TheGingerQuiff

Klute... remind me!

Iirc Stavely is a huge fan too.

Their fans are renowned arseholes though. He can grind out wins all day for me. I loved watching us under him. The sense that there was a game plan even though we were shit. The not getting humiliated every week. Him coming here boosted our profile to such extent that it probably encouraged this takeover too. Wor flags and full stadiums all inspired by him. This goes through and he's a club icon. He deserves the job.

Have we considered that Corbyn could have put him up to it

I'm saying the job didn't suit him given the immediate results that Madrid fans demand. I think (and control) given time he'd have succeeded though yes. He's one of the most intelligent men in football imo.

He tried to instill a disciplined playing style. Discipline to execute a game plan doesn't automatically mean defensive. He is a top manager with top game management ability. Going into Real Madrid and getting those egos on board was a mammoth task.

All be forgotten about soon.

Was klute the one in a alley down from Jimmy Allens? Its years since I went out in Durham mind

That's how he plays when the players available to him render that the sensible pragmatic option. That doesn't mean he has an entrenched style of play and he's clearly a highly astute tactician that will adapt where circumstances permit. (Pragmatic).

Let's not have a manager at all. Our players will be so good that disciplined performances won't be required

Aye, let good players have free reign instead of an identity. They'll beat Eibar then when they draw Munich in the Champions League they'll have no concept of what tactics they're being told to deploy.

You seem to label pragmatic as defensive, our counter-attacking, though as if they're mutually exclusive. Pragmaticism by definition means that if our best attacking talent is the key to winning a game then that'll be what will be utilised. If you're saying he's rigidly a counter attacking manager you're denying he's pragmatic and pretty much Sam Allardyce. You're talking shit basically. Benitez walking into Real Madrid and trying to instill some. discipline and competition to 'galacticos' is no bad thing either. The bad thing was that player power tied his hands.

Even less of a man that I thought.

Yet you're making the same one against Benitez. His Liverpool side was limited and his pragmatism turned them into European Champions. His Valencia side beat Barca and.Real Madrid to not one but two titles. His pragmatism has been present thriughout his career successes (note successes because he has actually won things) because his major achievements haven't been with the "top" clubs respectively. To say that Benitez couldn't cut his cloth when we'd be massively investing is the most asinine. The Real Madrid situation was different. Trying to instill discipline into a side already littered with superstars was always going to be difficult. Our players already know and have bought into his philosophy, and any top signings would be joining a group already on Rafa's wavelength.

It's easy to attack teams knowing that more often than not Harry Kane, Son and Erikson are going to get you a hatful, and you have Lloris, Alberweild(sp?) Vertonghen, Tripper etc needing less protection than lesser backlines. If only we had evidence of a manager that embarrassed himself when he played that style against teams with better players playing the same style

Benitez had already won 2 European trophies and La Liga twice by Poch's age iirc. Oh and a super cup, and an fa cup And well as individually La Liga Best Coach: 2002 UEFA Manager of the Year: 2003–04, 2004–05 European Coach of the Year—Alf Ramsey Award: 2005 LMA Special Merit Award: 2006 It seems the 'progressive' Poch is leagues away. Barely worth mentioning in the same sentence.

But what about with Spurs? He's already had the side to go toe-to-toe with those with this "style". He won nowt and got sacked. Meanwhile the pragmatist has a drawer full of medals.

I mean, you're wrong, but assuming you're not then in which case, you're using "pragmatic" wrong. Rigidly sticking to counter-attack is the opposite of pragmatism.

Resign from what

Can't have. It wouldn't be pragmatic to score 5 with 10 men

Why would he "build a pragmatic side". Pragmatism is about "horses for courses", making the best decisions in relation to the resources available. When those resources are the Saudi PIF, the pragmatic move is to buy the best players around. Do you think Benitez wanted to sit 11 men behind the ball vs City? Do you think he'd play like that with better players?

I think our differences lie in that you don't know what pragmatism is by definition.

It'd take an immediate unprecedented overhaul for us to have the ammunition/quality to play "attacking" football and go toe-to-toe with the top sides with that style. In the interim at least you need a pragmatist. Benitez, who already knows most of the squad and knows the club inside out, is the obvious and outstanding candidate. He's got a better track record and you know what you're going to get. What a manager who inherited Harry Kane can do when he inherits Joelinton is a crap shoot.

Oh and one sold Sissoko for £30m, the other bought Sissoko for £30m. End of argument.