Turkish

Yep, modern players are athletes. Back in the era some are harking back too most players weren’t. They’d be on the piss most weekends and on their days off, eat like shit and many would could back to preseason a stone or two over weight. Now it’s a requirement to be fit all year round. I know of a current championship player who has run a sub 3 hour marathon, can bench 120kg and deadlift 200kg and would also be a competitive sprinter in 100 metres, not Olympic level but a decent national level. to have that level of all round fitness takes years to develop. Some shite written on here by people who probably can’t even run 5k or never touched a barbell is highly amusing. Even at non league level fitness standards are really high, my son is coached on a Wednesday by two lads in their early 20s playing northern premier league level so one below conference north. Brilliant, lovely young lads, neither of them drink, they do their club training and matches plus their own individual strength and conditioning stuff 3 times a week. even during their summer holidays they were going out for runs on the beach every morning with their mates one who plays for Burnley the other for Barrow. they say if they didn’t do it and let their standards drop they wouldn’t play even at the level they’re at. Simple as that.

Fitness and quality gets you even further. It’s possible to have both

Zips, apart from that one time in your life when you nip your cock with it

Some dopey people did because they thought we’d benefit from it somehow. However it was pretty obvious it was just a way to stop smaller clubs threatening the big ones

In a world of percentage football the man who coaches long ball is king. percentage football = the 80s version of data driven. Like i cyclical

When you say looking at as much information as possible and forming a conclusion of your own do you mean nodding along in agreement at opinion pieces in the Guardian which you relentlessly post on here as fact?

we're also in the best period of our history so double bubble for SR

we jest but football is cyclical. I wouldn't be at all surprised if sooner rather than later some genius hipster manager comes up with the idea of getting the ball forward quickly in as few passes as possible playing 4 across midfield with two pacey wingers getting in behind the inverted full backs, whipping crosses into the box to the big man then everyone follows suit. The data even tells us that the fewer touches to get to the opposition penalty area is better the more time the ball is played into the opposition penalty area the more chance you've got of scoring so your XG goes up etc

If Ivan get to the 36th game and we're on less than 12th points i'll agree with you that your boy had a shit team performing at their absolute maximum.

Yep Telfer was a bit of a poor mans James Milner, super fit, super hard working, not the sort of player the average fan likes but one of those players every team needs. Those runs were hell, Strachan used to call them character running i think a lot of players used to end up puking.

When Hoddle took that squad on 28th Jan 2000 it was 17th and looked doomed. We finished 15th, you might argue that's not a huge improvement but we finished 8 points above the relegation zone not in it with the same players. The following season Hoddle left at the end of March with us in 8th place. Gray took over and with the same players didn't win a game until the 13th May. The following season Gray had us in the relegation zone with 2 wins in 8 and looked doomed. Strachan came in and with the same players got us to finish 11th. Yes you're right, Strachan took over a team that had finished 15th and 10th, but it had also been in the relegation zone and only won 4 games in 18 when he arrived. Dont you think that it might, just might, have something to do with the manager? Bit like now, it might just might, also have been something to do with your hero?

Oakley, Lundekvam, Dodd and Marsden were all pretty average players. Marsden had played pretty much his whole career in the championship or league one until Dave Jones signed him when he was 30. The other 3 were all good club players but hardly great were they. Pahars, Beattie and Bridge were obviously good, Svensson had great ability but was largely underwhelming for Saints. I know you're trying to make the point that the squad then was much better therefore it cant be anything to do with your boy, but there was a reason most of those players struggled in and around the relegation zone under Gray and Jones, yet finished midtable under Hoddle and Strachan. Of course it's got nothing to do with the managers ability to get them to play as a team has it.

I remember when Strachan came in following a debacle of a start to the season where i think we'd won two of our first 8 games (incredible form compared to now) and the first thing he did was transform their fitness. Relegation looked certain when he came in, we had a really limited squad, Paul jones wasnt a great keeper, Dean Richards has left and been replaced by Paul Williams, he also brought in Paul Telfer. Our record signing Rory Delap didn't exactly set the world on fire either and of course our other big money signing during the season Augustin Delgado arrived with an injury and only played twice (sounds familiar) If took a few weeks but he turned them from a shambles into a really fit, organised, well drilled team, i think after new year we only lost 4 or 5 games and finished 11th well clear of relegation. I dont think we've got any chance of staying up this year but it just goes to show what can be achieved by a fit, hard working, solid team even if the players aren't that great.

the Ghanaian Steve De Ridder.

Hoedt was one i wasn't sure which bucket to put him in. When he arrived he had been making the Dutch squad, he'd played six time that same year and was highly rated, it felt like we'd signed a decent player. But it quickly became apparent he was a bellend who thought he was way better than he was. I guess the proof is there that after leaving us he never really cut it anywhere and ended up in the championship, now in Saudi league.

You mean it wasn't the fans fault or the players for not doing what Juric asked them too perfectly?

funny how this slump started after Pep said he learnt a lot from Lego.

childhood memories of christmas day always being christmas Top of the Pops followed by a James Bond. Then a family Subbuteo tournament.

A couple of pacy widemen, a ball winning midfielder with a midfield terrier along side him. A big man up top with a good little 'un to get onto their flick ons. Dont mess about with it! Get rid of it!! Get it in the mixer!!! Get stuck in!!!

every club can point to bad signings but there cant be many others that have spent big (relatively for us) money so badly. I remember one game when we went down last time and most of the players on the bench had at one point been our record signing. You've got the likes of Sulemana, Vestergaard, Carillo & Elyanoussi who were all big money signings for us and you could tell immediately were absolutely shite. Then there were others like Hoedt, Lemina, ABK who had something about them but were bellends (ABK stuff is rumours) and only turned up when they felt like it. How many "big money" signings have we made that have actually worked out? They generally not even been half decent, they've been shite for one reason or another.

you've got an old bloke breaking into your house and sneaking into your kids bedrooms and you're not scared?

It’s the who’s who of players not to sign isn’t it. Archer possibly has something about him, he seems to be a good finisher Onachu seems to be popular at the moment because he’s a bit of a comedy figure but that’s what we’ve got for £100m people. A comedy figure, one who might have something and a pile of shit

Surely that’ll be the case? He must know that with what he’s got to work with, the situation we’re in the chances of us staying up are very small, expect he’s agreed to an 18 month deal which would guarantee him an extension if we get promoted next season.

He appears to have mastered being able to head the ball gently exactly 1 foot wide from anywhere in the box, he is world class it.

Never a penalty it was good defending