S-Clarke

If we can get our money back on him then happy days. He was ok at the level below, but not really spectacular. I wouldn't lose any sleep over this. There are plenty of better players than Aribo out there.

I don't have a problem with Ivan at all, but he's into a lost cause really. What baffles me more than anything is that the club have once again completely changed tact. We went from high press Ralph to a more dogmatic and defensive Jones (long ball really). We went from a dogmatic Jones to a pass, pass, pass Martin and built a squad for that purpose. We've now gone 360 back to high press again and revisiting what we already had under Ralph, but with the wrong sort of players as we replaced them with passers. It feels a bit like pin the tail on the donkey with these SR guys, see what sticks. My hunch is that a high press/in your face style does work better for 'lesser' teams, when lesser teams try to out football the better side it never works and I don't know why we thought Martin would be any different.

I wouldn't say he ever came with a big rep, maybe people were a little optimistic based on the handful of goals he scored for Sheff U, but he didn't have a big rep and was ultimately an almighty flop in Spain. My personal view on BBD is that he was the wrong player for us, he didn't suit a passing style which is why he always looked like a rabbit in headlights. Awful touch and awful mobility which meant he was pretty much null and void in a team which needed legs to stretch the game, in the occasional moments we decided to put the ball forward. He will be a good player at the right club, but that wasn't us. The decision making in the summer was bizarre though, I'm not sure what we expect as a club by signing the two forwards from the 20th team from the previous year.

Second half was much better with Les in the middle and Armstrong out of the game, Downes is just a yard or 10 off the pace at this level and Armstrong just cannot hack it. The difference physicality and power makes in the PL is there to see. Damage was done though, they rallied a bit, but at the end of the day it's another loss and it's groundhog day in the main.

VAR saves Ramsdales blushes. Not that it matters.

That reprieve lasted longer than I thought. I guess this now counts as yet another thrashing.

I'd say the entirety of the team are. Even last season they were shown up in moments, heads dropping and wilting when the going gets tough. Their somewhat limited quality may squeaked them over the line last season, but you need more than that at PL level. I'd be inclined to start completely afresh and get as much $$ as we can for every single one of these players in the summer. They've shown they're all incapable at this level, some have had multiple stabs at it, so there is no point in keeping them around if our ambition is to somehow establish in the PL.

I'd say a good % of their fans, just have a read up on their views on him. He was hated up there, lumbered them with a load of crap. He may be pulling off some good things at Forest, but like others have said that doesn't automatically abstain him from his time here - where he quite frankly started our decline and financially handcuffed us with players like Elyounoussi, Vestergaard and Carillo to name a few.

It probably correlates to when Bednarek became a regular starter for us.

Dibling injured for 'a long time' according to Juric, whatever that means. Sulemena and Les fitness/fatigue.

This is a different level of horrible though, like we're not even close. We're not competitive in any game we play. I get the gap is big, but it's not this big - which is why I can't see things being too different in a lower league with this bunch. Mentally most of them will never recover.

I honestly fear for next season, I can't see how we recover from a year of this. God knows what the future holds for this club, but I don't think it's pretty.

There doesn't need to be a previous example of things happening, they can happen for the first time in any walk of life.

This is where I'm at to be honest, even though he had an eye-catching in-game moments he still flattered to deceive as nothing came of them. He'd need to do a hell of a lot more than that over a longer period of time to convince me he's any cop.

Lots of talk about JWP scoring etc, but he hardly plays for them. Unused sub most of the time. He's played about 20 mins of PL football since Nov.

They also supported him by recruiting his younger brother for their reserve team, so the family were 'close together'. Yeah, he's a knob.

I think structured criticism of Smallbone is fair, but when it gets personal it's just pointless and not based on anything. From a footballing point of view I just don't think he's good enough. He wasn't particularly good enough last year either, especially when he played in a 2. He was food and drink to anyone with a bit of physicality. He is your typical lower league journeyman midfielder to me. There is nothing to do but moan and complain at the moment though. There's nothing positive. We sit bottom of the PL with 6 points at the end of January, -34 goal difference and adrift of absolutely everyone. We're already relegated and from where I'm sat right now I'm fearing for the future, because this sort of season can take a long time to recover from at a club level. I get that Dragan is trying to get more involved, but there is significant damage here that is going to take a long time to bottom out.

I don't see what Charles would add to us for the rest of this season, whatever we do between now and May is irrelevant as we're just playing friendly matches - so let him play competitive football and get ready for us next season. As I've said before, some players won't ever recover from seasons like we're having - so let's not bring in players like him to this shower, let him continue to develop in a competitive environment. My cynical side is expecting us to agree a loan to another Champ side, with a buy clause if they get promoted, so we'll probably never see him next year anyway.

SR are odd - they do make some good appointments like this. On paper both Shields and Wilcox were good appointments, but we never seem to be able to keep them longer than a few months. I guess it's because the good appointments see the reality once they've settled in and bail asap?

He'd have refused to play by mid-September once the going got tough, so it's a moot point really as he wouldn't have been available. He runs away from trouble, only likes basking in the success of others.

Sadly the game changed when we lost Dibling and then Fernandes, our two most technical and influential players - they allowed us to retain a threat up top. As soon as they went, and we had bloody Smallbone and Armstrong in their roles we were no longer able to retain any ball in the attacking third, thus allowing United to back us into a corner and the rest is history. The drop off from Fernandes to Smallbone and Downes is too big, way, way too big. This isn't new news either, whenever we had Smallbone and Downes in CM last season we were often played through. So I don't know why anyone expects any different this year. We're probably 5 or 6 first team players away from being competitive at this level. The money spent on Wood, BBD, Archer and Suguwara needed to have been spent on better quality for us to have stood a chance. The only take away is that I could see what we were trying to do for the first hour, good counter pressing and playing them into mistakes - but we just don't have the ability to see anything through at this level. A real chastening season, which some players will never ever recover from.

No real surprise to see the Lemina story end up like this, he moves around clubs like a bad smell. Technically he is top notch, but he'll never be remembered as a ''good player'' because his attitude and application stink every club out. He apparently favours Saudi, no shit.

For real? I always assumed he was in his 60's. That's crazy.

I must have missed the Kraft news, I expected some shifts but this is the first notable fist on the table by Dragan. He's let 'his guys' run the show, but now he's openly admitted things aren't right - that's sometimes the first step of creating a better atmosphere amongst the club, admission that things are wrong and we're no longer just plodding along with our fingers in our ears. More football people at the top of the club has been a must ever since they took over, it sounds like Dragan is now fully of that belief.

It's certainly nice to see a win for a change, a very rare event. It's hard to read much into it though, we were playing against a L1 standard team really what with the players Swansea were missing - but you still have to turn up, and we did. It was a very comfortable and straight forward win. I find it hard to get too excited though based on what we've had to endure the past 5 months. Not worth getting too carried away with details or individuals as it was such a low standard of opposition.