Nordic Saint

I'll believe 'Martin's honest views on the pros' if he never plays McCarthy or Bree again. If he does, then they're just empty words.

Neither is McCarthy and we've been stuck with him for 8 years. If you're not good enough it means you stay because nobody else wants you.

Who on earth would come in for McCarthy??? We are the only club stupid enough to play him.

McCarthy keeps reappearing like a bad penny. Does this mean he's going to be our cup goalkeeper for the whole season? How depressing.

If you know any Pompey fans, I'm sure they'll enjoy these stats: Sheffield Wednesday's opening game last season: Sheff Wed 3-3 Pompey. attendance: 26,901 (2,000 away fans) Sheffield Wednesday's opening game this season: Sheff Wed 1-2 Saints. attendance 28,558 (3,000 away fans)

A win is a win. Great to see us start a season with one. I predict the Norwich game will be sold out. Another win then and the stadium won't be big enough.

They're following the instructions to do that. It's all about the passing stats. Sheffield Wednesday are a very poor team, especially now they've lost Darren Moore. If our more skilful players went on solo runs, they'd rip through their defence, like Amo-Ameyaw and Sulemana did against Liverpool at the end of last season.

Unless we get a decent goalkeeper in, the efforts of our outfield players will count for little, other than being part of some high scoring defeats..

If there was one man you wouldn't want to lead you into battle..... It's depressing enough for the players, as well as the fans, to see McCarthy in goal but to see him made captain as well just about destroys all hope.

Let's hope Chaz and Dave don't read this or we'll soon be hearing Tottenham versions of all of these.

The transfers of Romeu to Barcelona and Fonte to Braga highlight the increasing number of players who've gone on to play in the Champions League after leaving Saints. Fonte has already for Lille and Romeu did for Chelsea, but both are likely to play in it again this season for their new clubs. These spring to mind: Forster for Spurs Hojbjerg for Spurs Wanyama for Spurs Alderweireld for Spurs Lallana for Liverpool Clyne for Liverpool Lovren for Liverpool Mane for Liverpool van Dijk for Liverpool Shaw for Man United Schneiderlin for Man United Chambers for Arsenal Fonte for Lille Stekelenburg for Ajax Tadic for Ajax How many others are there who've played in the Champions League after leaving St Mary's?

They are in the Champions League this season. We certainly couldn't have offered him that.

To accompany a record 156 passing move from Alex McCarthy to Adam Armstrong and back again.

Russell Martin's teams don't exactly get off to flying starts to their seasons. I guess they are too busy concentrating on their passing stats. One win from their opening 8 games is about par: Swansea 2022-23 30 July Rotherham United 1–1 Swansea City D 6 August 2Swansea City 0–3 Blackburn Rovers L 13 August Blackpool 0–1 Swansea City W 16 August Swansea City 2–2 Millwall D 20 August Swansea City 0–2 Luton Town L 27 August Middlesbrough 2–1 Swansea City L 31 August Stoke City 1–1 Swansea City D Swansea 2021-22 7 August Blackburn Rovers 2–1 Swansea City L 14 August Swansea City 0–0 Sheffield United D 17 August Swansea City 1–3 Stoke City L 20 August Bristol City 0–1 Swansea City W 28 August Preston North End 3–1 Swansea City L 11 September 2 Swansea City 0–0 Hull City D 15 September Swansea City 0–0 Millwall D 18 September Luton Town 3–3 Swansea City D MK Dons 2020-21 12 September Doncaster Rovers Away 1–1 D 19 September 2Lincoln CityHome 1–2 L 26 September Crewe AlexandraAway 0–2 L 3 October Ipswich Town Home 1–1 D 10 October Portsmouth Away 1–2 L 17 October 0Gillingham Home 2–0 W 20 October Oxford United Away 2–3 L 24 October Blackpool Away 0–1 L

The Owen Hargreaves skit on BT Sport springs to mind. "It's not fair. How come they get compensation and a better manager?" "Not everybody gets a better manager, you know."

We should tell Swansea we no longer want him. They'd be really stuck then because they wouldn't want to keep him and nobody else wants him.

At the other extreme, Leicester play Spurs in Thailand and Liverpool in Singapore while Leeds play Man United in Norway. I'm hoping we'll get our usual game at St Mary's against a mid-table team from La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga. That's become something of a tradition, starting with the first ever game at St Mary's against Espanyol in 2001.

I was there too, with Dougal's mob in the middle of the Fratton End.

Top 5 biggest wins in the South Coast Derby: 1960 Saints 5-1 Pompey 1906 Saints 5-1 Pompey 2019 Pompey 0-4 Saints 1975 Saints 4-0 Pompey 1966 Pompey 2-5 Saints Statistically, in terms of results, it is the most one-sided English derby game.

Anybody who thinks they'll let us have any of their better players, like Piroe, is dreaming. We'll get a couple of journeymen they aren't bothered about losing, like we did when we got Bree from Luton.

If they'd had Alex McCarthy in goal, City would have lost 4-1 tonight.

Click on the link to the list of MK Dons' managers. Russell Martin's record compared to their other managers is mediocre at best. He certainly wasn't one of their better managers.

They went from 13th under Russell Martin to 3rd under Liam Manning the following season. So, yes, there was a big improvement when he left. Basically, Martin's career is a bit like Nathan Jones' at the time we recruited him in that other managers immediately before and after him got much better results with the same players. List of Milton Keynes Dons F.C. managers - Wikipedia

Why should they be? He was a big downgrade on their previous 2 managers. They went from 4th under Steve Cooper down to 15th, their lowest position in the 2nd tier since 1984, under Russell Martin the following season. Swansea were struggling for most of this season too and in March 99% of their fans wanted him sacked but a late run took them up to 10th and saved his job. Even MK Dons were glad to see the back of him after he took them to 19th and 13th in League One. The highlight of his career was a record breaking passing move in a game his team lost to Gillingham.