S-Clarke

Burnley will be all over trying to sign him for the PL imo. They'd be daft not to. Could be a bit of an earner there for us, as I'm not sure he's a true world beater.

It's been a strange day really, going into a game like this before not knowing what to expect - a bit of an unknown, but should I be surprised that I'm sat here after 5pm and we've lost a game after leading, yet again? For all the talk about a 'new approach', this was more of the same old bollocks that has engulfed us for many years. In the first half we were on the front foot, but it was very hectic. Lots of going for the second balls, aggressive in the tackles etc. It worked to a point and it did unsettle Wolves, but there wasn't much glamour to our play in anyway. Sullemana was electric and gave us an out, as we hoped he would. Ounachu was strong and won most in the air - dragged a few Wolves defenders around him, and we were picking up the second balls. Alcaraz was great, lots of energy, snapping all over the pitch and a great little finish as well - he's a decent little player. The problem I can see with Ounancu is that he's not as mobile in the sense of a counter press, you can drop the ball up to him but I don't see him running after it and trying to catch CB's out. The second half was there for us, we needed to come out and stamp our feet all over that game. 10 men, pace in the attack and they had a few players on yellows. But the tactical changes Wolves made at HT totally baffled us, they stuck two in the middle and kept the width - having Traore out wide kept us occupied so we couldn't commit too high, so it was a bold move in that sense. We still had more bodies in the middle, but we just didn't seem to know how to counter those changes. We slogged that second half, we dropped back and let Wolves have a sniff in a game they shouldn't have had. For the 10 mins preceding the equaliser we were retreating, visibly you could see us dropping back and our intensity had just fallen through the floor. The equaliser was a mess though, I mean jesus christ - wtf? It had to Bednarek as well, he is the most clumsy and ungainly defender you'll ever see, we got rid of him because of that and brought in a Croatian CB to replace him. So in typical cluster-fuck-season-style, we bring Bednarek back and banish the Croatian CB we signed to replace him - go figure. Sadly once they equalised that was it, you could tell. The heads dropped, the mood dropped, this team is just weak as piss. I don't care what anyone says but as an outfield captain JWP is the worst we've ever, ever, had. Inept. He really has no idea how to galvanise a group in the down moments. Those sorts of moments are when you need your experience and your captain to stand up, but he always sinks with the rest of them. This is not a new thing, apart from his free kicks it's the second most consistent theme since he's been a regular in our team. One note on JWP's free kicks - whoever has decided to tell him to change it up, in the positions he was in, needs to be out of the door now. Shocking. The only way we score goals is through direct free kicks, so you let him take a direct free kick. Whoever instructed them to fanny around with it needs to be frog marched out of staplewood. So as a summary the first half was decent, bit agricultural, but the second half was all we've become accustomed to really. Drifted, heads dropped, game gone. For all the fanfare about this being a game that was being done in 'jones way', it was very much the same of what we've seen for years. Jones will be out of the door now, I'd hope - one of the only saving graces from today - but there is still a contingent of players here who need to have a look in the mirror at themselves - this isn't a new situation (throwing away a lead), we are absolute fucking experts at it. Dreadful bunch. Whoever the new manager is isn't really important for now (I'd go with Selles for the rest of the season), I think if we know who we want and they're only available in the summer then we wait for that. No one can save us this year so there's no point looking at the table and trying to work out results, we were down after Forest really but today the fat lady is signing loud a clear. I reckon we'll be gone by early April. There is no taking this to the last day, much worse than 04/05.

And that makes his views null and void.

Ah but we'll think outside the box, sod those experienced names - we've got Rob Edwards lined up, look at the job he's done at Luton. That's as much logic as they put into Jones tbf.

For next season I reckon it could be seen as quite an exciting challenge, so potentially we could attract someone who you'd see as a higher manager (similar to when Wolves got Nuno) There will be lots of money to re-invest in the team with the sales of our big players, who will still attract big bids irrespective of our position. We'll keep a young core, I'm sure, then it's up to whoever fancies the project to mould an exciting team for that level and beyond. This won't be like the last time we went down and could only afford 90k on Ricardo Fuller, we should have the tools financially to dominate that league IF we get the managerial appointment right. If we get that right, recruit right and have a fun season then the momentum could lead to us developing in the same way Fulham, Brentford and Brighton have. I'm taking the viewpoint that this is a step back in order to take a big step forward long-term.

Good video, a bit of a mistake at the end though. He referenced the takeover by SR and stated the 'lack of investment would continue with SR' - completely unfounded that one, we've spent more than ever. I agree with the final sentiment though, where we are is not just because of 'this season', it's many failings coming to the fore from previous years. 'if' we had better experienced players and not Armstrong/Adams/Perraud/Ely/Moussa/Bednarek/Diallo etc then they would better complement the obvious young talent we have. But we're a bit hamstrung by the shit left behind on big wages, which is holding everyone back. I don't think our summer signings were bad, we've seen with Lava and ABK that we've unearthed some gems there. Mara and Edozie are too young to judge. Too much faith was put onto the 'experience' we already had here though. Jones still doesn't make any sense though. I reckon a decent manager would still find this an attractive project to get stuck into.

90k a week is probably the main deciding reason to letting him go. We offered him a contract on significantly reduced terms, as you'd expect, but he wasn't having it as he was enjoying his 90k life. Then along come spurs offering him a tasty deal (80k I read) to be backup and it's a no brainer for him.

Did he actually say that? I've seen that thrown around and I'm assuming it's just a parody of him, he can't have actually said that...could he?

I never really saw what credentials Davis and even Fleming had to be coaches at PL level. Davis was an excellent club servant and undoubtably a great voice around the place, which is being missed, but his job was to coach the players not be the 'voice'. If there was another role he could have done I'd have been happy for him to stay on, but as a PL First Team coach I was never sure what he brought to the party.

Not at all, I want him gone as much as the next person but I could never accept a defeat. The best case scenario for me is a really poor/scrappy/backs against the wall win, with no tactical acumen on show. That prompts SR to get rid of him and we hire a new manager on the back of a win. I can but hope.

Apart from Bree and Bednarek. (I class Bednarek as a signing in this window)

As soon as you see Everton are second in that table you know it's a load of nonsense.

Looking at this financially, I could see us sitting on £100m+ of incoming transfer fees if we do sell the 'desirables'. KWP - still in contract until 2025, AT LEAST £20m I'd say - Spence went for 'up to' £24m, so he needs to be in and around that. JWP - Still in contract until 2026, AT LEAST £40m I'd say. Adams - Sought after by PL sides who already have a striker, only a year left on his deal so £10-15m I'd say. ABK - In contract until 2026, we'd make a profit - at least £20m. Or he may feel it's better sitting for a year. Salisu - We'd make a profit, but I think a min of 15-20m given he'd only have a year left. Lavia - In contract until 2026 - shown himself to be a superstar, if Chelsea were willing to splurge £50m in the summer I think we'd get similar levels of bids. See if we can pocket the cash and get a loan back for the season. That's ignoring potential sales of Stu, Orsic, Onachu, Sulamana, DCC etc - but alone the above gives us over £100m, plus all that saved in wages in players like Theo who leave. We 'should' have the scope with even half of that to build an incredibly exciting Championship team full of players who can grow and make the step up. That is in addition of us building around this summers recruits of Edozie, Bazunu, Larios, Mara, Alcaraz etc. 'Should' being the key word here, muck this summer up and we're toast for the foreseeable future.

I find it hard to even get behind these sort of threads, it just doesn't feel like it's worth the futile emotional rollercoaster we'd be putting ourselves through. Personally I think you should stick a fork in us, we're done. I cannot see how we overcome those above us. It's only Bournemouth and Everton who I look at and question squad wise, and they're already in the bottom 3 with us. Everyone else above (Leeds, WHU, Forest, Wolves, Leiecster) imo are levels above us in experience and quality and it's not even really a contest. For us it's a battle with Bournemouth to not finish 20th.

Let's not kid ourselves that he's only had a month. He has been here since the start of November, he had the entire WC break to mould and build whatever he wanted to do. We came out of that WC with our 'saving' run of fixtures, and we tossed them all away so he's pretty much relegated us. We are a lost cause and we're just prolonging the agony at the moment.

His Mother-in-Law?

Yeah, he did say that. Which as we knew was nonsense. Going by Orcic's instagram he was sat at home reading a book whilst we were getting bummed by Brentford with Elyounoussi playing. Good use of a new January signing.

rubbish, there was talk of protests at his first home game against Everton. There were chants for Adkins during the game against Everton. I don't remember either of those things occurring at Brighton with Jones. MP became popular because he won over fans with his aura and football, you could see after about 60mins v Everton that we looked better. That's what a capable manager can do, make a noticeable impact from the first game. All we've done under Jones is regress from a point we couldn't really regress from.

That right hand side is slow as all hell, you have to get pace in there without KWP.

Light and day. I think when Burnley appointed him in the summer there was a level of scepticism due to his lack of experience as a manager, but he removed any scepticism by his actions on and off the football field. What did we have Jones doing? Mic'd up on the training ground telling players to run harder, and then saying Romeo done. Kompany is a PL manager in waiting, he has that aura. Jones just doesn't have any sort of aura about him, I just don't see why we are prolonging this.

I notice the club have trotted Bree out to speak in support of the manager, that's not obvious at all is it? I'd have preferred to hear DCC talk about him.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here, are you Jones in/Jones Out or just trying to go with the unpopular opinion to stoke feeling? Ignore the views on this forum, it's a minority view in the main. When we appointed Jones I had many convos with guys in every day life and the 100% feeling at the time was scepticism but giving him a chance, as no one really knew much about him - that was the overriding emotion during the WC period, so he wasn't vilified from day one. There was rightfully scepticism in his appointment so as fans we were going to need some improvements or an identity change, and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to see that in a block of fixtures against Brighton, Fulham, Forest, Everton, Villa and Brentford. All we have seen are defeats, confused performances and displays against Forest which just beggars belief. We have got worse and given where he was starting from it was almost impossible to achieve that, so credit him for that. He has done absolutely nothing to remove the scepticism in his appointment with the results, and even taking results out of the equation he has come across like a grade a prick and has not endeared himself to anyone associated with this club. He isn't supported by the fan base because he has alienated everyone with his actions.

I don't see a way back for him either, it just feels like we're delaying the inventible and it's just nonsense. The game against Brighton was terrible, Fulham had a slight uptick but we still lost, Forest - let's not go there, Everton was a fight back but no real outstanding aspects from the performance, Villa wasn't ''that'' bad but it was another loss, Brentford was disgustingly bad. When you listen to them speaking about improvements etc, there have been no improvements over a decent period - just regression. These were Jones comments after the Brighton game: "We've come here to change the aggression and change the dynamic to the football in terms of that but today we didn't," the Welshman said. "We wanted to be aggressive, we wanted to press high but we didn't do the basics well enough and when they got near our goal - which at times was far too easy - conceded poor, poor goals. Goals that should never have gone in. "If you don't defend the box well enough in the Premier League, you're going to struggle. They've only kept one clean sheet all season and that's something we have got to change." He's still saying the same today, almost 2 months on from that. When does it change Jones?

It's going to be cringe on all fronts come Saturday imo.

I think my hate of Matterface takes over on that one, can't stand his smug face.