Dman

It amazes me that anyone would consider spending a penny down there.

You wouldn't because you're not one of us. Stick to baseball, basketball or whatever noddy sports you yanks enjoy.

TBF, it'll be a move back home to Manchester for him and his family.

I just want to go back to a time where we had @manji claiming we're entering the best period of our lives under SR.

I'm a little torn with Solak. Generally speaking I quite like him and I think he means well. He's not been afraid to put money in and from a non footballing perspectve I like the direction that the club are heading. My concern is that despite how they spin that Ankerson is no longer involved in the day to day running Saints, I fear that he has Solak's ear. I'm not convinced that Solak is a strong enough leader or ruthless enough for us to move forward with him. Without Solak's money, there is no SR. I'm not sure the multi-club model has benefited us in any way, shape or form to date and given the clubs they're looking at buying, i'm not convinced it ever will. Henrik Kraft was the fall guy last time, things haven't improved. Unless Solak can bring someone into SR who will challenge Ankerson and has experience at running a football club before, I think we're at a point where he needs to fall on his sword and sell the club. SR selling worries me. I'm not convinced its a great market for perspective buyers of a football club and I don't think we would be seen as great value for money. Sometimies its better the devil you know, but things cannot continue as they are.

To be fair, Rusk's days were probably numbered from the minute Spoors walked through the door. He clearly wanted to employ Tonda with a view of him stepping up at some point in the future.

I know they're a dieing breed now, but what we need is a manager, not a coach. An old school manager who controls pretty much all aspects of the playing side the club, like we had with Koeman when we needed a rebuild and to a degree the same with Ralph. There is place for a DOF and head coach, as seen by Brighton, Brentford etc. but we're an unstable club at the minute who needs a total rebuild with a strong figure head to lead it. I have no idea where we turn to from here.

Whilst I fully apprecate that all of our CB's are pony, I think Wood is up there as arguably the worst of the lot. Probably need to bring stephens back in. Again, picking from a bad bunch, but THB and Stephens are probably our best options.

would be a great addition imo. A real leader as well. He and THB would be a fantastic partnership at this level.

Personally, I'd keep hold of Edozie - if he wants to be here, which granted it seems he doesn't. He's probably the most like for like we have with Tom Fellows and if we are to flog him, it'll be for peanuts.

Because McCarthy or Bazunu should be 3rd choice.

They'll be paying an agency, probably peanuts, to essentially do just that. Its just a copy and paste template with a few bespoke integrations. Fairly certain the ticketing app is the exact same one used by UEFA for the last couple of euros.

If being worked out results in us arguably "should have been 3 up" at half time then I'll take that. Result and second half wasn't great yesterday, but its easy to forget Downes missed essentially an open goal, we missed a pen and should have had another in the first half. Fancy us to beat Cov tbh.

What's he like with his feet? In all seriousness, Bazunu is a key part of our build up and replacing him with someone who can't pass (i.e a McCarthy type) would be as detrimental as keeping crisp packet hands Baz. We need someone who is competant at playing out and can actually make saves. I don't know who that would be 😃

I suspect its more Tonda not wanting to give much away a day before the game. Bit poor of Alfie to break the news so early tbh.

Even further back, I walked away from the first pre-season game at eastleigh thinking "Fuck me, we struggled to break those down. That wasn't great". I gave benefit of doubt given it was the first game and clearly the squad was going to change. Things didn't really get any better though.

Special shout out to Vegard Forren who is somehow still playing, aged 37, in the norwegain 3rd division.

Now we have what seems to be a half competant manager, I'm relatively comfortable with the squad we have. I think I'd only really be looking at a number 10 as competition / back-up to Azaz - i.e a replacement for Aribo. Ideally I'd like a keeper to come in - probably a loan as the Ramsdale situation has caused us issues. I think we have a relatively decent balance up top, now we seem to have found a way to make A.A a complete striker. I'm keen to see what Downs could do under Tonda. Main focus has to be on out's Aribo & Edozie will hopefully find a club wanting to take them. Bree to Charlton permantly. Matsuki probably needs to go.

Linked with 2 jobs in the space of a few months. No smoke without fire. Does he want out or is he trying to push for more responsibility (i.e I want Tonda, appoint Tonda and trust my judgement). Despite what some might say, it would be a disaster if he leave this season - I think he's about as good as we could expect to get for where we are as a club (at this level or the next).

I think if we don't come out of these 2 games with a minimum of 3 maybe 4 points would suggest that we've not played very well.

That's it for me as well. QPR was a pretty poor performance (only had 1 day with the team so let him off), Sheff Weds was a bit better, but still pretty poor (again, next to no time with them). Charlton was obviously brilliant. He still has a bit to do for me, Leicester is his first real challenge.

Tomorrow is make or break for me, I think. Its a bit reactional, but if we don't come away with something (or put in a performance that deserves something) then questions need to be asked. On the flip side, if we put in a really decent performance then I think you probably need to give him the gig - even if its until the end of the season.

A good thing imo. Gives space to players like Azaz and Fellows and arguably armstrong.

The last time we were in the championship, we won 3 games on the bounce on 4 different occasions. Lets not let the fact Will Still was the wost manager we've had in probably 30 years (maybe more) deflect from the fact a team of our quality, budget and size should be beating QPR, Sheff Weds and Charlton on the bounce.

If this happens, Eckhert deserves the job, no question. It'll be his first actual test, lets see how he fares.