S-Clarke

But that doesn't let anyone off. The fact they weren't cheap and we had to pay for them, and then pay them off, should be ringing even bigger alarm bells in terms of who we have running this place.

All of our choices under SR have been horrific, no getting around that. They may have spent a fair bit of $$ on them, but that's on SR and their absolutley clueless approach rather than the calibre of who they were working with.

Either that, or they totally re-evaluate what they are and what their plan is - bring in football people at the head of the club, and personal who know what it's like to run successful football set ups. I'd dump every single scout and analyst we have and start again. They have consistently scouted shit for too long to be allowed to continue. That entire area needs completely destroying and starting again. At that point, with the right people in the right places we may stand a chance - but in the current guise this is just a complete catastrophe.

I think if anything, the ownership of SR has proven that money is only a small part of achieving footballing success. There has to be a plan and some understanding of what you're doing as a club, not just money. We've spent money, too much money on rubbish - including managers and their payoffs. ''They have to throw money at it'' is no different to what they've been doing up to now. The first thing they should be doing is filling that boardroom up with people who understand football and how to run a football club, then work out what money we have to spend on it. It's not an overnight fix and it's not all about throwing money at it, it's going to take years to get over this season.

Not saying Martin shouldn't be sacked, but do you have any trust in SR getting the next call right? They seemingly don't have a clue. Jones - horrendous. Selles - An unimaginative gamble Martin - load of fluff. We were fortunate to be promoted, he didn't rip up any trees or set any special culture - as this season is proving. Who is next in their horror show of choices? I don't even want to imagine.

Their approach thus far has been throwing money and hoping something will stick, but nothing is sticking because they have no idea what they're doing. Their choices are consistently terrible and their plan is all over the shop. As it stands we are a broken football club. I don't know where we go from here.

Totally bored with this team, there's nothing to get behind and nothing about us at all. All this talk of process and philosophy is fluff for not being good enough. Last week was just as bad, we won, but it was very poor. I struggle at this stage to see where this season starts, it's just going to be a really big test for us fans as we are on the highway to a humiliation season without a doubt. Today was as bad as it's been this season, against another truly terrible side. We are just a pointless team to watch. Relegation is pretty much confirmed at this point, we just need to make sure we don't set any unwanted records. That's the only target we can realistically have now. I'm not even looking above 20th because it's pointless. We can sack the manager if we want, but it'll make no difference because SR's decision making doesn't belong on earth.

Mark Bitcon took up the role of 'Director of Football Operations', working closely with Mowbray and Martin. So technically, we don't have a proper DOF in any way shape of form no matter what MLG says!

I find it really hard to read too much into games like yesterday, it's irrelevant if we toss it away against Leicester, Brentford, Ipswich, Forest etc. Means fuck all. I don't care if we play well and Pep gushes or pundits gush, the reality is 0 points. We head into November on 1 point. Absolutley pitiful by even the most negative supporters expectations. I take nothing from yesterday because it's always the way. 'Underdog does well against big side''. When we got relegated we beat Man City at home, so how we perform in these games means fuck all - it's a glorified friendly.

He's decent, certainly better than that lumbering BBD. He'll be huge in the Championship next season.

Probably focusing in on Rasmus's involvement at Brentford, at the time looking like a coup, but now it's plainly obvious that Giles was the mastermind behind Brentford and Rasmus was just his PA, if that. The entire 'group' is bereft of any actual footballing experience, that's why having someone like Wilcox around was a positive as he knew the actual game in this country. I know big clubs will always tempt players/staff away, but the frequency at which it happens under SR is incredibly alarming. Doesn't strike of an environment that's fostering any sort of consistency in anything.

I think that unbeaten run created a false illusion about how good we actually were. We did stagger over the line on quite a few occasions.

What about the actual left back, Charlie Taylor?

I've said it many times, but our most successful sides under Koeman and Adkins were never focused on a philosophy or style. We just recruited well and played the best players in roles and positions they were happy and comfortable in. Honestly, there is so much overthinking in modern football. Successful football truly boils down to recruitment (having good players) and using them within their means, not selling them out in roles they cannot do. The chat about philosophy and plans is bollocks and there for ego hunting people.

No, the big problem is that we cannot win games when we're 2-0 up on an hour. It's not about 'killing the game' at 2-0 up, it's about managing what you have. The big problem is that you cannot coach a team to defend Martin.

The lack of footballing know-how at the top worries me too. This is why our choices are consistently so bad and why our retainment is poor. I don't think they know what to do. On one hand they come in, strip out Matt Crocker and replace him with Shields and Mowbray - clearly at that point feeling they needed a couple of footballing/scouting heads around the place. Shields left after a day. So we went and got another DoF in Wilcox, which again shows that we were pretty wedded in that approach at the top level. Wilcox then left. But we've now changed tact and have promoted a load of commercial pen pushers into the job of dictating football strategy (Mark Bitcon - more of a performance background in football and rugby, rather than player recruitment and retainment). SR need to decide what their strategy is and what their plan is with us, I don't think they have a scooby. Last season was a fortunate and unexpected success and what happened last season should not make them any more credible.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. The unbeaten run was ultimately absolutley pointless, because we had too many draws littered in it. If we didn't have that unbeaten run we'd have still finished in the playoffs. We were a playoff team, full stop. I think we should have done better with the level of player we had and I still struggle to think too fondly of last season, I found it a proper slog most weeks.

That hasn't bothered them before tbf. (Thinking of Ralph > Jones)

As I've always said, the intention financially has been sound - cannot moan about that, Dragan has put his money down. The problem I have is that these guys have no idea about football or how to run a football club. Scouting is off the level shit, contract management is off the level shit, Managerial choices and recruitment of coaches is beyond shit, retainment of key staff is absolutley awful as well. It feels that even though financially Dragan has backed us, we are utterly rudderless in a leadership sense and no one seems to have a clue at how to run a football club. Forget all the hipster-stats-based bollock scouting, it's time to go back to basics and buy good players because...you know...they're good players. We have wasted an extortionate amount of money on poorly scouted absolute trash.

I know what you mean, but that's a pretty depressing target to even aim for or use as a reason for getting a new manager. For what it's worth I think it's time as Martin has clearly lost his way here, even the backend of last season included in that. Who fancies this job is the question though. Forget the likes of Potter/Moyes etc, we'll be looking at lower profile.

I cannot wait to see how the next manager handles the scar tissue left over from a Martin team...!

He cannot coach a team to defend, full stop. We gave teams so many chances last season, so many last min rescue acts after we let utterly woeful teams back in with a shout. Having the same approach at this level, with this entirely zoomed in focus on posession football, is going to lead to the inevitable. It's very naive, maybe a little too loyal to those players around him and he's wearing rose tined glasses. We don't have good enough players to do what we are doing at this level, full stop. As much as he wants to play this way, the success of this style boils down to the players he has available to him. Exactly the same as Pep. All these new wannabe Pep's dotted around the leagues are doing my head in, trying to replicate the same with vastly inferior players just for their own ego.

Because Russell Martin cannot coach or focus on defending, simple as that really. Our off the ball work is second, which is the opposite way around than it should be.

The simple fact upon all of this, no matter what is debated and how often - Russell Martin is incapable of tactically setting up a team to defend. Full stop. This was the same at MK Dons, Swansea and ourselves last season. Too narrow minded on possession football and what to do when on the ball, our off the ball work is as bad as anyone out of the 92. That's all on Martin and his coaches. 60 goals against at MK Dons, 60 at Swansea, 60 odd last season, 2000 this year? I think we all appreciate that this season is done, dusted and wrapped up. It's going to be a particularly galling experience for us all. The main worry I have around seasons like this is how the players and fans respond to it. This sort of seasons quite often have an enormous hangover the following season as losing just becomes ingrained, that's my main worry at the moment. I don't think we've ever been this bad, certainly comparisons with that Derby team, so it's a new experience for most of us. Onto the game we do have some bright spots in the side. I like Fernandes, always have done, Dibling is nice and direct, Suguwara hasn't put a foot wrong. It's hard to really pin these results on individuals per say, it's a team throw away most weeks. In the first half we were quite sensible with our use of the ball, but as soon as we started fart arsing around with it between the CB's (who were too close to each other) it all went to shit, Leicester got a sniff and that was that. I sense a lot of panic in the side from guys like Downes, THB, key for us last year but they are all over the show this. So, here we are - 1 point, 8 games. That 1 point game against Ipswich, and almost a second against Leicester - two of our 'rivals'. The rest of the games we've been involved in have been absolute food and drink for the oppo, not competitive in any of the others. Bodes well for the forthcoming weeks. As fun as that day in May was, I don't think we were ever in a place to get promoted. Batten down the hatches for a pretty chastising winter.

They seem as excited about their team as we are for ours..! That promotion feeling dried off fairly quickly. I'm somewhat relieved that they got their first win out of the way themselves, otherwise it was an inevitable result.