Carlo Ancelotti: 'Deadwood, mismanagement & a total rebuild' - is this his biggest challenge?

[jamieni]

I don't think we are 100 miles away from competing for Europe. Keeping players fit and bringing in 3/4 good additions to key positions will have us challenging, possibly even for a Champions League place next season.

We had terrible luck with injuries last season. We also had a raw deal with VAR, and refereeing in general. Lady luck generally wasn't with us.

Familiar excuses I know, but sometimes such is the difference between winning and losing. Confidence comes with winning.

So yes. Given a couple of years, with bringing the right people in for the right positions, I think Marcel and Carlo can turn this around. We are not as bad as some people are saying.

We've had a bad season but were still only a couple of wins off a European spot. We know our weak areas and more importantly so do the management.

I think we’re 3 quality signings away from a top half/maybe top 7 or 8 finish. To compete for CL I reckon we’ll need a top striker.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I like it tbh. The so called best managers always get parachuted into teams that are already ahead of the pack, with huge budgets and a legacy of success. It must be harder to fail than to succeed. You never see Mourinho or Guardiola going to a bottom half club and turning them into contenders. Lets see what Carlo has about him. It's a bloody big job, but he's got a wealthy backer, and you'd imagine as much time as he wants.

 

[Stuartisitc1878]

All this is 100% correct.
Under Moyes we did our due diligence on every potential signing and at times it was frustrating but we had to make every penny count. It didn’t always come off and for every Cahill or Arteta there was a Magaye Gueye or Drenthe but overall, regardless of whether it was hidden gem form the championship, a talent from abroad that had maybe lost his way or even a journeyman we always looked for a player we felt would fit the dynamic, have the right mentality and personality. Under Koeman we lost that and since, with new managers and new philosophies any identity we once had with has long since vanished. It makes signing a player who fits our way almost impossible as no one knows what that is anymore.

What gives me the slightest flicker of hope is we have Carlo in charge;. and with the exception of the top 2 or 3 teams who are on a different level, the rest of the league is pretty poor. If we can just get one or two signings right and as someone said not have a season blighted by injuries then we could very quickly climb the table (problem is that applies to everyone else too) but we need consistency and we need a bit of luck (which we must be owed).

 

[Barnfred 55]

Bless you, bless you for holding on to your hopes amongst near total despair. The club should find you a role somewhere, maybe in place of big Dunc?

I'll let you break the news to him

 

[brieverton]

The appealing thing to me about Ancelotti is that he knows all the ingredients of what it takes to make a successful club.

Nobody else can match his breadth and depth of experience.

There must be loads of nuggets of wisdom in his head gained from the top clubs all over Europe, and we have the benefit of that now.

The longer he stays, the better we'll get.

I'd take the enjoyment of a decent season in a heartbeat of course, but ultimately it would mean nothing to me if we couldn't build on it.

I hope Ancelotti can bring his experience to bear right across all facets of the club as we have to be re-moulded and re-built completely. Almost everything has to change with regard to how we play and how we manage the club as a football business.

That's a huge ask for anyone and its almost like needing him to combine manager and DOF roles in reality.

Hopefully we can get that re-build job going, and see it combined with the construction of the stadium in paralell.

Nothing in McNulty's article was off the mark, in fact, it could have been even more brutal.

The first step in dealing with any problem is to acknowledge its existence. Hopefully there will be a long overdue dose of realism and reflection at all levels of the club starting now.

 

[Carlito]

Everything that Ratcliffe said was correct. Standards have been disgracefully low at this club for decades.

Most of the so-called senior pros that were laughed out of the FA Cup by Liverpool's schoolboys will be lining up again next month. This may seem an overreaction to some, but that game was a watershed moment for me.

 

[everton1953]

With Banfred55 in our lifeboat to tell us that the ocean is not really that deep and we will never go down, the Great Helmsman at the tiller, and Davies plus Sigurdsson and Pickford tied to a chain as our anchor, we should be OK.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Bless you, bless you for holding on to your hopes amongst near total despair. The club should find you a role somewhere, maybe in place of big Dunc?

I really don't think we're as bad as most on here think we are

It's all about opinions

 

[Barnfred 55]

With Banfred55 in our lifeboat to tell us that the ocean is not really that deep and we will never go down, the Great Helmsman at the tiller, and Davies plus Sigurdsson and Pickford tied to a chain as our anchor, we should be OK.

Where have I said any of that?

Stop trying to ridicule me for having an opinion that's different to yours

 

[The binman chronicles]

I put this in the transfer thread this morning and I still stand by it:

There's something wrong with him (Ratcliffe). We Welsh are tinged with melancholy but he takes it to extremes. Overall we are not that bad and you'd think an ex-pro would spot that especially seeing what happened in 83/84 where a few seasoned pros turned around a team struggling far worse than ours.

We just had a few disappointing results. I'd rather we start the new season knowing we have to work harder and be better than Silva's end to the one season giving us great hope and then we turn to mush.

 

[everton1953]

Banfred55 my friend, sorry, ridicule was not intended. Although I am surprised at your view, and hold an opposite one, my misery is that I have no recollection of a football team being trashed as publicly as we were in the recent BBC article. Yes, I think we have a rubbish football team, and it is frequently described as such on here. But when the public broadcaster puts it out in that unequivocal way, every pundit and fan opinion in the land will have been affected. BBC pundits frequently trash Pickford in a similar way. They will treat us in the same way when the game restarts.

 

[blue61]

Not doubting a lot of what the article says, but I find it difficult to understand why the most successful captain in our history spends all his time moaning and sticking the boot in, year after year. He came across as a right miserable get on 'Howard's Way'. For all their many faults, ex players of that lot over the park talk up their club regardless. We need to get a bandwagon going behind Ancelotti to bring a sense of unity which has been sadly lacking for years. If this guy can't fix us, we're up for the knackers yard.

 

[roy vernon]

I'm sure Carlo did his homework before accepting the job, if he thinks he can sort the mess out during the course of his contract who am I to doubt him.
I personally think the club is in the worst state I've seen it, in nearly 60 years as a Blue, but, there are some signs of life there. The new stadium and the involvement, allegedly, of Usmanov, to name but two.
If Carlo sticks around I think he can turn it around, but, it will be a long, hard, ugly process.

 

[chippy1722]

Everything that Ratcliffe said was correct. Standards have been disgracefully low at this club for decades.

Most of the so-called senior pros that were laughed out of the FA Cup by Liverpool's schoolboys will be lining up again next month. This may seem an overreaction to some, but that game was a watershed moment for me.

It’s no surprise of our standards when we had Bill for so long.
The personality to make it in the luvvy duvvy entertainment world doesn’t work in football.

 

[Big Sams Undies]

Not doubting a lot of what the article says, but I find it difficult to understand why the most successful captain in our history spends all his time moaning and sticking the boot in, year after year. He came across as a right miserable get on 'Howard's Way'. For all their many faults, ex players of that lot over the park talk up their club regardless. We need to get a bandwagon going behind Ancelotti to bring a sense of unity which has been sadly lacking for years. If this guy can't fix us, we're up for the knackers yard.

How's he's sticking the boot in?

He's stating facts.

Got more respect for him being honest than the likes of Sharp who's the clubs bitch.