S-Clarke

Just caught up on some of Martin's comments, and even James Bree. This is where they start to lose the fanbase, they are seeing an entirely different game to the people who pay to watch it. How can Bree honestly come out and say 5-1 flattered them? In what universe is he living in? They scored 5, hit the post 4 times and Lumley smothered another 4 poor on-target efforts. We were lucky it wasn't 10.

Our execs should look at what Bournemouth are doing, shut themselves in a dark room and have a long hard talk to themselves about how the fuck they've messed it up here so bad. There is no way Bournemouth should be light years ahead of us given the respective sizes/structure, but that's been allowed to happen because of the biggest load of incompetence I've ever seen. Bournemouth were similar to us in that they bounced back from the Champ, they didn't' run away with it, Parker was questioned a bit etc. They acted quickly when Parker started to flop at this level and the rest was history. They also acted quickly and decisively when they ditched O'Neil, who by all accounts was doing a decent job, but they identified the need to do better. It was similar to when we ditched Adkins. We just sit on our hands for way too long, so indecisive due to them not wanting to be seen as getting it wrong (but they're making it worse). Stubborn execs and a stubborn manager is an absolute recipe for disaster. In a way they're all suited to each other, but not for the benefit of the club they're working for. That's how it feels to me anyway.

I kinda feel sorry for him, as he does care for the club and he's a decent lad for sure. Well respected at the club. But his quality level/ability level is so below what we need, and it feels sad that we continue to put someone so limited in the spotlight. It's not like we're just asking him to defend either, we're now trying to reinvent him into some sort of modern day Frank Beckenbauer. I've always found Jack to be a decent last ditch defender, but that is often because he's initially in the wrong position or gets done by a clever player. We have and will always concede stacks of goals with Stephens in the side. He can be a decent leader, a decent guy, but he is not of the required quality as a central defender, and certainly not as a ball playing central defender. The fluff Martin puts up his arse is not helping things either.

That's absolutley the case. The decisions made now and in January should not be tailored to 'keeping us up', that's gone - done, finished. We need to start putting in a plan for next season and how we exactly expect to pull together a competitive side at that level. That should be the priority from now on in. Sadly the rest of this season is just friendly matches.

It's an easy cop out when people counter it by assuming fans mean long ball, far from it. We can still pass the ball and use the ball, but it's the incessant passing back and around the backline which is killing us. Teams love us doing that because it enables them to push forward, pressure us and more often than not win the ball high up, which will lead to goals and shots. Being pragmatic means widening the passing angles of the CB's, providing angles in more advanced positions to pass to, and by not using players incredibly technically limited in positions of high stakes doing things like they're doing (Manning/Stephens etc). We can still pass the ball and play football, but maybe we should do that further up the pitch rather than at our own corner flag or across our own goal line. Just saying. I don't think anyone believes we've got this super team, we don't, it's utter shit - but there could be more of a fight being made of this season, but every game we are setting up in a way that will go into coaching manuals for years to come - ''How not to setup and play as a limited team''.

Fabrice and Gio. Maybe Lighthouse as well.

He's enjoying this season after all, he's said as much. He's enjoying every week, excited every week. Good for him. It's probably a huge ego stroke for him. These stats are probably plastered on his wall as all that matters - Passes7,176 Passes per match512.57 Pass accuracy %88% Crosses213 Cross accuracy %19%

The camera's in situ suggest that it's nothing major in my eyes, more PR bollocks I imagine. It was quite a bit before kick off as well. Rasmus releasing a new book doubling down about breaking what wasn't broken.

So why is the manger instructing them to play a way that highlights their inadequacies even more? We could be making a much better fist of this. We're not even close to having a hope in hells chance of competing for 19th.

Individual errors born out of playing in a way these guys shouldn't be playing. It's not just the goals, look at the shots we gift up as well. It's how they're being told to play. They're not good enough to do it and we provide the ultimate trigger press for opposition teams. We are a coaches dream to set up against.

I find it hard to zero in on a single game at this stage, you have to look at the patterns - we do the same thing every single week. We gift up goals and chances every week. It was even more foolish to do so tonight with the inferior players we had, but In a way I felt sorry for them as they were sold up the river. I don't think it's ever going to sink into Martin's skull - but I'll say it, we cannot continue this utter insanity with the technical level of players we have. We barely got away with it at Championship level. I've had enough of it. It's not football, it's self inflicted suicide every week.

They're all enjoying it, apparently. At least someone is. Shame about the actual hard-working fans who have to put up with this shitfest.

They have no idea what they're doing. I'm scared for the future of our club, especially with January coming up. If I was Dragon I'd pull up the draw bridge and not spend a single penny in January, it would be foolish to do so. This season is done, we need to save as much as we can for the Championship season.

I'm just bored shitliss with it all now, this isn't fun - hobbies/interests are supposed to be fun, this is a depression inducing shit fest - every week. That should have been 10-0, let's not kid ourselves. Very, very, very lucky to walk away with just 5 against us. I don't remember us ever being this uncompetitive at this level, we'd always have some moments/spells in a season where we give a good shot - but we're not even in the game in 90% of this season. I feel sorry for players like Manning, Wood, Lumley etc - so, so technically limited...yet sold up the river by being told to play that way against international players. They barely got away with it at Championship level, so why we think we're reinviting football is beyond me. There's nothing brave about any of this, the only thing it is would be sheer stupidity. We've got 5 or whatever months of gloried friendlies whilst we prep for whatever shitshow SR put in place for the Championship next season, hard to get excited about anything.

He doesn't seem to get much look in does he. Almost more mind boggling by the day is the Cornet situation, what a waste of a spot that was.

All the explanations I've read around it being the right call are based on assumptions and opinions, that's where it's wrong. It should be black and white. If you're offside and you touch the ball, which directly aids a goal, then yes - you can make that call. But when you start saying ''he didn't touch it, but he COULD have impacted the play with his movement'' then you're into really, really dodgy ground and it shouldn't really be up for debate. That's not a VAR thing to get involved in. Black and white offsides for sure, but going down to the detail of if a player who didn't touch the ball or score the goal, could have impacted the outcome just becomes daft. It will absolutely ruin football if they drill it down to that nuance, simply because it will never be consistent as there's no black and white criteria. It's all opinion based at the time and I don't think VAR should be opinion based.

He's technically horrific, shown up massively at a high level. He had a perfect opportunity in the 2nd half to layoff to Fraser on the left, but his touch went straight up in the air and that was that. The guy has no right being a PL player.

The poor lad isn't cut out for the rigours of high level football, simply doesn't have the body composition to cope with the demands. Needs to go back to Spain's lower leagues, he could still have a decent enough career at spanish lower levels in a slower paced environment.

He didn't touch the ball or impact the course of the ball, that simply has to be the criteria in any situation being questioned. Sure, he was offside, but you cannot rule a goal out because someone was offside who didn't touch the ball. It then becomes the opinion of neutrals as to if the player, without touching, will have impacted the ball to the guy who was on side. It's absolute nonsense of the highest level and there's no sticking up for it.

The first half was much of the same, totally out of our depth and fortunate it was just 1-0. To our credit, we got better in the 2nd half, probably due to Brighton getting much worse, but we did actually get a foothold into it. I thought overall we were unlucky not to win that, but if you go back to the first half that's why we didn't win it. Completely hopeless use of the ball from the back, atrocious defending on numerous occasions - one of which lead to the goal - and that still is our achiclies heal and will always be so. We don't score enough goes to continue to be as vulnerable as we are at the back. The VAR bollocks though summed up everything that is wrong with top level football these days, it's just a depressing watch. A goal being disallowed has to be black and white, it simply has to be. You're either on side or offside, touching the ball or not touching the ball. That's as simple as it needs to be. When you add these daft nuances into the equation regarding interfering, without touching, or being too close to an opposition player, but not touching the ball etc - it just opens up too much inconsistency and goals become based on 'opinion' rather than factual 'on or off' - that's where it becomes very, very dangerous. If you look at the investment they put into VAR over the summer, it was all based around the 'VAR' brand - graphics, social media presence etc. How is that relevant? It shouldn't matter where they sit or what their logo looks like, but they seem to want to make a name for themselves and ensure they are in the spotlight. Corrupt is one word for it. Obviously finishing above 20th was a lost cause many weeks ago, but it's decisions like last nights which actually make me somewhat happy that we won't have to put up with it next year.

These comments are odd really. From a fans perspective, I don't think I've ever felt as low as I do about us in the PL. Every week is a proper chore. It's not fun in any way for the people who pay the hard dollar to watch. He might be enjoying it from his own personal ego perspective, but then that's what it's all about with him isn't it.

There are some good players for sure, but I will stand by the opinion that any decent PL team, serious about competing, should not be starting or including the likes of Manning/Stephens/McCarthy/Aribo/Smallbone/BBD/Armstrong/Fraser. There are some shining lights in Fernandes and Dibling, but the rest just bring down the entire standard sadly and it's made it a bit of an up hill struggle, well more of an up-Everest style struggle. Insurmountable.

I reckon it was Gio, or Fabrice.

Perraud, Salisu, DCC, ABK, Lyanco, JWP, Tella, Lavia, Tino, Moussa, Orsic (lol), Onuachu, Elyonoussi, Diallo, Theo - some loans, some free's, some perms. But quite a big shift there. Big money came from the Lavia, Tella, JWP, Tino sales - the rest were loose change really. This time round we'll probably lose THB, Dibling, Fernandes, Ramsdale, Bednarek - that's where the income will be generated. Maybe around £100m+ there (most from Dibling if we sort the contract out). I can see interest in Downes and Suguwara as well. Obviously KWP will be a gone for 0. We'd be left with a core of Bazunu, Wood, Stephens, Manning, Bree, Aribo, Smallbone, Fraser, Archer, BBD, Armstrong, Downes, Charles. Some decent players in there, but overall a pretty bog-standard Champ squad I'd suggest. Would need some big investment to be competitive at the top end.

The Cooper appointment was massively ill-judged by Leicester. He was onto the back foot immediately due to his previous Forest connections. They didn't read the room on that one at all. He never stood a chance.