S-Clarke

Nah, they always wanted to give it to Tonda. There was no one else. You don't skip the current first team coaches and give the U21 the interim role unless he's not high on their wish list. Let's be clear, we weren't stuck with a choice of a 32 year old kid whose never managed and no one else. They didn't even bother looking.

I gave them a tiny bit of rope in the summer when we got rid of Rusk and brought Still in early doors. We had a new scouting setup, new DoF, we seemed to have a direction. I was somewhat optimistic and maybe curious about how the summer would pan out. I'd say my optimism was totally erased the moment they gave Stephens the new contract, because that demonstrated that even these new people don't get it. That contract renewal in isolation wasn't a problem, it was more of what it signified - happy with mediocrity and carry on with what didn't work before. That decision kind of told me nothing would change, and we were heading into the same groundhog cycle.

I think this is a bit of an emotional stretch to be critical of. This is just normal business/normal corporate life. Most big orgs and event orgs are taking bookings for next Christmas now. This is totally separate from football and fan discontent. This is a corporate business trying to make money from corporate events. Completely separate element.

We don't play against high level defenders anymore, and won't do for many many years - so he'd be a good fit! I'm really pleased for Dom personally, he's had a horrible time with injuries. His goal scoring record in the under age groups was always epic, proper fox in the box type striker. I hope he's over those because I did doubt if he'd be able to contribute, but this season for him has been epic. Were we wrong to sell him? I'd have probably renewed his deal and loaned him to Leyton Orient, but we probably looked at it financially and took the money. Hindsight and everything though, but given that the club happily renewed Stephens and didn't bother with Ballard certainly shows their skewed way of working.

I don't think Lallana was ever in the equation to be honest, he wasn't 'Spors' man. It was only ever going to be Tonda. When Still was sacked, the usual logical approach is that the existing first team coach/assistant assume interim control - which would have been Tisdale and Lallana. But the fact they went straight to Tonda told me that he's our new manager, he was never interim no matter what bollocks the club put out.

These fan advisory boards, or fan on the board nonsense are just that. They're never going to be people who push back, question, critique - they're nodding dogs. Yes men, in the same way as the coaching staff and management are. It's a club of nodding dogs. Apparently they had a meeting with Spors when Tonda was interim, and during that meeting he explicitly told them that Tonda was remaining interim. So...logic dictates that the FAB should be pushing back massively at this point, demanding another meeting, and asking why they were blatantly lied to. But they won't, because they're still nodding.

Not at all, I think the fact it's happening across both clubs is pretty glaring on SR's ability to run professional sports outfits. You've got protests happening against them your side, much more vigorous to be fair. If we ramp it up, then maybe we can get them to sod off and just keep their hands on Gotzepe.

He made a good save in the early part of the game, really good. That's the one you refer to above. The second goal, the header, I thought he flapped a bit on his line. He started to come out, then retreated, and the ball sort of bobbled over his head. Not a calamitous error by any means, but it wasn't a tidy bit of goalkeeping.

We won't. He'll end up at Burnley or somewhere like that, he'll stay in the PL - just. He's too expensive for us.

I think Pep will quit in the summer, so we should hold out for him. Ditto Thomas Frank, worth holding out for him. Have I dreamt the last 4 years and we're actually still a mid-table PL club? I'm sure some fans still see us as one of those, managerial expectations are well skewed.

I wouldn't say it's just based on a single game, it's just that the future is pretty clear in my eyes with SR at the helm. Nothing changes, bad decisions continue and we'll end up sinking out of this league. That's our current trajectory unless something rather big changes.

I don't really know what Still was trying to do, but I still believe he saw the same things and same issues as us, the players just struggled to execute or follow anything. He had a bit more about him I think, albeit still inexperienced. This team needs a really, really, really strong voice and genuine authority - but will the club, and the first team players allow that to happen? Doesn't look like it. Tonda just does the worst thing any manager can do, and it's when they lose any credit with me. It's when they start seeing an entirely different game than those who watch it. And that's Tonda.

If you're looking at the bigger picture, then no, Tonda isn't exclusively the problem. The problem is much larger than Tonda, just like it was much larger than Will Still. Tonda is just another example in SR's crusade to try to be clever fuckers. He has been thrown in well ahead of his time, he knows it, but who is going to turn that down? So whilst Tonda is going to bear a lot of frustration from the fans, and rightly so in some aspects, the bigger issue are the people who thought it was OK to put this 32 year old into this position in the first place.

Another two of the clubs in that list - Sheffield United and Norwich have spent a lot. They both have silly bollocks approaches too. Sheffield United went all data analyst driven in the summer with the Ruben Selles appointment. That worked well. Norwich went all clever bollocks shit with German scouts and data analysts etc and spent loads on shite, that also worked well. The common theme is - proper football people, proper football management, spend some money and let football people manage them = decent outcome. Anything else is clever bollocks shit which does not have any place in football. The argument that these data morons have is that it gives us the 'extra % to compete' - we've spent £55-59m and we can't compete, so the data bollocks approach has made us worse off.

I've never liked him, I know some said he was probably our 'best CB' so far this season in earlier weeks - but what a low fricking bar that was. He's awful on the ball, and whilst he may have some physical attributes, he's thick as shit so he doesn't know how to use him. Is he our thickest ever CB? I think he's awful, and he's now at the level he's always been at. Bottom half, low end Championship CB. And what happens when you sign lots of those players? You end up there.

There are still people who have a tiny bit of hope that SR will realise, or Dragan at least. But surley that news puts paid to that? We're 16th in the league, haven't won in 7, just lost to Hull, have a team full of awful characters and a kid manager with kid coaches. So they appoint a Data Analyst. They're not changing, it won't ever change. They need to go, it's the only way we see change.

There are zero scenarios whereby Frank is an option for us. Lampard isn't even an option for us, nor are the likes of Alex Neil, Wilder, Robins, Ange, Gerrard etc. As fans we need to realise how far down the pecking order we now are. We are a poor, bottom half Championship team and our only options are coaches happy to get the gig, punts on L1/L2 managers, or an SOS call to the likes of Mowbray. That is where we live now.

There is no leadership in this team, and there hasn't been for many, many years. It's now under the spotlight even more due to the need for the club to have leaders given the situation we've been in for 2 years. Jack Stephens isn't a leader, I think we can all put that one in the bin. He got given club captain by default because he's a nice guy, but he can't lead. It's not in his makeup. Ditto Armstrong, ditto Downes. The team is full of passive, reactive players who 'wait' for someone else to take responsibility. We don't have anyone taking responsibility on the pitch, maybe Leo, but he's even been bogged down by this now. So, what do you need to do when you have such a quiet and meek team, with no leaders? Well, 1 - you buy leaders and 2 - you ensure the management and coaching staff around those players is experienced with a genuine football background who acts as a 'leader' for the group. We have done neither. We've got no leadership on the pitch and no leadership off of it. It's absolutely no wonder why we are where we are right now. SR have well and truly ripped this clubs heart out and dumped it in the Itchen. IF they do leave, make no mistake - this will take many years to repair and we have some darker days ahead, as the entire club needs a full restructure at every single level. The damage they've done means there's no quick fix for us, sadly.

Do you know what gets me most about the group we have? They're dragging us down into our worst season in 17 odd years. It might end it relegation, it may end up fairly close.... Yet when it's finished whatever the outcome, you can bet your bottom dollar that the likes of Downes, THB, Armstrong, Wood, Manning, Archer and the such will be throwing their toys out and demanding moves to a better level. You can almost guarantee it. Absolute pricks.

I don't think Rasmus has real knowledge of this, even though he claims to. The brains at Brentford were Phil Giles and Matt Benham. I'm looking at it now and I don't know what Rasmus even did there, maybe he was just a salesmen for Phil/Matt to encourage people to join? That was probably the extent of his role.

Yep, this is how it feels to me as well. A general malaise around every aspect of the football club, from the directors, to the coaches, to the management, to the players, to the fans. It's a really, really toxic place at the moment. The Bramfoot years were slightly before my time (thankfully), so my only comparable yardstick for this level of despair is the Porte/Wotte era - but even in those years, you still felt a bit of a connection with the likes of Lloyd James, Lallana, McGoldrick, Surman and such at the time - as they'd come from the academy, but there's no such connection here now - so it's probably worse.

We basically haven't been competitive in a football league for 2 years. We've had two years off.

He doesn't want to be here and hasn't since his boyfriend left. He is a core issue with the toxicity. This isn't a guess, because he played this exact game at Ipswich when he was in L1 with them. If we get any bid for him, even a packet of crisps or a double decker, I'd drive him to whoever offered it.

Sadly, the more damage they inflict on us (which has accelerated hugely this season), the less chance we have of ever appointing named or well known somewhat experienced managers. It will be promising L1/L2 managers at a push which will be our ballpark come the summer. Obviously we didn't do too badly with Adkins, but it's a totally different context now. There's no new manager who fixes this IMO.

This is what we do 'so well', Selles was another promising coach who we dumped into the lions den before his time. It's not just with managers and coaches but with players. Bazunu, Edozie, Larios, Mara, Lavia - straight from kids football into first team PL side, like you say - lambs to the slaughter. Lavia was good, but his injury proneness does somewhat suggest he was given too much too soon at a high level. When I look at support Tonda actually has around him - Ben Reeves, Ryan Flood, Ben Garner, Jeremy Newton I think WTF is that? We have an U21 coaching setup looking after the first team, and they think that's fine!