S-Clarke

That argument dies a death when you look at what they've wasted over the last 4 years, pretty much every window they've presided over has been a catastrophic mess. They've wasted money. We have no idea where this money is coming from or if they're racking up debts to make these mistakes, no idea. But I'm past the point of giving them any slack because of this reasoning now. You can spend all the money you want, but if you just continue to make the same mistakes then you are putting that environment into financial turmoil. You wait - next summer when we inevitably are still in the Championship, you'll start to hear all of the nonsense about finances and how we need to look after the club, reduce cash outgoings etc etc.

I get that people hate change, and the automatic way to react to change is to downvote the heck out of that thing - but they've really made what was a solid experience absolutely horrific. The match engine is better, but it's not an enormous graphical advancement - it just looks a bit more polished. The UI though looks like something out of a kids tablet, it's terrible. It's not just cluttered, but they've moved stuff around into the most un obvious places for no real benefit or reason at all. I used to play previous games in windowed mode, but that is pretty shit too as it stretches out the UI to make it look even worse. It may get better once the modding community get involved, but it's a good few months away from being anything worth playing I think. Cheers for nothing @Matthew Le God (joke by the way).

Not sure you can truly rate anyone above disappointing when we're sat 21st after spending £50m. They have all been shit as far as I'm concerned, some lesser levels of shit than others, but all still fairly shit.

It's that sort of shit which blows my mind, if they were really caring about this issue they'd have done this remotely on a remote summit - which can happen. But no, they all wanted a big jolly to Rio staying in what I'd assume are plush 5* hotels and given free meals. They can't preach about it and then do everything they say is causing it. The whole world is backwards. Stop the world, I want to get off.

I think under the current regime it would be another miserable experience. We need an entire gutting to be in a position to compete at any level I think. I genuinely don't see any chance of promotion this year, next year or the year after - it will be more a case of looking over our shoulder in the years to come. The ownership have regressed the quality of this club year on year and that isn't just going to change over night.

Are you conveniently forgetting the strop Downes performed in January, and pretty much refused to play for Juric - which he kind of said in as many words. I wouldn't say Stephens was central to us getting promoted, he was a squad player for the majority of the season as Bednarek and THB owned the CB spots. Downes/THB/Stephens were not 'nailed on' for Still, Downes is pretty much a bench player (if he's not ill). You do spout some nonsense to anyone who dares go against the club narrative.

So there were no benefits to it then. Let's rewind a bit then, why didn't we pick him up before Goztepe did? We could have loaned him to Goztepe and then had him back as our player. We did the same with Matsuki and Juan, who ended up going there anyway. Why are Goztepe having better results with scouting, when we should have been the 'flagship' club of their model? Romulo was grabbed from the Brazilian leagues during the same time we were shopping around for Juan and Wellington - irrelevant positions for us in the grand scheme of things. The relationship doesn't help us. We help them. We got a smaller fee for Charly so Gotzepe could get a Brazilian on loan as part of the deal, again - doesn't benefit us.

Imagine Keane and Romeu walking into the dressing room on Saturday. That would throw a grenade under those wet wipe players we have, would be fun to watch.

He was advised for the wrong reasons, $$$$. At his age it should be about development and growth, but he traded that for a big lump of money. If that's what makes him happy then fair enough, but if those are his principles he'll never make it to the level he could.

This is what I fear Rasmus will be saying, but you've got to look at the bigger picture of both of those situations. At Brentford, Dean Smith had just oversaw a great rise for Brentford and they were growing. They had a strong core of players and forward momentum. It was a much easier environment for an upcoming coach to adapt to and grow with, as the club was already on an upwards curve. If we did the same here, you'd have a young 'B' team coach coming into one of our most dysfunctional teams ever. A mish mash of a squad lacking Championship quality in core areas, no forward momentum as we've just finished on 12 points. Eckert may be a good coach in time, but now is not that time and it would be another foolish gamble by the fools who call themselves our owners if this happens.

I think we were looking at the possibility in the summer, but we couldn't shift Aribo and/or Downes. Now Charles is out injured long term there is a huge gap in CM, so we've moved I reckon. Not sure there is anything in this manager wise.

The goal of Sports Republic is player trading. Buy low, sell high, make profits, develop players across the portfolio. It's not a goal that will ever equal a competitive football team across multiple seasons. We are simply owned by a player trading company and that is how they deem success.

Not sure, haven't seen that. Wouldn't surprise me, as any player he plays with only ever praises him.

Fonte would be a great influence, I'm sure the club have had discussions with him over the last couple of years. He'd add a lot, and would make a mockery of the supposed 'Stephens' role.

Hmm, I'd feel iffy with that one. The former 'skate' element skews it massively for me, he'll always have that on his back and he'd have very little leeway if/when things started going wrong. It would be similar to when Leicester appointed Steve Cooper, given their rivalry with Forest. He was up against it from day 1 and it never worked out.

It's the standards thing which is so important, they've slipped so far and I think he'll be taken aback by how far we've regressed. JWP set similar standards of professionalism, but we were left with Flynn Downes - it's no wonder really. I don't expect him to be as he was in 2020-2022, but the reading of the game never goes and his physicality will still be more than we have today. We don't have anyone who can fly into a tackle at the moment, they all prance around it. I remember reading an article about Lamine Yamal and he actually namechecked Romeu as being such a good standard in the dressing room, as he was making his breakthrough seasons. Can't find it now, but I always thought that said a lot.

Or they do the opposite, and appease them by bringing back their boyfriend.

There is genuinely something in the JWP links by the way, loan deal for January. Not 100% sure how I feel about that one, but it's something that is 100% on the table. Just need to see if the finances work, as we'd need WHU to subsidise a hell of a lot.

Maybe he's our new number 9. He'll be a better shout than Downs tbf.

I haven't seen that before, but some personal highlights: They did all of that to Ralph, causing us relegation then. Now they've gone and done it to you, sending us spiralling down once again! No one will save us this time, as you are no longer here. Once again, the loudest people have won. We are sorry that minority let you down. If our real fans could have had their own way, it would be them we would boot out of town! What a pair of idiots.

32 apps for Girona last year. 37 apps for Barca the season before that

Absolutely bang on the money and what we need in CM. and have done since he was cast aside. Cheerio Downes.

This is scary, and I've seen similar fan views on social media as well. We came 4th in a 3 horse race. Our squad under Martin with Stu, Adams, Brooks, KWP, Bednarek was absolute nonsense for this level. There is no way a team with that quality should have been losing to Leicester and Sunderland by 5 odd goals. The season was built on fragility, getting over the line in the last min - and with the players we had, we should have dominated the league much more than we did. How we played throughput that season cast doubt in many peoples minds about his ability to adapt in the PL, and low and behold that is exactly what happened. He was a key, key figure in the recruitment in that summer and lumbered us with Archer, BBD, Taylor, Fraser, Downes, Lallana - I mean come on. He persisted with the same approach against PL sides and the outcome was inevitable. Watching him struggle at Rangers in exactly the same way wasn't a surprise. Reluctant to change principles, chirping about the same things - it was like watching groundhog day. Him coming back here now, with ultimately a much lesser quality of player and a club at the rock bottom, would not work - anyone can see that, surely. If the choice is between Eckert and Martin, it would have to be Eckert - but both would likely lead to relegation struggles.

Which is just as bad. Why we'd even consider him is beyond me, unless the club see it as a mistake that they sacked him - which let me point out to them, it wasn't a mistake. It's one of the few calls they got right.