Sheaf Saint

And on our current trajectory under SR, that's exactly where we will be.

Incompetence fuelled by greed is probably the best way to describe it. Their drive to focus solely on the resale value and potential profit margins of players, while completely ignoring the qualities needed to build a successful team, is what has brought us to this point. Nearly 4 years now and they continue to just make bad decision after bad decision, seemingly without ever learning from their mistakes. This current situation - going into a season with a crock and a hopeless fraud of a footballer as our striker options (who cost a combined £15m) - is just inexcusable. I was so full of hope and excitement when they bought the club, but they've been an unmitigated disaster and it's only going to get worse from here with these clowns in charge. They've had enough chances to prove themselves as worthy custodians of the club and they've right royally fucked it up. We as fans need to step up the pressure on them now. They've had an easy ride from us so far but enough is enough. They've turned us into a soulless, data-driven cash cow that it has become little more than a chore to support 😔

No, it was his ankle.

Stamp duty accounted for £15bn of tax revenue last year. Where would that shortfall be made up if it was abolished?

Right on cue... https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13446395/watford-paulo-pezzolano-set-to-be-sacked-as-head-coach-after-five-months-in-charge-of-championship-club

Yep, I was thinking this recently that he reminds me of that time we had to stick Dexter Blackstock in goal against Newcastle. He always has that similar "rabbit in headlights" look about him, like he knows he's not really supposed to be there. Macca has been infinitely better since he came in recently (Liverpool howler aside) and made more good saves at Derby of the kind that Baz never does. Long may it continue.

McCarthy has always been better than Baz. Easy to forget that he was our POTS in 2017/18. He has plenty of faults, no doubt. But he is actually a proper goalkeeper at least, which is something Baz will never be.

What an utterly ridiculous argument. Have you considered that's because nobody hade even heard of him at that point? Plenty raised concerns about whether or not his profile and experience was what we needed for this season (which has obviously turned out to be correct). If any of us had voiced the same criticisms after his recent 'performances' at the point he was signed, you would no doubt be slagging those same people off for writing him off before even seeing him play. There was one poster though who did have some decent insight from his son who is a football scout and warned that he was fucking terrible. Calling @BARCELONASAINT to the thread please. You know there are times when I see some decent points in your long and convoluted posts. But then there are times, such as in this instance, where you just make yourself look like a total idiot.

At Bramall Lane last week I saw someone waving a banner that said something like "Sport Republic - two relegations", but I couldn't make out the rest. Anybody else see it or know who's it was? Seems like someone is actually trying to make the fans' feelings about their ownership known, but it needs a lot more than a single small banner at an away game if it's going to be effective.

He didn't look like he was struggling to me. Was still causing problems and didn't look like he needed to come off. Perhaps it was just another instinctive call from Still. It worked in Tuesday, but not this time.

His ability to hit a free kick shouldn't be the only reason he's in the team. We saw in 2023/24 what a total liability he is in defence. He's obviously never going to get better in that regard either. Players with his kind of limitations need to make up for it with effort and professionalism. To allow Derby an unchallenged cross into the box because he was busy arguing with the lino is simply unforgivable. I get that he started the season as understudy to Welington so was never intended to be first choice at LB this season, but we have Jelert now who surely must be a better option there.

The letter reads: “I write to you with urgency and with grave concern following today’s announcement from the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which concluded unequivocally that acts of genocide are being committed by Israel in Gaza. “This conclusion, grounded in international law and forensic evidence, finds that senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, have incited, directed, or facilitated genocidal acts. “The UK is a founding signatory of the Genocide Convention and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. These positions are not ceremonial. They come with binding legal and moral obligations. Your government must now act.” No mention of military action, let alone declaration of war. Like I said, a total non-story.

Fucking hell, you're tying yourself up in knots this morning. He literally said "Not sure the current deal works for Gaza".

Great. And at what point does it actually confirm what the headline says? Answer: it doesn't.

If you read the article, it's actually one of the most misleading headlines you'll ever see. It should read: "MP writes to foreign secretary to recommend some kind of action to prevent genocide in Gaza, and a few others support him". That's why we haven't heard anything more about it in the wider press, because it's a complete non-story. Unsurprising that Hypo would take the headline at face value though.

One of Aribo's great strengths has always been that he is hard to dispossess. If we're looking for someone to hold the ball up in the final third and bring others into play then JA is ideal for that role.

Looking likely that we will end up looking back at his time here and saying "Well, we'll always have Bramall Lane and that goal".

Wow. That's truly terrible. I already have my doubts about Still, but if he plays Downs in any capacity in the next game then he'll lose any credibility he might have IMO. This guy wouldn't get a game for any other Championship or even League One club.

There was one guy stood not far from me, and there's always a handful of these twats at every away game, who had obviously been on the marching powder and was trying to impress his mates he was stood with. He spent the last 15 mins of the game continuously shouting the most embarrassing shit aimed at Downs even when he was nowhere near the ball. It's just a good thing that he was so far back and up in the corner of the stand that there's no chance Downs himself could have heard it.

Apparently not. If only someone could have predicted this?

You have to wonder what Still sees in training to make him think it's a good idea to play him. I genuinely can't think of a more ineffective player I've ever seen in a Saints shirt. Today I saw him receive, control and pass the ball once. Once! Every other time the ball came near him he either missed it completely, got outmuscled, or just couldn't be bothered to run to get it. The one time I did see him try and sprint to get on the end of a throughball, he looked like he was wearing concrete boots. He's fucking hopeless.

Are you Dalek in disguise? 🤨

Meh. Not great. Obviously Stewart going off injured ruined our game plan, but that's no excuse. We started well, attacked at pace and scored a good goal, but then just backed off and barely got out of our own half for the next 20 mins. Manning is so brainless. Yes it was an incorrect call from the lino, but if he'd just focused on his actual job rather than pointlessly arguing about it then they don't score. Such an idiot. I really have my doubts about Still. Two months into the season and we still look like a disjointed mess. There's no discernible tactics or patterns of play, so we just resort to the same old aimless passing around the back or just stopping and checking back when we do get into forward positions. And I have to question the sanity of anyone who thinks it's a good idea to put Damion Downs on the pitch. I'm Honestly struggling to think of a worse player I've ever seen in a Saints shirt. He's just hopeless. Derby were poor. Very little quality about them at all and will be in a relegation scrap this season, so we should have beaten them comfortably with the squad we have. Very disappointing to drop points there today. But at least I'm drier than last time I was here, and didn't have to endure seeing hundreds of Derby fans run on to the pitch to goad us at the end, so that's a positive.

This is what I can't understand. We started really well, attacked at pace and scored a good goal, and then just sat back and invited them onto us. All very well trying to protect a lead, but not with 85 minutes still to play FFS. Now that Stewart has gone off, I just can't work out who's supposed to be playing where. There's no obvious shape, especially on the right where we've got Edwards sometimes at RCB and sometimes at RB, Wee man playing a sort of wing back role but not, and Fellows seemingly not knowing whether he's supposed to be playing as a winger or a striker.