S-Clarke

It's boring, but you've got to respect it really. It's not simply down to money either, as seems to be the easy thing to proclaim. Man Utd have spent more than them over the last few years, and let's not even start with Chelsea. They might have money, but they've done it right and they have a manager in place who has raised the level of a lot of those players. When they bought Dias, Rodri, Alvarez, KDB and co they weren't ready made superstars, but he's raised their level massively. That's been the difference for me, you've got Chelsea chasing ready-made superstars, Man Utd going for Ronaldo/Pogba/Casimero etc, but City just doing it another way and developing. I know the piss is taken out of our obsession with Man City and copying them etc, but there is a reason why - they do a lot of good stuff there, money or no money.

So competitive that we will finish 10 points adrift in one of the worst bottom halves of the leagues in many years, maybe ever.

That was disgusting by Aribo tbh. Shocking footballer. Stealing a living.

Sigh. Normal service.

It's unusual for us to score from a corner! collectors item that one.

I can imagine them wanting to kill the players ruining all their hard work.

Exactly, that's the problem - we've all been burnt and because of that I think we were all hoping for a 'statement' appointment to galvanise everyone, not that it was realistic I guess. He does need to get off to a good start from day 1, but starting with us as early as possible gives him that chance I guess. Nothing more we can do than hope.

Got to get behind it really! It's time for this club to reconnect with the fans again, and hopefully he's the sort of personality which will begin that. Dubious, of course and understandably, but it's counterproductive if we are all against it from day 1. Deserves our support 100% no matter what our feelings are on it, I'm hopeful that his Championship knowledge will help us build a team capable of competing at this level, as at the moment this current lot would struggle to stay up. There is an enormous amount of work to do, so the sooner it starts the better.

If the rumours are to believed, he will be. Martin expected to be announced in the next 24 hrs, so yeah - we all know he's toast. Not that I totally blame Selles, there comes a point where you have to look beyond the managers and focus on the utter idiots we have going out on the field every week.

Would love to see it, but I don't think the PL have the guts. It'll end up under that big carpet which is currently full of Man City's findings as well.

Leeds handing it on a plate to WHU, think that's them done and dusted. Everton safe by their finger nails once again.

Can you think of another time where a media link has been made up as a smokescreen for someone else? Because i can't. I see this all the time with players or links to managers etc, it's just media chat, smokescreen to keep the real news quiet etc etc. It's nonsense. Martin is our new manager.

Hard not to be to be honest, they've driven me to despair for over 18 months now!! Never been so despondent over a bunch of players before, I really can't stand them. I just want to get behind a team again and feel connected with it, I've never felt as disconnected with this club as I do at the moment.

I don't think I've ever despised a Saints team as much as this bunch of cunts. Bar 1 or 2, I hope to never see any of them ever, ever again. Taken the piss out of my club and taken the money.

Equally can't see the point in Ely, Theo or Aribo either. They won't be with us next year.

Can't wait to see the no striker approach.

Done and dusted methinks. Must be close to a sticky?

£35m might have seemed a lot to spend on him, but if you put it into context compared to us - we spent a combined £30-35m on Onuachu, Orsic and Aribo I 'think' they got better value.

It's weird isn't it? They say relegation scraps are stressful, intense etc, but I've felt more relaxed in the last few months than I have for many years at this stage of the season. Only we could have made relegation comfortable.

This isn't clickbait, it will happen. Not sure why you seem to be in denial about what will be the worst kept secret ever.

That original tweet seems to have been posted by a family member of TWar. Lauding stats, but looking for excuses as to why those stats don't actually equal success. It does feel more and more like a metric and statistic driven appointment. With this approach we'll just keep rotating managers like Watford imo. Hopefully we're all proven wrong.

No one is frothing at the mouth, there have actually been lots of reasoned posts and some really good debates. The concerns and doubts people have are totally founded, but I wouldn't say those doubts equate to people frothing at the mouth like you proclaim. It feels like you are sensationalising peoples views to try and make them look worse than they are.

We were there though, as cloggy said. We experienced what Brighton and Brentford are going through, it was great fun but it's simply not sustainable when it's built on a sell-to-buy model, and those clubs will have to follow the same model without Saudi backing. In a few years time they will be slogging around at the bottom end of the league again, and I reckon they'll be back in the Championship at some point in the next 10 years. It's just par the course for clubs like us, we'll hit a formula that works for a bit, the big clubs rip the hell out of us for trying, and that's the end of that. It's the food chain of top level football, that will never change.

He'll be off, fairly sure there is some concrete interest from Germany.

Yeah, this is the element that concerns me the most really. I actually think his teams play ok and he seems to come across really well as a young manager, but he wouldn't have experienced in his career what he is about to experience here. It's a totally different kettle of fish managing MK Dons or Swansea with 0 money, to managing a recently relegated football club with lots of players who want out and massive expectation to hit the ground running. This is where I've always felt someone like Viera or Cooper (if they ditch) would have been a much better shout, as they'd have been in similar situations and would have managed similar personalities as well (and in the case of Viera, played at the very top with all sorts of personalities). We have been losing games every single week for almost 2 years, there is no scenario where this fan base is going to accept a year of inconsistent bollocks/losing games at a lower level. He needs to be a hit from day 1, as harsh as that sounds, as otherwise he'll be onto a loser.