I've been thinking about Ralf's appointment for the past couple of weeks and there are a couple of things which comes to my mind. Obviously his performances aren't at that level at all. Maybe he doesn't have the players to carry out his tactics, maybe he's not cut out for the PL, we don't know. But one question which is bugging me, why was he hired as "interim" in the first place?
I can think of 2 things. Ralf isn't a manager per se. He is one of the best sporting/technical directors out there. He is known for building clubs, not managing on the pitch. So why did we hire him? Perhaps our objective in appointing Ralf was to fix everything that has been wrong with the club from 2013. We have gone around the full circle of trying out various different managers, changed strategies, bought players, sold players, etc. and we still haven't improved at any level. Maybe the reasons for appointing Ralf is to get a sense of all that is wrong with the club today - on and off the pitch. Nothing is right at the moment - they know it, the players know it, and we know it.
Surely there were better options for an interim manager, but I feel most of those solutions would be very short term. We wanted someone to steady the ship up until we hire a proper manager. And a proper manager (like ETH or Poch) wouldn't have been available until May 2022. I don't think he was ever going to be permanent. Because I think the club's objective has been long term, which is a a very positive sign. If we are to build in the long term, we need his input. In terms of players - He would by now know which ones in the current squad are PL material, which ones don't give a sh*t, and what sort of players we need to get back to our best. Hiring a random manager, and buying random players has not worked and cannot work. This is also in relation to the club because for the greater part of 9 years, we haven't done sh*t. We need a reset. And I think to do that, he needed to be in the centre of everything, as the manager and take a holistic view of everything. This is also why he will stay on as a consultant for the next 2 years.
I think that the club desperately wants a change, and were willing to sacrifice this season so that we can lay a solid foundation for the long term. And right all the wrongs that have happened.