Welcome Jesse Marsch

[dhenness]

For anyone who may be curious here is the link to the Red Bull Salzburg documentary when Marsch was in charge. Might give an insight to his make up and what to expect. Have not watched it, so cannot comment.

https://www.redbull.com/ie-en/shows/jed ... zburg-show

[CheeznOnionPasty]

I am in the same boat as you both SW and BB, and also don't mind admitting there have been some tears this week when I'm sat on my own in the home office and no-one is looking!

Loyalty means a lot to me, and I really rail against any feeling of injustice. I always want to feel like I am part (even just a tiny part) of something bigger, that actually means something and with Marcelo it felt a bit like that. It felt like we had ideals, principles and we were going to stick to them. Now I feel like we're cut from the same dirty money-grabbing, soul-less cloth as most of the rest of the league. It's such a shame that the game is all about money these days, there's more to life.

I'd have felt proud to go down swinging with Marcelo in charge knowing that we did the right thing regardless of the consequences.

I recognise that for most fans and for 99.99% of all business people involved in football that ideological approach doesn't work and it's success on the pitch that matters, I can understand that and have also at times probably felt like that myself. These days thats not where my head is though.

Feeling like going and supporting a lower league club for a while, it's going to take longer than expected to allow the heartbreak of losing Marcelo to fade. I want to like Marsch, heck I am also a US citizen thanks to my American wife, so I should be more interested than most to see him succeed but it's just too bitter at the moment.

[PhoenixUnited]

, and news that the club were holding talks pre-manure game does mean they were waiting for him to fail to pull the trigger.

Makes it more disgusting

Case of Rock and a Hard Place it seems to me. If the Club had done nothing about sourcing a replacement for MB and waited until last weekend to show MB the door those concerned would have been roundly criticised for not having a plan in place and shooting themselves in the foot. And there would have been the unseemly running around afterwards to get a new guy in and all the while the clock is ticking and games are slipping by.
The alternative was to do nothing and hope that MB / the Team turns things around in the next two games - against Leicester and Villa. The game after that is Norwich. How many points from those games would be acceptable - 9? 7? 5? 4? 3? 2? What happens if we continue to ship goals as we had been doing? A decision to replace MB after this might have been too late and perhaps pointless. With 9 games left there might be no wriggle room left
Considering where we are in the Premiership at the end of February those in charge are under severe pressure and it does not matter what they do they are going to be criticised by the fans. Anything they do / not do is highly risky
Also, for weeks there was news coming out of the Club that there were actions in train to plan the succession to Marcello Bielsa. I'm not surprised that a replacement to MB has been slotted in so quickly

[Aqua-]

Great post nic, enjoyable as always.

[DominanceUK]

The more I think about it, the more the appointment of Jesse isn't a coincidence. Think back to January and the two main players we we're linked with we're Aaronson and Minamino who both incidently played under Jesse at Salzburg. Couple that with the 49ers possibly taking over in the summer, the signing of Jesse was probably put in motion in January. There is one poisitive though for me, he's signed until 2025 which means there can be a lot of plans in place ie: transfers as always under MB he always signed a 1 year contract and always left it until the start of the season.

[NottinghamWhite]

Plus to the best of my knowledge it takes up to three weeks to get a work permit yet Jessie already had one yesterday.

[Leonickroberts]

I am in the same boat as you both SW and BB, and also don't mind admitting there have been some tears this week when I'm sat on my own in the home office and no-one is looking!

Loyalty means a lot to me, and I really rail against any feeling of injustice. I always want to feel like I am part (even just a tiny part) of something bigger, that actually means something and with Marcelo it felt a bit like that. It felt like we had ideals, principles and we were going to stick to them. Now I feel like we're cut from the same dirty money-grabbing, soul-less cloth as most of the rest of the league. It's such a shame that the game is all about money these days, there's more to life.

I'd have felt proud to go down swinging with Marcelo in charge knowing that we did the right thing regardless of the consequences.

I recognise that for most fans and for 99.99% of all business people involved in football that ideological approach doesn't work and it's success on the pitch that matters, I can understand that and have also at times probably felt like that myself. These days thats not where my head is though.

Feeling like going and supporting a lower league club for a while, it's going to take longer than expected to allow the heartbreak of losing Marcelo to fade. I want to like Marsch, heck I am also a US citizen thanks to my American wife, so I should be more interested than most to see him succeed but it's just too bitter at the moment.

Completely agree with this - good post. We're all fully part of the Chilean, Argentinian, Newell's-ian 'widows of Bielsa' world now, and there's no going back. He's opened our eyes to what football can be - fair, just, fun, exciting, inclusive, progressive, tempestuous, and above all based on fans' love of the game. More than that, he's shown us all that football doesn't have to be based purely on winning, funded at any cost.

That being said, my argument is not with Marsch. I hope he does well - there's absolutely zero chance of him replacing Bielsa in most spheres, so I hope he can get us back onto a stable pathway in the footballing spheres. This doesn't feel like a betrayal of Bielsa because Bielsa was about so much more than the football side of things.

I also recognise the basis for the club hierarchy's decision. It's not what I or most fans would've done, but like it or not, we're not the ones running billion pound businesses. I've lost a huge amount of respect for Radrizzani, Orta, and Kinnear (who I was going off months ago), and I think there were any number of better ways to resolve the situation (staggered handover etc), but I can still understand why they felt they needed to act.

Just an overwhelming sense of loss. Like a break up or grieving.

Also agree on non-league. After watching a lot of Dulwich Hamlet and Clapton FC while living in London, I'll now be spending a lot of time watching Bath City.

[Shadwell White]

I would like to welcome Jesse to the club and wish him all the best going forward. My thoughts are that he was due to takeover in the summer and they've brought it forward, which is not something the club wanted to do and especially with our position in the league. Rightly or wrongly, somebody somewhere has shown balls! and I suspect its JM as much as anyone.

[Selby White]

Plus to the best of my knowledge it takes up to three weeks to get a work permit yet Jessie already had one yesterday.

Suspect Jesse didn't want to take over prior to 3 difficult games. Happens a lot that new managers start prior to a more winnable run of matches.
Basically hung Marcelo out to dry.

May also explain some of the individual performances but could be reading too much into that one.

Have a awful feeling team spirit may be lost during the run in, hope I'm wrong.

[Selby White]

Not sure it's been mentioned but looks like Cameron Toshack (John's son) is going to be Assistant Manager.
His coaching experience is basically a top Cypriot outfit and Swansea U23's.