CB Fry

Tonight's the night we find out who we beat to get to our first Wembley semi final. I've been sucking on Uncle Joe's Balls all afternoon for good luck. So fingers crossed.

Fair enough, that's a customer service/loyalty issue then which isn't Les Reed's remit.

You're back to this old routine are you? Of course you've never explained what your point is, or given any examples of a comparable football club that isn't "playing the fans".

Well I wouldn't have, just like I didn't want us to sign Sturridge before and after WBA signed him. And I wanted us to sign Promes before and after we didn't. It's pretty easy to hold a consistent position to be honest. All I could see was a player with no record of holding down a place in the team or scoring any goals. Just weird statto heads trying to pretend that, y'know, if you carry the one and multiply it by all games ever played he's actually Eusebio. Anyway the early signs not great and we're already giving him pats on the head and maybe he'll come good like he's some kid from the reserves not the man we've paid more for than any other player. Another triumph just like our other recent record signings.

I have so many happy memories of our eighth round tie against Arsenal in Cardiff all those years ago. Shame the result didn't go our way.

Wigan will absolutely smash them on Monday. Then go on to beat us.

You'll have remind me who these unattainable suggestions were? Marco Silva, recently relegated with Hull, barely seems like some pipe-dream and he was probably the top pick of this forum. What point are you actually making?

Among all the Saints fan in my friends and family, plus all the comments from every single contributor on this forum, and not one of them, not a single one mentioned wanting Pep or Mourinho to come, because obviously they wouldn't have done and they're not absolute fu cking idiots. Your mates down the pub sound very, very special.

The statistical experts told me he scores a goal every other game so I looking forward to seeing him banging them any game now.

Indeed. We've got to just win whenever the opportunity arises. Let's hope WBA are still hungover and some of them wander out onto the pitch with a straw donkey under their arm or with a new tattoo they can't remember getting.

Strange you used the mid-season sacking of Ranieri and Mourinho and the potential mid season sacking of Conte to make a point earlier. Now you've gone off mid-season sackings. Right-o.

Don't you want our players to play well then? Personally I'd like him to score a hat-trick.

I'm hopeful - someone somewhere said it is on TV in Australia so that's good. As long as it is on TV somewhere, there should be a stream.

You've not noticed the same leadership team are currently too embarrassed to sack a manager for doing significantly worse than Puel? That is actually happening, in real life, right now? That's my point. The question is would they have done it, not should they. The fact that Puel would have successfully delivered a key objective, combined with the proven behaviours shown by our managerial team this year suggest that on the balance of probabilities that they wouldn't have. You're not so great with the hypothetical questions, are you love?

Except SFC are adverse to sacking managers because we are seeing it happen now, with our current manager and the exact same leadership team. Or are you saying results haven't "dipped significantly" this season, because I think they have. I think that point is fairly obvious. And they dithered plenty when they did sack him. The fact that he would have delivered one of his key objectives - European football, for a pretty unheard of third straight season - would I think easily have swung it in his favour.

Did Ranieri and Mourinho get sacked in the summer immediately after their successful seasons? No and no. Conte still remains unsacked. You brought them up as comparables not me. A cup winning Puel taking us into Europe would not have been sacked, we agonised enough over sacking him anyway. We wouldn't be agonising, we'd be flogging commemorative DVDs and creating comedy European Tour youtubes. Les Reed and Krugeur would be basking in the glory of #wemarchon. The narrative would not be about failure.

Rudi Garcia for one.

If we'd have won the cup and qualified for Europe for the third season in a row we wouldn't have been on a downward trajectory. We would have had a victory parade around the city. That's not a downward trajectory. And Conte wasn't sacked within days of the victory celebration, neither was Ranieri and neither was Mourinho.

Except in this scenario he won the League Cup, which would have made him one of greatest managers of our history.

Blimey. No we we would have not sacked a cup winning manager who just led us into a third consecutive European campaign. Would have changed the entire shape of the season and the summer. So no. Pretty academic now though.

This. With injuries what will be, will be. Pellegrino should be relentlessly trying to bed down his strongest team for the run in and he should play it today. We don't play again for a week so it's just a normal week of the season with a week's rest. And, y'know, we could do with a bit of practice of actually winning football matches because we have done precious little of that.

I'm not going to lie, I love me a Toblerone.

No he hasn't you bellend.

I'll do a bingo card. Didn't panic Stability Time to adapt Highly rated young coach Green Bay Packers Different approach Supportive environment Role model Ambition

It's pretty clear we are not going to sack him until it's too late, if then. That Wilson puff-piece reads to me that the club have prioritised proving they were "right" about Pellegrino (ie finishing 16th/17th, whoopee) is more important than taking affirmative action to keep us in the league. Upcoming results "could be pivotal" for Pellegrino's future - "could be" FFS and why is Pellegrino's future a "pivotal" thing - our staying in the division is the pivotal thing, not some experiment with a terrible manager that none of the fans have any interest in or enthusiasm for. Project Pellegrino is the pivotal thing? Eff me. So, he's got plenty of "oh well, a point on reflection is quite good really/yes we lost but St James Park is always a tough place to go" bullsh it left in the tank then. Every and any excuse will be used and we will not sack that man. Madness.