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Everything posted by S-Clarke
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Basically saying, sack me and give me my $$$$$$$$ or I'll continue. I'm not sure they'll really achieve anything by dumping him, as they need a total revamp of that team. They were arrogant enough to ignore Ralf Rangniks comments a few years ago ''This club doesn't need fixes, it needs open heart surgery'' - so more fool them.
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I will stand by my opinion that we were promoted because of the quality we had, which enabled us to dig ourselves out of holes at that level, rather than anything he enabled coaching or team wise. His approach tied us up in more knots than anything tbh. ''All the times he adapted'' - I find that a real stretch to be honest, my overriding memory is still plodding along the same way - even without Downes - and ignoring the option of Charles, just so he could play Smallbonio in there. And then expecting Smallbone to do the Downes role with Charles on the bench. And Stephens playing that roaming 6 role is not something I really want to see again. The last min wins were good fun, but we shouldn't have made the games against Huddersfield, Rotherham, Birmingham etc as hard as they actually were. We were coasting against Plymouth, 2-0 I think, but decided to fart arse at the back and ended up hanging on for the final few mins. There were some good moments for sure, but I will always be underwhelmed by what he achieved for us. I know it sounds odd as he got us promoted, but I just couldn't really buy into him.
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It's true though, how on earth do you even try to predict how this will go? We've lumbered from manager to manager under SR, I couldn't call this one. I'm sat truly on the fence. I don't know enough about Still to be sure either way to be honest, and added to SR's choices in the past it's really, really hard to know what to expect. And that's putting a positive slant on it.
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I think that's a bit pessimistic. I don't expect an easy ride for sure and it will be a struggle at times, but I do hold out hope that we will be competitive enough for at least a playoff push. I think an automatic chase will be too much for us, especially coming off of a season like this, but all being well we could push for that the following year. If we're talking 2-3 seasons to get into the Top 6 then we'll never get there, and that will probably be curtains for PL football in most of our lifetimes. We need to get back within the first 2 years, otherwise we never will.
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Saints 1-2 Arsenal - Thank F**k it’s All Over Thread
S-Clarke replied to Lighthouse's topic in The Saints
Given that the club sent out a narky/cocky tweet to Derby when we got to 12 points, I suspect they believe the fans will be excited to celebrate 12 points. -
Out of all of those, I think the guy with the most evidence for keeping him around is Arma. He has at least provided for us. Che was so important for us last season in a focal role though, he didn't score bags of goals, but he provided us an attacking structure when we needed it. Why we thought we could come into this season and not replace that is beyond me. Hopefully the scouts have profiles in mind. Stewart can hang around as a squad player if he wants, but we need to sign starters.
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Let's not do a Rasmus and break something that isn't broken. Relegation and promotions are the lifeblood of the entire league structure. If we lose that, and PL teams are guarenteed survival, what on earth do you have? The teams with the most money battling it out for the trophies all season, and the rest just hoping to finish 15th or 16th so they can get a few more in prize money. It would entirley kill the lower leagues. You need the stories where Luton, Ipswich, Blackpool, Huddersfield etc can rise through the leagues - and that only happens if there are relegations. Otherwise it all dies.
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We live in a crazy time where 17th in the PL can give you Champions League football next season.
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I wasn't too encouraged by the Martin appointment when we went for him, I didn't think he had the experience or stature we really needed at the time to navigate a difficult summer and difficult start. It was almost over fairly early too, he'd have been gone if we'd lost to Leeds at home. Still is another interesting appointment, I wouldn't call him an unknown or a left field appointment as such, as he's relatively well known in European Circles and quite well thought of. As mentioned before, the main concern I have with him is his lack of experience in the same context as Martin. This is going to be a difficult summer and we need a strong manager who calls it as he wants it, and isn't led like a yes man. I don't know if he is a yes man, but we'll find out I guess. I'd argue that he's worked at a higher standard than Martin, with much higher quality players too, so he has that in his favour. My general take though is that I have no idea what to expect. We've gone from Jones to Selles to Martin to Juric, so in my mind I simply have no idea what to expect and all I can say is I hope it works out.
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Jesus, the state of that game. 16th v 17th, and it showed. Spurs will celebrate, but that shouldn't paper over the cracks as they are proper shit. Man Utd though, they are broken beyond repair at this point. Which is quite funny to see when you grew up in a generation where everyone walked around with their united full kits on, and took the piss out of you for supporting your local side.
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A message to all Leicester fans who are on here, wondering if he's any good. He's not great, which may seem odd as he got us promoted, but I really don't rate the bloke. It's all about him. It's him before the team. He does not and will not adapt. It doesn't matter who he has avaliable to him, or who he is playing against, it's his way or no way and it's so, so, so frustrating to witness and watch. He'll build up a good rapport as he speaks a good game, players love him as he plays the 'mates' game, but just watch how spikey he gets when things go wrong. He concedes way too many goals to be a real success, especially if you're battling a points deduction. That's not just me being bias from his time here, it's a consistent factor from his time at Swansea and MK Dons too. His style encourages mistakes, and you will see mistakes. Lots of them. You may well score a lot of goals if you have the right mix up the top, but you'll be forever frustrated by the fact that you 1) can't hold onto games and 2) you're always having to score 3 or 4 to win. He underwhelmed me last season massively, I didn't think he improved us or did anything special with us. We were very fortunate to go up in the end, as our end of season form was an absolute mess. What happened when we did go up shows you where we actually were as a team, we were never anywhere near good enough. And that's on him. He's one of these really irritating modern day coaches who sounds amazing when he talks, and everyone wants to lick his arse, but when he's managing your side you sit in an almost constant state of head in hands. Our new coach Will Still may well be a similar type, so we'll wait and see on this one. But on Martin, enjoy the good times and prepare for the almost inevitable frustration as you see the same stupid things over, and over again.
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I'm with you to be honest, I can't get myself excited over a couple of cameos on the back of a pointless season. I think it's impossible to count on him because of his injury records, so at the absolute best he can only be a 3rd or 4th option for us next season. We need a couple of new CF's to stand any chance. Counting on him will only lead us down the path of failure. No room for sentiment this year, new broom has to sweep entirely clean.
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Saints 1-2 Arsenal - Thank F**k it’s All Over Thread
S-Clarke replied to Lighthouse's topic in The Saints
I haven't watched it at all this season, I've avoided MOTD like the plague. In fact any football review/highlights programme has been muted in my house, this season has really muted my enthusiasm and interest in wider football generally. As soon as 5pm hits on a Saturday I've had enough of football for the rest of the week. Thanks Saints.- 589 replies
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A really good player tbf, a very smart replacement for KWP if he turns out to be the case. A very similar attacking and marauding style to his game, lots of development in him too.
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I think it just shows you what an horrific season it's been quality wise, it's been so, so, so poor. No denying it. I know Forest, Bournemouth, Newcastle have enjoyed it - but you've got to look at the bigger picture of how bad it is. I think after tonight's result, Liverpool will have the lowest points of a winner since Leicester won it in 2016. For us to be this poor in a season this poor is a stunning achievement though to be fair. Another accolade for us to take home.
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A season full of friendly matches, we're almost at the end. Maybe we'll be competitive next season, but I wouldn't be surprised if we're not. I have never seen such an uncompetitive and lower standard football team playing at this level.
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I can't say I was surprised, City - and propaganda football - has been found out IMO. They were good in their period for sure, but I feel football is now moving on from propaganda football. You had lots of clubs and managers try to copy the City approach (i.e. us), but it fails miserably as football is now moving away from that. I'm pleased for Palace, whilst it may be seen as a backs against the wall win, I thought City were exactly as they were against us - boring, dull and robotic. Not how football should be. Teams have sharpened up to that now. Take a re-watch of that Inter v Barca game of how football should be, and how I feel it's starting to be played like again.
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It looks like Will Still is done and dusted then, I remember when Sunderland were being linked with him last year (when he was leaving Rennes) and most fans saw it as a coup as he'd done good work over there (ignoring the FM nonsense). Why is the general vibe negative out of interest? I don't think we could realistically approach much better in terms of where we are at, but as with every appointment it is a risk. What I would say against this is that he's obviously pretty young and lacks a great deal of experience, and by that I mean experience of troubling and difficult situations and being able to navigate those. This summer will be unbelievably hard and the jury is out as to whether he has the experience to deal with what it will bring - that's my biggest concern. I would have been happier with Rohl, he was my choice - mainly because he has experience of managing/coaching at the highest levels, in the Championship and has shown he can deal with very, very difficult situations as he showed at Wednesday. I still strongly believe Rohl was our first choice, but I think there are greater ambitions for him now. There will be lots of movement in the summer and his stock is fairly high, I think he wants to move up a level. I think we could have gone a lot worse and a lot more left field than Still though, and from a club perspective this one ticks a big, big box - no compo required.
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Thank you for posting. I do think it's fair to say that everyone associated at the club has to take some blame and accountability for this season, they're all culpable in some aspects. I don't deny that they have the right intentions but how things have been handled this year has been quite frightening really. I do believe he's making progress with the commercial side which will impact in a round about way, but it's hard for the average joe fan to appreciate it because of how bad the 'live' image has been. Let's see what happens this summer and next season, I don't think SR have any more rope to be honest - next season is win or bust, we need to see some results of their work now, otherwise it's just words from their side.
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I don't think it's appropriate to have any end of season awards, I'm shocked the club have even had the nerve to open a vote - tradition or not. Yeah, we've had a couple of players who have been better than the rest, but we've got 12 points ffs. If I was a player I wouldn't want an award on the back of this season, I'd be pretty embarrassed if I did get one. The club should sack it off and burn the memory of this season when the curtain comes down.
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He is a bit of a nut job, but he's tin pot/lower league, not suited to the pressure and magnifying nature of the higher level.
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He's certainly saying the right things, and by all accounts doing the right things in the right order. As we've always said, there's zero point in getting a new manager in the door until you have the correct structure, analysts, scouts and such in place. That was always job number 1 and I'm glad he also seems to see it that way. Next step is getting the manager who aligns correctly, and once that is in place we start shaping the squad. By all accounts it sounds like they're doing it in the right way, a sensible and non-knee jerking approach. The club needed a reset of this level and to 'start' again in this sort of aspect, so let's see what the coming weeks bring and if the structure that has been built is going to work.
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It's an interesting shout, I'm not entirely sure what the score is with him - injuries seem to have curtailed his progress a hell of a lot. If he's injury free, he needs game time though. I can see two avenues really, he can do what Liam Delap did and move to a newly promoted side in order to build a rep by playing regular at a high level, or he can drop down into the Championship to prove his worth. As he's not really done it consistently at any level yet, I'd say an ambitious newly relegated side is an interesting shout and probably as good as he can expect if he wants regular football.
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BBD and pace shouldn't go into the same sentence really. A proper carthorse.
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It does make you worry that our most recent recruitment decision, on the back of our awful summer window, was actually worse than the decisions we made in the summer. I hope Spors had no involvement in this one as it isn't a great start if that's the case, it smells of Rasmus though.