qwertyell

Probably too expensive now. Don't know where our recruitment team were looking when Sheffield United paid just £3.5m in the summer. Versatile attacking full back, could cover both sides and wing back. Not a world beater, but a very decent squad option with bags of potential. I doubt we'll be shopping in the Premier League or recently relegated. Frees, loans and trying to sniff out a bargain or two from around Europe and the Championship, I'd imagine.

We've beaten all three semi finalists in the last 18 months. So, something to cling to.

He does it for about two games per season, but then immediately loses the confidence to run at players when a couple of incidents don't pan out and retreats into his shell again. I guess we should be thankful for small mercies and just enjoy this fleeting moment of quality.

Absolutely woeful. Finished the game jogging around passing the ball backwards. Manager hasn't got a clue how to play when the opposition let us have the ball. Press and win the ball high or lose. Fucking useless.

Bednarek AGAIN having no idea where his runner is. Lost count of how many times. Another Saints second half special - we haven't come out. Adams misses a sitter...

Who's the side facing relegation? Apart from a ten minute period after Brighton scored we've been shite - they're by far the more threatening. Defensively we've been terrible. Bednarek is all over the place today. He's got no idea who's running in behind him. Forster couldn't move his feet for the goal but he's kept us in the game so far. Tella looks lost out there. Sheffield United's reserve defence this ain't. Hasn't won a single challenge. Minamino's had some nice touches, but there's not a lot of positives for us this far. Big second half. I'd take a point.

Classically Saintsy half. Played pretty decently. Didn't do anything with our good spells, then the opposition score and lead without getting out of first gear. City have only had four attacks. Two of them handed on a plate by Adams and McCarthy (should've been a penalty). Four attacks, three goals. Hopefully City will stay in strolling mode and the score won't get too out of hand.

Surprised he didn't try and finish everything at the near post then.

Needed that. Professional job in the second half, albeit with some terrible decision making in the final third to extend the lead. Great strike from Adams. Thought the defence was really solid today - has Forster only conceded once this season? Maybe we should stick with the big lump while he keeps putting up the numbers. 10 point gap with 11 to play sound a lot better than the 4 it could've been if this week had gone worse. Diallo much improved in the second half - think he's a quality player in the making. Phew.

Diallo's been rusty as fuck. H/T 1-0. Two crap teams devoid of quality, but we're ahead for a change. Can we hang on? We desperately need to. Imagine having to fight a relegation battle with our only striking options being Che Adams, Nathan Tella and Dan N'Lundulu. That's lower league shite. Tella's been lively today, to be fair. He can run and fall over. Not sure if there's anything else to his game.

Good thing he turned down our academy. He'd be a League one sub by now.

It's dogshit. It can't possibly be as difficult to implement as our officials are making it look. They've taken "in line" out of the game, based on technology that isn't fit for purpose. Put the fucking lines away and use your eyes. If the attacker is obviously offside, you'll see it. If he isn't obviously offside - the old "in line" or "it's tight" - then stick with the on field decision, whatever it was. The position of armpits - which you can't score with anyway - being forensically pored over is the antithesis of football.

Fulham are a decent team. Play some good stuff. I think they'll stay up. As long as it's not at our expense...

I wondered who made that fawning bridge banner professing undying love to Ralph in the wake of his second 9-0 shellacking.

His confidence and body language has always been questionable - seems like he has a lot to say for himself on the pitch, but then cowers like a frightened kitten when he gets on the ball. I'm always surprised by how weak he is. Physically, he looks far more solid than, say, Djenepo, but he gets brushed aside so easily. Unlike Moussa, there's just no fight in him, no putting his body on the line for the team. He's a quitter. You can put up with a frustrating player who keeps trying but failing to make things happen, but there's no future for one that stops trying. Ability? Some. Character? Zilch.

7 points from 14 games for the bestest manager ever. Mark Hughes was sacked after a run of 9 points from 14 games. Pellegrino was sacked after 1 win in 17. Hasenhuttl's currently sitting on 1 win in 14. "We'll never get anyone better."

Okay for 8 minutes. Appalling then for the next 20 and looked like we were going under. Then they has their second goal disallowed and it's been reasonably even since. Promising build up thwarted time and again by our shocking quality in the final third. Given that we're hopeless in the second half, though, I guess this can be marked down as another defeat. 7 points from the last 14 games incoming. We can't keep clean sheets and don't look like scoring. Not a great combination.

I remember Stephens playing as a holding midfielder for Swindon in the League One play off final (we also had Jordan Turnbull on loan there, playing centre back). Jack's highlight of the game was a Zidane-like pirouette away from twin challenges in the centre circle before driving majestically to the edge of the box and letting fly a dipping, swerving thunderbolt that almost snapped the corner flag. Swindon lost 4-0.

We had to sell him to fund the Che Adams transfer. In retrospect, we could've just played Targett up front instead and he'd probably have scored as many goals.

And yet he's still trying to do it anyway, in spite of knowing his approach is doomed to fail. He's got the tactical depth of a puddle. Any idiot can claim their way would've succeeded if only they had better players and more of them. The trouble with a "philosophy" manager is, where do they go when their plan goes to shit? Once they're rumbled, by the opposition or circumstance, their success or failure depends on how they adapt to evolving challenges. Thus far, Hasenhuttl's response to any deviation from things going precisely to plan has been to do nothing different. How can any manager have lost 9-0 TWICE and still have fans lauding him as sliced bread incarnate?

What a farce. We presently have ONE fit senior full back and ONE fit senior central midfielder. And we chose to play the season with this bare bones of a squad. Regardless of whether we stay up or not, heads should roll for how mismanaged the club has become. They won't, because we can't afford to sack anyone - which is another miserable reminder of how mismanaged the club has become.

The only interesting part of the article. Who wants to do the work and find out which players are out of contract in the summer? Goalkeeper, Left Back, Utility Full Back, Wide Attacker, Striker (x2?). I'd bet Walcott will be one of those. Weren't we linked to some journeyman Brazilian midfielder a few weeks back who was available on a free? Perhaps there was some truth to that rumour...

He can't head either. Can't fault his efforts, but Championship is his level at best.

Highest paid manager in our history. Heaviest home defeat ever. Heaviest away defeat ever. Longest sequence of defeats ever. One dimensional robotic football-on-rails that falls to pieces catastrophically at the first sign of adversity - while the manager does nothing on the sidelines to adapt to any and all unexpected developments other than look vaguely constipated. The players have been out on their feet since December. And yet the manager won't or can't change his inflexible approach to reflect that. We're still trying to press like madmen. We're still obsessed only with working against the ball. But the players just can't cope with the physical demands anymore. It's sad to see us run out of steam earlier and earlier in games. Imagine the hidings we're going to get when we can't even rouse ourselves for at least the first 45 minutes. It's heading that way. One win in thirteen games, and only seven goals scored - the manager's one, solitary idea is a busted flush and he looks almost as clueless as Pellegrino. Or Pellegrini. Whichever one it was. And the club have given him free rein to implement his shallow, unsustainable "philosophy" across all the age groups. So that's something to look forward to for future generations of League One subs... The most overrated manager we've ever had.

Hasn't made a save in two months.