S-Clarke

We definitely shouldn't open the cheque books like the last January window we had in the PL. Loans at best I'd say, but we'd find it very hard to rid ourselves of Onuachu and Sulemana in January - it's hard enough in the summer. We'll end up paying those two off and they'll leave on free's, guarantee it. Those two signings, and Orsic, are the reason we shouldn't be spending any more money until we sort out the horrendous team who are making the picks.

I thought I'd have a quick look through our history with them up to now (regarding managers/backroom). We had some stability with David Jones, Semmens, Crocker - but one of SR's first jobs was to rip all that apart behind the scenes, and bring in their own people (i.e. Joe Shields) - that was just the start. Ralph was always onto a hiding and it was inevitable SR wanted their own man, so they were always going to bin him off as their next radical change. In comes Jones as some sort of forward thinking, clever appointment. His teams were dull, defensively focused and not particularly attacking. Didn't fit with what we had at all in terms of a player profile. So, they go into the January window and splurge £18m on a big tall centre forward and two wingers. Clear as day it was a hit it long to the channels, cross it for the big ban style approach. It was never going to work and was too much of a change from what we had before in a short space of time. They tried to get Marsch, who himself bailed because he didn't see the joined up plan with all at the club - so they stuck with Selles with the PR that this was another clever appointment. The inevitable happened and he was like a rabbit in the headlights, felt a bit sorry for him - but it was another Wigley moment. So, after changing Ralph with the idea of going with someone who is a bit defensively minded (Jones), we then rip it up again the following summer and totally change tact to the other extreme with Martin. Thus we end up with the situation last summer where we have the likes of Onuachu, Sulemana, Charly (bought for a Jones style) are stuck in the building who are now not suited to this new manager - does this seem like any sort of plan at all? I think at this stage it's plainly clear they're totally lost with no idea. They have no plan, they keep trying things in the hope that they stick - but I don't believe even they know what their grand plan is, they seem totally confused. In the last 2 years we have crossed between a gegenpress, low block and a tiki-taka style managers - we have tried to reinvent ourselves 3 times and it hasn't worked because they don't know how to execute it. I wonder what's next? What other style haven't we attempted yet?

Just about, it wasn't convincing by any means - didn't convice me or many others. For doing that he absolutley deserved a crack, but he's been given that crack and is showing us all what we pretty much felt would happen.

There's nothing to really try for at this stage. We'll go into Dec on 4 points. We are realistically going to need to accrue 30-40 points in around half a season. Absolute impossibility, that's what Man City and co will be doing. We've already tossed away the Leicester and Ipswich home games, the Wolves away game etc - the list will go on.

But that doesn't let anyone off. The fact they weren't cheap and we had to pay for them, and then pay them off, should be ringing even bigger alarm bells in terms of who we have running this place.

All of our choices under SR have been horrific, no getting around that. They may have spent a fair bit of $$ on them, but that's on SR and their absolutley clueless approach rather than the calibre of who they were working with.

Either that, or they totally re-evaluate what they are and what their plan is - bring in football people at the head of the club, and personal who know what it's like to run successful football set ups. I'd dump every single scout and analyst we have and start again. They have consistently scouted shit for too long to be allowed to continue. That entire area needs completely destroying and starting again. At that point, with the right people in the right places we may stand a chance - but in the current guise this is just a complete catastrophe.

I think if anything, the ownership of SR has proven that money is only a small part of achieving footballing success. There has to be a plan and some understanding of what you're doing as a club, not just money. We've spent money, too much money on rubbish - including managers and their payoffs. ''They have to throw money at it'' is no different to what they've been doing up to now. The first thing they should be doing is filling that boardroom up with people who understand football and how to run a football club, then work out what money we have to spend on it. It's not an overnight fix and it's not all about throwing money at it, it's going to take years to get over this season.

Not saying Martin shouldn't be sacked, but do you have any trust in SR getting the next call right? They seemingly don't have a clue. Jones - horrendous. Selles - An unimaginative gamble Martin - load of fluff. We were fortunate to be promoted, he didn't rip up any trees or set any special culture - as this season is proving. Who is next in their horror show of choices? I don't even want to imagine.

Their approach thus far has been throwing money and hoping something will stick, but nothing is sticking because they have no idea what they're doing. Their choices are consistently terrible and their plan is all over the shop. As it stands we are a broken football club. I don't know where we go from here.

Totally bored with this team, there's nothing to get behind and nothing about us at all. All this talk of process and philosophy is fluff for not being good enough. Last week was just as bad, we won, but it was very poor. I struggle at this stage to see where this season starts, it's just going to be a really big test for us fans as we are on the highway to a humiliation season without a doubt. Today was as bad as it's been this season, against another truly terrible side. We are just a pointless team to watch. Relegation is pretty much confirmed at this point, we just need to make sure we don't set any unwanted records. That's the only target we can realistically have now. I'm not even looking above 20th because it's pointless. We can sack the manager if we want, but it'll make no difference because SR's decision making doesn't belong on earth.

Mark Bitcon took up the role of 'Director of Football Operations', working closely with Mowbray and Martin. So technically, we don't have a proper DOF in any way shape of form no matter what MLG says!

I find it really hard to read too much into games like yesterday, it's irrelevant if we toss it away against Leicester, Brentford, Ipswich, Forest etc. Means fuck all. I don't care if we play well and Pep gushes or pundits gush, the reality is 0 points. We head into November on 1 point. Absolutley pitiful by even the most negative supporters expectations. I take nothing from yesterday because it's always the way. 'Underdog does well against big side''. When we got relegated we beat Man City at home, so how we perform in these games means fuck all - it's a glorified friendly.

He's decent, certainly better than that lumbering BBD. He'll be huge in the Championship next season.

Probably focusing in on Rasmus's involvement at Brentford, at the time looking like a coup, but now it's plainly obvious that Giles was the mastermind behind Brentford and Rasmus was just his PA, if that. The entire 'group' is bereft of any actual footballing experience, that's why having someone like Wilcox around was a positive as he knew the actual game in this country. I know big clubs will always tempt players/staff away, but the frequency at which it happens under SR is incredibly alarming. Doesn't strike of an environment that's fostering any sort of consistency in anything.

I think that unbeaten run created a false illusion about how good we actually were. We did stagger over the line on quite a few occasions.

What about the actual left back, Charlie Taylor?

I've said it many times, but our most successful sides under Koeman and Adkins were never focused on a philosophy or style. We just recruited well and played the best players in roles and positions they were happy and comfortable in. Honestly, there is so much overthinking in modern football. Successful football truly boils down to recruitment (having good players) and using them within their means, not selling them out in roles they cannot do. The chat about philosophy and plans is bollocks and there for ego hunting people.

No, the big problem is that we cannot win games when we're 2-0 up on an hour. It's not about 'killing the game' at 2-0 up, it's about managing what you have. The big problem is that you cannot coach a team to defend Martin.

The lack of footballing know-how at the top worries me too. This is why our choices are consistently so bad and why our retainment is poor. I don't think they know what to do. On one hand they come in, strip out Matt Crocker and replace him with Shields and Mowbray - clearly at that point feeling they needed a couple of footballing/scouting heads around the place. Shields left after a day. So we went and got another DoF in Wilcox, which again shows that we were pretty wedded in that approach at the top level. Wilcox then left. But we've now changed tact and have promoted a load of commercial pen pushers into the job of dictating football strategy (Mark Bitcon - more of a performance background in football and rugby, rather than player recruitment and retainment). SR need to decide what their strategy is and what their plan is with us, I don't think they have a scooby. Last season was a fortunate and unexpected success and what happened last season should not make them any more credible.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. The unbeaten run was ultimately absolutley pointless, because we had too many draws littered in it. If we didn't have that unbeaten run we'd have still finished in the playoffs. We were a playoff team, full stop. I think we should have done better with the level of player we had and I still struggle to think too fondly of last season, I found it a proper slog most weeks.

That hasn't bothered them before tbf. (Thinking of Ralph > Jones)

As I've always said, the intention financially has been sound - cannot moan about that, Dragan has put his money down. The problem I have is that these guys have no idea about football or how to run a football club. Scouting is off the level shit, contract management is off the level shit, Managerial choices and recruitment of coaches is beyond shit, retainment of key staff is absolutley awful as well. It feels that even though financially Dragan has backed us, we are utterly rudderless in a leadership sense and no one seems to have a clue at how to run a football club. Forget all the hipster-stats-based bollock scouting, it's time to go back to basics and buy good players because...you know...they're good players. We have wasted an extortionate amount of money on poorly scouted absolute trash.

I know what you mean, but that's a pretty depressing target to even aim for or use as a reason for getting a new manager. For what it's worth I think it's time as Martin has clearly lost his way here, even the backend of last season included in that. Who fancies this job is the question though. Forget the likes of Potter/Moyes etc, we'll be looking at lower profile.

I cannot wait to see how the next manager handles the scar tissue left over from a Martin team...!