Colinjb

Last chance for points this season I would say. We'll f**k it.

He wouldn't change if we kept him, he would have seen it as further validation. He had to be sacked to be given a learning point and a chance to grow. We shall soon see if he is capable of that.

Something not totally depressing just happened. It's been a while.

Last May, brilliant couple of weeks. That Wembley final was truly special. Winning a playoff is a wonderful way to win promotion. But, consistently happy as a Saints fan? 2009 to the 2017 League Cup final. From Administration to the San Siro and a Cup final. If we ever come close to such an astonishing journey again in my lifetime we will have done incredibly well.

So much about all of those signings was wrong, but bringing the Rat back in set the tone from the beginning. A divisive, waste of money that showed that the powers that be had totally under-estimated the task at hand.

Errrrr, do you mean this year?

It's not just that we drop points, it's how we f**king do it. Everything could be written to be utterly soul destroying.

FFS

I almost don't want us to avoid it. This has been so terrible a season it would at least be an odd, macabre badge of 'honour.'

I write this from my limited perspective as a classroom teacher to a limited audience. I have been repeatedly called a positive masculine role-model over the last 24 months of my teaching career. And been placed into a role of mentoring young lads of varying position. The school and psychologist episodes of Adolescence ring extremely true. There is a deep frustration, horrifying profiling of young men as inherently dangerous..... You call someone a threat for long enough it will happen, but, as shown at the back end of the psychologist episode, it's through a lack of acceptance. "Do you like me?" There is a generation of young lads coming through who have nothing. No positivity, no future. So all they have is instinct. And that, in itself is not to be unchecked. I have no answers. My work just gives me more questions on how I can help them. But, I try what I can. Oppose overt bullying and intimidation where I see it, ensure the right atmosphere in my classroom....and value all kids who buy into the positivity and work ethic I encourage. All I can tell my classes is that I value effort and kindness, show that and I will have your back....... It seems to resonate.

The bad times make the better times feel sweeter.

It's this keen level of insight that we have truly been missing.

A couple of weeks ago my wife asked if I was wanting to go to see us play in person this season..... Since we had a family it's been difficult as priorities naturally change. Didn't even need to think twice. If I wanted to deal with his kind of doom I would watch Eastenders. This would have been the game I went to, glad I saved the time and money.

Exempt havn't had a good time of it.

Surely not a complex process.