Gloucester Saint

And that stat - 5 managers in just 10 months - says everything in how the club lacks rigour in everything it is doing. So once we have a caretaker, then let’s start with getting the process more robust. Chair of the panel - Wilcox. Has to be really. Members - Tony Pulis - no way Martin’s goals against record at Swansea or MK would be getting past him without a grilling and no philosophical bullshit. Success at similar sized clubs, lives locally and speaks well of the club. Will spot a chancer like Martin. Jeremy Wilson/Henry Winter - can they handle a bit of criticism and scrutiny which comes with the job eg Nathan Jones. Steven Davis - former club captain, MBE, played at huge clubs and ultimate professional. How do you handle a diverse dressing room and get respect? Eg RH falling out with segments of the squad. Emphasis has to be on impressing a tough but fair room. I bet with this process we would get someone more capable and confident on the basic nuts and bolts.

My favoured option is Ryan Lowe, would not take shit from SR and make it clear that Wilcox is working to his targets and not vice versa. Bloke’s teams win matches despite not having the biggest budget. Blackmore would be scared stiff of interviewing him, but so would the players and the whole environment desperately needs organisation, structure and discipline. Whether he’d want it or whether the SFC job is seen in the industry as a very toxic chalice until SR inevitably sell up is another matter. Whoever succeeds Martin in the next couple of weeks needs to insist on being in full control of all men’s first team football matters with their coaching set-up. Ankerson and co need to be totally kept away from any decisions whatsoever regarding SFC. Football professionals only. Wilcox might have got some good fees in but his purchases have been fucking dreadful. The club is drifting back to League one and worse, needs to be an alpha character who says ‘I’m in charge’ like Koeman did. Les Reed didn’t like it and Rasmus/Wilcox wouldn’t but they’ve failed, so it needs to be a clean slate to cleanse the complacency out of the culture and demand the best people can do within the framework. No excuses around budget or facilities, they are as good as you get for this level, but there’s a huge lack of industry savvy and a lot of bullshit goes unchallenged. Stop the marketing slogans and concentrate on clean sheets and three points each week. Keep it simple.

Some of the pissed off people in the Northam were probably ejected from Block 1 last season, to go with those evicted from the central Kingsland for the £99 padded seats. Combined with with others being under attack from away fans openly permitted in home areas and it’s no wonder relationships are strained with the support base left which the club hasn’t alienated. Frankly, 30k gates early was above and beyond from our fans with the amount of they’ve tolerated. The club has reverted to type in the last 3 games, serving up more spineless football with empty marketing slogans. All the OWTS in the world won’t stop 3 or 4 cheap goals conceded per game (it would have been if Ipswich could shoot) because the manager can’t do his job (yet again). More cheap fan blame. Get it right on the pitch and stop making excuses.

Wouldn’t surprise me with the sheer arrogance of the know nothing corporate blob running the club plus Les had fucked the club over with the pretence he knew anything about top level football transfers financially eg Vestergaard, Moi, Carrillo. No way that Pelle, Tadic or Mane weren’t Ronald’s insistences. No way either Ralph said ‘let’s buy Lyanco because some chancer who failed FFP was allowed the buy the club and we’re skint’ either.

Alex Neil has blotted his copybook going to Stoke and struggling with Mowbray getting Sunderland flying, otherwise he’d have been an option. Mowbray would have been a good choice for this level, proper football man with good record on not much money. Ryan Lowe at PNE who are flying and laid the foundations for Schumacher to build on at Plymouth, was his assistant. Lowe is direct and says what he thinks, so probably not suited to the political corporate blandness SFC has become. Pity as his teams have won a lot of games over the last few years and play decent stuff. Robins is very attached to Coventry and they’ve spent some cash with a new owner. Warnock would liven things up a lot and make home games interesting for the first time since 2016 and offer some much needed character but with a lot more savvy than Nathan had with the media. Millions of promotions at this level but as direct Ryan Lowe in saying in what he thinks. Fine with it myself but the spreadsheet Reading/MK Dons plastics who run the club would hate it especially as none of them could come anywhere his success in the industry. Schumacher a good option if he could be tempted, doesn’t seem to have his head up his own arse tactically. I like Pearson, started a bit better after bobbing around in lower mid-table with Bristol. As with Lowe and Warnock, too strong a character for the beige brigade to handle. If they want to go hipster again, at least consider Tomasson at Blackburn. Either way, only a couple of weeks at most until we find out. No coincidence Dragan, Kraft and Wilcox were all there against Ipswich and apparently looking pissed off. They won’t wait as long as they did with Jones.

It won’t be a magic wand to change the sickening and unwarranted smugness/complacency rife in the executive corridors but putting players into better positions at first team level for their strengths/weaknesses and maximising organisation around what you have - basics of being in business and a managerial position. The club should at least be competing for the play-offs under a solid basic manager if they do that. At the moment, it’s very obvious to anyone involved in the game be it a coach, player or supporter to beat a Russell Martin outfit. And the tub thumping about how he turned Swansea (from Steve Cooper apparently!) and MK Dons around to the heady heights of 9th is prime Nathan Jones and Luton. So yeah, a bit of organisation on the training ground and a stronger character to tell Rasmus et al to fuck off because they’ve achieved something at first team football level would improve things pretty clearly.

Quite - appointing mediocrity on the basis of a ‘philosophy’ was madness for a club with parachute payments and that budget. I’m just laughing at the shittiness since 2017 and arrogance/ignorance of Reed/Kreuger/Semmens/Ankerson and now Wilcox. Bullshitters all. Doesn’t help that there’s an ongoing competition to appoint a worse first team manager than Ian Branfoot now. He’s out of the relegation zone now after Pellegrino, Nathan Jones and worst all, this bullshitting buffoon, rock bottom. Sports Republic - get out of our club, we don’t want you. Martin - get a new job as a You Tube quack selling questionable medical products. You certainly aren’t convincing anyone you aren’t a total phoney as a football manager.

He ought to focus to pulling his finger out at the other end, dreadful finishing tonight. AA been just as appalling.

He’ll be history shortly, sounded like a more articulate Nathan Jones with the underlying defensiveness. Blaming others and the fans. I’m already thinking of him as a caretaker, dread to think who the club will go for next. Wilcox might as well have a go himself, can’t do any worse than the garbage over the last 12-18 months in the dug out.

One of the said (and sad) cunts is Alasdair Heath of the Telegraph who literally seems to have a teenage-type crush on her. The poor man’s Nick Robinson before Nick stopped being a cab for hire and became a proper journalist, not a third rate activist with dodgy non-Dom money. Bloke goes on about her all the time, constantly headlining when she’s about to make another side-splittingly stupid, wrong and just dopey set of comments. Hope she does become Tory leader again in opposition after they lose the next GE because it’s guaranteed to leave them as a third or fourth choice party with 40 seats left. Wow, that’s some quote from Kwarteng about her https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liz-truss-tories-bank-england-b2413469.html Loving the Carney quotes

Good article, although a bit optimistic yet https://www.ft.com/content/b294d9e6-6bd5-44b3-a77f-e58d8779b2d2 Agree that re-joining not on the horizon but closer links more sensible to give the economy the boost it needs and repair our smashed up public services and infrastructure to Western levels pre-2010

Brilliant post. Summarises that it’s not the same club that played at the Dell, which WGS, Nigel, Poch or Ronald managed. Gao’s takeover and Semmens arriving killed the club and any identity, Kreuger and Reed did the rest. Bullshit merchants all and SR and Rasmus are just another extension of that. Soulless corporate club playing soulless football with soulless mercenary players, JWP might as well as switched the lights off when he left. Just a bigger version of Reading or MK Dons. The obsession with how much they sell players for is pathetic - useless selling a VVD or a Lavia if you buy Carrillos, Onachus, Elys, Lyancos, Vestergaards and Hoedts. If you a buy a Mane, a Tadic or an earlier career VVD, then you can feel happy for a season but be planning for the next successor and increasing the budget as your comparators will. Pellegrino-Hughes-N Jones-Selles-Martin - there’s a clear regression towards the soundbite manager who thinks tactics are a type of small mint. It’s just that Jones’s sound bites didn’t quite fit the plastic brand. But with Russell Martin they’ve found their David Brent. And so appropriate for an empty corporate vessel. Deserves to get steamrollered by real central midfielders with character in this division, like Saints had in 2011-12 with Hammond, Cork and Morgan. Still, if SR takes us into the National League, they can install a plastic pitch to complete the artificiality.

Something else to look forward to then. Given Martin’s Norwich connections, their fans will dish it out at him if Ipswich are 3/4/5 goals ahead. Could be worse than the flak Jones took from Forest fans given his prior run-ins when you factor in the East Anglian factor. Coulc be a painful last game for Russell if he hasn’t achieved a massive improvement in midfield and scrapped the inverted fullback nonsense.

1-3 Ipswich. Their counter-attacking style will be perfect for picking off Martin’s suicide tactics. Lose this one and Martin’s job is in real jeopardy. It isn’t must win but certainly mustn’t lose and a 0-0, 1-0, or 1-1 would help reassure people that he has some sort of clue on how to coach and buy him a few more games to show he can adapt. I just think Saints are an experiment for him though and he won’t change. Hence I give him a month absolute tops. Personally, I’d part company now. It’s as obvious as it was with Nathan Jones that it isn’t going to work and the level of disorganisation since the Sheffield Wednesday game is as bad as the Forest/Wolves games.

There’s going to be a new manager thread if he doesn’t instil some basic level football organisation and discipline imminently. Another heavy defeat tonight and he is serious danger of being gone within a couple of weeks. Dragan cannot be satisfied. He’s made the same mistakes in having a wide open midfield as he did for Norwich and Sunderland. He might sound brighter than Nathan Jones but the same shambles and chaos is evident. OK - this is getting worse and worse. Maybe for the best if it’s a 0-6 and a change simply has to be made this weekend. An experienced manager this time please and one who can mine the free agent keeper market.

If this doesn’t improve rapidly, and we concede 3 or 4, Russell Martin is under some significant pressure already. Nice bloke but out of his depth at the moment. That’s the third time he’s got the line up wrong after Norwich and Sunderland debacles where the midfield is far too open. I think bring in a defensive coach if they want to keep him in the job. He’s starting to lose the fans already though going by what’s audible in the stands.

Even semi-retired is a generous description if you’ve read his book (got it for a quid on Kindle). The club has a reputation for clever recruitment but really that’s based on short periods eg late 90s, early 2000s (Terry Cooper), and Paul Mitchell working with Poch and Ronald mid-2010s with the odd standout moment eg Lavia, which has been wiped out in part by Onachu, Orsic etc. Recruitment was good 2009-12 but then we had a bigger budget comparatively which helps. Throughout the 90s it was crap, wasted so much on Dixon, Speedie, Hurlock’s contract, only really Kenny Monkou and then Pahars and Beattie towards the end of the decade who were good. 2003 thought they’d cracked it and went cheap and nasty refusing to back WGS with quality, preferring Norwich fringe players, same again after 2016 with refusing to pay over £17m when the market changed. All clubs have hit and miss on recruitment but I’m not sure the club’s strong reputation and own self-congratulation on recruitment is entirely justified.

The Ice House in Shirley Warren was where some of my extended maternal family saw to it that Boxing Day lived up to its name. Dockers will be dockers. London Arms in Woolston was rough as a badgers arse - friend did stand up in there once and a small group of NF lads were heckling at the back, one of the best out-downs ever when one of them was going to the bog ‘I hope you’re taking a pig as an air freshener’. Nearly caused a riot when the vast bulk of the audience were laughing at it! Target in Sholing had plenty of issues and part of the concrete jungle of Antelope Park (along with that UBM/Jewson tower which became scruffy - now the Range). Bullseye had its moments. One of my old neighbours lost his front tooth over an argument about the pool table at the Merryoak.

Onachu sees the club take a bath. So much wasted on him and Carrillo, for c15 appearances, 0 goals, one assist. To prop up the two worst managers in the club’s history who were finally dispatched within a month or so. Branfoot is now into the third worst ever - how much of a business disaster has the club been post-2017? The USA lad reminds me of when Saints signed Kenwyne Jones from T&T - signed as an exceptional athlete who could be developed to play anywhere in the spine.

I think Downes will get his foot in, just suffering a bit physically after the food incident. Two weeks now to pack in the protein to restore what was lost and get some of his stamina back. Steak for lunch at Staplewood and lots of protein shakes. Smallbone needs to go on a similar regime but for the whole season. Looks like the club feed him on millet. If he does play in the PL in the future again, Rodri or Rice will only need to fart to shrug him off. A gust of wind off the Itchen even. Alcaraz is developing the stocky build to compete a bit more but learning the positional awareness, expectation to track runners (if he wants to play for City/Man U/Arsenal/Chelsea that’s what will expected there) is a work in progress. Good attitude though and a potential diamond. The best build for this level is Charles, and he will mix it. Back to relying on a talented 19 year old DMC which is a huge risk over a 46 game season. The thought gives me chills but hasn’t Holgate played in DMC for Everton? Might keep him away from CB positions!

Priority 1 - clean sheet Objective 1 - Select Charles and Downes as automatic CM selections, Alcaraz or Smallbone as the more offensively minded midfielder but still helping the other two out when we are under the pump. Objective 2 - Russell Martin to meet with Dean Hammond to watch through and discuss some of the games from 2011/12 where the CMs were Hammond, Morgan, Cork (thank you S Clarke!) and a wide midfielder in Chaplow who also worked very hard both ways. Lallana was the only genuine free spirit but produced the assists and goals. Actually, he did help out Fox tbf but was often freed up if Nigel was chasing a game eg Burnley away. It’ll help him understand the types of characters and level of solidity needed at this level. Yet to be convinced that he understands that yet. Objective 3 - the two wide players/forwards need clear instructions to cut in and run at Leicester’s glacial centre backs at every opportunity, Che needs to start as a focal point to feed off. Priority 1000 - possession stats and being nice to watch. Set up dry and if it is a pig ugly 1-0 win as per the spring, I’ll be happy and so will 30k others, Sunderland forgotten. Same again for next two games. Footballing Imodium to stop the diarrhoea.

If you’re talking about Ronald, Poch, Nigel, Pards and early Ralph in recent times, WGS further back, I agree with you. When the manager is Pellegrino, Nathan Jones, or Ralph post-March 2021 then no, because that how you end up with Onachu, Carrillo etc and tens of millions down the drain. As for Djenepo, great start with those two solo goals but struggled with fitness and any sort of consistency since, although the club has been a bin fire over the last 18 months where you needed to be a Lavia calibre player not to be dragged into the football gutter. Good luck to him, always put in a shift unlike most of the players in his era at the club.

Good point on JV, RM needs to be looking at ways of ensuring AA is left one on one with JV as often as possible. That could happen if Che is up for it and occupies the other CB

I was at a stag weekend in Norwich and was at that one. The normally more placid Norwich fans gave the team and the board hell, two fans were banned for throwing their season tickets at Gunn in the dugout. The atmosphere will turn toxic v Leicester if there’s further repeats of yesterday and with the internationals there’s no time to get an experienced coach in to get the back four and midfield organised because I’m losing confidence in Martin to do it. Just the basics. Norwich made some swift changes which transformed them. Firstly, Paul Lambert was Colchester manager and they moved for him. Gunn had bought an Australian keeper who made Bazanu look like Gordon Banks. They paid off his contract. Ostemebor played the Holgate performance and was frozen out, eventually coming to Saints for a few games after Norwich also paid him up. If the next couple of games are showing the side as equally disorganised and open, then it’s either someone like Pulis as a short-term mentor to help Russell organise and tighten up off the ball during the week, or it’s goodbye. I can’t see SR sitting on their hands after the Jones debacle.

In the next three games, the overriding priority has to be a clean sheet. Track the runners properly, reduce the crosses coming in and become much harder to beat. If we nick a goal somewhere for a 1-0 win, even better but the priority is to play dry. If the club needs to get a Winterburn or Dixon figure in short-term to get the back 4/5 tightly and systematically organised for the rest of the season then do it, worth every penny. At the moment, the level of disorganisation and chaos is moronic to not learn from and fix. Basics like closing down for the second goal yesterday, last week QPR and Colbeck, Sara v Norwich. Close the space down quicker. It’s just laziness early on in the game when everyone should fresh. Bazanu was guilty of it on the first goal yesterday too, that’s his ball, get to it first and if their striker is off on a stretcher because you clean him out, that’s how it is. As long you clearly get the ball first, it ain’t a foul. The number of crosses just allowed in with no effort whatsoever to close down (Sheffield Weds it was an issue second half, Norwich’s opener, Plymouth and yesterday x2) has been going on since Ralph lost the plot. Pochettino double sessions and pure drilling/practice will instil the right habits. The possession football is fine but always has to be built upon two basics - win the midfield in the first 30 minutes and ensuring the defence is screened. The nice stuff can come only after that. Pep expects Rodri to dominate his battles and at present, Wilcox has to put his foot down about Downes and Charles, when fit, are automatic XI selections. Alcaraz or Smallbone can be the luxury more offensive CM. As fans, we expect to see a much higher work rate in the next few games, closing spaces and better positional awareness. Do the basics well, get a foothold in the game and then we can pass teams to death in the last 30 minutes with cutting edge from the strong bench option against a worn opposition. City did it several times at SMS when Saints were on a good run. I don’t want to keep sacking managers but Russell is learning the hard way with the dreadful goals conceded, and going dry for a few games would be a very good idea, a few clean sheets and build a platform to be more progressive from there. Leicester is huge game and a clean sheet would help ease any concerns the owners may have about poor organisation and training.