saintant

I recall there was talk at the time of other offers having been made. Yes, Semmens sold the club which any of us could have done. We now know he made a complete cock up of choosing who to sell it to and that is on him.

Football is a business. It would not be a good business decision to just allow this downward spiral to continue as more and more damage will be done. Now is the time for action to be taken by the owners who should be looking at bringing in a new manager and coaching staff to at least get us on a more stable footing and stop the bleeding so that hopefully we end the season heading in a more positive direction. In addition Martin has lost the fans which also means it's time to part company with him.

It's what coaches do at kids football matches. Maybe that tells us a lot about Russell's mind set.

If I was in Russell Martin's shoes I'd be praying for the owners to sack me asap. The longer he stays in a role that he is unqualified for the more damage he does to his reputation. If he stays for the whole season and results continue in the same vein he will have presided over a car crash of a season and have that writ large on his CV. Much better for him if he's sacked now and goes with a huge pay-off and more chance of rebuilding his reputation at another Championship club. Currently he is only wrecking his legacy at Southampton FC and his reputation within the game.

Then bringing up Russell Martin's name emphasised their point.

Yeah but not as a Premier League manager.

They saw him coming and Semmens bought their complete stock of snake oil. I wonder what he got out of the deal.

Yeah, you have to ak why Semmens decided that these shysters were the best available bidders for the club. Smells a bit.

Not you though I guess?

We can only hope.

You wonder how Dragan, the guy providing all the money, allows the clowns to get away with it.

Is it fair play that we have to be shackled to a clueless manager with owners who do nothing about his abysmal record this season?

If I was Dragan I'd be cancelling Sunday/Monday days off until things improve.

I suspect you're heading for a disappointment.

Yes but none of that matters with Russell in charge.

Agree. I'm convinced Wilcox is another that talks a good game but what has he actually achieved in non-playing roles? The square root of diddly squat is the answer.

Is there any point?

How many more times...few of us hate anyone at the football club. Stop confusing criticism with hate as they are two totally different things.

He's probably doing it to prepare his pitch for his next job interview. Putting out there that none of this shit show is his fault and deflecting blame.

Portuguese club C D Santa Clara were in turmoil when he went there much like we are now. They were relegated in 2023 with a very low points total having gone through 3 different managers. All their best players left. Vasco Matos came in with a rebuild job on his hands. Remarkably he got them promoted back to Liga 1 in his first season as champions of Liga 2. Previously their defence had leaked goals for fun (ring any bells?) and he turned them into the meanest rear guard in Liga 2 conceding only 19 goals in 34 matches. Oh and his favoured formation is 4-2-3-1 which is what we should be playing. But, perhaps the biggest factor is that he isn't Russell Martin 🙂 . It's unlikely we'd get him even if he was on the radar of the clowns running our club but my response to your question is....why not?

Yes please!

It's what most of the top sides adopt so maybe it's a formation that works - the clue is in the fact that Russell doesn't utilise it but the successful sides do.

This game is certain to fully demonstrate the true Christmas spirit of giving away gift-wrapped presents to one another.

Most of us are realistic enough to accept any new manager will be taking over the legacy left by Russell with a very low points total and slim to zero chance of avoiding relegation. If and when SR get round to appointing someone his job will be to steady the ship and make us harder to beat by cutting out the stupid suicidal play in and around our penalty area. He'll need to set us up in a solid shape where players know their jobs as opposed to the make-it-up-as-you-go-along RM playbook. Improving us in these areas should be easy because the current bar is set so low. He'll need to cut out the walking football and get us playing more vertically towards the opposition goal rather than away from it. Do this and results are bound to improve and we can hope to beat Derby's record and be in a better space come the end of the season and ready to have another tilt at promotion. The biggest fly in the ointment is the fact that our owners have shown themselves to be a clueless bunch and they will be the ones making the big decisions.

Karma for the little bitch Cucerella - slipped twice and given away two goals 🙂