S-Clarke

Probably the same people who thought it was a good idea to offer Moussa a new deal, and also put a new deal on the table for Elyounoussi.

Looks like a bit of a flawed player, still only young but I don't think he's going to make it.

I personally think he is lacking physically, for a GK he is pretty small in stature. He doesn't have the reach to get to the corners low or high, so for him it's even more critical that his initial positioning is right - as half a step the other way kills him dead as his lack of stature means he won't be able to recover.

A Viera and Henry combo is something which keeps coming up in my mind as well, the sort of appointment which could galvanise the fanbase and add enough stardust to convince the likes of Alcaraz to stay, whilst having the power to attract players that are probably out of our reach. (It's amazing what happens when you have status at a club in terms of attractiveness, no matter what league you are in) I think Henry is potentially waiting for the USA National Team Job, but there's nothing stopping him coming here for a year and then progressing. The sort of appointments which lend themselves to our conveyor belt reputation.

That bloke has become a parody of himself, fairly sure 90% of what he says nowadays is to get reaction. a 'Positive' WUM if there was ever such a thing.

And yet we're still relegated, so those results were utterly pointless and worthless. Forest, Palace, Wolves, Leeds - those were the games and we weren't good enough. No good turning up for the glamour ties if you can't do it when the expectations are higher, doesn't show well for the character of the squad if I'm honest. Probably quite easy to raise your game on TV against top of the league, bit of a showpiece for you to put to other clubs, but the same isn't true for Palace at home where they throw it away - regularly.

Honestly, the guy is hideous. Fraud of a footballer. I don't think I've ever watched such a bad CM for us, and we had Jermaine Wright and Paul Wotton to endure for a few years.

I'd say expectations need to be quelled there a little bit. In the summer you'll have WHU, Leeds, Palace etc looking for new managers. Potter isn't going to join us when those jobs are avaliable, and those clubs would be daft to ignore him if they had the opportunity. We are a Championship club and we are not going to be recruiting proven, young, PL managers.

He looked absolutely out on his feet at the end of the game, I can't be the only one who noticed that? I don't think it's a case of protecting him for the upcoming games, it was more a case of protecting him in the here and now. It's easy to forget that he's just a kid, 19 years old, probably doesn't quite have the stamina for top level football at that pace 'yet'.

The stats don't give him much movement for praise to be honest, statistically currently the worst keeper in any of Europe's top leagues - and not just by a small margin either, quite comfortably bad. He may have had some talent when he came here but I think we've finished him off.

Exactly, I made the point earlier that this sub alone isn't one to rant about. The issue with the sub was the replacement coming off of the bench, and sadly that's the case with a lot of our subs. If we'd have kept Romeu and made that same sub tonight with Romeu coming off the bench, we win that and everyone would be praising Selles.

It would be a good save if it actually stayed out, but his touch put it straight back into the danger area so his initial save is null and void and pretty pointless.

I think we did for certain parts of the game, but how this bunch folded on 88 mins was unacceptable really. For professional players to sink like they did was embarrassing and they need to look at themselves in the mirror. This isn't a new thing, they consistently throw away games because they're bottlers.

I just find it hard to totally throw yet another manager under the bus when the fundamental issues here are the players. End of. There are things every manager can have done better, no denying it, but the players get let off lightly here.

50 min minimum I'd have thought?

I know people will throw the shit Selles way, but from a neutral point of view he was freshening up the midfield where Lavia was beginning to blow. The real issue here, as many managers have found before him, is that the quality of replacements on the bench are utterly, utterly inept. I guarantee if that sub was made tonight but Romeu was the replacement the result would have been different.

He didn't get that shot away at all, pushed it straight back into the danger zone. No surprise he'd fluff it during the moments we needed a capable GK.

Such bottle jobs really, you don't throw away a game from the position we are in - don't care who we are playing, inept management both on and off the field. A win wouldn't have really mattered either way as we are still done, but these morons still managed to ruin everyone's weekends in a situation where expectations were so low to start with. Only Southampton.

I would think about it if they were paying us £11.99 to watch it, but I still think I'd want more.

Robert Pires hattrick and a Pennant hattrick I think. That was a miserable evening.

I'll have some of what you're drinking!

I think the 11 players on the pitch on Saturday would argue otherwise.

It would bring their decision making into the spotlight again, that's for sure.

Agreed, they need to accept the reality and start planning for next year, we are done. Like you say it's all mathematically possible, but there's more to football than maths. I think after our defeat to Arsenal we can only hit a maximum of 41 points, we pretty much have no margin for error at that point.

The club has sadly lost it's way, mainly born out of believing it's own hype. We didn't reinvent football, we didn't reinvent scouting, we didn't reinvent tactics - we just got lucky and things fell into place for a few years. Exactly the same is happening to Brighton and Brentford now, they haven't reinvented anything, they've just hit a lucky formula which won't last forever. Clubs like us will always have periods where things work out, we had it under Poch and Koeman in the PL. Bolton had it with Big Sam, Brighton with Potter/De Zebri, Stoke with Pulis, Swansea with Monk/Laudrup and even Sunderland with Bruce. Without mega, mega, mega investment behind you the inevitable will always happen - the big players will get sold and things start dipping. Obviously you can reduce the dip if your scouting is up to standard and you reinvest well, but the moment clubs like us take their eye off the scouting and start recruiting duds then you're screwed. You end up with loads of expensive mistakes you can't shift which in turn stops you from investing in better. We managed to do that for 3/4 years in a row and I'd say that's why we are where we are today. The decision making in the last 12/18 months has been shocking, but the decisions being made are happening because of the crap that went on before - change needed to happen, we'd had a serious lack of investment for years and a squad full of rubbish, so I don't hold it against SR for looking at it and accepting we need change....the problem is that they've gone about it wrong and in my opinion over estimated the quality of the experience we had (Ely, Moussa, Bednarek, McCarthy, JWP, Adams, Armstrong etc etc). The upcoming summer will enable us a chance to further reset, but rather than a half reset we need to go the full hog. We can't carry the likes of Theo, Ely, Moussa, Armstrong and those sorts anymore - we have to be ruthless and let the contracts expire which can expire, then reinvest in the right sort of players who can make an impact. Not kids, but proven players down the spine of the team. Stick this current lot in the Championship as it is today and we'd be eaten alive most weeks, we need some steel in this side like we had when we were last in the Champ, otherwise we are in for a very rude awakening.