S-Clarke

Fraser has been our best player so far this season IMO. But that's probably why we're where we are in the table, as harsh as that sounds.

I still don't buy this. We're way weaker than we were last time out in the Champ. Stu Armstrong, Che Adams, Bednarek, KWP, Charly, Sulemana (yes, he was crap for us but better than anything we have now sadly) They were levels above anyone we can field now. And add in an undamaged Downes and THB, and Brooks etc after January we're in a different ballpark quality wise. We've bought in Fellows, Azaz etc who are good players at this level - but they're not proven PL players like the core of our team had last time at this level. We now genuinely look like a Championship side full of Championship players in my eyes. We also had the benefit of being able to start the season with JWP, Tella. Tella in particular contributed to a couple of our early wins against Sheff U and Plymouth.

The same common theme is following him into yet another season then, this would be the 4th consecutive season the above would be true. For a club which prides its' self in data collection and stats, we must be ignoring these on purpose for some reason. I'm yet to understand what that reason is, apart from self sabotage. But as we've always said, even taking stats out of it, my own eyes tells me he's shit. I didn't need stats to tell me that the first goal against Hull was another clear error.

But after 6 games you can't say that, in my opinion. I think when you look at the number of managers we've switched around in the last 3-4 years, you have to seriously look deeper at this point. 1) who is making the picks, and 2) are there any core players who over-hang all managers? Those two points are where the problem is, and as long as they don't change, changing the manager will make absolutely zero difference other than spinning us into more and more and more financial debt.

This was sadly always going to be the problem. We were ruthless in certain areas, and we did evolve quite a few parts of the team - but it was never a single window fix-all style situation, as we've got our squad into such a mess. We did do some self-sabotage in the summer by signing George Long and renewing Stephens though, that was just daft and continues to bog the squad down with rubbish, rather than improving in some key areas.

I'm not even putting a number on it, it seems daft to even be considering it at the moment in my eyes. We got rid of Ralph and replaced him with Jones, again it was a new manager and scratched an itch people had. It made us worse though and we also wanted him out after a month or two. We got rid of Jones and appointed Selles, again it scratched an itch we all had and it needed to be done - but it made no difference. We got rid of Puel, something I was happy to happen and it scratched an itch I had at the time, but we appointed Pellegrino and it made us worse. Calling for the manager to go every time things don't go to plan is incredibly short sighted in my eyes, and we've proven that it doesn't work - especially when it's SR making the picks. Success occurs when you stick and allow someone to build something, if you chop and change after a handful of games every time then no one can ever build anything, squads will erode and nothing will change. It's the shore fire way to accelerate our journey to become a Blackburn or Swansea or Stoke style Champ side. I will look at the situation in November and see where we're at before even contemplating any thoughts around this one. I want him to be a success. I don't want us to be a club who just change the manager all the time like Watford just to scratch an itch because people want instant success. It will make no difference as the problems are deeper than a single person at this point.

But Pards had already been in charge of us for a season prior to that? We needed to start that season on fire as NC wouldn't have accepted anything less, but we didn't and that was that. The overall feeling was disappointment that we didn't get at least playoffs in his first season. You can't compare though - Pards was on what, 50 odd games for us when he was sacked - spanning 2 seasons. Still is on 6 or 7. Not comparable situations.

I think you'd be surprised. People underestimated how much damage last season could do to the club and also individuals. THB came into the Prem and got an England call up fairly early doors, he had a good season in the Championship. He started a bit iffy but just got worse as the season went on. We lost 30 games out of 38, we let in 86 goals. We lost almost every week and he watched the ball go into the back of the net every week. It's the sort of phycological damage which doesn't go over night and may never leave him. I think both have their limitations, but in relation to THB he was still developing - last season has put a pin in that.

He sums up everything that is wrong with us. Rewarding failure and accepting mediocrity. It's no wonder we are 20th in the second tier. For a captain and someone who is 'good around the place', he seems to have a pretty crap ability to 'galvanize' the group in game or out of game. He's worthless as a player and even less influential as a Captain. Up with Bazunu, these two inclusions are club decisions and they stink.

Anyone is a better option than Gavin Bazunu, but the fact is the the club have somehow managed to fill our GK ranks up with 3 truly horrific players. Not one of them should be anywhere near a Championship side, let alone one who aspires for promotion. That George Long signing was everything that is wrong with us wrapped up in a single transfer. This is why so many people called it out at the time, a truly disgusting decision by the club. This wasn't personal against George Long, it's because the club had the opportunity right there to get better than Bazunu - the opportunity was right in front of them, but they flinched. Shameful.

I'd have had no problems with Downs in isolation had we also bought another, more 'seasoned' striker. But we didn't, so we're here once again hoping for a young unproven kid to come good and that the relics of Archer and Stewart resemble footballers again. It's a bit harsh on Downs as we we don't allow these 'kids' a chance to grow, the expectations are on them right away - exactly the same happened in the PL window when we bought Bazunu/Edozie/Laros etc. I feared we'd do this whilst also putting too much reliance on Stewart and count him as a squad player. Any decent ambitious club would have planned around Stewart and bought someone else in as well.

It's a shame what has happened to him, much in the same way as Downes. When you have seasons like we did in the PL, you will always have casualties around the club and players who will never, ever return to any semblance of decent level. Mentally/psychologically, whatever it is, but some of these guys are scared for the rest of their careers. THB WAS a player with high potential and was seen as a coup this time last year, but as with Downes, last season has destroyed them.

I think you do have to take into consideration the amount of change though, we did change up a lot and lost a lot - most in the last few weeks of the window as well. And the guys we've been left with, Downes, THB, Stephens, Manning etc are seemingly carrying some horrendous hangovers from last year. Downes and THB in particular look totally shot. Boro/Bristol City are somewhat stable squad wise, they know what they've got and the manager has been able to go in and work with that. And their managers haven't come into a club on the back of such an abomination of a season. To be fair to Still, he spent most of the summer with no real idea of what his squad would look like and it's been chop and change since. He now has a squad that's somewhat stable, but it's only been here 3 or so weeks really (and an international break bolted in the middle). Let's see where we are come end of October/start of Nov for a much fairer view IMO. That's where I'm sitting right now.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that we give away stacks of shit goals with Jack Stephens in the team, but somewhat it catches coaches by surprise every time. Take him out of the side and you'll see an improvement. He's the worst Captain we've ever had, it's embarrassing that we've got someone of his level captaining us when we aspire to be a PL side. He may well be a good lad and give his all, but he is utter, utter turd and drags the entire defence down with him.

He was our attack most of the time, he drove the team up the pitch from right back. Now we have Manning standing on the ball, and a slower Mads on the other side. We are generally quite a slow side when you add Azaz, Downes, Charles etc in and around it. I think for pace and nippyness, you've got to include Armstrong in this side right now. We need some threat.

I don't know why he doesn't get a chance here. it's not like maldini is keeping him out of the side. He deserves a shot.

He has a very languid style, which doesn't help fans perception of him. But the chance he had, was such a shit finish. pub level stuff. He scuffed it. He's had a very, very slow start but he doesn't make it easy for himself as he looks lazy. He's got a Mara vibe about him which I don't like.

Let's just see what they've done to us. When they came in, we were a 'solid' yet unspectacular Premier League side, we were crying out for some clever investment to lift our level a bit and push for top 10. It would have just taken a few tweaks and some clever investment up front and an improvement through the spine. But all they've given us are 2 relegations (one being the worst ever PL team in modern times), shit manager after shit manager, truly abhorrent transfer windows all whilst spending approx. £300m in transfer windows (and god knows how much in manager compo). I think it's fair at this point to say that they've been the worst ownership we've ever, ever, ever had - and we've had some bad people. It's at the point now where hoping it gets better looks a bit niave. I don't think they have a scooby do of how to run a professional football club. There's no future for us with them at the helm, I think somethings got to budge - but how can you shift ownership? Near on impossible I'd say. I think we've pretty much landed on where we'll be, floating around Champ mid-table and some relegation battles to L1.

I guess if we give it another 6 or so years, we could end up having a Stoke style start. But it does look to me as if we're morphing quite rapidly into a Stoke or Swansea. This all started from our prem transfer window - we actively downgraded our entire side from the one which got promoted, which takes some serious going. And from that moment on, we've not recovered. We didn't have as such a strong base to bounce back with this time and it shows. This entire mess is on Sports Republic and the voices against them should really be much louder than they are right now. It all still feels quite passive against arguably the worst owners in the country.

But what people are ignoring is that this is SR - we wouldn't go and appoint a common sense person like Carrick or Rohl, we'd pivot to someone else who'd make us even worse. It's better for us and the club if we give Still a chance to form a side, we can't go pissing more manager compo up the wall only for SR to go and pick a worse guy.

I just don't see the answer in swapping out a manager after 6 games, and especially when it's SR who would appoint the next one. He may well be a yes man, but as long as SR are in charge, all we'll appoint are yes men - so getting rid of him doesn't really change anything, we'd just pivot to someone worse. We've got to give him a chance to try to reset what went before. But the core problem at this club isn't necessarily Bazunu, Stephens or Will Still - it's Sports Republic and what their muddy hands have done to us.

Mads isn't a terrible player, but when comparing him to what we had a RB in our last Champ season, it couldn't be further away in terms of quality. The drop off from KWP to Mads is scary, but expected really.

We fucked up the spine really. We added quality in and around it on the flanks, 10's etc. But crucially for me, and lots of others - GK, CB, ST - piss poor. Fucked it right up. Those 3 misses will make the rest null and void which is a shame as we'll never get to see the best of them.

Is there really any point debating this fool anymore? He's an absolute abomination of a goalkeeper - this is from my eyes, not from stats. That first goal was a disgrace and I'd drop him for that. The club massively ballsed up on two things in the summer - thinking George Long is all we needed as GK competition, and giving Jack fricking Stephens, Captain Supremo, a 3 year contract. Those two decisions right there will make the new signings almost null and void.

I said something like that, yeah. You cannot underestimate the damage that happened last season, not just on the playing side either - the foundations of the entire club will have been rocked by last season. It was an humiliation on the global stage. In terms of the squad, we're stuck in this weird middle ground at the moment. Lots of new faces, but still lots of hangers on from one of the worst PL sides ever - and it shows. Is this going to stop us being competitive this year? Hard to say, but probably. Is this all Will Still's fault? Absolutely not. I don't think there's any logic in binning off yet another manager at this stage. Last season we went through 3 or 4 managers and it made no difference. We need to give someone a chance to rip the core out of this team and start it again, it will probably take a few windows, but there's no quick fix unfortunately. If we change the manager again we reset the process again. We've got to ride the pain.