Tony Pulis - The positives

[thewookieisdown]

We will probably stay up. And since it's unlikely any of us will be able to watch any of it, that perhaps is all that matters. 

[shezzas left peg]

4 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

I’m not disagreeing but why do you think Chansiri needs a decoy manager who he isn’t going to appoint? Would he waste that much of his own time interviewing people if he had no intention at all of appointing them?

Probably because almost  every time so far we've changed manager under Dc we've had a clear nailed on favourite, then someone else has been appointed. I think only Bruce came in otherwise. 

[CircleSeven]

14 minutes ago, striker said:

Setting the bar that low is about the Pulis level. 

 

Come on guys don't give up, were better then that, we're better then accepting Pulis, a manager nobody really wants. 

 

 

You know what, you have hit the nail on the head. 
I have actually given up. 
I don’t believe we will ever get a decent manager or play nice football well and a Pulis style, grind out results manager is the best we can hope for. 
You stated that we are ‘better than that’. Are we? If so how?

I would give my left nut to be wrong and you right (don’t worry- I’ve been married for 20+ years so don’t use it anyway). 
But I can’t see it from where we are right now. 

[striker]

6 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

You know what, you have hit the nail on the head. 
I have actually given up. 
I don’t believe we will ever get a decent manager or play nice football well and a Pulis style, grind out results manager is the best we can hope for. 
You stated that we are ‘better than that’. Are we? If so how?

I would give my left nut to be wrong and you right (don’t worry- I’ve been married for 20+ years so don’t use it anyway). 
But I can’t see it from where we are right now. 

I feel your pain brother (also long time married) football was my escape....don't give up while there is still a chance, although does look a done deal unfortunately

 

I don't even want nice football, I'm not that greedy, some football would do 

[NorthernOwl]

10 hours ago, rickygoo said:

It really doesn't matter to me.  Ron Atkinson had a better reputation- won trophies and played football the way I enjoy. Even got us relegated but guess what - it didn't matter because we knew what he was about, what his team was doing or trying to do.  I am sick of drudgery. I'd rather go for it with someone willing to try something different. Like I said - takes all sorts. I see where you're coming from but I aspire to something different. 

 

I'm with you on this. I'm bored of the results at any cost mindset.

 

Let's face it we've been crap for the last 25 years largely playing 'pragmatic' football. We will probably be crap for the next 25 as well.

 

Personally I'd rather have a bit of fun and excitement along the way.

[CircleSeven]

3 minutes ago, striker said:

I feel your pain brother (also long time married) football was my escape....don't give up while there is still a chance, although does look a done deal unfortunately

 

I don't even want nice football, I'm not that greedy, some football would do 

I just want to be able to take my two sons to Hillsborough and watch someone in a blue and white striped shirt run up the wing and put a cross onto a strikers head, see it hit the back of the Onion bag, yell our heads off and then sing the Bounce song for 5 minutes!!
Is this too much to ask!?!

[SwellOwl]

2 hours ago, striker said:

We're 3 points from safety. We need to make up 2/3 points on Coventry/Wycombe with 35 games to play....are we really that desperate?

 

What foundation do you expect Pulis to build?...get rid of the footballers, replace with cloggers in the January window, then what will a new manager have to work with?

 

I would expect him to form a team that is hard to beat. Signing cloggers? As we know, we have a board that recruits players.

[striker]

19 minutes ago, SwellOwl said:

 

I would expect him to form a team that is hard to beat. Signing cloggers? As we know, we have a board that recruits players.

Defined by what the manager wants. 

[Lionel Fessi]

People criticising his lack of development for younger players...have you seen the state of our academy?!? Lol.

 

Not that we do it anyway but I have no issues at all with giving no playing time to fringe squad players from the academy likes of Hunt, Shaw, Urhoghide etc. Even the likes of Penney & FDB who have shown more potential, fine by me if there not involved going forward.
 

The argument of not developing young talent only applies if you have some talent there to begin with? Which we don’t have right now and historically we’ve never really had anyway! I hate to say it but our developmental set up compared to United is a complete shambles. Compare the likes of Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker, DCL and Phil Jagielka to our only success story, Liam Palmer! Worlds apart. 

 

We’ve produced ONE Championship level player in the last 15 years? And he still plays for us and is a mainly used as a squad player/utility man. 
 

That sounds like I’m bashing old Palms(I’m not, promise - he’s actually the closest thing we have to a modern day SWFC legend if you think about it) but it highlights how once again the fundamentals of this club are just decades behind the competition. 

[bradowl]

One positive is that we've not let appointing someone drag on like we did when Chansiri got rid of previous managers. 

It didn't workout to bad previously with Bullen as caretaker but I doubt it would have this time.

[Ante's Bubbly]

Tony Pulis is a good manager for keeping a team roughly where it is. He may be able to take you a couple of positions higher, a couple of positions lower, or somewhere in-between, but he is not the kind of horrible high impact manager that will gamble at getting us promoted in one go, not if it is possible to do it in sensible low risk instalments.

 

OK his no frills, grind it out style can reduce and has reduced the number of fans that want to watch, by around 8% over two seasons (at one club, not sure if this is the lowest trough), and his approach seems to also lose him any goodwill from players too, closely followed by that of the manager and then he gets the inevitable chop. 

 

So in short, along with all the other clubs that he has managed, we can expect to see football so dull that we no longer want to watch it, so dull that the players do not want to play it and so dull that the manager will sack him because the small increases or decreases in our finishing position cannot be justified by the........ extremely dull football. 

 

Looking on the bright side, we will not rapidly change our position in the table anymore than we would under Monk, but Pulis has never taken a championship club down to league 1.

 

Another positive is that with numbers falling for those streaming games, the weight of numbers wanting refunds for last year's season tickets, may become high enough for Chansiri to keep just one of his many, otherwise broken, promises to the fans, by actually giving people their hard earned and in many cases much needed money back a year and a half after many of those poor souls forked out their hard earned cash. Many of those loyal fans even renewed season tickets for this year and hopefully we will get to see some live football for our season long commitment in the last couple of months of the season. For those who are prepared to sit through it.

 

Pulis is definitely not my choice and unless he has radically changed his approach to football I think he is another sacking in waiting. On the plus side, surely he can improve on his more recent demises and with the current squad of talent that we have, he may just be able to mould them into a team, and with our defenders and midfielders coming back to fitness, he may be able to get them back to playing in a similar style to that which Monk had us playing at the start of the season.  Still no striking talent, but hopefully before January comes along DC will have been tortured enough and will dole out the money for a real championship striker instead of the pretend ones we seem to be accumulating and experimenting with at the moment.

 

Yet another positive for those that really want Pulis and his special brand of football, is that 18 players including Barry Bannan & Adam Reach (our only two consistently high assist makers), have contracts that expire in the summer and can therefore be replaced by Pulis to strengthen a team to his ideals. He has a lot of good contacts to help bring players into the club, but generally, with only a couple of exceptions, teams do as well if not better after he has gone, presumably because the players he brings in flourish when playing a more entertaining and productive brand of football. 

 

I really hope that DC is looking at the long term solution and that solution is getting Pulis in to tide us over, while scouring the planet to find a manager that can genuinely improve our team and get us to being a consistent top of the Championship team. Over the last three seasons we have got into the habit of not spending any money, with no major money spent over the last six transfer windows. In fact the last player costing over a million pounds was Joost V. A. back in August 2017 (who is one of the players coming up for a contract renewal this summer). So maybe Pulis is being brought in short term, to bolster the team during a period where crowds cannot fall off  because there are no crowds and at a time when a lot of players are coming up for contract renewals. I really do hope that we replace the majority of the key players who are about to leave in January, with some real quality players in creative midfield, on the wings, in defence and most importantly up front, where, with or without Monk, Pulis, or any other manager, WE STILL HAVE NO REAL CHAMPIONSHIP QUALITY STRIKERS! 

 

UTO!

Edited November 12, 2020 by Ante's Bubbly

[WAWAW FOREVER]

18 hours ago, Gob_Bluth said:

When fans are allowed back you can spend your Saturdays doing something fun like painting the stairs or visiting the mother in law

How dare you threaten me like that, I will be back watching my beloved Wednesday and moaning like an old git afterwards. UTO