benali-shorts

it could have all been so different if Mickey’s mum hadn’t confiscated his computer.

Refusing to sign a contract extension so being frozen out ahead of summer sale. Think he claimed an injury after the international break which the management doubted, which proved the final nail in his particular coffin.

I was travelling on Mon so had to listen to the Forest game on the radio. Danny Murphy (idiot) repeatedly banging on about how Selles was issuing far too many instructions to the players which would inevitably make them tense; and continually ridiculed the antics of one of his colleagues who kept popping up with an iPad at each of the set pieces. Notwithstanding that Murphy was playing to the gallery, he was correct in stating that the players should know what to do from set pieces by now; and that his description of the whole dug-out performance as "amateur hour" was reflective of the crass decision to put a coach in charge of a Premier League relegation battle whose previous team management experience consisted of a couple of games I/c Valencia U18s. I feel sorry for Selles - he seems a sincere and committed professional, who's been hung out to dry by being given a role for which he is far too inexperienced.

Very rare for young keepers to recover from being exposed in the Prem and having difficult seasons, they tend to be permanently broken. In fact I can't think of any..... Going into the season with Bazunu as No.1 and an multiply-dropped and injury-prone McCarthy as No.2 was utterly incompetent.

Shite lows?

What's actually wrong with Che? Is it a calf strain? Is there any news when he'll play again?

Like chlamydia or syphilis

Does he also like dysfunctional squads and an ego-tastic boss with amazing hair who has singlehandedly uncovered the secrets behind the alchemy of football?

Ralph favourite for the job

I think he was renowned for only managing 60 mins in the Belgian league, so he's unlikely to ever have the stamina to play a full game. He looks an expensive panic buy from our wonderfully coiffeured guru.

1. Lyanco 2. Adam Armstrong 3. Aribo Tricky to narrow it down to 3.

He’d be in my All Time Shit Saints XI

Ha! That's right, Javi the Mentalisto

12 games in 4 years after he nearly joined us. I'd forgotten he joined Blackburn.

Hilarious. Who was the obsessed Spanish guy pimping him on the forum? HE sent me a DVD of Le Tiss's goals I seem to recall.

I’m ambivalent to Marsch. Grateful it’s not Gerrard, Lampard or Rooney. But I’m intrigued when people optimistically say that Marsch will suit our squad, despite all the evidence that our squad is, in fact, helplessly shit.

Yes, Phil Giles was/is definitely considered the football talent spotter at Brentford. Rasmus was seemingly the strategist to align Midtyjlland with Brentford, and as Steve points out, it's notable that they haven't deemed it necessary to replace him (arguably, the processes may have been implemented and therefore not require an ongoing strategist - but interesting nonetheless). In fairness, Rasmus is performing a DofF role out of necessity of Shields leaving, and they're probably spending more on players than they would be normally be comfortable doing without a Director of Football being in place, again out of necessity given our perilous league position so I remind myself that it's harsh to pin the transfer success or otherwise on Rasmus. But let's hope there's substance to him, jury's out at this stage.

If we go down, there's got to be a chance that Ankersen goes for Dean Smith, having had him as Brentford manager in the Championship. At which point, I may just reach for the cyanide pills.

Hope you're better soon. I agree wholeheartedly on the recruitment process. It's worrying that those responsible considered him a suitable personality, and that those same people will be involved in choosing his successor and other key roles within the club. Ankersen has far more influence with us than he had at Brentford, and the Jones appointment leaves a large question mark hanging over his judgement.

Yes. Imagine the atmosphere at training this week. And imagine how badly he’ll come across to the players. Completely out of his depth.

His naivety in saying this stuff in a press conference is staggering. He’s totally ill suited to this job in people-management terms. How this wasn’t apparent when he was interviewed is a total mystery.

Back to 5 at the back then….

He’ll never forgive salisu

There’s a significant risk that we do feel obliged, and overpay for a player who is 6th/7th choice and nowhere near the requisite level. We really have managed the last two windows appallingly to not rectify the key positions of GK or CF (yet, in fairness - ever hopeful….).

Obafemi to Burnley for £3m. We had a sell-on clause. We might get £300k, which may prove the difference between us not getting a centre forward and not getting a centre forward. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64413302