S-Clarke

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!

When he's gone from here, count me surprised if he's ever a manager again at any level.

The fact he mentions xG and stats says everything for me, he's a data driven analysts and that is why he's in position. Stats, stats, graphs, metrics. re-sale value for academy players. He's an absolute puppet and the above are just a load of soundbites he's read from his amazon 'how to be a football manager' guide.

I thought the ref was an absolute mess though, he looked like a rabbit in headlights himself!

I remember when they first came into the club, there was a lot of tug and pull internally during their first 6-12 months proper. Matt Crocker was dumped, Ralph was dumped, a fair few analysts and scouts were also dumped. Some just walked because they didn't like the direction it was going. Semmens brought us this lot and was pretty duped by them you have to say.

I didn't see the coaches reaction, but I saw a lack of player reaction to it. No one really running over to Leo or fighting his corner It was a bit naff and summed it all up. What do you expect with a bench of Ben Reeves (ffs??), Tonda and Ben Garner though.

We could go completely rouge and play him as an inverted full back, linking up with Stephens as front sweeper. I can't wait.

I have some bad news for you. Bree is on his way back on Monday, he's being integrated back into the squad.

He'll slide out of the door in the next few months and end up back in Germany, guaranteed. I doubt we'll hear from him again. Seems quite a wimpy type himself. He made some good picks, but generally his job is to build a squad that is balanced and fits the objective. Our squad is an absolute bloated unbalanced mess, so that's on him. 'The art of squad building becomes clear once the window is closed' - Yeah, it's become clear that you've fucked it.

Just to share this actual quote, just so it's not seen as rumour -

Don't be too confident...Oxford beat us...

He's had plenty of time to, and sadly the time is now up. He's run out of rope. He's intertwined with all of this just as much as Rasmus and co as far as I'm concerned. He put himself as our Chairman 10 months ago as he wanted to oversee things closer, and be closer to the decisions - that was his last attempt to rescue the situation. It's failed. He needs to do what he said he would do and put us up for sale, that's all I want from him now.

I don't hold that against him to be honest, at least he doesn't shy away. Where's Armstrong, where's Downes, where's Stephens? Why are they not facing the music and hearing the difficult supporter chats? It's so bad. Leo will be off in the next few months, for sure. SR will make a bit of a profit on him, probably to a top half Champ team/relegated prem team.

That's the manager SR wanted, and why we keep pivoting to these sorts. We are owned by data driven analytical morons, and of course the 'head' of the team is going to be the centre piece of their approach. Tonda was a data analyst only 4 or so years ago. I don't have a problem with Sports Science or Data Analysts, they have a part to play in modern football, but to build the entire club around that approach is just bonkers - you need footballing knowledge and experience to balance it out, in fact the footballing knowledge has the control - and leans on modern methods to refine bits and pieces. If you don't have that you're just one big corporate excel spreadsheet with loads of pretty graphs. That's not football.

He's actually said this - “I think the game changes when you have Ross on the pitch, because it gives us a different way of going forward. “I think we tried this (to be more direct) a couple of times, but we should have found him more often because towards the end of the game there are moments when we need to make sure the ball ends in the box.” So is that why you substituted our best wide player, who gets the ball into the box, when Ross was brought on? Honest to god.

And probably crucially, kept our best crosser of the ball on the pitch with him.