Chez

Surprised he hasn't train with the players, which will be largely ball work, and then done extra fitness work in the afternoons. I guess he has also had to move back from Spain to England, which takes a bit of time if they don't have a player relocation liaison/service these days (not sure).

Likewise. Not watched it for a long long time...not having a video player hasn't helped. The number of amazing goals is just ridiculous. Unbelievable in fact. I know 93-95 were his stand out seasons, but I love watching his goals from when he was younger. That 89-90 season was bloody brilliant.

Ya. Das is a good point.

I didn't realise they had made it into the play offs or they were so far away. That's him out then.

As "manager" Potter he secured 10th place with Swansea in the championship, then as head coach, 15th, 16th (both 41 points) and then 9th (51 points) with Brighton in the PL. His stock was certainly very high at that point. Having failed at Chelsea and West Ham, is another PL side really going to offer him a job? Possibly, but we might present the next best thing. I don't know if he is the answer, but it does feel like a good fit. Obviously he is comfortable managing abroad, so that widens his options, assuming the Sweden job doesn't continue, but maybe he is someone we are interested in, but couldn't do quickly?

FAB is a focus group not an independant supporters group that need to take minutes and report back to the masses. Maybe you should set up the Saintsweb independant supporter group Trousers. I'm happy to propose you as chairman. After which you can contact the club and ask them for a meeting. You can take minutes and then post them on here.

they spent a fair amount in the summer, so if they only loan a striker in January, that works for me.

Glad you didn't write the advertisement for the position. Let me try: Head coach position in one of the worlds strongest leagues. Potentially the highest paid English club manager job outside of the PL. Currently has an underperforming side, allowing any improvements to reflect well on the new appointment. Squad incudes both experienced and young talent. Manager is well backed by board and owner in terms of funding for new players. Money will be made available in January to refresh the squad through loans/signings. Experienced pro in Romeu just joined the side. Excellent training facilities/stadium. Decent academy to help with long term prospects. Positive and friendly supporter base...

Can you point me to this comment from Parson in the fans forum, because I don't recall him saying that. If he didn't say it, then what other evidence is there of them making decisions based on the mood of the fans?

I think Phil Parsons said something along the lines of 'it was brutal for Russell Martin with 30,000 fans calling for his head'. But I don't recall him saying anything about them being happy to keep him if fans had wanted him. Maybe your memory is better than mine. Ultimately, fans disgruntlement will probably mirror what board and owners feel. I think they sacked him because they felt results were not going to change. I agree. If they appointed O'Neil it would have showed that they felt he was the best man for the job. There is an assumption he hasn't been appointed because of the fans chant. But maybe the club didn't feel he was right for them or vis versa. Perhaps I am being naive, but when you have £200m invested in a club do you really allow fans to dictate how it is run?

Likewise. Great player, but hasn't he been underwhelming all at the clubs he has been at?

I think there might be an overestimation of the importance of fan opinion on the decisions the club makes. Will Still wasn't sacked because of the anti SR songs at the PNE game, they sacked him because we weren't wining games and playing like a team devoid of any confidence and going nowhere. The club needs to get promoted. The impact on the business if we don't is massive. Do you really think a poll on saintsweb with less than 400 votes is going to sway their decision? I've no idea what the plan is, but it could easily be that there just isn't a suitable candidate or they haven't been able to persuade the guy they want to take the job...so Tonda continues. The lack of announcement would then be because there is nothing to announce. I keep reading that they are "desperate" to appoint Tonda. How do posters know that?

It might be our decision, but if he is not getting games, maybe the player and/or his parent club want to cancel the loan. It might be out of our hands if the loan contract requires he plays a certain number of games. I don't think I have seen him. Is he actually a left back or right back?

I imagine we'd all be concerned by his injury record, but be hopeful that he could lead the line and be that focal point we have been missing. i guess it matters little now he is unavailable, but is there a little more context to those stats perhaps? In 24/25 he didn't start a game - which in itself is concerning perhaps. He came on 17 times, mostly for less than 20 minutes and didn't score. He wasn't an impact sub in terms of goals, that's for sure. The season before, he was on the bench for most of the first half of the season and didn't score. When Leeds had him starting games in the second half of the season he scored 7 in 17 games.

Eckert isn't going to do the head coach job long term on his u21 coach wage. Once he has done it for a while (I'm not sure how long) then returning to the U21s becomes a demotion. he might be fine with it, he might not.

It's little wonder managers don't want large squads as players out of the side are never going to be impressed. I'm not sure Still dropping certain players caused his downfall. It may be part of it, but I think it was more a failure to create a structure that got us playing well, creating chances and winning games. If you are winning, no one gives a fuck what the guy out of the side has to say, but lose week in week out and non playing players are empowered. I'm not sure he lost players leading to losses. I think there was just an erosion of confidence and then everyone and everything was lost. This is why what the likes of Russell Martin and Gareth Southgate (for England) did should not be underestimated. It's really difficult to get players onside and create an environment that sees everyone pushing in the same direction. Whether Tonda or whoever can do that from this position, I don't know.

If the players fully believe in what the manager is trying to do, fine, they will accept criticism, even if they have lost some games, but if they think he is talking shite and they have no clue what he was trying to do, then it's obviously going to be harder to accept.

I think this is the issue for a lot of managers/head coaches. Some of the players simply don't respect them enough to take criticism from them. If a manager is few years into the job, they will have by then won games and the players will be happy to listen. However, new managers that are losing games are going to be doubted and that doubt and potential disrespect grows with every defeat. If a manager comes in fails to articulate his ideas and his methods don't bare fruit immediately, he is done for.

Interesting article about Celtic being linked to Columbus Crew manager Wilfried Nancy. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cdegj67p1z2o I wonder if he was on our radar and would a championship side like us be attractive to him?

I just visited the Swansea City website and unsurprisingly there is absolutely nothing on there about who they have been linked with. Same with Norwich and Boro. Have these three clubs posted something on their social media feeds? If not, then I don't have a clue what you are on about.

If managers are not even managers these days, and they don't get to sign players and they get the sack long before player contracts run out, it's hardly surprising they don't get the respect they used to back in the day. Unless the manager wins games and survives a year or two, they are always fighting a losing battle.

He was really poor. No where near good enough technically to play in the top flight IMO.

I guess. He scored lots of goals, but my argument was always that his lack of work rate meant it was 11 v 10, so we were always behind. I was glad when he left, but we obviously got worse without him.

He was a player we discussed in the summer, pace and power - just what we needed, but these PL players just don't drop down a league these days and the foreign guys especially use their `PL fame' to get contracts abroad with half decent European sides. Awoniyi scored a lot of goals in Germany before joining Forest, so he has plenty of credibility. He has another 18 month on his PL contract. He isn't taking less money, so Forest will have to pay a sweetener to shift him. Forest fans really like him, but he is never fit. His injury record is really bad. Looking through the PL squads, I struggle to find a striker that we could get on loan. PL sides don't seem to have many CF and with such large benches, they are not going to let any go out on loan.

Wolves only just spent £25m on him in the summer. Although he's only really getting a few minutes off the bench, it seems unlikely they will loan him to a championship club at this point.