Cabrone

He's had enough time now and all the evidence says it hasn't worked. No offence WS but I think your time is up. Trouble is SR would only go and appoint another unproven manager who is likely to see us descend even further. I wanted Sean Dyche last season, if we'd have gone all out to get him who knows we might have bagged him and would be in a different place now. What have they got against hiring a decent proven manager?

In the last 5 seasons to get top 2 you'd have needed 92, 89, 92, 97 and 101 points. So if it stays on track this season we'd need around 92/93 points to be in contention. We have 7 points from 7 games so we need 85\86 from 39 games/117 points. Not impossible but why do we make life so hard on ourselves. Secondly our torpor has allowed (IMO our biggest rivals) Leicester\Ipswich to get their act together and I think they will start to motor now. We really could have stolen a march on them had we hit the ground running. Thirdly there is a 9 point gap between us and Boro which will be tough to breach. I know many will say it's too early to think like this but in this league when someone gets momentum they become very hard to catch - remember how it took us 20+ unbeaten games 2 seasons ago to play catch up? We slogged to get back in contention only to fade away again. It's not because we had a tricky transfer window etc.....so does every other club in this division. We are notoriously slow starters and it costs us - when will we learn?

Definite signs of improvement but it's happening too slowly for automatic promotion. Leicester and Ipswich are up and running and they are not going to slow down. I wish this club wasn't always so slow to get moving at the start of the season.

Exactly. If there was a coherent strategy I'd be OK to take the hits and get behind the manager but it's a mess out there. Right now I really am struggling to see how it improves. If I was in charge I'd give him till Xmas and if it's still like this then bin him off. Write off the season and start the rebuild process from Jan. The underlying issue however is that fools in charge are addicted to managerial experimentation, hoping that one day they will find a gem when what they should be doing is appointing someone proven who can make the necessary changes from the ground up. It's hard to believe but this guy is making RM look decent in comparison and RM was a fraud.

I thought Still was supposed to be some tactical improvement? From what I saw it looks like the ghost of Martin still hangs over this team. Passing - poor. First half was abysmal. Speed of attack - really poor. Intensity - really poor. Creativity - really poor. Top 2? Not a chance. Top 6? Right now I don't think so. Not impressed with Still, I want attacking football - not more dreary Russball.

As if there wasn't enough riding on this one Ipswich look like they are up and running, Leicester are moving and Stoke\Bristol\Boro are looking good. We need the 3 points to stay in touch, we know the routine in this league - there is normally one or two teams who blast off and it's very difficult to catch them when they are in full flow. Lets get that win for local pride but also to get our season up and running.

2nd-8th. Leicester look good, Ipswich will wake up and around them there are quite a few decent looking outfits. If SFC are serious right now is when they need to show it. It's been a very ordinary start so far.

Has anyone posted the obligatory vid yet? Still brings a smile to my face.....

Then games like Stoke at home have to be won. Not good enough.

Stoke will ask questions but we should and must get past them. Another 3 on the board and the wheels will be rolling. The sooner we turn SMS into a fortress the better.

Good result. Arguably the toughest fixture in the season and we get a point to keep momentum. IMO we got Ipswich at the right time, they are still organising before transfer window closes. St Mary's return will deffo be a higher level game. Before last Saturday my biggest worry was that we'd blow top 2 in the first 6 games as we nurse the hangover, something like W2, D1, L3. However 4pts from a difficult opening 2 gets us quickly over the malaise and ready to roll. It can't be stressed enough that this league is all about momentum, who can build it the quickest and who can keep it longest. I feel a lot more confident than I was 8 days ago.

Hopefully that has broken any hangover from last season, it must be nice for the players to feel a win at last. Fair dues to Still, when he saw we were toothless up front he made some positive attacking subs and got the win. Momentum is key in this division, now let's get really moving. Armstrong should not be centre forward, he needs to go wide.

Position: Anywhere from 2nd-8th. Top scorer: Armstrong. Top player: Based on what we have right now I'd say Fernandez. Comments: If we hit the ground running (13'ish points from first 5 games) then top 2 is on, if we struggle to get over last season then somewhere from 5th-8th.

My top 21 (who's counting) based on Saints form and only for players I've seen live .. Niemi Shilton Mark Dennis Nathaniel Clyne Wayne Bridge Van Dyke Michael Svensson Deano Case Williams Tadic Schneiderlin Dave Armstrong MLT Rod Wallace Lambert Pelle BT Steve Moran Danny Wallace Sadio Mane

I never particularly liked Anders Svensson, people would often rave on about him but personally I never saw it. Michael Svensson on the other hand was a beast....

Too defensive?

Gianluigi Buffon Andreas Brehme - Franco Baresi - Des Walker - Paolo Maldini Gareth Bale - Diego Maradonna - MIchel Platini - Ronaldinho Messi - Marco Van Basten Subs: Lothar Matthaus Zinedine Zidane Christiano Ronaldo Alan Shearer Paul Gasgoigne

He's good at this level so keep him. If we get back up then we don't need him but right now we'd be silly to let him go IMO.

You know for someone who is a bang average champ manager to have had a crack at Saints and now Leicester makes him a lucky son of a female dog. You can expect fitness levels to drop, lots and lots of meaningless passing, favouritism, stubborn adherence to one dimensional tactics, scar tissue, brave performances and lots of word salad post match.

Would love to keep Ramsdale, Fernandez, Wellington, Stewart and Armstrong. IMO we may keep Stewart and Armstrong, the others will go.

Have some of that Derby 😃 (our only rivals all season). Well I have to take something out of this pathetic campaign.

Sean Dyche.

Forgot about Bella Kotchap. What happened to him? Completely frozen out. The mind boggles at how this club has been run.

We have an incompetent board who just about got away with their managerial appointment last season but RM was an average champ manager and was never going to be good enough for the prem. To be fair he didn't hide it, he openly stated that he wasn't going to change his tactics even when the team were being spanked week in week out. A half decent manager would have had a bit of self reflection and tried a different way but not him. The incompetent board then held on to him for half a season when he should have been shown the door after 6 games. By that stage it was already too late. Juric was no better but our fate had already been sealed. I really don't have any feelings about him either way, he was doomed. So we had an incompetent board and incompetent managers following an incompetent strategy hiring players to play a way that was doomed. Heads dropped, morale fell and a self fulfilling cycle was established. We should have adopted the strategy of being a very hard to beat team from day 1, grinding out enough low scoring games to have at least made us competitive. That is what Brighton did, that is what Forest did and others. You cannot expect to come up and play pretty football straight off, you WILL get run over but no-one at the club seemed to realize this. Ramsdale and KWP apart we never had a defence that even came remotely close enough to what was needed. No-one realistically thought we'd be anything other than a relegation candidate but I think most of us expected to at least be somewhere in the mix come this part of the season. To have effectively been down by Xmas was abject. The club has to understand that you need to adapt to your environment, not just stay stuck in one mode of thinking. RM was held on to for far too long. Off the pitch SFC needs to massively improve its scouting and data operations which over time will reap rewards in the academy and transfer market. We used to have them so what happened? Incompetent board strikes again? Maybe a new recruitment team will make some differences but if the heads running the show stay the same we'll have the same problems going forward. I also think we are really going to suffer next year on the back of this. A season like this really takes its toll. If the club gets it right I think it's going to take 2 years minimum to get back up. That's if the club gets it right......

We're not bouncing back after this, I think we may be on a Stoke trajectory.