Ex Lion Tamer

I'm really down about the state of the club at the moment. But the thing is, Martin won 7 of his last 9 games at Swansea. If his tactics are so easily found out then it apparently wasn't obvious to other teams then. And since then, Swansea have only managed one win this season under their new manager. So grim as things are, Martin simply can't be as much of a mug as he seems like at the moment. We can point to mistakes that Martin has undoubtedly made but something deeper is wrong at this club and it seems to be wrong whoever is in charge of the team

At least Nathan Jones had a track record of overachievement that I could believe in. We need to find someone else to save our season

I never thought he was past it but it was fair enough that we let a long-serving player go to his hometown club. The real issue wasn't even that we didn't replace him but that we didnt sign a backup for his replacement

They've sacked three managers in a year 🤣 Another shit result, granted

I think it may depend how he does in training, the same way Mara got his start (yes it's not necessarily the right way to make the decision)

It's an amazing state of affairs but we really need Bednarek to be fit for this one

They were signed off so quick because phenomenal resources were poured into making it happen, not because any corners were cut with the testing

While we can doubt whether Martin is a top manager at this level and whether he will get us automatic promotion, his track record at two previous clubs is solid enough. One heavy defeat against Sunderland doesn't change that. People are acting like he doesn't have a clue

So we were right not to buy anyone in summer 2022 when our targets became unavailable? At some point you just have to take punt

I think we were really struggling to get anyone in by the point so it was a case of gamble on Onuachu to keep us up or get no one

Harsh to blame it all on Semmens. Ultimately he backed the managers judgement, which is what we all want a chairman to do

I do think the centre back decision was a tough one for him: Stephens - injured Holgate - with us for a week Bellis - with us for a day Charles - not his natural position In that situation, you probably go for the experienced player. The Mara decision is harder to defend

What kind of a pre season has Sulemana had? Would be very unwise to throw him straight in to a big game like this

Yeah it could well happen in time. I also think Alcaraz will be pushing hard for gametime

If nothing changes then this is a strong squad

I don't think it's necessarily as dramatic as that. He said he wanted to leave so we worked on a sale and brought in his replacement. Then his move didn't work out so we told him he still had to leave as we'd have too many centre backs

ABK going to the weakest league of his career so far. Bit of a weird one for him, but once we'd sorted his replacement he had to go

If Adams stays then we'll have an embarrassment of riches up front. Edit: unless they cancel the Stewart transfer

It's not ideal but Arma is going to end up playing up front a fair bit, which does at least bring Alcaraz and Stu's goalscoring ability into play

The potential is obvious but his end product has been so woeful that there has to be a doubt as to whether he has the footballing brain to fulfil it. A season in the Championship would have done wonders for him but apparently his attitude isn't right either. I'd be happy just to get our money back

It's a tough deal to make though because we'll have to take a huge loss on him given what Genk will be able to pay

£30m would be an amazing fee for Sulemana

How are Sunderland going to justify selling Stewart and Roberts to us on deadline day? Do they have replacements lined up? Dan Neil apparently attracting interest from Liverpool too

We're letting players leave on loan because they're not committed to the club, not because we desperately need the money. Again, the fact they're going on loan is because we don't need to drop our asking prices

Why is it hard to understand that we didn't have to sell any particular player if we didn't get an appropriate price, but that sales overall were desirable given the dramatic loss of income. If KWP/Sulemana/Alcaraz etc end up staying then that just proves the point