Feech was a threat to the throne at that point, as was Richie. He woulda either flipped or tried to kill for the top spot. If Janice didn't kill Richie, I'm sure Tony would have over him beating on his sister. Tony B. went cowboy before he had the chance to get straightened out. Tony didn't break a rule in killing his cousin first. A handover usually don't happen, but Phil present is about as much as you could expect. I think Ralph just did one more thing to make it easier for Tony to go ahead and take him out. He was living on borrowed time. He woulda got himself killed sooner or later. As Junior said, you steer the ship the best way you can. Tony was a young boss but was quite capable of doing the job, despite being younger when he took over a crew.
Richie would never flip. I mean you may not like him but he was a stone cold gangster from the old school as was feech. Tony's problem was that he had jealousy problems amongst other things. Feech was respected by many up and comers kind of like neil Dellacroce was because they were no nonsense gangster. Tony wasn't a horrible boss but he wasnt a great boss either
