unfortunately.

They are mentally weak, but I do believe we can get more out of this team -- which is based on hope rather than anything else. 

It's a difficult task (identifying who is mentally weak), mainly because it's quite subjective. I reckon two fans would create two different lists. 

As bad a season as it's been, we're 'only' 10-15 points off them. It's went off the rails recently, but if we can just beat more of the diddy teams and at least avoid defeats against them, then we're not too far off them. Most of the dropped points were at Ibrox. 

I don't think we require wholesale changes. 

7 minutes ago, pete said:

No not with any manager,players are just not good enough. Scotland nearly and should have beat them. They think they are better than they are.

I'm not so sure. I think a good manager would be able to get them very close, with the players they have; they do have very good players, albeit not quite world-class. It's not really about the individuals, though. 

One-off games don't count for much.

Nope.

Not with Southgate. 

They have got very good players, but the whole is just not good enough.

26 minutes ago, SteveC said:

Look at his wee face!

Is it weird that I'm excited?

He's totally inexperienced.

#GoingFor55

Gerrard just said on BT Sports that he's had talks, and they'll continue on Thursday. 

Linekar introduced him as "not a lone ranger..." 

19 minutes ago, BEARGER said:

https://twitter.com/LeeDixon2/status/991314717007327234?s=20

 

I couldn't like it fast enough...

3 minutes ago, craig said:

Strange... I had made a post prior to the above saying "Look at the current Barcelona team... Iniesta and Busquets wouldn't be the first name you think of... but they are still stand-outs".

 

Busquets is one of the smartest footballers I have ever seen.  Soooooooo under-rated,

 

Iniesta is a little magician.  Sad to see him leave.

Proves my "stand out" comment was wrong...  

10 minutes ago, craig said:

So when Gerrard knocks us back will Jimmy Nic become the new permanent manager ?

 

I got cold shivers just typing that, and not in a good way....

3 minutes ago, craig said:

What you smoking when you say Guardiola wasn't a stand-out ???

3 minutes ago, craig said:

You are too young to remember

You're not wrong...

Superb player, but all I meant was that he's not the first player I think of -- Koeman, Laudrup, Stoichkov come to mind first.

It was a general point that the top managers are not often the star man. Will Messi be a top manager, or will it be someone that goes under the radar a wee bit, like Busquets? (You know I love Busquets, but for most, when you think of that Barca side, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta are always the first names on their list.)    

10 minutes ago, buster. said:

The point doesn't remain. You may well go on second hand English articles and reports but I was in Spain for most of the 90's and believe me that Guardiola was considered as a hugely important player for Barcelona. A crucial and literally pivotal part of the Cruyff way of having his team play.

 

He was a "stand-out" player and if you want to change the goalposts and call it something else, that's fine..... we could all do that when found to be talking Colin Nish  

 

 

"Stand out" was wrong, as I said, but I just meant he wasn't the first player you think of, at least I don't, looking from the outside.

There will not be much change, but I am content with the pairing. 

10 minutes ago, buster. said:

An "Exceptional player" of 20 years of age thrust in as midfield pivot in Cruyff's Barcelona 'Dream Team' that won the European Cup  wasn't a "stand-out".

 

Away and have a ly down.

 

 

Aye, OK. Calm down, FFS. 

"Stand-out" was the wrong phrase, but the point remains. 

3 minutes ago, buster. said:

Guardiola wasnt a "stand-out"   

Exceptional player, and vital, but I wouldn't say he was the main man. When you think of that squad, you don't think of Guardiola. IMO.

It's interesting that in the Top Five/Six (I've lost sense of where Arsenal are...) of the EPL, those managers that did play to a high level as players, were defensive and tended to go under the radar: Guardiola was a DM, as was Conte; Pochettino was a CB; and none of them were stand-outs.

Mourinho, Klopp, and Wenger barely played, if at all.  

18 minutes ago, pete said:

Name me a top manager that didn't play professional football. There may be a few somewhere but nowhere near the top. Does being a world star make you a good manager then that is a different question. The answer to that is No.

“I never realised that to be a jockey you had to be a horse first.” ~ Arrigo Sacchi  

2 minutes ago, pete said:

Here is the full Eredivisie all ex prof footballers except one who played high amateur. You have your opinion and I have mine. I can understand a General Director not having a Football background but a technical Director that has to dictate the way forward has to have a knowledge of football in my eyes.

 

Ajax – Marc overmars

PSV- Marcel Brands

Feynoord- Martin van Geel

AZ- Max Huberts

Utrecht- Not stated

FC Twente- Jan van Hals

Vitesse- Marc van Hintum

Sparta – The last one Alex Pastoor done a leveign and became Manager and got the sack when Advocaat took over.

 

Roda JC- Harm van Veldhoven

Groningen- Ron Jans

Heerenveen- Gerry Hamstra

Den Haag-

PEC Zwolle- Gerard Nijkamp (Not a Prof player but high Amateur)

Heracles- Nico Jan Hoogma

Excelsior- Not stated

Willem 11-Joris Mathijsen

NAC- Hans Smulders

VVV Venlo- Stan Valckx

 

I can see the benefits -- maybe something to look for going forward -- but right now I just don't see how you can claim our DoF situation is a f*uck up. 

To be fair, it's not the technical aspect we're looking for, it's the implementation of the business model. We need someone with business experience to implement it for us. That's what Man City needed him for, before they snatched Barcelona's DoF. In the future, when the model is implemented, we can look at appointing someone based on their style and playing experience. Doing that now would be a mess. His role is just to make sure it's implemented and then running together. 

You've jumped to conclusions again, putting the cart before the horse.

22 minutes ago, pete said:

Well I have seen Directors of football in Holland and some in Germany but I have never seen one who hasn't played football at a prof level. So all he really is is another director with a fancy name with no idea of the professional game. what a Ckuf up.

 

 

So you know better than me what I have seen. You are either a magician or a stalker.

No, it's not true that it's "another director with a fancy name [...] what a Ckuf up."

There's a lot of Ckuf ups around, but our DoF is not one of them.

There are many examples of DoF with little or no experience of playing at a high level; just like there are many examples of those that have. 

So... I wonder who's in charge for the remaining games?

Nicholl? Tin Tin? 

KEVIN THOMPSON?!  

6 minutes ago, buster. said:

Good, the dam needed to break.

The status quo wouldn't have been pretty to watch for the next few weeks.

 

I guess it's been delayed until the club have someone to step-in.

What about Rosseau ?

Depends if I'm given authority...