Gloucester Saint

What you say isn’t unreasonable and were he to show the type of pragmatism he did in the play-offs I don’t think he would be in the position of peril he is. We all knew this season would be bloody difficult but we’ve thrown away 10+ points with blatant errors from his insisted style or self-confessed own tactical brain farts (Newcastle, Forest, Brentford, Bournemouth, especially that astonishingly idiot formation, Leicester, Ipswich, yesterday). Yesterday was similar to the opening day, we’ve also seen teams repeatedly score when the D isn’t covered late on. In any organisation as a senior manager, if your staff keep making the same basic mistakes, you won’t be allowed to keep putting it down to a philosophy for long, you’ll be out of the door. The other issue is how abject we’ve been against non-top 4 sides, conceding 3 goals in many of them. And his teams over a decent sample size by now concede 2-2.5 a game. No manager in present day football should be managing at the top level unless they’ve fixed that, and even those with a prestige playing career (Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney) don’t get slack on that, Beale just joined Gerrard in Saudi again because he struggles with that aspect. Russell has some of the makings but needs to re-do his badges and understand the fundamentals of defensive organisation and team structure before he takes a new job. Serie A would be a good place to learn and observe that post-SFC.

Not a bad analysis. They’ve still got the COVID repayments which might deter a buyer or reduce the asking price, but it’s still a lot of club for the money after Gao lost his shirt. 👕 The protests are starting to bubble away after yesterday, unless there’s a huge change in methods, results and style from Martin that’s a certainty to escalate. Criticising or mocking the paying fans never works well (see Ian Branfoot and the Leeds and Oldham games) either and tends to add petrol to a rising temperature. And Dragan will not want the Belgrade Mirror or Telegraph with his political opponents rubbing his nose in it about SR and their flagship brand’s abject failures. Rasmus is on thin ice I reckon, not just Martin. Rasmus might not be an employee as Russell is but Dragan holds the clout and could restructure SR to be rather less Danish than it is now. Remember, Lowe had Wiseman and others removed from the board when it suited him/felt challenged and Rupert had less financial and political clout than Dragan has in his region.

Club’s PR partner. Other PR firms are available of course…

They’d be like Euston on a Monday morning if he did.

Not sure Flynn has shown enough to be consistently PL calibre. He could be in a better set-up where so much isn’t resting on him. New keeper as well. Bazanu is a bust and AM OK as back-up if the club were sensible enough to put a relegation clause in.

New keeper (and obviously new manager) and I’d agree.

Plus we know KWP leaves and we didn’t pay a lot for Sugawara. A good season in the Champ in a more organised and professionalised set-up and he’ll be an asset (which is what SR cares about without realising the professionalism bit).

They will next season as gate income is much more important outside of the PL even with parachute payments. And the longer Russell is here without a more inspiring and obvious replacement for supporters and sponsors to identify with, the lower next season’s income will be, and Dragan will be writing some eye watering cheques. Plus FFP biting.

Sugawara, as with all of the current players, I’d like to see under a different manager so horrendously out of his depth. One who can vaguely organise defences and trains conventionally.

8x8 = 64

8x8’s representatives back on the topic of fan-blaming this morning I see. It wasn’t Alex or Russell’s fault for the dreadful goals conceded, it was ours for encouraging Alex and Sugawara to go long. #textbook

Lighthouse will need a JCB with the hole he’s digging for himself.

In some ways yes, in other ways less so… A lot more exciting that the drab football his teams play, that’s for sure

Don’t know, but Dragan is a big name in Serbia and if protests get going in earnest it will be all over their media which won’t do.

Good, good. The media can increasingly see, the fans have finally cottoned on in numbers, just the owners and I reckon that’s down to finances and first choice replacements (or any frankly with a pulse) declining the poison chalice. Russ is a popular as a fart in a spacesuit. Once the fans protests get going from some clear signs yesterday, the players will quickly follow.

Top 3 for me when I wasn’t lactose intolerant (or knew I was): - Double Decker - Lion Bar - Crunchie

Not much other option, and comes down to how much they want to save the club. Did my stint with Branfoot and later on Rupert Lowe x2. It doesn’t need to be all 3000 doing it, but one third would quite audible after the bursts of noise from Brighton in the aftermath of their goals has died down.

Probably so, although ‘Russell Martin you’re a wanker’ and ‘you’re football is shit’ from the away end won’t be what he had in mind and for his family and friends in the stadium to hear.

On here, in the media and his ego will hate that, once it spreads further into the stadiums, then it will be reported on. He’s already faced protests at Goztepe and it sounds like Valenciennes fans are gearing up. Saints fans are not the quickest on the uptake but I’d say he’s finally getting rumbled as the main source of SR’s ills. As far as Saints go, the Nathan Jones blooper cost circa £13m I heard and RM won’t be far off that. Yet every day he clings into him, the more fatal the damage to Rasmus.

Didn’t he say similar after Alex’s playing out blooper opening day as well?

Surely Dragan must be questioning what is going on at Southampton and Valenciennes? Martin is severely damaging not only SFC, but Rasmus, Dragan and the SR brand with every game and every mistake ‘playing out’.

Imagine the state of the fans forums by May if he’s still here somehow (he won’t be). Stadium definitely starting to ferment today with his petulant behaviour that us plebs don’t share his ‘Philosophy’. And that was after a very decent display marred by more Conference South goals caused by ‘playing out’. I looked at the UI for the first time in months, smaller sample size but on here is quite civilised compared to the febrile atmosphere on there. Sorry 8x8 lads, you won’t enjoy hearing that. Clinging onto Martin is also putting Rasmus into the spotlight and his CV being seriously scrutinised. If Valenciennes are still in mid-table in a part-time league, SR will need to deal with the fallout of protests there as well. Sell up and buy a chain of hotels or something.

Easy - a decent, basic manager gets the best out of his/her staff and resources budget. It was his choice to renew Alex and well known at the club that working with his feet is not his strength so tell him to do what is comfortable. Which it clear it out longer. Andrew Caddick the very tall former England quick used to struggle being instructed to bowl fuller until Fletcher and Hussain took over. They wrote on the team board before games ‘Caddick bowl Caddick length’. Funnily enough, the final years of his Test cricket were stacked with wickets in tandem with Gough.

He will hate that being a Brighton lad and all. Bring it on I say, he is no more likely to change or become self-aware than Branfoot was 30 years ago. Both stuck in ‘their way’. Once a manager decides to criticise/sneer at the fanbase as he is doing, there is only ever one winner. He can be as friendly with Rasmus as he wants, and Ankerson is very much in the fans firing lines now as the Blackmore BBC piece last week underlined as well, but it counts for shit when you are losing games at that rate. Even worse is the goals conceded, approaching 2 a game even at the level below, and it’s approaching 3 this year. Which when your defence has THB, JB and KWP is criminal at that level last year so being back in the top flight is not the outlier. He is unable to organise and coach the basics and the players don’t look fit.

Hopefully and most importantly Sports Republic. Absolute disaster at SFC, increasingly so at Valenciennes, and very mixed at Goztepe. With the parachute payments and infrastructure there, it’s a decent proposition for someone who knows that they are doing. Otherwise this is going to turn into Venkys at Blackburn or the Reading situation.