S-Clarke

But this is focusing on the financial side and the upside this brings (Which is a genuine point, granted), but in my eyes it feels really sad that this is the priority. I just want the team I watch today to be competitive and with a potential to grow and we are so, so, so far away form having that. Buying and loaning players to Gozepe is doing nothing other than reducing our transfer bucket and leaving us no better off 'today'. The priority should be us, not finding players for Gozepe.

I don't think there are any real footballing benefits to a multi club model for clubs like us. I can see Gozepe having a different view, because they can benifit from squad players from ourselves who will be starters for them. It doesn't really work the same the other way as the levels are skewed quality wise, ditto with the French third league. In our position I can only really see this benefiting the lesser clubs and also the ownership group financially, from a football point of view this does fuck all for us and being part of a group is pretty irrelevant I have to say.

He was poorly used by Martin, he should have been a standout in the Championship - and he would have been if he was allowed. He's a maverick type of player, he does things off the cuff so you need to give him freedom - but Martin hated that, he wasn't rigid enough for his propoganda backwards passing, so he was never really given a true opportunity. In many ways it's why players like Brooks even struggled with us, such a talented technical player, but another one who does things off the cuff and needs to be allowed freedom. Martin even managed to mute the game out of him, he's looked good for Bournemouth this season in the league above. Very similar story of Charles too in that Championship season, two very good players who have proven since that they are very good players, just used terribly by a manager who's idea of squad management was entirely skewed.

He's proven his ability over there, so I'm not surprised there will be interested people. He's not a bad coach as he has proven pedigree, but what he inherited here was just impossible to do anything with. He probably knew it on day 2 to be honest and I imagine very quickly regretted his decision. It was an odd club swing as well to go from one style extreme to the other mid-season. The squad was built for Martin's propoganda-ball so no one else stood a chance to be honest, his best chance was us spending in January but we didn't do anything so it was a lost cause. I don't have bad feeling towards him, it was just a really weird appointment which was subsequently not even backed with the appropriate players.

He'll have a lot of possession up there for sure. I don't think he'll need to worry too much about defending as the level is so bad, so in theory he should do well. It may be a bit propoganda-ish at times and will probably bore the living daylights out of the Rangers fans. If he doesn't do well though and flops up there than that's that for his philosophy.

He certainly was as bad as people make him out to be, he's terrible. We don't need stats to tell us what we can see with our own eyes though, and we all saw how bad he was in plain sight, however the stats do allow us to rubber stamp our opinions and stick a cherry on top if anyone doubted their own judgements. He cannot be trusted as a competent GK.

If I was advising him, I'd tell him that a good season as a key player in a Championship side would benefit you much more than heading to Spurs and Utd and being part of a dysfunctional mess, and on the bench. Obviously money comes into it, but at his age he should be worrying about his development and playing games in a winning side at Championship level will do a lot more for his development than sitting on the bench at Spurs. Otherwise he'll end up as a Jack Clarke or Patrick Roberts type player - snared at a young age for big bucks, but actually has to go back to the Championship to earn his trade anyway - years later than would have been the case had they stuck at Leeds and Fulham respectively. Hopefully he has his head screwed on.

With this fella, and Sanda in the U21's, we have a couple of absolute physical beasts of CB's. It'll be interesting to see how they develop over the coming years in the rest of their game, if we get a chance to enjoy them that is. Something I hoped ABK would bring us was pace and power when he signed, and at the start he kind of did, but that didn't really equate to anything further. There's a hell of a lot more to defending than just being quick and powerful, but they are two pretty unique ticks to have in the box as a CB for sure. From what I've read this fella seems like he's more in line with the first team than Sanda, but we'll see how both go. Definitely a sign that our first signing is quick and powerful.

As much as we rightfully bash SR and their scouting, we do have to acknowledge the gem they've pulled out of nowhere here.

I know people are suggesting he could be a super sub, but in much the way as Ings was - he's not that sort. He needs games and runs of goals to get into form, if he's in and out of the team and off the bench it never seems to work for him. So if he sticks around, he'll be a starter if we're going to maximise the best we can for him. I do have a feeling that he's for sale at the right price though.

Could Fernandes be this years KWP? A player with absolutely no place in the Championship, but stuck around and was predictably ridiculous at that level. I'll continue to expect him to leave though, just so my expectations are in check!

The only extensions I can see out of that lot are Dibling (the automatic 1 year clause) and Charles. The rest will either go this summer, or leave in the next 6-12 months. If the club offer an extension to Sulemana they are nuts. This is their last summer to get a 'decent' fee for him, take £5-10m and run. Never going to make their money back so they should stop hoping.

You know that this will drag on and on and on and on. It was said on promotion they were going to get screwed over points wise, then that was all cleared. You'll probably hear nothing more of it and they'll still be able to buy. PSR is just nonsense and I don't think it's worth adhering to really, not to the level we do anyway. It's so easy to wiggle out of.

I don't get it, I can't work it out in my head - why are there still people who think Bazunu is fine? I include coaches and managers in that too. He's not a capable goalkeeper, you only have to look at his physical attributes to come to that conclusion. He cannot do the role, it won't change. I don't know why he was ever changed to a GK. If the club continue putting their eggs in the Bazunu basket in the summer and next season, then I give up. Either Will Still is as moronic as the rest, or he's being dictated like a puppet by Rasmus. I hope neither come true. The GK decision will be the one that demonstrates if the club are getting back to grips with things, or are still utterly rudderless with no real idea.

Not a great wum attempt to be fair, 1/0.

We've had a season of friendlies, so it'll be interesting to see who we line up. They need to be competitive really in relation to the level we're at. I see very little point in glamorous home friendlies against European teams, which we lose, as that doesn't reset the culture as we've just spent an entire year losing games. Huddersfield/Bolton/Reading/Totton/Eastleigh - those sorts. Strong enough to give us a game, but 'easy' enough for us to try and win to get that feeling back.

That was probably Liverpool at home a few years ago tbf. He at least had a finishing touch that day. I don't see anything in him and I don't think the club can keep him around, it's not going to work out. Much the same as Moussa, we can't continue to flog a dead horse just because he can run.

For sure, less quality, but to end any season on 12 points, 30 defeats out of 38 and with a -60 GD has to be the worst effort of a team ever - irrespective of the level you're at. It's hard to really live that down. I know we're not officially worse than Derby, but I don't think there's anything in it really. The way the club celebrated 12 points showed how out of touch they were. We've got the 'most defeats ever' award in our bag though, so that's something.

Has there ever been such a dull end of the season before? Title done in April, relegation done in December, runner up decided weeks ago. Just the little scrap for Champions League football which ended up exactly how people predicted it would anyway. Forest just inevitably fell away after making the most of the misfiring City/Chelsea for the majority of this season. Non-event of a season from a neutral point of view, dull as dishwater. Championship will be more entertaining at the very least.

He's a tidy enough player, but he needs help around him as he is weak as piss. He gets gobbled up in a midfield 2, and when Martin tried to play him in the Downes role last year it was inevitable what would happen. That 2nd goal today summed up every bit of weakness in his game and it's why he cannot be trusted in that role. He's a tidy enough footballer, but you need to keep him away from the engine room and further up the top end. Make sure he's got power/strength around him, and he'd probably be a decent squad option next season. I would be very, very disappointed and underwhelmed if he's starting for us in CM next season though.

Absolutley this. Now we can forget this shit show ever happened.

Personally I wouldn't lose sleep if 90% of the squad went, but I appreciate that's not achievable and we'll start the season with some of the same group. I can't see Ramsdale sticking around though, there will be a market for him at his rumoured release clause. I'd ditch Sulemena into the first taxi going, today summed him up perfectly really. Loads of pace, trickery, but zero end product. Let's not forget his last stint in the Championship, entirely uneventful and injury-ridden. I'd take what we can and close the chapter on the Sulemana story as soon as we can. In terms of starting players, we need a new GK, new RB, new 10, new wide player(s), new centre forwards, new CB. We're looking at 7-8 new additions in my eyes, I don't think that's too insurmountable. Expecting to lose Ramsdale, Dibling, Fernandes, THB, KWP (obvs), Aribo, Bednarek

Thank goodness that is over, the most miserable and demoralising season in my supporting life. But this season is now in the past, we now need to use what went before to create something brand new. There's nothing here to salvage or to work with, we just have to start all over again - in a way, that's kind of exciting and I'm intrigued for what the summer and next season brings. I think we all appreciate how grossly unprepared we were for the PL, we started the season weaker than we finished the Championship season and that should be a sackable offence for everyone involved - and it seems as if it was deemed as a sackable offence, as we've had a churn in coaching, management, scouts etc since that ill-fated summer. I'm glad we're not pissing around in the first few weeks of pre-season with a who will it be manager debate, we know who that is, we know who the scouts are, we know who the DoF is - there's nothing to wait for, we've got everything in place to now start reshaping this team from the ground up. In terms of today's game, I find it really, really hard to read much into it - much like the City game, it's an irrelevant result really. Both teams were on the beach (we've been on the beach all season) and it was just a glorified friendly. The couple of special mentions go to Taylor, out in the cold but brought back in and I thought he was alright - I don't think Arsenal tested him a great deal, but he didn't let himself down and it begs the question why the hell Juric and Martin didn't even consider him as an option. Pleased for Stewart to get a goal, from a pure personal point of view that must mean so much to him. I'd really like to stress caution to the club though, we cannot use these end of season cameos as evidence that we don't need a striker. We do. He will potentially be a decent squad option for us next season, but we simply HAVE to plan for a new striker(s), and if we don't then we're stupid and we're still making the wrong decisions. Anyway, season over, summer upon us and let's see what it brings. This is the end game for Sports Republic, they have one last chance to get this right. I'm sure their intentions are entirely right and they want to get this right, but we just need their decision making to improve. Let's see where we are in a few months.

He's probably labbing us up on Football Manager as we speak.

I forgot about Fraser actually, good question on wtf we do with him. I think we extracted the last useful few months from his career, I'm not sure he's capable anymore - I hope we only gave him a 2 year deal? I can't remember. That was a silly signing really, the club should have known we needed better than him in July. Manning and Wellington as LB's next season is more than good enough. RB with Bree and maybe Kesler-Hayden from Villa, who is a pretty close clone to KWP.