VectisSaint

It's OK, shrews are not rodents. More closely related to moles and hedgehogs.

They could have Forster for nothing, hell we could even throw in a GK coach if it would help.

This young player issue with Hughes is another red herring. Stoke have about the worst PL academy, hardly surprising he didn't bring young players through there. Given he played Sims, JWP, Stephens, Hoedt and Bednarek during his 8 games here, there is no reason to think he won't play youngsters if they are good enough. Bottom line is though our academy is very poor (better than Stoke), only the u18s are showing promise for the future now that Danny Butterfield is helping them improve.

I was wondering if this was part of the delay, agreeing compo for Watson. One of the first things Hughes needs to do get rid of the dead wood. Not so worried about SKD. We really don't need 3 GK coaches though.

Perhaps if we had had a manager in place we wouldn't have signed him, that would have been a positive.

Cherry and white halves or quarters with blue knickers and blue stockings perhaps. Not sure what the Ladies team might wear though.

I miss the good old days when someone would hang around outised Staplewood, or even hide in the bushes, to catch a glimpse of whoever was of interest at the time and report back here. Is there no-one on here that could camp out at the main gate for us?

It actually says "expected". At the time he was appointed his contract was said to be "until the end of the season". Well, the season ended over a week ago, where is it explicitly recorded that he is manager until end of June? Not even sure he is manager until end of May. Not that it makes any difference, I'm sure our bumbling Board will eventually get their act together and confirm a new contract.

Gardos already going, but we need additional CBs if we are going to play 3/5 at the back, cannot play that formation all season with only 4 recognised CBs (especially if Bertrand goes as expected). The ones we have (Stephens, Yoshida and Hoedt/Bednarek) are good enough for first choice but the squad needs more depth in this position, at least one, probably two.

Has been responsible for less goals in the last 18 months than you can remember I think you mean. Another myth about Stephens along with the one about not being able to head the ball. In fact our CBs have been directly responsible for very few goals between them other than a few by Hoedt who for some reason seems to be immune from the criticism, presumably because he was a big transfer foreign import.

Stephens is not playing "because we have no other choice", why do people keep on bashing the lad, he is a top quality CB who has done well in 1.5 seasons in the PL, he will get better, but he is certainly not a disgrace. yes he came from Plymouth, but he is still our Academy product. JWP is OK, but his lack of pace is stopping him ever getting to be top class. But besides that, cutting through the ******** of your post, you do have a point. Our Academy needs a big shake up, while Hunter remains in charge we will not see a great improvement, one of the key ones that needs to be shown the door. The u18s have developed well this season though, following the appointment of Danny Butterfield, that's where our next stars are likely to emerge. But it is very difficult to break into the 1st team in the PL. Look at all of the players you mention and almost all broke through when we were in the Chumpionship or L1. So, if you want to see stars coming through from the Academy more often it is clear you need us to drop down a division or two, hopefully that won't happen. There are players good enough in the Academy to be in the 1st team squad, but managers (Koeman, Puel and Pell) wouldn't take the risk, maybe Sparky will be a little different. Its the way of modern football in this country.

Very talented individual, but football is a team sport. Adds nothing to the team (though defensively far better than Redmond or Tadic). Our scouting team should have seen this and never signed him, I wish him no ill-will but will not mourn his leaving, and the sooner he is gone the better for all concerned.

Stones is certainly not significantly better than Stephens. There are some people whose opinion of Stephens on here is just ridiculous. The oft trotted-out bit about him not being able to head the ball is the biggest load of nonsense possible. Clearly peole don't actually watch his play (I gave up counting the number of headed interceptions and clearances is one recent game (Boscombe?) when I got to double figures around half-time. Stephens is a very good CB, arguably the best we have (certainly better than Wesley ****ing Hoedt who is a nightmare, but will be very good one day). The heading thing is so old school, there are very few teams nowadays in the PL where you need a tall dominating CB, only the teams at the bottom end of the table rely on tall dominating strikers, much better to be able to deal with the likes of Aguero, etc., fast agile strikers. Even so Stephens is perfectly good against the taller ones. Sunday highlighted the future, Stephens will be our skipper in the fairly near future I would imagine, thats the way our managers seem to be heading. He will also be an England international after this world cup. Them's my predictions anyway, based on actually watching him play and appreciating a British Saints developed player rather than the usual Carlos Kickaball who has to be better because we paid a lot of money for him. Anyway, that said we need to bring in 2 more CBs this summer if we are going to play 3 at the back next season as I expect (assuming Gardos goes). We can't go through a season with 4 CBs.

We were going for the win, and the referee let the free kick be taken when the ball had not been stopped (and possibly from thw rong place) again. No complaints about the time added (again) for me but if the rule about moving ball is no longer going to be adhered to then we should be told and the law changed appropriately. Stephens was excellent again, Hoedt got away with a few more cock-ups but was good today, thought the back three coped well again, note that Stephens was given the arm band when Bertie made his farewell to the fans, a sign of things to come (in a couple of years), he is the one going round geeing up the players and encouraging them, great to see from a relatively junior player. Hopefully now Hughes gets given a contract, and we get rid of Les, Ralph, Boufal, Redmond, Forster, Carillo and bring in replacements for Bertie and Cedric who clearly showed they were departing today (though we don't really need to replace Bertie if we can get Targett back alongside McQueen). Two new attacking MFs needed, new backup keeper, new LBs, two new strikers (although Sam G could be one) and another CB simply given we continue to play 3 at the back. Would have liked to replace all three CMs, but Tadic has done a good job in the last few weeks, if he can do that consistently next season then he should stay. Quite a lot to be done, lets hope we get it all sorted reasonably quickly.

Actually he isn't. Just happens to have been given the armband while the skipper is out injured. Yoshida used to be the backup skipper, but he has missed games as well. Bertie is not really captain material, but given the other options in the team without Davo and Yoshida there is little option at the moment.

Good to conclude based on his 3 league games for them; newly promoted to the PL, including debut against Liverpool (lost 3-2), managed by 'Arry. So bad that Palace paid £3m+ for him a year later.

What part? The players don't hate him anyway, that is just a "supporters" thing, the players that had been there for a while were supportive, after all Hughes managed them to 3 top 10 finishes. The issues at Stoke can be laid fairly and squarely at the transfer policy, which Hughes had a say in but did not control. Some massive non-performers who then caused disquiet iin the dressing room. The nonsense about Hughes relegating Stoke is just that, nonsense. They had plenty of time to get out of the situation, but they didn't.

Even though he thinks a 9 goal swing is needed. He really is a complete plonker.

But we had to continue with Hoedt who is far inferior. Bednarek is good, but he is not markedly better than Stephens, in my opinion Jack is a better all round player.

But Hughes is not managing them now. They have not conceded more than 3 goals in a game since the start of the year. Even when they conceded 7 they also scored 2 so it was "only" a 5 goal deficit. Swansea scored 8 earlier in the season. But it was against Notts County. They have only scored 2 goals in the last I don't know how many league games. Most likely result there is probably 0-0 or 0-1.

Was it a different Hughes that finished top 7 twice with Blackburn?

How is Sean Dyche relevant?

Not really much of an Escape, let alone a Great Escape. Great Escapes come when you are a long way behind and you get out, not when you are just bumbling along, drifting into relegation as we were this season. We weren't even in the relegation zone when Hughes arrived. West Brom nearly achieved a great escape this season.

First things first, get rid of Les, Ralph, Ross Wilson, SKD, Head of Academy, Dave Watson, Kat (Gao would be nice bu won't happen). Get a new Chief Exec who knows about football. Then sort the rest out.

Even if we did, its difficult to see Swansea scoring 4, even against Stoke, their problem is they can't score goals, its very unlikely that is suddenly going to change, very unlikely. But it might.