S-Clarke

He's one of those types you bump into a lot in corporate/high end positions. They talk such a good game, sound like they're so grounded and full of great ideas, but the reality is they are just a mouthpiece for their own showboating. He is just talk really, I wasn't never endeared with him a great deal last season. For someone who comes across in these interviews as an intelligent and grounded bloke, he doesn't half get spikey when he's ever questioned during pressure moments - that should tell you all you need to know about the underlying character behind all the fluff. If you hear some of his soundbites now, they should be ringing alarm bells to any prospective clubs 1) Criticising Tottenham for passing it around the back, critising spurs for creating their own problems. Totally blind to the fact that is what he preaches at his own teams. I'm not sure if he was just being stupid with that comment, or he knew exactly what he was doing. 2) The snippets coming out that we didn't have enough 'physicality', or we didn't get the players he wanted, we were weaker than we were in the Champ etc. He was pretty much main man number 1 in our transfer committee during the summer, he oversaw the decisions to sign BBD, Taylor, Fraser, Archer, Wood and sell Charly and such. Wood and Fraser in particular were his own picks, the fact he thought either were suited to PL football raises question marks about his game knowledge and decision making. As I said, he talks a good game, but beyond that it's all a load of fluff and propaganda really.

Some good shouts there, I've been a fan of Van Ewijk ever since he went to Coventry. Fellows is realistic and Saiz is a highly ambitious, but achievable target. I can't see Wellington leaving after only signing for us a couple of months ago, not unless we get a silly offer. I can see him being our first choice LB next season. Don't forget that we've also got those two guys who are currently at Gotzepe to come back, a CM and an attacker. There's a hell of a lot to do this summer, more so than last time - and there will be much less left over quality to work with, so we can't afford anymore £9m Stewart gambles.

The 'sensible' and seemingly most achievable/realistic appointment would be Rohl, as he's somewhat aligned with what we're trying to do (and our DoF). I know there are similar parallels from when we went for Martin, but I see Rohl's achievement as much, much greater. His Wednesday team were absolutley adrift when he came in, they had no chance, yet he kept them up with space to spare - and this season has even had them in the conversation for the playoffs, which is ridiculous given the level of players and lack of investment he's had. He seemingly has the ability to extract every ounce out of a player and he has coaching pedigree of a much higher level than Martin had. So whilst there are parallels in terms of mid-table champ finishes, I think it's important to look at the context of both scenarios to appreciate that Rohl would actually be a really, really good shout. This may all be nonsense if SR have another ''think outside the box'' moment though. I wouldn't bet against it.

I guess there comes a point where there's nothing else to do, other than having a laugh and enjoy a bit of gallows humour - I get that. But...the passionate applause at the final whistle baffled me, these guys don't deserve a drip of our sweat let alone a clap. The worst bunch to ever wear our shirt, they shouldn't be getting clapped under any circumstances.

I appreciate your positivity at times manji, but saying stuff like this in wake of the earliest ever relegation and in light of us being the worst ever team to grace the PL, I think it's a bit silly to say the plan is coming to fruition - unless part of the plan is to create mass collateral damage first. Let's be honest there isn't a plan, and there hasn't been a plan since 2022.

Of the entire season? should have just stayed down!

Oh yeah absolutley, just picking on Stoke as they seem a similar-ish example of being Established in the PL, making an absolute hash of constant managerial appointments (funnily enough the same ones as we tried), and are now teetering on the brink of L1.

Thanks for erm.....yeah, no worries. He'll be forgotten fairly quickly. Last chance for SR to get this right for me, who do they go for now?

Another record ticked off. Just one last one to finalise, 7 games to go - can we do it???

There does need to be a huge turnover for sure, as if we keep this core together the hangover will drag us further down. There are some players who will never recover from this season. We need to reinvest in quality (Easier said than done with these morons) and build a strong Championship team. My fear is that we won't go far enough in the summer with the changes and we'll start with a hangover, which will end promotion hopes before the season really ever starts. Could be all about the 2nd season, but then you're into luck territory and bordering on becoming Stoke v2.

An absolute mess of a summer, it doesn't help when the recruitment was spearheaded without any DoF - that was always a massive concern for me, why they didn't feel the need to replace is beyond me. They let Martin run riot with his mates, and we managed to build a Championship team for the PL. When you look at it last season we had Stu Armstrong, Adams, Brooks, Edozie, Charly - Somehow I think we managed to end this season with a weaker side than we got promoted with, that takes some serious going. Well done to everyone.

He's one of maybe two who can hold his head up and say that he's actually put in a showing this year. I wish him luck for wherever he goes in the summer, it'll be to a top flight club in some league for sure - could see him suited to Spain. It's been a fleeting visit from him, but he's done all he could as a young lad in a foreign country.

Close to something truly special, for real? It's like saying ''If Armstrong had been like Hazard, we'd have been so good!'' We're sat on 10 points in April. We are not remotely close to anything truly special in any way shape or form. To be sat on 10 points in April is not because of a lack of fricking luck (it's probably lucky we've got 10 as it is), it's because all areas of this club have failed on catastrophic levels to create the most embarrassing and worst PL side in history. Truly special, for all the wrong reasons. They've humiliated an entire city.

Our defensive options are pretty poor, when you compare to other top nations. We don't have any players, outside of Stones, that I'd class as a top level CB. There are certainly no Rio's, Terry's or Sol's in the current group. Defo our weakest area and why I've always thought we need to play to attack and score, rather than the Southgate approach to keep it tight as our defensive players aren't good enough.

Someone needs to tell him to retire for his own benefit. He needs a new career as football isn't for him anymore. I feel sorry for him, but someone close has got to be honest with him now.

Yeah, he was Martin-Russell Lite. I can't look past the team he had at Hull, Carvalho, Giles, Seri, Greaves, Tyler Morton, Philogene, Twine, Delap, Omur. And he didn't even make the playoffs, but he had good possession. Yes, Hull have struggled this season, but of those players above - who were key - none of them are there anymore, so they were always going to drop off. But I will always think that Rosenior flopped big by not getting them to finish above WBA or Norwich with the squad he had available last year.

Ultimately if the clubs goal is to make money by buying low and selling high, then it is kind of reliant on scouting good players, otherwise the whole stance is flawed before it begun. There is no doubt that the recruitment and analysis has been crap, they've failed for so many years. I don't really know what the structure is and if it's been changed a great deal since Ralphs time in particular, but whatever is in place does need to be scraped in entirety and started again - not peace mill changes, it needs an entire broom. Whilst I agree with most of your points on the duds, I think it's hard to put Edwards into that category. He's somewhat lucky not to have been hugely tarnished by this shitfest and has managed to have a good season personally for himself, so that's not someone I'd class as a dudd.

There is certainly an element of truth in that, but in general terms there are still £15m-20m players out there. It's all down to scouting. Dean Huijsen was £15m - class player. Alex Scott £20m, Milos Kerkez £17m, Justin Kluivert £10m. Semenyo £10m. So it's possible, but it's all down to scouting. Those solid buys who grew into the team at that range then allowed them to go big on someone like Evanlison. Bournemouth can also sit comfortably knowing that there will be a guaranteed profit on all of those £15-20m players they signed.

I'm not sure it is, I think it's quite relevant to go all the way back, as the mistakes made then opened the door to where we are today. We lost key players in those years, and spent big to replace them but we got them all wrong, not just 1 or 2, but every single one of them. Hoedt, Vestergaard, Boufal, Carillo to name a few. When you get that many wrong, it's very hard for clubs of our size to recover and we inevitably regressed. Due to those mistakes of the past, we couldn't spend in order to keep up with the rest. I'm not denying that SR have turned an already bad situation into an unmitigated disaster, but in many ways they accelerated what was inevitable anyway. The key point is that clubs such as ourselves cannot make as many bad 'big' signings as we have done, and expect to be able to sustain competitiveness. Our model is to sell and replace, but when you buy shit you can't sell it and thus you can't replace, and slowly the squad just regresses. This summer needs to be an opportunity to reset the lot and move on from those mistakes of the past, we need to build a new future without hangers on covered in the mistakes from the past.

It goes back further than Ralph to be honest, he had some horrendous teams and worked with two hands behind his back most of the time. We fielded some shocking players under Ralph. It goes all the way back to Koeman leaving for me. He didn't get the assurances he wanted that the team would be built upon and he left. We lost him and then stripped the team of Mane, Pelle, Wanyama, Fonte over the course of that season. The replacements, which cost a lot, took us backwards and thus the cycle started. We could have fixed it when we got rid of Puel and sorted ourselves out, but they doubled down on it even further and spent more money on awful players and awful managers. At this point we're fucked, we're in a spiral of spending big, not being able to re-sell and thus our entire model falls through the floor. What happened after Koemans season had direct implications on our relegation, even though it was years down the line.

I wouldn't be against that at all, this summer needs a root and branch reset. This is not just fixing the problems from this season, it goes back years and the players who have been here throughout that need to go. We've really got to be ruthless and reset it all, otherwise we're just going to enter the same circle of potentially getting promotion and starting with Armstrong, Bednarek and Stephens again - those guys are not good enough. They might be good enough for the Championship, but I think the club need to look beyond that if they really want to build something worthwhile and stable. Ronnie Edwards is a good example of a player who has the potential to become a decent PL player, ditto Charles, so those are the sorts we need to be pitting our time against. Forget Bednarek, Armstrong and Stephens - they've had their time here. Interesting you mention Wellington by the way, he was ok when he was part of the team, he got nutmegged in one game and got hauled at half time - never to be seen again. Not quite sure what that's about, another question mark over the managers decision making where players like Sulemana continue to stink the place out, but Fernandes and Wellington are treated as the fall guys.

That's a very good post, and paints the entire picture really clearly there. In essence like you say, we've just made the wrong choices again and again and again. I have zero confidence that the people in charge will make the right calls this summer, as it stands I'm not sure what the future holds for us. I'd take a stab that a Stoke style existence being more than likely in the current guise. All we needed when Martin was dumped is someone to do the basics. Trying to evolve an entire style mid-way with inferior players is foolish and suggests that those behind the scenes have no grip on the standards or abilities of players required. Hopefully they do now, but we've had to suffer whilst those idiots above slowly realise.

I'd say the obvious alternative was to start with a fucking proper striker to start with, then maybe he wouldn't have to flap around in the 90th min.

Walcott came into one of the strongest squads in the Championship in the first half of that season, we were expected to win and had quite high expectations on us. We weren't a poor team with poor players when he came into the side, which allowed him to impact. We didn't have the season we wanted that year, but it's a stretch to say he started out in a poor team. I'd lay more criticism at Sulemana/Archer/BBD/Armstrong etc - that's also their role, they're more experienced and should be producing way more than they have done. Tyler has already produced more than any of those this year. He's having a dip, but if he leaves (Which he likely will) we will be weaker for it. It would be daft to think otherwise. The problems are much deeper than an 18 year old falling out of form.

It's not, but the club has got it's self in this situation by tying it's self up in so many knots. They are terrible at recruitment of coaches, managers and players. Full stop. If they weren't so bad at that we wouldn't be looking to replace the manager again. For what it's worth I don't think it makes much odds to get rid of him now either, but he does need to go in the summer so we can start next season with an entire broom. Players, coaches, managers, scouts, analysts. Everything needs to start again. No half arsed efforts or sticking plasters, they need to reset every single bit of the football operation in the summer and then maybe we can stick rather than swaying from side to side every few months. I don't have much confidence in that though, as their decision making is amongst the worst in the world. I can't think of any club in any league executing decisions as badly as ourselves over a consistent period of time.