S-Clarke

We are going to need to be several levels better than we were against QPR or Wednesday. We got very, very, very fortunate against QPR. Charlton have a decent home record and seem to be consolidating themselves, they'll be up for it and if we play like we did at QPR we will be trounced.

As far as I can tell, we are in that dangerous holding pattern which equates to ''The club are comfortable with the current situation'' - so you won't see any news, and zero rumours. The club want Tonda to get the job, that much is clear. At this stage I don't expect any new manager this side of Christmas and we'll bumble along with Tonda, until it becomes obvious the job is too big for him and the season is effectively done and dusted. We are witnessing the next SR masterclass of club management unfold in front of our eyes.

Wages would stop us doing that. We can't pay anyone 100 odd k in the Champ. If Newcastle do dump him back, we will have to find another taker for 6 months pretty sharpish (or a sale)

I guess you mean QPR away? That was awful, we've had loads of bad performances this year and that was another one of them, one of the worst for me. We didn't win that through any sort of tactical masterclass, we won that through luck and a bit of bodies thrown on the line at the end. But let's be frank, we should not be hanging on against QPR in the final stages of the game given the stature and value of our squad. Our lack of game management was simply horrific. Sheffield Wednesday are a credit to their fans by how much effort they play with each game, lots of heart in that small squad - but they are so, so poor. They'll struggle in L1 with their current squad, let's not kid ourselves. The acid test is the next 3. Charlton, Leicester and Millwall I think. It shouldn't be the acid test for Tonda though as we should have used this break to appoint an actual, you know, real life manager, but there we are.

I've found SR's plans for the new bridge.

Norwich are as much of a basket case as us with the squad, hated DoF, hated owners etc. Players attacking fans on social media, it's a bit of a mess. He'd have a similar struggle there, but at least he'd have his number 9.

Hard to disagree. Gao was absolutely non-descript for us and did almost certainly start the decline from the post-Liebherr era, but his hands off approach froze us in time for a bit really as he left alone what he didn't understand. SR don't leave alone what they don't understand, always meddling.

I thought he did alright at Nice a few years ago, and he wasn't absolutely rancid at palace by any means. He got promotion with Geona last year, but it didn't quite happen in Serie A for whatever reason. Koeman had some stinkers too - at Valencia if I remember right - but bossed the Dutch League. Everton fans didn't like him though, but they never like anyone. I just feel that this squad needs a leader, it needs a focal point at the top who they can 1) respect and 2) trust. Will Still, in my opinion, isn't a bad manager. I just think he was quite weak and he lacked the experience and leadership to steer a fairly broken squad. Put Still into an environment like Coventry and he'd fly. Eckert is another kid, he's not even a manager as he's never managed the mens teams. It's not what we need right now. There's a time and a place for these things, but SR seem too thick to actually understand the contexts of situations.

Until the UI is made better, or the modding community are given more autonomy to make bigger UI changes, then it's a dead game as far as I'm concerned. It may be a couple of versions away - hopefully it comes back to life. I see it as that transition from Championship Manger to FM, that took a couple of release cycles. Although CM to FM was at a time when the UI/Modding community was less important, so it's a pretty big stopper now.

I read something that suggest club sources feel he is too 'light weight' for the Championship. It should have been obvious when they were scouting him, no? I think he's a good player with time and space, but it looks like he could snap in half with a bad tackle.

I think there are a few options out there. Vieira is one I've mentioned a few times, I'd make a big play for him. A former elite-level player who'd bring instant respect, the sort of gravatas that Koeman carried when he came in. I'd have even made a play for him before we got Martin in 2023. Not at the same extreme, but Ole is another one who'd gain respect from those around him. But Viera is the one I'd push for. There are interesting parallels because Eckert was his assistant at Geona and Spors appointed Viera AND Eckert at Genoa.

We've all seen this script before, it's been 3/4 years of this same script. We all know exactly how it will end, so there is no point in waiting. We knew Bazunu would be shit, there was no point in waiting. We knew Stephens would be shit, there was no point in waiting. We know that Eckert is Selles Mark II so there's no point in waiting. It will end with him maybe stuttering to a couple more wins as we sniff to the edges of the Top 6 and everyone wets their pants, they'll announce him as manager until the end of the season. Come the end of the season, we'd have fallen off and finished bottom half of the Championship. We are then going to sack him or do whatever with him, and be in the market for a new manager once again. At that stage we are a much less attractive proposition. Less money, less competitive as stronger teams will be in the league, and the usual 'no pre-season to plan, as we're looking for a new manager' nonsense. Now is the time to appoint the manager who can raise the standards and instal the experience this squad needs. Not next year, not in the summer. Now.

Did you ever have any PM exchanges with those charlatans? Those were interesting times during a pretty bleak period, in footballing terms we're back where we were when those two were whoring themselves around actually. Maybe they'll come back to life? I've been waiting for the monkey petting zoo for decades.

I see the usual small cohort of ''It will be fine, why is everyone up in arms, he's won 2 out of 2'' have come out in their droves this morning. It's the same cohort who said ''Bazunu is fine for the Championship' and that 'Stephens is fine for us'. Head in sand and fingers in ears spring to mind.

Then they shouldn't have removed Will Still in the first place.

It shows that they also have no idea about football if they consider those two wins, which the local journos now seem to be proclaiming as a good start, as any form of benchmark. They were shit. QPR particular was non-league quality from us. How we played in the final 15 mins of that game would have scared me away from any manager.

They like to think they're clever, but they are actually thick as absolute shit. Probably the thickest owners in the world. They haven't got a clue how to run football clubs.

They are desperate to give it to him, you can tell. They are absolutely chomping at the bit. But they are scared of fan reaction. So they'll delay it. Hope he keeps picking up results, then they have the ammunition to do so. If he stops picking up results, starting at Charlton, they'll flap and appoint Tony Mowbray until the end of the season. You watch. Basically there was zero point in sacking Will Still. Absolutely no point. If this was there direction, then they should have just backed him properly.

I've listened to snippets of it. Was this the one where he proclaimed Newcastle were in a false position under Pardew at the time, and that they'd fall off due to the GD extreme? Like you say, there are merits in what he says...but there are also some real positives to take away from how a team like Newcastle (at that time) could compete as high as they did, with such a low GD. The chances of teams like us being able to compete in the PL with a consistently high positive GD is slim to done, so you have to find other ways.

Probably, works out quite well timing wise. So, we now have a GK Coach, performance coach (fitness and analysis?), assistant and first team coach roles vacant. Any new manager can now build his own team around him, as we have the space. The only hanger on would be Lallana at this point. So even less reason, in my eyes, that they'd go for Eckert with such little experience around the place in the coaching setup. But talk about failing upwards. Trollope and Edwards were both a part in the relegation of Luton to L1, yet they've jumped back up to the prem.

Brings back memories of the days of Jamie Cureton and Chris Iwelumo ripping it up at Colchester in 2006 ish. Proper little guy playing off big guy vibes, I'm sure we were linked to Cureton the season after that.

Not too sure about Sesay - he seems a bit highly rated in game compared to his output for us in real life. In my save he was worth 8-10m, and had West Ham and Everton interested in him. Not entirely sure why, as that was in pre-season without any appearances. I did use him in game and he replaced Charles as my starter, so that's the only one which feels a bit off. That's when I stopped playing as none of it felt right.

I thought I'd give this more of a go over the weekend, I just can't get into it. They may have improved other elements of the game such as scouting/tactics etc, but for a start you can't find them and secondly the UI just renders anything rubbish. Even stuff like 'going on holiday' was a chore, it took me 10 mins to figure out where they'd moved that. And it didn't work, as soon as I clicked go on holiday the entire game closed. Amazing. The 3D match engine isn't perfect either. There was a moment where the goalie was floating at the top of the goal, and they scored. To be fair it's probably fairly realistic as Bazunu was in goal. The UI is just awful though, skins and mods can't even fix this and I've tried. It all just looks a bit too zoomed in for me and 'paint by numbers' in visual quality, it's like they've totally misunderstood how people played this game - they expect you to be playing full screen and not doing anything else. But I used to do it in window mode, minimise, do other bits, come back etc. Doing that now though looks utter rubbish. I'll skip this year and hope that things improve next year, but we're kind of relying on the modding community fixing this rather than SI.

I think he's on borrowed time. They debated sacking him in the summer, but stuck with him and let him build into the PL. Their fans have had enough now though. But as you said, they're still light a days above what we were last year! I do think they will get rid by Dec though.

He resigned from his role at Lens as far as I remember. Fairly sure there was no dealing with Lens, that was purely between Still and them.