Levy Out, Ange Out

Ok, a couple of weeks now since the Europa cup win (still can't believe it really) and I've been teetering on keeping Ange in after saying prior to the final that he should be gone regardless.

I'm now back on track and can see clearly that Ange should go but Levy should be out the door first (wishful thinking I know).

The cases then:

Ange

Pro's

+++ I love how he defends the club like it's his own child. He's one of the few managers in recent years to really defend us under scrutiny from the press and rival clubs and managers.

++ Prior to recent form, the football was generally pleasing on the eye.

+ Players seem to respond well to him. The family videos prior to the final seemed to work well and he's well liked in the dressing room (it seems by most)

The Cons:

---- Tactically inept. The 9 men vs Chelsea high line. The 6-3 drubbing by liverpool playing with slow defenders and playing a high line against the paciest and most in-form team in the league. His substitutions don't make sense most the of the time. Dier said on his exit that they don't work on a game plan - seems he was right.

--- Player fitness and Injuries. Our players barely seem to last 60 mins these days and the number of injuries that have occurred is pretty mad.
We thought we were through it then started to get hit with another wave towards the end of the season with Kulu, Solanke, Madds, Bergvall etc. His training methods seem to be different and not in a good way.

-- Stubborness - Refused to change tactics until very recently when the players stepped in and asked him to be pragmatic. Is it the players who won us the Europa by enforcing this ?

- Recruitment - apparently he has the final say on incomings and I don't think many/of any have really worked out. Not solely his fault as we'll get to below.

- Our lowest league finish since 1977, with far from the worst squad we've had.


Levy Out

Pro's:

++++ Excellent job on the commercial side of the club.

+++ Delivered a world class stadium and training ground.

++ Does seem to care about the club

+ He's English

Con's:

---- The Wage structure - Despite the promises of new beginnings once the stadium was built we are continually held back by our wage structure. Our top earners are not anywhere near the likes of City, Arsenal, Liverpool etc but with our income they should be. No matter what manager we bring in the fact remains that we don't shop at the high end of the market and the club needs to shift it's mentality. This stems from Levy. I've seen today that long term target Angel Gomes has agreed to join Marseille. He should have been an easy get for us. Brighton and Brentford are more our competition for players these days.

--- Lack of on-field Ambition - Top 4 seems to be the main goal and it's not an exciting one considering how far we are of being competitive in the CL. Just look at the Chelsea owners, even United - we may laugh at them but they are doing whatever they can to ensure on-ptich success and getting the best players in. This may be too far in the extreme, but Levy is too cautious and it won't get us anywhere.


-- Poor communication - This is rife through the club, we have no idea what is going on most of the time. It seems our managers don't either. Remember Jol getting sacked at HT essentially in the UEFA cup. Jose sacking before a cup final. Just handles things so badly it's untrue.

Levy Out, Ange Out!