coalman

To be fair he applied the common usage of brave so I understand the confusion. Instead of the previous Saints definition that was "blindly doing dumb stuff that doesn't work over and over again".

I think the whole squad has benefited from his coaching and the example he has set. One of the finest exponents of own half walking football we have. Possibly on a par even with Smallbone.

How is that an Arsenal corner?

Really pleased for the lad. He's had a mare with injuries.

Stewart

It's like Peter Parker vs Eddie Brock

Excited to see how this plays out. A young coach with something to prove who has outperformed expectations wherever he has been so far. Couple with a new backroom team to find him the players to make it all work. Welcome, Will!

And to think it only took Saints a few months to coach that into him. Imagine what we could have achieved if he'd been here the whole season.

That's a great finish.

FWIW I hope you dodge this particular bullet.

As y'all may find out if you hire that young progressive Russell Martin.

Then he played five at the back and almost no central midfielders.

Err, thanks? I guess.

You bastard. You realise that MLG is going to have to go through my entire posting history now to confirm that?

When he was playing for the French U20 side.

Mara looked good before we systematically coached being a striker out of him.

5th in your opinion or the official UEFA rankings?

Never mind this pointless argument over which leagues are best in Europe. I still don't know who was first to confirm the story.

Thanks for being first to break this, @trousers

So who do we least want to play next season out of Sunderland and Sheff Utd? Can BBD score some goals to up his transfer price?

Glad we've got this done early and a backroom team in place so we, at least, have a chance over the summer. Good to see so many posters got there first to share the news.

Please god can we sign a striker this summer. One that scores goals instead of a £20 million last minute panic buy or someone that immediately takes up a bed in the treatment room.

There's an argument we got promoted in spite of Martin rather than because of him. I remember being impressed how he'd adapted his tactics in the playoff final against Leeds and thinking it boded well for the Premier League. Only to hear he was annoyed the players didn't follow his instructions because "emotion had taken over". That's not to say I didn't enjoy a lot of the football we played during our promotion season. In between the good stuff we still conceded a lot of goals and the signs were there. The other way I'd look at it would be whether the Saints team is in a better or worse state after Martin left than when he joined. I'd argue he's left us in a worse position. Sport Republic have played their part in this too with abject recruitment despite their willingness to open their wallet and spend some cash. Martin alone isn't responsible for where we find ourselves. For a mid table team that flatters to deceive or a squad at the upper ends of the Championship he's probably a decent fit. He just hasn't demonstrated the desire to learn or self awareness to go beyond that level.

I think Martin was genuinely unprepared for the step up in both quality and intensity. The question you'd have to ask is how he'd have approached it differently and, as he said to Lineker, he wouldn't.

This is the thing for me. Top level sports people typically have one thing in common - the ability to learn from their mistakes. Martin just made excuses and became more dogmatic. Then appears to have instilled that culture in the club.