Farmer Saint

And it's only now top of table Championship quality - we did well to get promoted last season.

Including a huge number of women and children. Saw a horrific video of a number of people burning to death in a "safe" encampment on the outskirts of Gaza. I suggest you all go and watch it - although I guess it will become wank bank material for some of you.

So what team selection should he use to demonstrate he has learnt?

GK is better, hasn't looked great though tbh - although sitting behind this defence I'm not surprised. Defence is far worse. Bednarek has never been a PL quality defender, nor has Stephens and we're also seeing why Kompany decided against signing Harwood-Bellis. Sugawara seems decent going forward, but suspect defensively. KWP has started awfully. I would much prefer a back 4 of 2022 KWP, Salisu, ABK and Perraud. Midfield yeah, 2022 shits on this midfield so let's ignore that. Striker - would prefer Che up top to Ross, although think Archer could come good. Let's call that one a draw.

I'm saying he should go as he's extremely divisive amongst the fan base and if we need anything to help galvanise us it's the fans. What I am also saying is not to expect anything particularly better - the Managers we are picking from are not good. There is no argument here - we're a very poor team in a strong league with a poor PL Manager. Not much to say here.

I don't think anyone is saying the Manager has nothing to do with this? What we're saying is that it's unlikely we'll be able to get a Manager in who's good enough to drastically improve our chances.

I guess we'll wait and see. All opinions after all.

TBF Jones had a better team than Martin, and I think as an actual side we've looked better under Martin than Jones - but that's irrelevant - different teams and different players. I think we have 0 chance of staying up anyway - I said that at the beginning of last season that any foray into the PL will lead to absolute relegation due to PSR and our inability to bring in PL quality players with the resulting transfer fee and ( more importantly) wage inhibitors. There may be someone who can keep us up, but if there is I very much doubt he'll be interested in coming to us. Even decent Championship Managers want nothing to do with us (Corberan for instance) as it is a bloody nightmare trying to compete in the Premier League with a Championship quality team and wage budget.

I'm not saying he doesn't have to go, but we're unlikely to get anyone in that's going to improve us much.

It's not good enough, but it's not an easy run of fixtures when the team is between Championship and PL quality. Ipswich only have 3 more points, and are very lucky to not be one point behind us, and they have a far superior Manager. The problem is the PL is fucking hard, and to stay up when coming up from the Championship you need an outstanding Manager (who we are unlikely to pick-up mid-season) or an outstanding team. We have neither.

🤔

It was a joke mate, lighten-up.

He's old - he's into hoofing pigs bladders, laces imprinted on your forehead and severe brain injuries.

He needs to go due to the huge splits in the fan base - he's a bit like Brexit - but this is an excellent summary and something I have tried to articulate over the past year.

Apologies, phone went kaput on Monday morning and been waiting for my new one to be delivered - however it is quite liberating not having a phone. I would recommend it. Spoke to my friend this morning - the one that told me that Martin was on his way out - reason is that SR have been putting out the feelers for a few Managers, including Potter. However, still a lot of skepticism from Potter on Monday (although that may have changed now with the England news). Sacking Martin will only take place if there is someone interested/ready to come in, apparently.

All 4 of those, and Fonte, would walk into our team. Clyne would too, as would Jay Rodriguez and Gaston. Probably Yoshida too. In fact I think we'd probably keep Ramsdale, KWP at LB, and Downes. Maybe Dibling too. However, the spine of Fonte, Schneiderlin, Lallana and Lambert are miles ahead of what we have.

Potter is not interested, and is not that good.

Absolutely, and the Hughes we had was on his way down, very clearly. If not why did he not get a job for 4 years after he left us, and then went to League 2? He didn't retire. The Hughes we had was not the Hughes that CB Fry seems to think he was.

That's weird, cos I could swear you just said this: Surely if that's your opinion he'd be an upgrade? Also, no need to get your knickers in such a twist - behave like an adult.

Cousins is bang average - don't start with that shit.

I think there is a lot of respect in the building for Martin, and appreciation for what he has done and the person he is. But let's see.

He did earlier in his career for sure, but like Mourinho, that type of football is dead and has been for a long time. Where did he go to after us, pray tell? Oh yeah, he couldn't buy a job and ended up at Bradford for a season, four years later, and was sacked from there in that first season (18th in League 2). But yeah, let's bring him back in as he's demonstrably better than Martin. Anyone thinking you can compare early career Mark Hughes to the one we had is a fucking idiot.

There is no way Martin is worse than those 3, I know there is a lot of hate for Martin but I think that's pretty ridiculous. Jones had a far more talented team than he did, and Hughes and Selles are useless. If we bring in someone like that we will be in far worse shape as our players are bought to play a specific way.

I would say Jones, Selles and Hughes are worse. That's the history of our mid-season replacements.

I'll find out more tomorrow, but very quiet on that front ATM.