Sunglasses Ron

Pretty sure we wore it when we beat Liverpool 3-2 at Anfield in 1998.

Yeah, there is only a tiny chance of us going down, but also a moderate chance of us not being mathematically safe come final day. I'm sure we all agree that we could definitely do without that being the case and it will hopefully provide a modicum of motivation to the team against Brentford. Hard to believe that we're even having to have a conversation about this when you consider where we were a few months ago. Good old Saints FFS!

So Brentford away is now a massive 6-pointer for us! 🙃

100% this. Like I said last season, a sneaky insurance bet at long odds covers a trip to Vegas for the mother of all 'we've just been relegated' benders 🙂

Don't worry everyone, a few more weeks and we can forget all about Saints and focus on something more healthy for a while!

Thank Gawd for JWP!

Too early for Brighton to score. Come back in 10 minutes...

We are utterly hopeless right now, can’t wait for this season to end (just like last year).

Thankfully, at this stage of the season, they’ll be looking to win 1 or 2 nil then ease off (I hope).

Everton fans must be raging at us right now. I guess that’s something!

I thought there was goal line technology and VAR, but the former didn't work and the latter wasn't used for some bizarre reason?

Yeah, this is my take on it. Ralph has had several monumental failures, plus a few notable successes, in his time here so it's not unexpected that the tide can turn very quickly on him. Conversely, there is undoubtedly a group who can't stand him due to the 9-0s etc. which is totally understandable too. I'm still broadly in favour of him, but getting trashed at home to Chelsea like that pushed me closer to the edge I have to say.

Yes, because the majority of football fans are always such cogent thinkers aren't they 🙂

Bloody terrible and a reminder that no-one is immune to the crap life can throw at you. Sincerely hope this isn't used as ammunition for 'banter' at future matches.

And that's fine. I don't feel any different either, which is an ongoing sense of apathy. Seems to be a pendulum effect with a lot of people though, who seem to love him or hate him depending on what week it is.

So do we love him again this week?

Burnley’s unstoppable march to safety, and our subsequent relegation, looks like ending on Day 1 of post Chelsea defeat bed wetting doomsday scenario.

I remember us losing 0-4 at home to Arsenal in 93-94. We were really bad that day and Ian Wright tore us a new one.

Are you serious?

Another shameful day at the office. As said with the previous debacles, the only solace is that’s it’s just one game and just 3 points. Yet again though, feels like a massive punch in the danglies, regardless of how good the opposition are.

I fully respect where you're coming from. At the end of the day, I'm not on Twitter etc. and don't see any of his communications first hand. I only know him as the player who has done immeasurable good for our club over the years and that view would probably only change if I found out he'd been convicted of a severe crime or something. It does sound like he's mad as a barrel of frogs these days, but I'm not at all convinced that his alleged actions are anything other than (very silly) words on a screen. Any adult reading them can take them or leave them as far as I'm concerned and must continue to take personal responsibility for whatever they do with that information thereafter.

I wonder where our club would be today without his efforts in the 90's? I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that it could be a far worse place. In summary - Legend.

We've been pretty lucky to have had some of the greatest penalty (MLT and SRL) and free kick takers (JWP) the game has seen. Although JWP is clearly the better free-kick taker of the two, MLT's goal against Wimbledon is easily one of the greatest ever free-kicks.

Based on that outrageous overhead kick he scored against Liverpool in the Champions League final of 2018, I'd say he almost certainly was. A lot of tears were shed that night by the annoyingly high contingent of Devon-based Liverpool fans. I was on high lolz for the same reason!

A close call, but I guess we've ultimately decided that there are more pros than cons for us. Yes, it almost certainly makes us weaker against the likes of Man City, but relatively speaking, it probably also makes us stronger against all the teams typically below us. If we have aspirations of being a regular Top 10 club then we need to embrace things like this.