S-Clarke

Which is all well and good, but they didn't replace his experience. It left a void and they called that wrong. I doubt Girona's interest came up in the final 24 hrs, it would have been there in the background for a few weeks, so we had plenty of time to sort out a replacement for him - but we were nieve and thought JWP, Lavia and Diallo were enough. They weren't.

I don't think the Captain is at the club, I think this is the summer we recruit a new captain who can come in and shake it up a bit. Vice Captain, again...no idea. Lack of leadership throughout the side, so it's hard to pin that on anyone. Maybe Stephens if he comes back? Set Piece taker will almost certainly be Smallbone, he's got a very similar technique to JWP and delivers great crosses from the inside right in open play as well.

Fairly sure it comes to the Championship in season 24/25, so we won't be away from it for too long.

Don't underestimate the battle for 11th, quite a few teams ready to catch Chelsea to claim those honours.

I assume these are two of the people who clapped. Jenny watched the Saints game on Saturday with her friend: She said: “The players gave their all so what else can they do? “We’ve followed Saints through all the way from Division One and we will renew our season tickets.” In what way can any sane football fan look at yesterdays game, ignoring the season as a whole, and proclaim they gave their all? I mean, seriously? what are these people watching? wake the fuck up.

Yep ditto, I think a lot of this feeling is because of the fact it's been a slow inevitable death - we've kind of all known for months, it's not crept up on us like a last min shock so i think a lot of us have been able to prepare our minds. The last time we were relegated we put up more of an effort and took it to the last game, so a lot of us still had a hope we'd make it. This season I think we all knew we'd never, ever take this to the final few games.

There are a small handful of good eggs at the club, people I'd be happy to keep around, and Che is certainly one of them. I still think a club will come in though, even one of the Promoted teams will see what he can bring to a team. (Burnley's Ashley Barnes replacement, maybe) At least he's said sorry though, first apology we've had from anyone connected to the club. One of the only few who has shown they give a shit.

Pretty scathing view from Le Tiss "I’ve never witnessed such a gutless, lazy and passionless performance from a relegation-threatened team in all my life, that squad should hang their heads in shame.”

Martin isn't that highly thought of by Swansea fans believe it or not, they only had an uptick towards the end of the season. A lot of their fans wanted him out before they woke up at the end of the season when there was nothing to play for. Not totally convinced, I still think he's unproven and hasn't pulled up any trees in the Championship. I'd look at the likes of Mark Robbins or Carrick before him if we were looking at existing Champ managers.

My issue with JWP's statement, outside the generic media coached nature of it, was the acceptance that standards dropped, we haven't done it right since the first day of pre-season etc. Well James, you're the captain, why the fuck have you not be tearing shit up to raise those standards? As club captain he sets the standards for others to follow, if they're not following those then he needs to call them out. But he won't as he's too meek, he sums up our entire team and fan base. I can't criticise him for the effort he's given us over the years, the free kicks and such, but as a leader - in my opinion - he has been our worst ever PL captain and has been captain of our WORST ever team (going by defeats in a league season). I don't have much time for him saying standards dropped after the event, where the fuck was he in September and October? Where the fuck was he galvanising the group when we were 3-1 up against Arsenal on 88 mins? Where was he against Wolves when we were 1-0 up, against 10 min, on 77 mins? Where was he when we lost 9-0 - not once, but twice. And where the fuck was he yesterday?

You're being a bit of a bore here. It's quite clear what everyone means by experience, it has been spelt out to you and on previous posts, so stop trying to be clever as you're tripping yourself up.

Might soften the immediate blow, but if I'm honest we could do without two clubs like that coming down with us. They'll both be extra competitive and will have money, it'll make next season more difficult. I think one of those two will go, but still hoping the other is Forest.

You missed out the diseased pitch.

If we see a substational change in playing staff then yeah, I'll be back in the Champ - don't have a ST this year, so it won't be a renew. However I will refuse to pay a penny if we are forced to watch Diallo, Bednarek, Lynaco, A Armstrong and co stink out the Championship.

I look at it similar to the Koeman season, that could have been a really, really messy season had we had an inexperienced/young manager overseeing that level of change. But we had someone with the reputation and presence of Koeman to steady everyone, and demand instant respect and high standards. We recruited well, but I think having someone of his ilk drove standards massively. An inexperienced young coach, no matter how much potential they have, will not do that - and in a summer where we will go through substantial change, we need a figure head who knows football at the top of it all.

A complete nonsense statement really.

I don't think we're naive enough to think he has no influence, maybe not full influence, but his fingers are still all over this no matter what anyone says.

Yeah I'd put Alcaraz, Lavia, KWP in that 90% cohort - but the rest are a bunch of wankers, and I include JWP in that after his 'efforts' today. I cannot accept that.

And who lead that? JWP. Good loyal guy and all that, but he is a key component of the leaderless mess we've seen this year. (And since he's been captain tbf).

It's really hard to single one out as 90% of this team have been utterly, utterly, utterly inept. They can all share this prodigious award this season, and then they can fuck off out of my club.

We've seen some awful performances this year, you could probably name at least 10 at home alone - but that for me ranks at the top now, it was so bad. We were down before obviously, but all we want as fans is some fight, some heart, some bravery on the ball. That was so far away from a football team today it was frightening. We didn't know what to do with it when we had it, we didn't know what to do when we didn't have it. A rudderless shambles of a mess, uninterested and non-motivated players and they have embarrassed this club and the entire city with their efforts. You can excuse a lack of ability or a lack of talent, but it's the lack of effort and desire from the 1st whistle I cannot accept. No one should accept that, not at any level of football. Bar 1 or 2 the lot of them need to go, put down some of them as they shouldn't be footballers - wrong career for a good cohort of this lot.

Very good point and something which has crossed my mind as well. I don't particularly think he was worth much as a coach, but I think we underestimated what he brought to the squad and the changing room vibe. Kelvin handled all the fines for lateness etc up until he left, so I don't know who took that on.

Great article, cannot disagree with any of that. It's exactly how it's played out in front of our eyes. I guess it's hard for us to see what goes on behind the scenes, but it's entirely possible that some of these young players we've bought are big billy bollocks and don't have the commitment the likes of Romeu and co had - so that has had a knock on to morale. Football isn't all about talent at the end of the day, and young players (As we have seen with our Jimmy-Jay Morgan) do have a tendency to think they've made it, when they haven't. They've not really had anyone to bring them down a peg or two either, as the guy next to them in the dressing room is another kid. Agreed that it doesn't show JWP in a great light as the captain of this joint. I've always admired his loyalty and he cares but as a captain I think he's pretty shit.

Steve Cooper is number 1 on my very short list. I don't think he stays at Forest next season no matter what happens with them, I think we should be all over that. Viera/Henry combo at 2nd - So much experience as players, they've experienced all personalities, they know the standards, they're strong enough to manage change and implement their views. They won't be yes men. Rafa - old school, but knows what he's doing. Might not totally fit with a long-term view though, which is my only question mark. But he certainly knows football at the highest level to help navigate us through choppy waters. Marsch - Still on my list but my last choice, has experience at the top level, has a style that potentially suits. Positive character etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing young mangers because I think they'll be another Jones, it's just that we can't underestimate how big a job this is. It needs someone strong at the head of it, not someone else learning on the job.

The links to inexperienced managers concern me greatly, as if true it means the powers that be haven't learnt a single thing from this season - and that could spell certain disaster. I'm not dismissing the quality of 'inexperienced' managers, there is a high probability that some of them will end up going onto greater things - but it's all about timing. No matter what they think inside the corridors of St Mary's, this is an incredibly unstable and dysfunctional club right now. There is change across all levels from directors, coaches, players, managers etc. That level of change requires experience at all levels to manage, in some cases others stepping up to fill temporary voids etc. There will be a huge player turnover this summer and that is immediately putting a hell of a lot onto an inexperienced manager to come in and manage, he'd have never been in that situation before. If we had a bit more stability and we weren't about to go through wholesale change everywhere then we may be able to take a stab at one of those younger managers, but to do so this summer would be a catastrophic decision and another one in the long-line of SR blunders. We need someone with experience who the players will respect and look up to, can manage wholesale change and someone who can help attract players - in addition to getting the fan base on side. We've been burnt with a gamble so surely they are not daft enough to try it again, in what will be our most important season in a generation. Get this wrong and we are toast.