S-Clarke

His role was more fluid than that, he would cut in as well - but in this league, he suited that left sided/drifty role more so than a pure 10. And as Lighthouse said, Davis was doing a pretty tidy role for us in the middle. I don't think we can criticise the club for not making the most of Tadic, we had the most successful seasons of my lifetime with him as a key figure in the side.

I wish we were England

As I'm sat here today, I genuinely feel we were very, very fortunate to be promoted ahead of Leeds. We were the weakest of that 4 and just another also-ran in the playoffs. We did have a flirt with the autos, but if we're honest we always looked set for the playoffs. So, I think we've somewhat surprisingly ended up in the PL without the quality or structure to really do anything here. We did have a splurge in the summer, but we didn't fix the key area which hasn't been addressed since 2021 - a PL goal scorer. Adam did great for us last year, but he thrives on space for his runs. If he doesn't get space then he's pointless. We could change the manager, which feels somewhat inevitable, but my feeling is that very little will change as we have too many Championship players in key positions.

Christ, that's rubbish. I wouldn't class myself as an old man, but this isn't football anymore. Absolute corporate bollocks. All this is doing is serving their international audiences where they make their $$$. I hate it, honestly. Even the EFL is going to go a similar way. This sort of thing just makes me lose interest even more.

Translated - ''I'm a football romantic & I like tradition in football & all that stuff. I don't like the multi club ownerships and wouldn't want to be involved in anything like that, unless they pay me $$$ and then I'll love it''

The bloke is a contradicting machine. Absolute loon. "I'm experienced enough to know you can't panic, you can't listen to noise. "There's been a lot of noise this week. I got abused by my own fans the other day, absolutely abused by my own fans, who questioned our selections. If Charlton fans want to pick the team, I'll move.''

I was a big fan of Ralph, but we've had stacks of good times this century above anything he cooked up for us. Poch, Koeman, Adkins and even some of Burleys moments surely have to equate to better memories than what Ralph delivered. Football goes through eras though and this is an odd one. Lots of progressive young managers trying to be the next Pep and emulate tika-taka with players a million levels below what Pep has available to him. Personally for clubs without the best players I've always been for an aggressive high pressing approach, you don't need to have the best technical players for that - you just need to be fit as hell, run, press and understand the triggers - then 1 or 2 bits of quality up top can be all you need. This tika-taka approach with inferior players to the ones Barca had in their pomp, or City have today, is a recipe for disaster for all the lesser clubs who are trying it. There's a reason this approach was successful for Spain, Man City, Barcelona - think Messi, Hallanad, Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Pedro, Busquetts etc. It's all about player quality and picking an approach that suits the quality at the disposal.

Obviously it's still early doors and in normal circumstances I'd say that things are still salvageable, but ultimately I just don't see anywhere near enough quality to be competitive in this league. The last time we came up there were glimpses with Lallana, Morgan, Lambert, Davis etc that we had something about us in the final third. My main issues, as have been for many years, is the lack of real star quality at the top end of the pitch. If you look at all the teams who have struggled, but ultimately have enough, it's those with firepower. We don't have any firepower and that's why I don't see anything changing no matter what we do. We have a selection of absolute misfits. We could go more pragmatic and harder to beat, but we still won't score enough goals. Our main CF options are Archer, BBD, Armstrong and Stewart - not one of them has a league goal, the closest any of them have come is Archers missed penalty. The fact that an 18 year old can come in to our attack and look like our best player is very, very telling for me. There was probably some belief that Adam Armstrong was re-born with us, but he still doesn't look anywhere near good enough for this level. I generally think we have many shortcomings, defensively we are piss poor, but the fact that we're equally piss poor up top just hammers home the situation. There's no way we finish higher than 20th. I would call it one heck of an effort if we get 19th or 18th. Hold onto your hats, as this is going to be an absolutely bleak season of Sheffield United/Derby levels.

Not sure we can really put anything on Wilcox specifically, he wasn't here long enough. He was in charge when we sanctioned the moves of Charles and Stewart though, just saying. I do agree that we have a gap at that level now though, I feel all clubs need someone from a footballing background with a general overseeing of the structure. Since Wilcox has gone, they've shuffled the deck and have Martin working much closer to the decision makers, with Mark Bitcon taking on the role of football operations director. He's from a commercial background. It does kind of sum up SR's approach, just really confused. They thought we needed a DoF so they got rid of Crocker to bring in Shields, who left, then replaced him with Wilcox, who left - and now they seem to think they don't need one. They have no real idea.

I found it hard to truly, truly enjoy last season, I'm not sure why - I've never really been able to put my finger on it. It could be because we never were really comfortable against anyone? It felt a bit of a slog, when it shouldn't have been. I can count on one hand our really comfortable wins at home, Blackburn home, Swansea home, Sheff Weds home, PNE. Swansea away should have been comfortable, but we also made hard work of that. With the players we had available to us last year we should not have lost two games 5-0, and one game 4-1. It may be those results that also dent my feeling of the season. For sure, promotion is promotion and days like that will live long forever, but a season like this will nullify the feeling I had of it for sure. I'll be honest I'm still surprised we are here because I never thought we were anywhere near good enough last year.

Personally I think he should focus on coaching the players to 1) be in the right positions to receive the ball when we are passing and 2) defend the edge of the box a hell of a lot better than we have been. There are huge flaws in his coaching, there were last season, but there is nowhere to hide in this league and managers are eating him for their dinner and then spitting him out.

Predictable bollocks about the 2nd half then. We should not be reading anything into it, the most predictable 2nd half ever as Bournemouth stepped off a bit as the game was won. Of course we'd look better on the eye, it's irrelevant though. I note his comment ''we have the characters to fight, some need to be back on the pitch'' - welcome back Jack Stephens?

The more I watch the more I'm convinced there isn't a shape or setup as such, I'm convinced the number 1 focus is ball retention, with the daft belief that if we keep the ball we'll win games - which is all well and good, but when you've not really got a shape or setup it's all a bit pointless because you're forced to keep the ball in harmless areas or make silly mistakes as the players aren't where they 'need to be to receive the ball. For PL teams this kind of approach is food and drink, teams won't even have to break sweat. There's a fuck load more to football that 'posession' and Martin doesn't look as if he's grasped that at any of his clubs.

He's doing a pretty good job of being hated by opposition fans too, so could end up being the most disliked player in PL history if he carries on. Another record we can close in on I guess.

They've beaten our record signing a few times now. We cannot compete with them or Brighton.

21 games without a PL win. Looks an absolute carthorse. What a miserable player he is. He's miserable to watch and looks miserable when he plays. He's got all the hallmarks of being someone who will end up being quite quickly derided by the fanbase if he doesn't sort his shit out.

I know we were part of the 'so called' magnificent 4 last season, but we were the worst of the 4 IMO. Everything we saw at the start of the season and end of the season were our issues laid bear. I think we underachieved with what we had last season, we got the points and goals because of individual quality and moments. I don't remember enough clear and comfortable wins, lots of last min winners, scrappy 2-1's or 1-0's. Very few comfortable wins. Everyone we played last season was in the game, the way we play always allows the opposition. At this level it's pretty much guaranteeing a defeat every week. We were trashed 5-1 and 4-0 by Leicester, good promoted teams don't lose like that. Never really been convinced by Martin, too much focus on a philosophy. Our best teams just won with the best players on the pitch, it's similar to how Ralph's tenure ended - too much focus on a style and drifting away from what actually wins you games at a basic level. That's what we need to get back to.

How do you even analyse that? I thought, out of hope rather than anything, we may get a result tonight. We look absolutley light years away from Bournemouth, not even in the same universe. For us to say that it equates to absolutley disgraceful management of this club for many years. Bournemouth, with their stadium, size and resources should not be a universe better than us - but here we are. No match to their quality. Onto the next one? Whatever. I don't even bother reading much into that 2nd half, I know the narrative from the club will be that we 'fought' in the 2nd half and that we were better etc etc etc - but bullshit to that, it was better because Bournemouth stepped off it slightly as the game was done and dusted. Not even a contest, so I don't want to hear any bollocks about us being better in the 2nd half. The fact is that we've been absolutley trounced by Bournemouth, fair and square - light years better than us, it's not even close. I don't know where we go from here, but it looks pretty inevitable that we are embarking on the worst season we're ever going to experience in our lives. How we recover from this season will be the story.

What worries me is that Ipswich and Leicester look poor, some good spells, but ultimately they are lacking quality - but they still manage to look much more competitive than us. Not sure where that leaves us really. Ipswich remind me of Luton from last season. As it stands, we look like Sheffield United - but worse. (I guess that's to be expected when we sign their strike force)

Surely we have to win at some stage? I often find that when everyone is accepting of the fate and defeatist, the opposite happens. No logic to it, but based on that I fancy us. I remember people thinking we'd get pummelled by Leeds at home last September, after a similar run. It's hard to be positive though I'll give you that, just 2 goals scored and 9 let in for the first five games is as bad as it gets really. If it doesn't get better from this point then we might as well pause our club for 10 months and start again in August.

He was on the back foot from day 1 due to his Forest connections, he needed to have them Top half/top 6 at this stage to appease them. He won't last, but he's on a hiding to nothing there. Poor pick by Leicester and a poor call by him to go there. Suddenly they look more attractive due to no points deductions. Be interesting to see if the board have to act as it was toxic last night.

As a fan, I wouldn't even say we're lovely to watch. Frustrating and dull as dishwater at best. Horrendous and naive at worst.

Credit where it's due, that was a great bit of scouting and pickup by the club - obviously in anticipation of KWP leaving in the summer, so it leaves us with a little bit of an overload at RB...but better than having none I guess. I can see KWP leaving in January, our last chance to get some $$ for him. It'll still be a loss on what we paid, but better than nothing.

I'd argue that even if Ramsdale did start giving up goals because he's playing like that, he'd still prevent a hell of a lot more than Bazunu did. Simply any shot on target was a goal with Bazunu. It's nice to have a GK who can save shots again. That's why having Alex back in the side was so refreshing at the back end of last season, he's not the greatest by any means, but still a better option than Bazunu ever was.