S-Clarke

I think we saw the potential today, but as with young players their form will dip up and down. I have felt a bit sorry for him at times as he's been thrown to the wolves a bit, but he must have a strong head on his shoulders to keep his head like he has - today he was brilliant.

He'll probably include this game in his ludicrous win % he kept proclaiming.

I don't think you give it to him in the back of this, keep the dynamic as it is. You don't want to commit to him after 1 win (no matter how impressive) and then lose out on another manager further down the line. Nothing wrong with holding fire and keeping things as they are, re-asses them when we need to but no need to commit to him just yet.

He's got such a positive aura about him and it certainly impacted on the team. The players knew what they had to do, he didn't overcomplicate anything and I'm genuinely chuffed for him as it seems like he deserves it and the players seem totally for him. This guy is a coach, but the way he looks and caries himself makes him look like a leading CL manager compared to Jones.

What a result that was, unbelievable effort. The first half was so, so good from us - we controlled the game I felt, Chelsea didn't really have a great deal of openings and we looked the more dangerous. For about 40mins Tall Paul was winning everything and I'll take back what I said about his touch, it was amazing - he gave us such an outlet and allowed us to move up the pitch so we weren't camped in our half. Sullemana was a bit quiet I felt, he didn't quite get into the game today but carried a threat. Really enjoyed Lavia's performance, especially first half. His manipulation and control of the ball, for an 18/19 year old, up against CL players is just something to behold. Unreal talent, is clearly going to the 'elite' level of the game sooner rather than later. Second half Chelsea probed a bit more, but I expected that. We held firm and our shape was basic but solid, everyone knew their jobs and stuck to their jobs. It's a bit of a worry that Tall Paul can't seem to hack more than 50/60mins, but hopefully some conditioning over the coming months will increase his levels. But even so, 40mins of him is better than none at all. The biggest takeaway from today is that we went back to basics, that's not talking down our performance which was great, but we didn't overcomplicate anything in terms of tactics, shapes, triggers etc - it was just basic shapes, basic communication and everyone knew exactly what they needed to do. Executed brilliantly. People will look at the other results today and maybe feel a bit deflated (Bournemouth/Everton etc), but that just hammers home the importance of this result - imagine had we not got the 3 points! Hope in football is underrated and it feels like we have hope again. We'd flatlined after Wolves, but it looks like there is a very faint pulse again.

I don't think you can come to that conclusion at all, in and around chaos it's hard for anyone to look good.

That's a fair observation and I'm sure he's fully aware of the association. It's easy to talk a good game, but the black and white fact in front of us today is that he has been lead coach for the entirety of this disastrous season. The argument is that maybe he hasn't had full autonomy and he's been 'muted' a little, but from how he comes across it doesn't sound like he'd suffer fools easily and if he was being ignored that much he'd have left by now! Interested to see how he does though, the whole attitude of him is so much better than what we had before - even better than Ralph was towards the end.

On another topic, Atsu's body has been found I don't think he ever reached the heights his potential suggested he would back in his Chelsea days, but he had a good career and I remember him causing us some problems when he was at Newcastle! All very tragic, especially the false hope which was provided at the start.

I don't even think he's done it purposely, there's just nothing to credit him on. It's just Selles telling it how it is and being straight and honest. Jones has made himself an open target, but the vibe I get is that people seem refreshed to see the back of him. At the end of the day 99% of the supporters cannot be the only ones who thought what we did about him, he was an incredibly unlikable and divisive character.

Listened to the entirety of it, the talk about us going back to our principles, identity, what makes us tick etc is really telling. This quote was telling for me and I'm really intrigued to find out what the team is: Dropped Jones straight under the bus, ran over him and then reversed back over him again! The lack of reference to him at any point is so telling, there is zero warmth or interest there. I don't think anyone liked him apart from Rasmus, feels like everyone is now reenergised. Black cloud in our history certainly removed.

You can certainly see why the players relate/like him, comes across as a very likeable fella - but more impressive was the common sense he spoke, direct, clear, concise - none of this coded nonsense or clinches, he answered questions straight to the point which was refreshing. We'll see how it goes, nothing will be decided tomorrow and like he actually said a win doesn't mean he stays and a defeat doesn't mean he's totally discounted. He wasn't very gracious towards Jones, no real warmth there at all. He showed much more warmth in his comments to the manager before Jones, which I think is really telling - it does feel as if Selles was a huge voice feeding back to the board re: Jones hopelessness, just a shame it took so long for anyone to act.

Like this? I guess we can laugh about it now.

I think it's easy to say that as there are lots of 'nills', but they are actually playing well and creating more than enough openings to win every game they play, their finishing has just been shit. It's weird that Potter has taken his brighton vibes with him to Chelsea.

I'd have Armstrong in Edozie's place, and stick Sulamana left and Armstrong right. Alcaraz in the 10. Lavia is fit by the way, he's just undercover to avoid the Chelsea spy's.

I like the shots of Stu Armstrong, KWP and ABK being back in the fray. If Stu can get back to the levels he was at, he starts every week in the front 3 for me. When we were really good he was really, really good and the driver behind that.

But I don't know what anyone gains from this if it happens? We still get relegated, we look a bit daft by appointing someone who was never going to work, he doesn't stay on next season and the whole period will have done everyone damage. I cannot see the reasoning behind it, it makes no sense. Sure, Shearer did it for Newcastle but whilst it didn't totally ruin his rep (they got relegated by the way), it did hit his rep, and he had fans who once worshiped him thinking he was a bit of a joke. That was a romantic decision that went badly wrong, and that's why appointments like this need to be done with the head and not the heart.

Ths is all I've seen, possibly the latest.

I'd class Dragan as part of SR to be honest, he's their lead investor but given that he's also at games suggests he takes an active role in this as well. He's not just a name on a bit of paper who writes the cheques in my eyes.

Sorry, should have clarified - they haven't directly said that, no....but they're inferring it in all the leaks and bits they're putting out about how great he is, how he's always been considered an option etc. They might be right! We'll wait and see.

Pearson has been managing Bristol City for a while now, not achieving anything mind.

I'm not sure if the Adkins shouts are just joking, or serious? I don't know why people still think it's viable if they're being serious about it! Adkins was great for us, pulled us out of the mire and got us promoted with a great team and a major feelgood factor. Would we really want to tarnish that reputation and our history by having him in charge whilst we're relegated? No denying he's positive and all that, but he would be well over his head in this situation and it would tarnish the memory of someone who gave me the best years i've had supporting this club.

I think it's fair to say that anyone, absolutley anyone, could have judged the Jones situation better than the experts at the club did on this occasion. Appointing him was ridiculous in the first place, but taking so long to actually admit the mistake made it 10x worse.

I think we almost certainly needed investment, so on that point alone I’m happy it happened. One thing I've said all along is that they have put their money where their mouth is - they've invested and they've shown a willingness to make decisions, make changes and improve things. The absolute killer has been the decision making. You can have all the investment and best intentions in the world, but if your decision making is skewed then it's all rather pointless. The jury is well and truly out for me now. From where I sit on the outside all I can really say is that they've invested, but with that investment has come chaos with everything they've touched. I have no doubt the right intentions are there, but how they're executing everything is so, so wrong and has been incredibly damaging.

Has anyone seen the new Athletic spiel about the Marsch situation? Painting it as everything was agreed, but Marsch slept on it and decided the timing wasn't right. Nothing to do with the length etc as this was all verbally agreed on. I think it was both parties to be honest. The interesting bit is that it proclaims the club saw it as crucial to act swiftly and decisively to have a manager in place for Chelsea, which is why they went after Marsch so ‘aggressively’. That went well then. And now that urgent need for swift and decisiveness seems to be leading them back to ''Selles is great, he was always our choice anyway'’ – even though he wasn’t 4 days ago. I'm all a bit confused as to what our plan is right now!

I've seen worse suggestions, but I don't really see him coming back into management or coaching now. He doesn't need the stress of it all.