S-Clarke

There was a Chelsea fan on one of the phone in's who said, and I kid you not, that Potter had been let down by the boards lack of investment. Worded badly but I think he meant lack of investment in a striker or something, but that's not through a lack of investment it's just piss poor scattergun squad planning. They've spent £600m in 4/5 months, in my opinion they should be banned from any forthcoming transfer windows and made to work with that ridiculously expensive bunch of players they've assembled, if they've spent £600m and still have holes in the squad then that's on them and they should suffer because of it. It just makes me lose faith in football that Chelsea fans are still not satisfied and wanted them to spend more.

I think we all went into this season believing we'd got a decent array of CB's, and I still think we do have that. It just needs coaching, the tools are there. We've got physicality, pace, power, experience littered throughout that back line. If Fulham can pull up trees with Issa Diop, Shane Duffy and Tim Ream then there is no reason why we cannot get 'life' out of ABK/Salisu/DCC/Bednarek (discounting Lyanco as he's not a footballer). Not discrediting the teams above us, but even Brentford are doing well with Mattias Jorgensen and Ben Mee at the back - there's no way they are better than what we have in raw ability.

The only tiny positive I can cling on at the moment is that after 20 games last season, Newcastle were 19th on 11 points. They bought in January and it changed their season, we've actually spent in January ourselves so you hope it can make a difference. The biggest difference there is that they had a competent manger, but let's not go there. I still think it's a tall order, and the wins need to start today if we are to start doing anything of note. One thing I will say is that there is always a team who look fairly comfortable that get sucked right into it, got a feeling Palace could be dragged down there - maybe (They're without Zaha for 2 months with Injury). Let's see where we are after Wolves at home, 4 points has to be the absolute min from the next two imo. Anything less and I genuinely think the fat lady will be on the stage ready for the encore.

We're all behind the team, no one wants anything other than a winning side. What we don't want is a spikey, passive-aggressive and niggly manager throwing shots at the fans during most of his interviews.

Came on loan as our backup keeper when Puel was manager, didn't play a game I don't think.

I don't think you can 'credit' Shields with any of that yet! Looking at Potter, it's like a 'Top 6' version of our situation with Jones. He's not as spikey as Jones, but their fans are equally at a loss with him. They don't understand how they went from someone with the rep of Tuchel to him. He won't last.

Yeah, just a rabble. It's like FM when you buy loads of random players, the best ones, then try and get them to win. You can't. They're a mess.

He was suspended for the FA Cup game, he could have played in the 2nd leg but was left on the bench.

This is a consistent tactic with him, he'll try and defend himself in any way by saying look at the past or look at x y z, they struggled as well etc - but usually at odds with what he said earlier. He never addresses his own problems head in, or admits to problems, he just looks at everyone else. The most defensive person I've ever come across.

I'd imagine he will happily ignore anyone and everyones advice. He seemingly always knows best.

It's alright, we've got Lyanco to go in hard on Toney, miss time it, fall over on his arse and allow Mubemo to run through unmarked whilst easily outpacing the floudering Bednarek.

He doesn't help himself does he. This is playing out exactly as it did in Stoke, some of their concerns at the time are as follows: - Never wrong, blaming everyone else. It was the management before him and the malaise of relegation holing him back - Alienated the fan base. - Chopping and changing the team, keeping underperforming players in the 11 but always changing the better ones. - Obsession over a diamond formation when they didn't have the players suited to it. Those were direct views from the Stoke forum when he was there, how scary is that? (I was a bit bored and scoured their ‘JONES OUT’ thread. It's exactly the same.

He took one for the team, it's not like he flew in on him and took his ankles off. I'd say it was a team card, not an ill-disciplined one by any means. If Jones is trying to make an example of an International CB, whilst he continues to play the erratic Lyanco, then it's a problem.

Having watched Lyanco play I don't think he's a footballer, yet he still starts.

I think people are right in that DCC hasn't pulled up any tree's, but.........he's better than Lyanco, that's not even an impassioned opinion it's just pure common sense if you watch football. How Lyanco starts ahead of him, a Croatian international experienced CB, is absolutley bonkers. I know a lot of fans liked Lyanco for his 'passion' and grit, but at the end of the day he cannot defend for shit and is way too rash for this level. It's like Jones default mode is to work with players not very good, but they make up for it in 'aggression and passion' (i.e., most of his Luton team). This might look silly tomorrow and he actually starts, but it looks unlikely. I imagine Bree will also be one of the first names on every team sheet now.

I think as a fan base we all think this is nuts, but I think this confirms that he see's Lyanco as one of his starting 11 players every week. What a truly depressing thought.

So I assume that almost certainly confirms the continuation of Lyanco and Elyounoussi in our starting 11 for tomorrow. At least they're 'great lads', although it doesn't quite make up for their shitness. Feeling of groundhog day already, but let's see what happens.

This debate reminded me of when Poch came in as manager. We got rid of a well liked guy in Adkins and brought in someone who didn't speak English, there was talk of protests and chants in his first home game etc, which kind of didn't materialise but the point i'm trying to make is that his football/results turned around the feeling, almost immediately. The first game against Everton was a total change up, you could see what we were trying to do even though it was just a draw. The inevitable upturn came after that. With Jones, he had similar opinions before he started here. No one wanted him, people against him before he'd started etc. But rather than turn that view around by managing, he has managed to solidify that view by losing games, not having any identify and critising the fan base. That's why he's making it toxic.

Total madness in my opinion. You can tell it's scatter-gun as they've tried to get rid of O-Brian and Toffolo (i think at least one went), and they were trying hard to get rid of Dennis as well as well as Bade lasting for 6 months. No real thought in any of those transfers.

Those views were a bit silly at the time, they didn't even give him a chance and no one had even heard him speak at that point. From the people I spoke to the genuine feeling was...''I don't really know a great deal about him, we'll see''. I found that to be the general tone when he was first appointed, so it wasn't toxic really. The Forest game was the turning point really, he was already starting to rile fans with his defensive comments after Fulham and then went on to oversee one of the worst ever games at SMS - yet it still wasn't his fault. The ground was toxic as hell that night, and most of it was aimed at retaliation to how he was coming across in prior interviews. (not that I agreed with that)

I don't see him going this season, the club will give him a crack - whether that's right or not. They've kind of made their bed with Jones now so they're going to have to run with it. 'If' we go down then I cannot see any way he stays on for next season, the situation will have become way too toxic and taking that into a new season would be incredibly counterproductive.

It was one of the names thrown around on deadline day in the summer, a few toys out of the pram as it looked as if Forest got him etc. I think we were also linked with Maxence Lacroix at one point that day, not sure how true any of that was - but we got DCC in the end and that's not turned out too badly.

Yep, just what I was going to add. Over the last couple of windows we've shed loads of high earners. The wage bill would have had some decent room in it in my opinion. Forster was paid a crazy amount of money to start with, and ditto Redmond. Guys like Lavia, ABK, Edozie etc will be on fractions of what they were on - and likewise Alcaraz and Bree. Another advantage of focusing on youth rather than established - they won't want as much in wages.

My hunch is that the club is protecting Jones, as they appreciate he's spikey and will likely end up squaring up to a fan if they disagree with him. Not an amazing conclusion to come to, but that's who they've hired. Onto this event as it is, I thought SR were conspicuous in their absence in the summer forum - so this is positive in my eyes. They've recently delivered an interview to the athletic, as well as Blackmore on Solent which shed some more light on their plans. This takes it up a notch as they will actually be facing the fanbase and direct questions, rather than slightly muted questions from club connected media people. I think it's a good sign, they get criticism for a lack of communication which is fair - but in my opinion they deserve praise for standing up and facing the heat, they've not hidden and their actions are speaking quite loud right now. I guess my main question, if I went, would be along the lines of their ambition - what do they want to see us achieve over a long term. All we've heard from club voices over the last 18 months or so is how lucky we are to be here, we can't compete with anyone etc etc - so I'd like to put that question to them and ask them if they want us to compete with those clubs, do they expect us to be able to and where do they want us to be in 5 years.

Did you hear the Utd fans cheering when he was subbed yesterday? I 'thought' they were cheering for Sancho, but he got a cheer all of his own when he walked on. Good old fickle fans! Antony isn't a bad player by any means, but he's not a world beater.