S-Clarke

I've listened to snippets of it. Was this the one where he proclaimed Newcastle were in a false position under Pardew at the time, and that they'd fall off due to the GD extreme? Like you say, there are merits in what he says...but there are also some real positives to take away from how a team like Newcastle (at that time) could compete as high as they did, with such a low GD. The chances of teams like us being able to compete in the PL with a consistently high positive GD is slim to done, so you have to find other ways.

Probably, works out quite well timing wise. So, we now have a GK Coach, performance coach (fitness and analysis?), assistant and first team coach roles vacant. Any new manager can now build his own team around him, as we have the space. The only hanger on would be Lallana at this point. So even less reason, in my eyes, that they'd go for Eckert with such little experience around the place in the coaching setup. But talk about failing upwards. Trollope and Edwards were both a part in the relegation of Luton to L1, yet they've jumped back up to the prem.

Brings back memories of the days of Jamie Cureton and Chris Iwelumo ripping it up at Colchester in 2006 ish. Proper little guy playing off big guy vibes, I'm sure we were linked to Cureton the season after that.

Not too sure about Sesay - he seems a bit highly rated in game compared to his output for us in real life. In my save he was worth 8-10m, and had West Ham and Everton interested in him. Not entirely sure why, as that was in pre-season without any appearances. I did use him in game and he replaced Charles as my starter, so that's the only one which feels a bit off. That's when I stopped playing as none of it felt right.

I thought I'd give this more of a go over the weekend, I just can't get into it. They may have improved other elements of the game such as scouting/tactics etc, but for a start you can't find them and secondly the UI just renders anything rubbish. Even stuff like 'going on holiday' was a chore, it took me 10 mins to figure out where they'd moved that. And it didn't work, as soon as I clicked go on holiday the entire game closed. Amazing. The 3D match engine isn't perfect either. There was a moment where the goalie was floating at the top of the goal, and they scored. To be fair it's probably fairly realistic as Bazunu was in goal. The UI is just awful though, skins and mods can't even fix this and I've tried. It all just looks a bit too zoomed in for me and 'paint by numbers' in visual quality, it's like they've totally misunderstood how people played this game - they expect you to be playing full screen and not doing anything else. But I used to do it in window mode, minimise, do other bits, come back etc. Doing that now though looks utter rubbish. I'll skip this year and hope that things improve next year, but we're kind of relying on the modding community fixing this rather than SI.

I think he's on borrowed time. They debated sacking him in the summer, but stuck with him and let him build into the PL. Their fans have had enough now though. But as you said, they're still light a days above what we were last year! I do think they will get rid by Dec though.

He resigned from his role at Lens as far as I remember. Fairly sure there was no dealing with Lens, that was purely between Still and them.

That's just how it goes though, I'm not saying I'd be one of those vocals who would do that - but you just know how it would play out. He wouldn't have any rope and it wouldn't create that 'unity' I think we need, there would still be division with someone like him as our manager. Outside of all the skate connections though, I don't really think his credentials are what we need right now. He's another somewhat inexperienced/young manager who is still starting out and would still be learning on the job, rather than putting over his stacks of experience to our squad.

We have burned through 6 managers in what feels like a few months, we really have to get the next one right and any new manager will still have to go through some wobbles and adjustments to get there IMO - would the fan base provide Gary O'Neil any rope to afford a bedding in period? Absolutely not. A couple of bad results, and he'd be getting hounded out - and we're back to square one. I look at it fairly identically to Steve Cooper rocking up at Leicester. On the outside it looked a fairly sound appointment, but from the outside you don't appreciate the utter hate Leicester fans had for him - and that was just because he managed Forest for a couple of years. As soon as he hit a bumpy period, the place was toxic and he had to go. He had no time there because of his connections not allowing him any rope what so ever. In our current situation we need someone with appropriate gravatas, experience and non-connections to rivals in order to allow them the best possible chance to succeed here.

Albert Grønbæk

I've got a suggestion for Sports Republic based on that. Given where your reserve team sit, and where our reserve team sit...it may be prudent for SR to just own the B Teams at their clubs, and let grown ups take charge of the first team's at their clubs.

Marco Rose ticks all the boxes that Spors spoke about in the summer, he's your typical Red Bull style manager. I personally don't see any chance in this one, he'll have much higher expectations than 19th in England's 2nd tier.

Yep, he's another shout. I was just making the point that there were even freebie signings out there who'd have been an upgrade.

Exactly, I've not seen any difference in how we give up space, chances and how panicky we are at the back. Fundamentally I think we have a poor spine and that will always hinder us until we change that up. Eckert has simply had what Will Still never had on his side - luck.

But even that argument was flawed, because they didn't need to be a world beater and nor did we need to spend a million dollars to bring in anyone remotely better than Bazunu. Mat Ryan for example was a freebie. 1 year contract, option for a 2nd once the Ramsdale situation is finalised next year. Job done.

The club missed the opportunity in the summer to replace. Bazunu had returned to the club after his loan and a long lay off, not necessarily at that time seen as number 1. McCarthy was getting on, Lumley had left and Ramsdale was off. So rather than bring in some genuine competition and make a case for it, we added George Long as a pointless novelty squad addition. We didn't need a 3rd choice keeper, we needed a 1st choice who'd demote Bazunu to 2nd choice. It was really that simple, yet a lot on here lapped up the George Long addition in the summer saying it was sensible and that Bazunu was 'fine for the championship'. He really isn't and we're now in an almightily mess with 3 utterly horrendous goalkeepers.

I'm not getting carried away whatsoever by these two wins. QPR away was a disgusting performance by the way, we won...but fuck me, we were utterly non-league standard during the majority of that game. Today was better, but you have to look at it in the context - the oppo were horrendous. We had it on a plate really, we'd have had to have been totally out of our minds not to have won today. We didn't make it straight forward though, as I said I thought we gave them way too much of a sniff given their limitations - and a better side would have almost certainly picked us off. There are still lots and lots of problems and these two results don't cover those up for me, nor does Eckert.

He makes me sad. 4 years of having to deal with this utter heap of shit, and he's still throwing them in. He has never, not once, shown any remote sign of learning or improvement. He is not a goalkeeper. At this stage I'm just bored of it all.

I can't see it being Rodgers, we're not at the level for that kind of manager anymore. He'll hold out for a bit more and take a Prem job when Leeds or Fulham inevitably ditch theirs. I'm glad the O'Neil chatter has somewhat died down, he seems to be whoring himself about again on Sky this afternoon doing analysis - so probably safe to say that's not happening. Someone like Viera would be a solid shout, but I can't see us doing anything remotely sensible. We all know it can't be Eckert, someone none of us even knew in August, but sadly I think we also know it almost certainly will be.

It was OK, and two wins in a week cannot be sniffed at after what we've had to endure - but it wasn't amazing or breath-taking by any means. Today was better than midweek as Wednesday, for all their effort and fight, are one of the worst Champ sides in many years, maybe ever - yet I still felt they caused us problems, which is a massive course for concern. Whenever they attacked with any form of purpose they could have nicked one - luckily they had no quality to take advantage. A better side would have done us today. I liked Tom Fellows performance because he was able to push up today, and when he attacks he's a threat. That's why he was one of the better wide players in this league. He's a wide player, not a wing back. Against better sides it would be a travesty to have him held back defending. Bazunu is a boring argument really, we all know he's not a goalkeeper and today proved once again that he should simply retire. I'm just bored of it at this point, apathetic maybe. The next week or so is huge, as we need to use the tiny bit of momentum we've garnered to make the next appointment count. Let Ekert head back to the U21's and continue to grow with them, and maybe when we're less of a basket case he could be an interesting candidate to take over - but not now, absolutely not now. We need some knowhow on that touchline.

At this point you have to form the conclusion that '3 at the back' and Bazunu in goal is club directed. That's why any seriously competent/experienced manager is never appointed here, as he'd call it out for what it is. Still had a go at it, and he's now not in a job. Go figure.

This is the leak stage, gauge the reaction from the fanbase at tomorrow's home game, feel the un-rest and fan push back - but then appoint him anyway.

Well exactly, that's a genuine question and it's why any 'rope' Dragan has is really losing length. He can bring in another advisor if he wants.

I'd say he's messed up more than the Jones appointment. I look at his horror transfer window of January 2023, he was confirmed as having full responsibility over that window as Joe Shields had left. He left us with Oric, Onuachu and Sullemana - and an outlay of almost £50m on 3 players who contributed zilch. He has a lot to answer for beyond the Jones appointment.

Don't forget Orsic and Gronebak