S-Clarke

Not writing him off at all, that's just the reason he's been parachuted in - Eckert knows him and trusts him. In ahead of experience is the strange call though, as we have very little experience. He's not a wonderkid though. He's 21 years old, he's not a kid and his loans at a lower level have been pretty low-par. We're not dealing with an Ox, Dibling, Bale style prodigy here. Just a bog standard lower league player. There are a couple of other kids in the U21's who play with bragg - Whitmarsh and Romeo, both purchased from Ireland with big fanfare for around £1m. Why not use those?

It gets even clearer by the day to me. Lallana is going to manage the U21's. If Eckert fails, they'll let him fail over a long period of time before acting, and then act by saying they had no choice and he'd likely be sacked - similar trajectory to Selles and Rusk, it will be no difference. We'd then get your Mowbray sort in to stabilise into the summer, and go through another round of charades then. It will follow an almost identical path to everything which has gone before.

I still think our Sports Science/physio dept is another area that is non-league in quality though. They couldn't get Larios fit, they couldn't get ABK fit (if it was truly fitness), and they signed off on and obviously cannot get Stewart fit. I wouldn't trust them with my nan's dodgy hip.

Of course he's going to pick his U21 mates, no brainer. He knows this guy, so he'll pick him. But a half fit Downes or a half fit Aribo is a better option than Bragg, we all know it. He'll be plying his trade in L1/L2 in a year (probably with us to be fair)

Don't forget the impact Theo had. In all seriousness with Oriol, he hasn't played for a while - so I guess they're building him up. He hasn't shown any injury issues in the last couple of seasons.

When you've got the fans of one of their other clubs, posting this, on our forum....it just shows you how bleak it is. They will never change, they will never improve. They simply do not have the ability or knowledge to manage a professional/elite sports setup at any level. They have the reverse Midas touch on everything. They just have to give it up and sell both of us.

Dusic/Saint_Charlie is a proper wum by the way, not to ruin his fun - but everything he's been saying about the managers is trolling and trying to wum people. Pay no attention, and just laugh at it. Have a look through his post history, he's even at it during the transfer windows linking us with players who retired 20 years ago. Sorry for spoiling your fun Dusic. Anyway, as expected we lurch into Charlton with an even weaker first team coaching setup than we had against Wednesday, and given that they've had the entire international break to sort that is quite something. In essence, the first team is being coached and managed by the entire U21 cohort, there is no remaining senior coaches at the club. We are being coached by Ben fricking Reeves and Jimmy Newton who have forever been with the U21's. It's a mess. The club try to dress this up as being 'calm and relaxed about the situation' - but this is a fucking mess. How a club with the finances we have this year, and the money we've spent, have ended up with the entire incumbent u21 coaching team managing the first team in November, in a season where promotion was required, is nothing short of horrific. Fuck off SR. Just go. Nothing will change my view ever.

We are going to need to be several levels better than we were against QPR or Wednesday. We got very, very, very fortunate against QPR. Charlton have a decent home record and seem to be consolidating themselves, they'll be up for it and if we play like we did at QPR we will be trounced.

As far as I can tell, we are in that dangerous holding pattern which equates to ''The club are comfortable with the current situation'' - so you won't see any news, and zero rumours. The club want Tonda to get the job, that much is clear. At this stage I don't expect any new manager this side of Christmas and we'll bumble along with Tonda, until it becomes obvious the job is too big for him and the season is effectively done and dusted. We are witnessing the next SR masterclass of club management unfold in front of our eyes.

Wages would stop us doing that. We can't pay anyone 100 odd k in the Champ. If Newcastle do dump him back, we will have to find another taker for 6 months pretty sharpish (or a sale)

I guess you mean QPR away? That was awful, we've had loads of bad performances this year and that was another one of them, one of the worst for me. We didn't win that through any sort of tactical masterclass, we won that through luck and a bit of bodies thrown on the line at the end. But let's be frank, we should not be hanging on against QPR in the final stages of the game given the stature and value of our squad. Our lack of game management was simply horrific. Sheffield Wednesday are a credit to their fans by how much effort they play with each game, lots of heart in that small squad - but they are so, so poor. They'll struggle in L1 with their current squad, let's not kid ourselves. The acid test is the next 3. Charlton, Leicester and Millwall I think. It shouldn't be the acid test for Tonda though as we should have used this break to appoint an actual, you know, real life manager, but there we are.

I've found SR's plans for the new bridge.

Norwich are as much of a basket case as us with the squad, hated DoF, hated owners etc. Players attacking fans on social media, it's a bit of a mess. He'd have a similar struggle there, but at least he'd have his number 9.

Hard to disagree. Gao was absolutely non-descript for us and did almost certainly start the decline from the post-Liebherr era, but his hands off approach froze us in time for a bit really as he left alone what he didn't understand. SR don't leave alone what they don't understand, always meddling.

I thought he did alright at Nice a few years ago, and he wasn't absolutely rancid at palace by any means. He got promotion with Geona last year, but it didn't quite happen in Serie A for whatever reason. Koeman had some stinkers too - at Valencia if I remember right - but bossed the Dutch League. Everton fans didn't like him though, but they never like anyone. I just feel that this squad needs a leader, it needs a focal point at the top who they can 1) respect and 2) trust. Will Still, in my opinion, isn't a bad manager. I just think he was quite weak and he lacked the experience and leadership to steer a fairly broken squad. Put Still into an environment like Coventry and he'd fly. Eckert is another kid, he's not even a manager as he's never managed the mens teams. It's not what we need right now. There's a time and a place for these things, but SR seem too thick to actually understand the contexts of situations.

Until the UI is made better, or the modding community are given more autonomy to make bigger UI changes, then it's a dead game as far as I'm concerned. It may be a couple of versions away - hopefully it comes back to life. I see it as that transition from Championship Manger to FM, that took a couple of release cycles. Although CM to FM was at a time when the UI/Modding community was less important, so it's a pretty big stopper now.

I read something that suggest club sources feel he is too 'light weight' for the Championship. It should have been obvious when they were scouting him, no? I think he's a good player with time and space, but it looks like he could snap in half with a bad tackle.

I think there are a few options out there. Vieira is one I've mentioned a few times, I'd make a big play for him. A former elite-level player who'd bring instant respect, the sort of gravatas that Koeman carried when he came in. I'd have even made a play for him before we got Martin in 2023. Not at the same extreme, but Ole is another one who'd gain respect from those around him. But Viera is the one I'd push for. There are interesting parallels because Eckert was his assistant at Geona and Spors appointed Viera AND Eckert at Genoa.

We've all seen this script before, it's been 3/4 years of this same script. We all know exactly how it will end, so there is no point in waiting. We knew Bazunu would be shit, there was no point in waiting. We knew Stephens would be shit, there was no point in waiting. We know that Eckert is Selles Mark II so there's no point in waiting. It will end with him maybe stuttering to a couple more wins as we sniff to the edges of the Top 6 and everyone wets their pants, they'll announce him as manager until the end of the season. Come the end of the season, we'd have fallen off and finished bottom half of the Championship. We are then going to sack him or do whatever with him, and be in the market for a new manager once again. At that stage we are a much less attractive proposition. Less money, less competitive as stronger teams will be in the league, and the usual 'no pre-season to plan, as we're looking for a new manager' nonsense. Now is the time to appoint the manager who can raise the standards and instal the experience this squad needs. Not next year, not in the summer. Now.

Did you ever have any PM exchanges with those charlatans? Those were interesting times during a pretty bleak period, in footballing terms we're back where we were when those two were whoring themselves around actually. Maybe they'll come back to life? I've been waiting for the monkey petting zoo for decades.

I see the usual small cohort of ''It will be fine, why is everyone up in arms, he's won 2 out of 2'' have come out in their droves this morning. It's the same cohort who said ''Bazunu is fine for the Championship' and that 'Stephens is fine for us'. Head in sand and fingers in ears spring to mind.

Then they shouldn't have removed Will Still in the first place.

It shows that they also have no idea about football if they consider those two wins, which the local journos now seem to be proclaiming as a good start, as any form of benchmark. They were shit. QPR particular was non-league quality from us. How we played in the final 15 mins of that game would have scared me away from any manager.

They like to think they're clever, but they are actually thick as absolute shit. Probably the thickest owners in the world. They haven't got a clue how to run football clubs.

They are desperate to give it to him, you can tell. They are absolutely chomping at the bit. But they are scared of fan reaction. So they'll delay it. Hope he keeps picking up results, then they have the ammunition to do so. If he stops picking up results, starting at Charlton, they'll flap and appoint Tony Mowbray until the end of the season. You watch. Basically there was zero point in sacking Will Still. Absolutely no point. If this was there direction, then they should have just backed him properly.