Oldandtired

That's not the future, that's our here and now.

Would it not be fair to say though that the majority of the healthy attendances at Saint Mary's this season are those who were suckered into buying season tickets on the premise that we were at least going to give it a go, play a competitive style of football that is not every opposing managers dream to play against under a manager who is at least pragmatic enough to realise that what he believes in does not work? As has been said so many times here this is not his personal vanity project. It's our club and because of the trust and belief we showed in record season ticket saleswe deserve so much more than what we're getting now. in simple terms the club does not deserve the support it's currently getting.Both board and manager display an arrogance and self belief not born out in playing style, points gained or league position. Bitter? Certainly, this has been my club for over 65 years and they are ruining it.

'Says he whilst looking in the mirror'

What’s the point? Rm will coach any flair, imagination, talent, indeed anything decent out of them whilst indoctrinating them into his turgid and ponderous Russball.

Surely the issue is not the squad but how he will get that squad to play. He was starting to get found out back end of last season, the lottery win papered over the cracks, now this season we have been found out good and proper. He has said on multiple occasions he will not change so in my opinion there is not much reason to be optimistic about coming up again.

You can't call it that anymore ,it's Russball, and it's not even distantly related to football

narcissist - a person who has excessive interest in or admiration of themselves Question…is Fabrice Russell Martin in disguise?

But surely underpinning everything is the ponderous unimaginative style of play that is Russball. The few times we break away from that we do look good but unfortunately those times seem to be few and far between. I am convinced the players are genuinely fearful of breaking away from the system and upsetting the manager. I have a feeling that his arrogance and unwarranted self belief could make him a boss from hell if you cross him.

How long have you got? But first and foremost just being Martin and all that brings, the arrogance and ‘I’m not going to change anything’ even though we are mostly playing the sort of crap football that every opposing manager dreams about playing against.

I doubt it, they still drag out the, yawn, Pompey one weekafterweekafterweekafterweekafter…

On another note I see this is coming back again after the shorter style…

Pretty sure they won’t. Their bottom line is the amount of season tickets they sold, the 31 plus thousand of us suckers who turned up yesterday and the millions they got for winning the lottery of promotion. It’s apparent that they don’t care what happens on the pitch.

Shifting the focus away from the defensive cockups for a moment the other thing about the style of play inflicted on the team is for the most part just how ponderous the buildup and transition is. As witnessed a couple of times yesterday we have the players who can shift the ball and transition quickly but in the main Russball doesn't allow for that.

I've come to the conclusion that Fabrice's real name is Richard. Think about it...

The blessed Aaron has had a few near misses trying Russballsup inside the box too this season

I think you mean even if he has lost a leg...

One thing I did mean to say which I found a bit incongruous about today was the fact that given the weather we've had they watered the pitch at halftime.

The corruption lies in the bias shown towards the top teams. There is so much spotlight, punditry (or horseshittery if you like), discussion, navel searching directed to the top teams that even the smallest puff of a fart given against these teams will cause huge waves in the media. So refs, being almost human so I’m told, don’t like to give decisions against these teams for fear of rocking the boat…whereas decisions, good or bad, against the little teams go almost unnoticed.

… after fannying about the Russballsup way and gifting them the first.

Because it’s not a game anymore at professional level, it’s big business.

At the very worst we’d only have 4 less points…

I prefer Russballsup.

But how do you quantify progress and development in our case? As has been pointed out possession statistics are ok, even if in my opinion most of that possession is meaningless as it leads to nothing. So more goals, more points, only losing by the odd goal rather than two or three or more? Or, as most including me seem to want, a change in playing style perhaps leading to a more attack minded formula leading to more goal attempts? I’m intrigued as to how you think we can progress and develop when the manager is adamant he will not change our style of play. This style is not working and as has been painfully obvious on numerous occasions this season is so easy to play against. If you stay in the same place that is not progress or development, that is stagnation. So given the manager’s unwillingness to adapt or change how can we progress with our current style of play? And an afterthought, I’m not convinced that it will go so well for us in the Chanpionship next season when the almost inevitable happens and we go down and the unthinkable happens and RM is still the manager. We were starting to get found out at the end of last season before winning the lottery, unfortunately no reason to think that will change next time. edit…won’t go so well in the Championship either as well as the Chanpionship…

He won’t look promising after Martin’s got his mitts on him.

I see it like this. Imagine the captain of the Titanic, instead of being given not much warning of icebergs ahead he's given enough warning to steer clear of them if he alters course. But no, this captain is adamant that his course is the only true path despite the fact that this path can only end in catastrophe. I give you Capt Russell Martin, and that's why I dislike him.