Ralf Rangnick | ex-interim manager | does anyone rate him?

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I suspect some of these "senior players" will have a plan for how to get red of ETH if they don't like how pre-season is going. They will try and go for four or five bad losses at the start of the season. Make the board have a wobble about "unproven" in Premier league and we will get Fletcher take over as an interim and be straight back to mates FC, laughing and joking on the training ground trying to nutmeg each other.

I think RR suspects this because of how the club dealt with him challenging the behaviour of Lingard and Martial. At that point the board favoured the players over the manager and that is why we will be doomed until there are further changes at board level. I think it's also why he is persisting with playing with some of these Senior players...to highlight they are not upto the task, not putting in the effort and feigning injuries when they want a rest.

I've had people laugh at me for saying it but the papers at the start of next season will be full of stories about United in relegation form etc. The thing is the senior players might arrogantly think they can switch on back to playing at 70% effort and get out of relegation trouble....I'm not so convinced it will be as easy as that.

A lot of fans are saying they will give ETH time...but I suspect that will be much more severely tested than most fans are expecting.
 
I suspect some of these "senior players" will have a plan for how to get red of ETH if they don't like how pre-season is going. They will try and go for four or five bad losses at the start of the season. Make the board have a wobble about "unproven" in Premier league and we will get Fletcher take over as an interim and be straight back to mates FC, laughing and joking on the training ground trying to nutmeg each other.

I think RR suspects this because of how the club dealt with him challenging the behaviour of Lingard and Martial. At that point the board favoured the players over the manager and that is why we will be doomed until there are further changes at board level. I think it's also why he is persisting with playing with some of these Senior players...to highlight they are not upto the task, not putting in the effort and feigning injuries when they want a rest.

I've had people laugh at me for saying it but the papers at the start of next season will be full of stories about United in relegation form etc. The thing is the senior players might arrogantly think they can switch on back to playing at 70% effort and get out of relegation trouble....I'm not so convinced it will be as easy as that.

A lot of fans are saying they will give ETH time...but I suspect that will be much more severely tested than most fans are expecting.

Having seen how some of these players conduct themselves for some years now, I kind of understand what you are saying.
Hopefully, RR gives enough insight to ETH and the latter bins the bad ones before the season starts.
 
The biggest problem with him is that he still regards himself as an outsider "contracted consultant". Players won't have any motivation if their manager lacks any bondings with them.
This is a fantastic point. At no point during his entire tenure has it seemed like him and the players were in this together. There is a clear divide between player and manager. It’s the end days of Jose without the toxicity. I also love the “players aren’t doing what I asked” defence - every single manager who is doing shit surely believes that? I’m sure Jose said it near the end too giving specific examples of what they’d worked on when we conceded certain goals. On the pitch he couldn’t have done much worse. He’s been a shit appointment in that regard short-term and I don’t quite see how anyone can argue otherwise. Hopefully It’ll have an impact off the pitch in the medium to long term.
 
Well, I think we need to be very rational when we discuss Ralf. He is not a manager and he was specifically hired to only see us through this season and then later bring structure to the club.
Football has been damn sad I agree, but this team clearly has issues. To be honest if you have listened to his conferences it is damn clear that he understands how bad the situation is. He has been very clear about how bad the situation is. I do not remember the last manager to do this and not to become toxic. I remember Jose was talking about literally the same players to be shit but he did not do it tactfully and risked the wrath of the players.
Ole was all about vibes and positivity. It worked for a while but the glaring issues rose eventually.
We finally have someone who understands football. Who is well in touch with reality and can call a spade a spade. Getting top 4 wont be an achievement his season. It will purely be good from financial point of view, but does not help the footballing side.
I strongly hope we keep Ralf in the club after this season and not just keep him life a jewel in our crown but someone who is functional and bringing changes.
 
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Maybe he was a good coach once upon a time but the game moves on.

Who cares if Rangnick is a good coach? Everything he has said about the club so far has been spot on, he's been here 5-minutes and recognised issues we have had for a decade - but in a calculated manner that actually provides a roadmap, as opposed to Jose's petulant lashing out
 
This is a narrative with very little backing behind it.







They hired him to manage the club until the end of the season. That is his actual responsiblity. Any future responsiblities are loose and undefined and not even definitive.

He had a three-year contract at Lokomotiv before he joined. To drop it, they had to offer him something more than just a six-month contract. Pretty simple stuff.

Indeed, this is similar to what I've been saying on here. Many seem to be getting carried away with this idea that it doesn't matter that the season has been tanked because Ralf is doing some deep assessment of the squad in preparation for moving upstairs into some sort of DOF role.

I personally think knowing how this clubs operated post SAF that there wasn't and probably still isn't any sort of plan in place for what exactly Rangnick will do after this season and his 2 year 'consultancy' role only exists because he wouldn't have left a cushy job in Russia to take the interim job otherwise.
 
I suspect some of these "senior players" will have a plan for how to get red of ETH if they don't like how pre-season is going. They will try and go for four or five bad losses at the start of the season. Make the board have a wobble about "unproven" in Premier league and we will get Fletcher take over as an interim and be straight back to mates FC, laughing and joking on the training ground trying to nutmeg each other.

I think RR suspects this because of how the club dealt with him challenging the behaviour of Lingard and Martial. At that point the board favoured the players over the manager and that is why we will be doomed until there are further changes at board level. I think it's also why he is persisting with playing with some of these Senior players...to highlight they are not upto the task, not putting in the effort and feigning injuries when they want a rest.

I've had people laugh at me for saying it but the papers at the start of next season will be full of stories about United in relegation form etc. The thing is the senior players might arrogantly think they can switch on back to playing at 70% effort and get out of relegation trouble....I'm not so convinced it will be as easy as that.

A lot of fans are saying they will give ETH time...but I suspect that will be much more severely tested than most fans are expecting.
Very few of these senior players are going to be here next year, certainly not in the starting 11 anyway.
 
I suspect some of these "senior players" will have a plan for how to get red of ETH if they don't like how pre-season is going. They will try and go for four or five bad losses at the start of the season. Make the board have a wobble about "unproven" in Premier league and we will get Fletcher take over as an interim and be straight back to mates FC, laughing and joking on the training ground trying to nutmeg each other.

I think RR suspects this because of how the club dealt with him challenging the behaviour of Lingard and Martial. At that point the board favoured the players over the manager and that is why we will be doomed until there are further changes at board level. I think it's also why he is persisting with playing with some of these Senior players...to highlight they are not upto the task, not putting in the effort and feigning injuries when they want a rest.

I've had people laugh at me for saying it but the papers at the start of next season will be full of stories about United in relegation form etc. The thing is the senior players might arrogantly think they can switch on back to playing at 70% effort and get out of relegation trouble....I'm not so convinced it will be as easy as that.

A lot of fans are saying they will give ETH time...but I suspect that will be much more severely tested than most fans are expecting.

Can see all of this happening.

For now talk of change is just that: Talk. Until we see the Board actually back the coach over the players I am not expecting our decline to stop any time soon.

My expectation for next season is 5-8th place. I hope I am wrong. However, I won't be shocked if lots of players we think are leaving are still here come September. It's happened like that for years now. Why should we expect any different?
 
Sam Wallace has done a solid write up of what Rangnick has faced at United.

The senior players have their own ideas how we should be playing, leading to them failing to take on Rangnicks tactics.

Fletcher was told to stop shouting instructions from the sideline by Rangnick. He was also surprised with Fletcher partaking in training.

His comment about being six years behind Liverpool hasn't gone down well at board level, with them feeling we can bridge the gap much sooner.

So we basically have players who feel they know better tactics than the manager, our Technical Director having his go at rallying the troops and takes part in training and our board feel they know better at squad building than someone who's been there and done it successfully.

Nothing has changed within the club, rotten to the core.

Sounds like clickbait if you go off Rangnick's previous quotes about Fletcher.

Rangnick told reporters, "Well, I can only talk about what I've experienced in the last 11 to 12 weeks. He has always been part of almost every training session and each game.

"Whenever I have had a question about what he thinks, because he obviously knows the players, he has known them for a long time. I could always, and will always, ask him for his opinion. So it is good to have him in the team.

"What is his role in with regard to the club? I don't really know, to be honest. I can only tell you what is happening in the training sessions, around the training sessions and around the games. In those areas, it is good to have him on board."
 
So we should sack Rangnick as well for failure to qualify for the CL... oh wait...

Clearly his job description wasn't only about achieving results and UCL. It was about the overhaul the squad and club needed. Whether we like it or not, he was always going to be leaving in May. He failed of course as a manager, but there's no point in dissecting that past May. I don't think clubs will hire him as a manager anytime soon.

Was it though? Are there any actual quotes from anyone at United that confirm this?
 
Sounds like clickbait if you go off Rangnick's previous quotes about Fletcher.
Not necessarily a contradiction. He might have been surprised by Fletcher being present, but still might have seen value in that. Also if he was surprised it appears logical that there was a need for clarification of responsibilities.
 
I think its as simple as "will Rangnick and the new manager have the power to get rid of anyone they don't want".

If the answer is yes then we will probably be OK. If its no then we will be in the same position in 2-3 years time.

If the players know that they can dictate everything that happens on the pitch and get the manager sacked on a whim then they have all the power and will use that power. Thats where we are now. You can say that a managers job is to motivate and encourage the players but there is only so much you can do when the players have all the power and you are constantly walking on egg shells and deferring to the players on anything that might rub them up the wrong way. i.e hard fitness training, improving diets, giving them less freedom on the pitch, expecting them all to press etc.

I don't think RR has been a great appointment from a football perspective and he sure as hell wasn't the right man to motivate these pricks for the remainder of the season. Someone like Ole whos main strength was his ability to create a good feeling around the team would have been fine but then we would obviously have repeated the pattern that led to this mess because we 100% would have hired them long term at the end of the season. The chance of top 4 has been there the entire time RR has and that hasn't motivated them which says a lot about them. Arsenal and Spurs have been doing their best to keep us in the race for top 4 but their form has been patchy, their effort levels and application haven't.
 
Was it though? Are there any actual quotes from anyone at United that confirm this?
Why would there be? What club declares their entire strategy and future plans publicly? The information we get is extremely filtered. You think the club would actually say, "Oh we're actually appointing Ralf to basically tell us all that is wrong with us. We don't care really about the results".

You can understand what I meant by all that has been happening behind-the-scenes. Ralf being interim and then consultant, ETH appointment, the need for an overhaul of the squad, the change in scouting department, the talk about Paul Mitchell joining, etc.

Its obvious that Ralf wasn't the best manager available to be hired as an interim. He's generally a Sporting Director, DOF, and a builder of clubs. Then why hire him in the first place if it is not to give a proper assessment of the squad, the structure, and the club as a whole?
 
Was it though? Are there any actual quotes from anyone at United that confirm this?

No, I think they wanted top 4 and for him to also assess the squad for the incoming manager. It would be stupid not to have said that you expect top 4. Despite our awful form and a complete lack of any effort or pride from the players we were still in the top 4 race until probably this week. The players should be utterly ashamed of themselves. Although, lets be honest, they clearly aren't or they wouldn't be in this position.
 
Not necessarily a contradiction. He might have been surprised by Fletcher being present, but still might have seen value in that. Also if he was surprised it appears logical that there was a need for clarification of responsibilities.

Yeah that's possible of course but it's being framed as a negative in that article which is what makes it look like click bait. Because as we know nothing generates more clicks than a negative story about United.
 
I don't think he has been a disaster. Now I've just watched Batman 2022, so I'm inclined to say that Rangnick has so called "brought the rat into the light."

He's exposing these players for what they are. Overpaid bunch of frauds.

When he first came in, he implemented his high press system and it worked. For awhile. Before the players got exposed for having terrible fitness levels. There was even rumours of them being unwilling to put in the work. So for the past couple of months we've seen little of the sort of pressing we saw in the first couple of games. The players are being told to play through their perceived strengths. Clearly, it's not working.

Rangnick is like a fuse. His managerial stint gets blown out so we know that there is a fault in the circuitry somewhere.
 
I suspect some of these "senior players" will have a plan for how to get red of ETH if they don't like how pre-season is going. They will try and go for four or five bad losses at the start of the season. Make the board have a wobble about "unproven" in Premier league and we will get Fletcher take over as an interim and be straight back to mates FC, laughing and joking on the training ground trying to nutmeg each other.

I think RR suspects this because of how the club dealt with him challenging the behaviour of Lingard and Martial. At that point the board favoured the players over the manager and that is why we will be doomed until there are further changes at board level. I think it's also why he is persisting with playing with some of these Senior players...to highlight they are not upto the task, not putting in the effort and feigning injuries when they want a rest.

I've had people laugh at me for saying it but the papers at the start of next season will be full of stories about United in relegation form etc. The thing is the senior players might arrogantly think they can switch on back to playing at 70% effort and get out of relegation trouble....I'm not so convinced it will be as easy as that.

A lot of fans are saying they will give ETH time...but I suspect that will be much more severely tested than most fans are expecting.

I totally agree with you. Many are totally underestimating how much of a shock to the system this ‘rebuild’ will be. Ten Hag will have a very rough first 18 months. I just hope they stick with him. The pressure will be immense.
 
I don't think he has been a disaster. Now I've just watched Batman 2022, so I'm inclined to say that Rangnick has so called "brought the rat into the light."

He's exposing these players for what they are. Overpaid bunch of frauds.

When he first came in, he implemented his high press system and it worked. For awhile. Before the players got exposed for having terrible fitness levels. There was even rumours of them being unwilling to put in the work. So for the past couple of months we've seen little of the sort of pressing we saw in the first couple of games. The players are being told to play through their perceived strengths. Clearly, it's not working.

Rangnick is like a fuse. His managerial stint gets blown out so we know that there is a fault in the circuitry somewhere.

Any number of rubbish managers could have done the same.
 
Why would there be? What club declares their entire strategy and future plans publicly? The information we get is extremely filtered. You think the club would actually say, "Oh we're actually appointing Ralf to basically tell us all that is wrong with us. We don't care really about the results".

You can understand what I meant by all that has been happening behind-the-scenes. Ralf being interim and then consultant, ETH appointment, the need for an overhaul of the squad, the change in scouting department, the talk about Paul Mitchell joining, etc.

Why wouldn't there be?

What possible downside would there be to outlining that Rangnick will have a prominent position within the club after his term as Interim? If anything a statement like that would have strengthened Ralf's authority while he is the Interim if the players know he'll be sticking around in a position of authority. The fact that beyond the official statement where it said he will take up a role as a 'consultant' and the rumours that he'll only work a few days a month, leads me to believe his position at the club will be minor.

Its obvious that Ralf wasn't the best manager available to be hired as an interim. He's generally a Sporting Director, DOF, and a builder of clubs. Then why hire him?

Why indeed.

The club after the ESL debacle, criticism of the fan share scheme not materialising, a lack of movement on the OT development, criticism of the structure of the club and things going spectacularly tits up on the pitch probably wanted to hire someone to appease the fans short term. Who better to appease fans highly critical of the clubs tactics/style of play (or lack thereof) than a respected and experienced German tactician known as the ''Godfather'' of modern German football.
 
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I suspect some of these "senior players" will have a plan for how to get red of ETH if they don't like how pre-season is going. They will try and go for four or five bad losses at the start of the season. Make the board have a wobble about "unproven" in Premier league and we will get Fletcher take over as an interim and be straight back to mates FC, laughing and joking on the training ground trying to nutmeg each other.

I think RR suspects this because of how the club dealt with him challenging the behaviour of Lingard and Martial. At that point the board favoured the players over the manager and that is why we will be doomed until there are further changes at board level. I think it's also why he is persisting with playing with some of these Senior players...to highlight they are not upto the task, not putting in the effort and feigning injuries when they want a rest.

I've had people laugh at me for saying it but the papers at the start of next season will be full of stories about United in relegation form etc. The thing is the senior players might arrogantly think they can switch on back to playing at 70% effort and get out of relegation trouble....I'm not so convinced it will be as easy as that.

A lot of fans are saying they will give ETH time...but I suspect that will be much more severely tested than most fans are expecting.
Stop! You're giving me nightmares already.
 
No, I think they wanted top 4 and for him to also assess the squad for the incoming manager. It would be stupid not to have said that you expect top 4.

Of course they did the Glazers whole business model for United is built around regular CL football. So despite what anyone thinks or says that will have been the priority for the club suits.

And I keep hearing and reading that Ralf was hired to assess the squad for the next manager, though I've seen little evidence or quotes from anyone at the club that confirms this. And if it were true it's slightly worrying as it would imply that the club don't trust the guy they're hiring to assess the squad himself.
 
Sam Wallace has done a solid write up of what Rangnick has faced at United.

The senior players have their own ideas how we should be playing, leading to them failing to take on Rangnicks tactics.

Fletcher was told to stop shouting instructions from the sideline by Rangnick. He was also surprised with Fletcher partaking in training.

His comment about being six years behind Liverpool hasn't gone down well at board level, with them feeling we can bridge the gap much sooner.

So we basically have players who feel they know better tactics than the manager, our Technical Director having his go at rallying the troops and takes part in training and our board feel they know better at squad building than someone who's been there and done it successfully.

Nothing has changed within the club, rotten to the core.

Can you share the text? It's behind a paywall when I Googled the article
 
I suspect some of these "senior players" will have a plan for how to get red of ETH if they don't like how pre-season is going. They will try and go for four or five bad losses at the start of the season. Make the board have a wobble about "unproven" in Premier league and we will get Fletcher take over as an interim and be straight back to mates FC, laughing and joking on the training ground trying to nutmeg each other.

I think RR suspects this because of how the club dealt with him challenging the behaviour of Lingard and Martial. At that point the board favoured the players over the manager and that is why we will be doomed until there are further changes at board level. I think it's also why he is persisting with playing with some of these Senior players...to highlight they are not upto the task, not putting in the effort and feigning injuries when they want a rest.

I've had people laugh at me for saying it but the papers at the start of next season will be full of stories about United in relegation form etc. The thing is the senior players might arrogantly think they can switch on back to playing at 70% effort and get out of relegation trouble....I'm not so convinced it will be as easy as that.

A lot of fans are saying they will give ETH time...but I suspect that will be much more severely tested than most fans are expecting.
I dont think that happens this time, we are at a new low, the power is shhifting and everyone knows ETH needs time. Pressure will be on players and they will be kicked out if they dont buy in. Club above individuals!
 
Is Ralf picking Maguire? Or is Fletcher picking Maguire? I don't think there is any chance Ralf picks Maguire if he had any freedom. He did manage to drop him a couple times at the beginning of the year and then unexplicably back in the team and never missed a beat since. No part of me thinks that was Ralf's decision, he's smart enough to figure out Maguire before he got here.

I don't even consider myself an expert on football, just a big fan, but if people are blaming the last 6 months on Ralf, or anyone but the players, you know even less than I do.
This is the silliest excuse i have ever heard. He doesn't have a problem to slam if not all, most of our players, but someone else pick the players for him, that doesn't make any sense at all. Again this is the silliest excuse i have ever heard. If the board wanted someone else to pick the starting 11, Ralf wouldn't get the job at first place.


As far as your second part i can say exactly the same, but reversed. If you think it's just the player fault, then that's on you. But we definitely are way better than the results shows, and that is on the manager.


All the manager we have since SAF have been terrible, and it's not the players fault. At the end of the day the managers bring this players, so who's fault is that exactly ???


On top of that i can give just 3 very strong example how people blamed the players, it turn out, it was not the players, but actually the managers that are bad.


Chelsea with AVB, and when they sack him, they won the CL. If Abramovic was like our fans to just blame the players and wait for the manager to deliver, they would still have 0 CL, and more often then not, would have been out of top 4. Actually exactly the same situation with Lampard and Tuchel.


On top of that, one more example with them, when they sacked Mourinho, and then appointed Conte in the summer and then won the title. That team finished 10th, and people were saying this squad is finish, and it's just not good enough for anything.



Let me top that with Tottenham squad and Conte now. Similar story. They were dead last in all of that stats, and most importantly the running department. Eh, look at them now. Night and day difference.


We don't have the strongest squad, neither the second or maybe even third one, but we definitely got the 4th best, and that is by far.


Also like it or not, for the last 8 years we have spend around 1,2billions on transfers. If this money was actually invested the right way, we could have dominated the PL and European football once more. But for that to happen, you actually need a competent owners, a competent board, and a world class coach. We got a chance to get one, after we suffer a huge lose, but our board once again showed their incompetent.


Now we have to pray that ETH turns out to be the manager most of our fans dream and believe of.
 
I dont think that happens this time, we are at a new low, the power is shhifting and everyone knows ETH needs time. Pressure will be on players and they will be kicked out if they dont buy in. Club above individuals!

Yeah tend to agree - posters have to remember it was Woodward that oversaw the 'player power' era, where Board members prioritised commercial appeal and their own favourites over what the manager wanted.

I feel with Woodward gone and the appointment of Rangnick, that is about to change.

Hopefully Paul Pogba becomes a symbol for everything we did wrong this last decade and we never make those kind of mistakes again.
 
Yeah tend to agree - posters have to remember it was Woodward that oversaw the 'player power' era, where Board members prioritised commercial appeal and their own favourites over what the manager wanted.

I feel with Woodward gone and the appointment of Rangnick, that is about to change.

Hopefully Paul Pogba becomes a symbol for everything we did wrong this last decade and we never make those kind of mistakes again.
I would love a statement by the club saying something like his performances dont deserve a new contract, all the best. What a sign (and warning) that would be
 
It's the managers job to motivate players. He has been an epic fail.

We should have kept Carrick and let RR go into his consultancy role straight away.
 
I can't help but feel the club has pulled a bit of a con job here with Rangnick's appointment. They appointed a well-respected DOF as an interim manager (a role he's unsuited for) with a vague promise of a '2-year consultancy'. Then, they sat back and watched the fans' desperate hope that things surely must get better somehow turn into self-delusion that he would be this master strategist to bring us back to glory.
Realistically, I can't see Rangnick having any significant influence on the future direction of the club.
I'm going to give Rangnick the benefit of the doubt and believe he's also a victim of the club's con job, and not an accomplice just trying to score a big client for his consultancy business.
 
Having a 6 month hands on period is invaluable to his future role as consultant no?

Yes. And in his ability to be able to brief ETH on the absolute cesspit that the dressing room and culture around the club is. I'm sure ETH would have found out rather quickly but it would have been wasted weeks.

I would also suggest that the club thought that the players weren't quite as disgraceful as they are in reality and that perhaps they would make some vague effort for the manager out of some small semblance of professional pride or the fact they are getting over £100k/week in wages. Who knows eh.
 
So we should sack Rangnick as well for failure to qualify for the CL... oh wait...

Clearly his job description wasn't only about achieving results and UCL. It was about the overhaul the squad and club needed. Whether we like it or not, he was always going to be leaving in May. He failed of course as a manager, but there's no point in dissecting that past May. I don't think clubs will hire him as a manager anytime soon.
It was. That’s the role he is currently hired to do. What he does beyond this season can’t be judged because he hasn’t done it yet.
 
My honest assessment of Ralf Rangnick

Body language:
Pay close attention whenever you watch him doing interviews, and in particular you will notice that he constantly shrugs his shoulders.
Definition of shrugging shoulders:
‘To raise your shoulders to express that you do not know, do not care, or are not sure about something’
Now that I have made you aware of this you will notice it all the time now. Heck, even go back and watch his interviews (especially his post-match interviews) and you will constantly see him do it.

Positivity:
When he first arrived and we had a few good performances, he then stated that he may even become the permanent manager himself; suggesting that he was the person responsible for the good performances.

Negativity:
As soon as the results weren’t going his way he immediately deflected any responsibility away from himself, and blamed everything on the players and effectively hung them out to dry.

Tries to take credit for other people’s work:
Before the Liverpool match, Rangnick claimed that Liverpool’s squad was really good and that he was partly responsible for that because he had worked with a number of the players in the past.

Has no control over the dressing room:
Let’s be completely honest about this, the players have zero respect for him whatsoever. He can’t even get a tune out of the players – they have zero fight in them. Ralf has failed to motivate the players.

Overall:
It’s pretty obvious if it wasn’t already... Ralf Rangnick has failed at managing this team.
In terms of his job role of ‘Interim manager’ it has not worked.

When he first arrived it was claimed that Ralf was the ‘Master’ of gegenpressing football.

The only thing that Ralf is the ‘Master’ of is the art of deflection:
‘A strategy to bounce action or responsibility away from oneself and toward another person, time, or place’.
 
I can see rashford and lingard leaking this not knowing everyone knows the reality about the bollocks they're spouting.
Worth also noting Cox is a complete tit.

Hes the king of hindsight. Gave similar damming indicements about Jose on The Totally Football Show podcast. Then he said they just need love, etc and was an advocate of Ole early on.

Then after he realized Ole was bad he acted like it was always going to happen.
 
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