Supersubpuckett

all the positivity before the season started seems to have come to nothing - we're as frail and toothless as we ever have been the loss of rohl is perhaps more significant than we first thought

I switched to membership this season and haven't had that yet either

breath of fresh air, straight talking, plain simple english and a clear, ambitious plan and i appreciated the acknowledgement of the fact the club had got it wrong over the last couple of years

VAR isn't the problem, its how it is used - it will take time but the pace of the game means the refs need help. We've been on the receiving end of bad or none decisions plenty of times so I'm pretty relaxed about it. They've found how to use it effectively in rugby and cricket and I'm sure the premier league will be leading the way after a full season of use. I'm sure the hysterical dinosaurs will be looking for the first chance to used words like 'shambles' and 'disgraceful'.....until we clearly benefit from a VAR decision. It will be very interesting to see how it impacts the top 6.

So many prem clubs are in a difficult situation with the long and expensive contracts they have committed themselves to in recent years. We are one, Everton and Arsenal are others I'm aware of as I have mates who support them.....all struggling to off load expensive flops. I'm sure sensible and sustainable management means a more measured approach to agreeing contracts. We don't know how much financial lag there has been from investment in previous years and then there are the contracts for the likes of Forster, Mo, that 'striker', boufal etc etc - all sitting merrily on the balance sheet. The days of NC pumping money in to speculate for success are long gone as we know - there is probably still a little bit of a hangover from this plus the financial mess that Reed left us in with his bad deals. If Gao is taking a more nurturing approach then fine, as he clearly wants us to be successful and the comment at the end about spending more than we get in suggests the club is willing to invest where needed.

not the end of the world....but it's a dreadful design. Makes me thinks of MK Dons or Bompey - it just looks bloody awful. i can't believe they sat there and thought "yep, that's the one"

So we now have no chairman and no director if football (or whatever Les's role was). Is it going to be down to a few willing parents like my sons football team??!

simply serves to remind us of the staggering decision not to bring in a new striker in Jan window - our financial situation must be very concerning

i think he is ringing every last ounce of performance out of a bang average squad

cardiff parked the bus, offered little threat but knew we can't attack or defend so waited for their moment or an error from us. always been a fan of long for his industry and the trouble he brings to defences, but today he gave us nothing - just kept falling over. redmond back to his headless chicken running around with no final ball nobody wanted to shoot we had no idea what to do once in the final third and our general passing was sloppy a great illustration of the consequence of our approach to the transfer window lost count of the number of opportunities (esp in first half) to get the ball quickly into the flanks for long or redmond to run on to but chose the stop and pause option, thus losing the initiative and allowing cardiff to re-group - reminded me of puel and mope teams am thinking not to bother with a ST next season, if they can't be bothered to put their hands in their pockets then neither can i

surely that's key criteria

mcqueen should be waiting for a call

austin having a word with valery as they walk off at HT let's hope ralph calms them down a bit for the second half, good intent but needs to be more controlled

good effort but a little bit like headless chickens and cardiff will eventually pick us off on the break, esp in second half when we'll be knackered our defence is soooooo bad - criminal that the club let it deteriorate to this degree

perhaps a reason southgate didn't pick him for the world cup

can see us losing this as we have a squad low on confidence trying to quickly take on a new philosophy having said that my heart says a colossal 4-0 win COYS!

skysports peddling their usual sh1t and 'revealing' that moyes would be interested, along with shakespeare and pearson. danny murphy describing moyes as a safe pair of hands, really?

looks like tickets still available.....a sign of the fan base growing indifference to the club at least we still get the training videos on social media

although i think puel is a better manager than mope and hughes, i agree with this summary. i could never understand why he moved away from our 4231 pressing style, especially as the squad was built around this type of play. i would have liked to see him try redmond and austin in the mane and pelle roles as i'm sure the football would have been better....rather than the tedious diamond borefest he went with for a while. all water under the bridge now though and the club have contrived to make the situation even worse since he was sacked (only 18 months ago!!). feels as though we are in a 'managed decline' situation rather than a club with the ambition and resources to push for more top 10 finishes.

a comfortable 0-2 for utd when was the last time we beat them at home?

er no thanks

hughes needs to go - he can't get the best out of the squad and they have no belief. It's been the same since puel - he started it and it continues to rot away. We do have good players, much better than 17th and on paper should be above bournemouth but it's up to the manager to motivate them and make then believe again. hughes clearly can't do that.

we're going to lose which means we'll ditch hughes with a rudderless roster to peruse we'll be deep in the poos queue the abuse

and seems to be cast iron argument for a second referendum on brexit......sorry, wrong forum but it makes the point

Whilst it's his usual corporate speak, I'm not as emotional about it as some others on here. From my 20+ years of working with people like him my take on what he's saying is; It was tough getting rid of them but it was necessary due to a sustained slump in performance, which became clear since the summer. There will be a root and branch review roles and responsibilities in the club, which will tell us if we need to bring in new people and for what roles. Internally 'day to day' stuff will get sorted but the priority is the team and getting back on track. We will pull in external expertise to help us work out the set up we need, however the role that Les did doesn't exist anymore. The football side of his old role needs more than what we have right now - we need to move with the times and remain competitive. The academy is a strength but wasn't being run properly. We'll sort that out and will let you know. This is a priority as is being competitive in the PL. Hughes is expected to deliver now that some things have changed and we feel good about Watford. Dust needs to settle before we figure out what happens next. We've got good people running the football, they need to be left to get on with it. Ralph is taking responsibility for final sign off on recruitment and he has people working for him that he trusts. Everyone needs to step up. He will take tough decisions if needed. Don't know about Jan, never plan to do much but will if need to. Need to get as much out of the squad we have first. Everything about the club is healthy and good....apart from the results! CODE FOR - LES GOT STUCK IN HIS WAYS, HAD TOO MUCH INFLUENCE AND BECAME OUT OF HIS DEPTH. HUNTER DID A BAD JOB WITH THE ACADEMY. HUGHES IS NEXT IF THE RESULTS DON'T PICK UP. OUR AMBITION IS STILL TO BE BEST OF THE REST BUT CLEARLY FALLEN WAY SHORT OF THAT RECENTLY. WE'RE GONNA GET SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT FOOTBALL TO HELP US.