S-Clarke

This is what I mean, our feelings have been totally tainted by Jones - understandably, but I think we've got to give Martin a chance to put his mark down here. Personally I just want to forget this year ever happened and get behind a successful side next year. For all their crappy decisions, SR are well intentioned in my opinion - i've always thought that, we just have to put our faith in them getting this summer right, and to their credit they've started to make changes very quickly rather than dallying.

What is your problem with him then? You were pretty clear that you are against this style of football as we've played it under Selles, but we haven't. So, why are you against him before he's even in the door? I appreciate he's not the name many wanted, but guys like Potter were never an option as much as people wanted to believe. My feeling is that the club have lost it's identity, conflicting views from the top down on how we play and who we recruit - nothing actually lines up. If we have a football strategy that is lined up with the recruitment, scouting and manager then there is more chance of success. We either spit our dummy's out and jump up and down for 6 months whenever he doesn't get a result, or we forget this year, forget Jones, forget Selles and reset ourselves as much as the club will reset it's self. It's a chance for a fresh start for everyone, don't carry over the crap from last season into next - look at it with fresh eyes.

Stop trying to proclaim that this view is somewhat reflective of all 'self respecting fans'. It isn't. It's a view only held by a single person on the internet who seems to have a very, very odd vendetta against someone he will never meet.

What exactly does that achieve? He'll get more time to manage Theo/Ely/AMN/Lavia/KWP who won't be here next year? There's no sense in him overseeing a game this year, it would be bonkers. Let him have a clean break from the carnage that has gone on before. He has an entire pre-season to work with what will in essence be at least 60% new.

Only from the summer of 24/25 I believe. That's when all the City clauses kick in, in essence it was a 2 year loan from City - but relegation has muddied that a lot.

Yeah, I'm pleased with those prices. Savings from last year, which is all they could do really. I'm glad they didn't use the ''frozen' prices line which I feared, so this is a positive for sure. I will probably get back on the waggon next year now.

I'd imagine it will be done next week, not sure what benefit it would be to announce it before. Let Ruben see out what he started, then from Tuesday 30th we can start a fresh at all levels.

I know SR's ownership of us, and the decisions they've made have been naff, but look at Chelsea. £600m spent, 43 points, -8 GD and 14th in the league. For me the Todd Bohey regime is the worst ownership effort ever in this league, playing around like money is no object but proving quite clearly that money alone cannot buy any form of success. They are now absolutely shit.

Thank you for your views, I think you give a really fair assessment which shows the problems you faced, but like you I think this was more down to the players you had avaliable to you than any terrible personal management by Martin himself. In relation to Ogbone, we expect Tino Livramento to stay with us and we also have James Bree to provide cover - so right back is right down our list to strengthen. Piroe seems to be a decent shout for us though, if you fancy it we'll give you Adam Armstrong for free in exchange (or we'll pay you to take him, whatever you want) Grimes sounds like a steady-eady type in midfield, similar to how JWP plays for us. In terms of what budget we'd have avaliable, should we (as expected) sell JWP for £40, Lavia for £40, KWP for £25, Salisu for £15m then we'd be looking at £100m to play with in the market. We've been told by our owners that they will provide funds in addition to what we raise, so financially we should be in a position to really set the tone - but it's not all about finances as we all know! I'd say Martin will almost certainly be able to build his own team here with the players he wants.

Spurs, the club which forever keeps on giving. Arne Slot says he wants to stay as Feyenoord manager - ruling himself out of contention for the Tottenham job.

If they want him, they pay the going rate. If they can't pay the going rate go away and don't give us your deadwood.

Did I dream the fact we spent £100m in the summer window? I don't think that constitutes doing anything on the cheap. Decisions were iffy, granted, but they didn't withhold cash.

huh?

Vokins was rated at one point, but I don't see him going much further than non-league in his career. Probably needs to drop down to Conference South and work his way back up, he may make it as a league player - but no higher than L2, just don't think he's got it.

£475 for a new season ticket for L1 football is absolutley ludicrous.

If that is true, I'd probably look towards Swansea American ownership too who are known to change goalposts on deals at the 11th hour and delay and delay over everything. It's certainly not going to be as clear cut as ''we don't pay x'', if that is the case.

This is what I mentioned earlier, I think as a club we're totally confused and caught between two styles. That has also massively impacted our recruitment as we have such a miss match of a squad with no team suited to one way, it's just messy and incredibly unbalanced if you look at it on paper - that's why the attack is like a tombola, nothing sticks. We've focused so much in recent years on players who are good off the ball, but are actually pretty shit when they have it. That started to change a bit last summer, but it needs to continue at a pace this year whilst also flogging the players who are just caught in between styles.

You remind me of Always, just constantly attacking other views and mocking everyone.

Looks like Wolves are about to fall back into obscurity, this year may have just delayed the inevitable for them. Lopotegui's future in doubt as Wolves can no longer guarantee him any funds to improve or add to the squad - they can only sell this summer.

If we have any sense he won't play, and we'll have the likes of Alcaraz, Doyle, Dibling involved who will be much more important for our future than he is. But we won't have any sense, so I expect a front 3 of Ely, Aribo and Theo.

That SaintRob guy is everything that is wrong with twitter, he seems to think he's some sort of celebrity and even got himself a fake tick. Can't deny that he's a Saints fan, but there are ways to go about it and he's just painful.

Doesn't he have some sort of footballing academy in Brighton, or did I make that up? If that is true then he's a bit entrepreneurial as I believe he set that up himself.

In the last couple of years I feel that we've lost our identity, we've got a bit confused. When Ralph first came in we were a clear high pressing team, counter pressing for fun. Eventually, as Liverpool also discovered in this league, that was found out and teams came up with ways to not just 'nullify' you - but to actually expose the gaping holes that style of play leaves, if you beat the press then you have ample chances. For me, that 0-9 game changed a lot. We did go on a decent run shortly after that, weirdly, but a fear had crept into our game and slowly but surely we became more and more risk adverse and we focused more on what we did without the ball (to protect ourselves) than what we did when we had it. That's confused us because we're crap defensively anyway, but we've then nullified our attack through style and also the loss of personal (Ings), so it's been a recipe for disaster really. 'If' we can bring ourselves back with a style that we all know, a philosophy that we can all coach towards, then I think it will help. We can then also start recruiting players for the right style, rather than this mis-match of recruitment we have been doing in recent years. As much as I enjoyed 'gegenpressing', I think it's had it's time (2015-2019 ish) and now we are entering back into an era of tika-taka style football. As long as we have the substance to go with the style then I don't see it as a bad thing to focus on keeping the ball, it will certainly be more productive than focusing on what we do without the ball.

Everton are about to secure some investment, plus they have much higher commercial revenue than us - and will bring in much more with a new stadium too. Even though they are skint in relative terms, they still paid more last summer on a single player (Onana) than we have ever spent on a player ourselves. I don't think we should automatically expect Everton to implode if they get relegated, I think it'll be a similar situation to that of Newcastle - they'll have the stature to build a team way too good for that level. I remember the same comments about Newcastle when they got relegated with Duff/Owen and co in the side, they may go all the way down etc - never happened, as they were just too big for that to ever happen to - same will be true of Everton (not that I think it will happen, it'll be the same as it looks today imo). As funny as it would be to see 'today', I think it would have a negative determent on our ability to compete next year - so I hope they stay away.

I don't think you could ever say they're avoiding making changes or slow at making decisions, they certainly don't faff around which I think we were prone to do under previous regimes. But the proof is in the pudding - all of those decisions they've made so far have been terrible, so we have to hope it will balance it's self out now as we cannot afford anymore bad calls.