If the owners came to the players and asked THEM for their opinion, you can't blame them for giving one. I'm sure they wouldn't, and indeed couldn't, just go to them and speak out of turn. The likelihood is that the chats with players CONFIRMED the owners opinion that Claudio had lost the players. Therefore Kasper is right to say they did not influence the decision. You can't expect the players to lie if they were asked if they feel they are playing to their best under the tactics, strategies and team selections the manager is making and if those 3 things are understood by them all.
Looks, everyone loves Claudio, all the fans, myself included, and certainly the owners. I was there when the PL was handed to the team, when Bottcelli sang on the stage. They were incredible moments. No-one wanted Ranari to go this way, a couple of seasons of mid-table mediocrity or slightly worse (or better still, top 10 finishes) followed by his retirement would have been best. He wouldn't have been sacked under either of those scenarios (I believe anyway).
The owners were loyal to him as far as they could reasonably go and indeed beyond reasonably long. That's why he wasn't sacked in November or December when we could all see how bad the team had become. They gave him November and then December to turn it around. He didn't. Managers all around him were getting sacked. They gave him more time. They gave him all of January as well and hoped he could turn it around. But the team continued to look like it was dropping like a stone into the relegation zone. The defeat against Swansea showed relegation under the current regime was HIGHLY likely. It's true that a change might not work, but sticking with Claudio I think meant relegation was a certainty. The owners had to protect the club from a possible 2nd spell in the championship which could last a long time.
I believe there was widespread disquiet about Claudio's methods this season - playing and non-playing staff - unhappy with his methods. The likely scenario is NOT that they stabbed him in the back or plotted against him, the players were just were hugely demotivated by him. The results were shown on the pitch. Results speak for themselves! The players didn't know what they were doing, such was the degree of tinkering by the tinkerman and the many poor team selections and tactics. If we don't think that the tactics and the stamp of the MANAGER makes a difference - look at how Guardiola's cock up against us cost them a 4-0 defeat. Get the tactics wrong and confuse the players and that's what you get. I don't think the players should get a lot of flack over this. Very likely the underperformed all season because Claudio did ALL season what Guardiola did in one match. Unfortunately Claudio carried on getting it wrong. The players had a degree of responsibility but I think my arguments above show the buck stops rightly at the managers door. Sorry, he had to go.
Looks, everyone loves Claudio, all the fans, myself included, and certainly the owners. I was there when the PL was handed to the team, when Bottcelli sang on the stage. They were incredible moments. No-one wanted Ranari to go this way, a couple of seasons of mid-table mediocrity or slightly worse (or better still, top 10 finishes) followed by his retirement would have been best. He wouldn't have been sacked under either of those scenarios (I believe anyway).
The owners were loyal to him as far as they could reasonably go and indeed beyond reasonably long. That's why he wasn't sacked in November or December when we could all see how bad the team had become. They gave him November and then December to turn it around. He didn't. Managers all around him were getting sacked. They gave him more time. They gave him all of January as well and hoped he could turn it around. But the team continued to look like it was dropping like a stone into the relegation zone. The defeat against Swansea showed relegation under the current regime was HIGHLY likely. It's true that a change might not work, but sticking with Claudio I think meant relegation was a certainty. The owners had to protect the club from a possible 2nd spell in the championship which could last a long time.
I believe there was widespread disquiet about Claudio's methods this season - playing and non-playing staff - unhappy with his methods. The likely scenario is NOT that they stabbed him in the back or plotted against him, the players were just were hugely demotivated by him. The results were shown on the pitch. Results speak for themselves! The players didn't know what they were doing, such was the degree of tinkering by the tinkerman and the many poor team selections and tactics. If we don't think that the tactics and the stamp of the MANAGER makes a difference - look at how Guardiola's cock up against us cost them a 4-0 defeat. Get the tactics wrong and confuse the players and that's what you get. I don't think the players should get a lot of flack over this. Very likely the underperformed all season because Claudio did ALL season what Guardiola did in one match. Unfortunately Claudio carried on getting it wrong. The players had a degree of responsibility but I think my arguments above show the buck stops rightly at the managers door. Sorry, he had to go.