Dr. Kucho

Suppose Dragan could just kick Rasmus and his crownies out of the club if he wants to. I cannot imagine a billionaire would hand over his own money to a smooth talking journalist, to run a multimillion pound football club without having a contract or agreement somewhere where he can remove him once it’s going wrong. I know it’s SR that own us and Dragan is the investor, but unless Rasmus has conned him, he must have something on paper that can give him control. An old Dutch phrase goes ‘Wie betaalt, bepaalt’, who pays, decides. And that can’t be any different here.

Give him till the international break, thats Leeds, Stoke and Rotherham. If we lose 2 out of those 3 then send him on his way. After that don’t try and be all smart and just get an experienced no bullshit manager and try to end in the playoffs. This squad has enough quality for this league to get to the playoffs.

The amount Chelsea are paying him he is likely to remain employed for a while.

Agree with most of the post, I think mistake number 1 was not giving Ralph the striker he asked for in the summer. Mistake number 2 was replacing Ralph with Jones. Brighton, Villa and Wolves all lost/sacked their manager before the World Cup. They then replaced them with experienced managers who had managed at the top of the game. We brought in some angry Welsh guy who claimed he was one of the best in Europe and had only had succes at Luton. Mistake number 3 was letting Rasmus do the January transfers after Shields left. Should have had the chief scout do the work. After that it was just mistake after mistake. I think we can conclude that Sports Republic aren’t fit to run a football club (let alone 3) and it would be best if they try to sell us to a more competent person/consortium.

Just coming back to what has been mentioned often on here that the players need time to understand this new system. When Poch took over from Adkins he arrived on the Wednesday or Thursday I believe and we played Everton on the Monday. That game we already saw changes to the way we played. The next game was away at United, we lost 2-1 but outplayed United in the second half. Some of the players starting that game were Yoshida, Hooiveld, Fox, Cork and Ramirez. Decent players but certainly no top PL players. The year after that when Poch left Koeman took over with Lallana, Lambert, Shaw, Chambers and Lovren leaving, almost half of the starting lineup. Good managers don’t need much time to implement their playing philosophy. Martin has had a full pre season, lots of players with PL experience and we spent more than most Championship teams last summer. Do hope Martin fixes the defensive problems and is a succes here. Would be a huge worry if we get to the point we have to sack him and SR have to appoint another manager in a short time.

Whoever decides on Martin’s position has a difficult decision to make. Give him time to get the defense sorted and risk losing out on promotion if it doesn’t work out. Or replace him and have another manager on our books to pay off. I would give Martin another 4/5 games, but if we lose them and concede numerous amounts of goals replacing him (with an experienced coach who has a decent track record) would be the best choice imo. Our squad is in the top 5 best of the league and many players have PL experience. Any half decent manager should be able to reach the play offs with this group of players.

Talks the talk, doesn’t walk the walk..

Doubt Martin will be sacked this season. Can’t imagine Dragan is happy to be paying off Ralph, Jones and Martin whilst also having to pay a new manager. Think if Martin is sacked someone else high up might lose his job.

One of my clients has a skybox at the Phillips stadium and a current PSV player is also a client of mine. Will be keeping a close eye on ABK this season and hope to get some ITK info at times.

No, the guys crap and you get his father for free too who’s an absolute bellend. In Holland there’s been a big row in media with his dad, Pierre van Hooijdonk and the former manager of his son at NAC, Maurice Steijn (current Ajax manager).

He’s been convicted of stabbing a family member at a party a few years back, believe he’s been sentenced to 1,5 years in prison for that. At the time of the stabbing the police already suspected him of drug trafficking and that investigation is still ongoing. As long as he doesn’t leave Russia he’s can move freely. Once he travels to another country he could be arrested and sent to the Netherlands.

Would rather we tried to get Branthwaite from Everton on loan instead of Holgate. Did a good job at PSV last season and at 6,5 foot he would bring in some much needed height at the back.

Lumley ahead of McCarthy on the bench or is the latter injured?

I see Chelsea have now bid 48 million for Lavia. What’s the fucking problem with these big clubs not understanding we want 50 million?

If this is true, though seems unlikely, that’s a good deal for us. With the right service and staying injury free, Ings could get to 40 goals in the championship.

Don’t know if he would be interested, but if we were to sign him I would want him to be our new nr 1 goalkeeper. Or at least challenge Bazunu for the nr 1 spot.

West Ham and Ajax are negotiating the price for Ajax player Alvarez. West Ham have offered 34,5 million euro, Ajax want 39. Player has agreed terms and the clubs are likely to finalize the deal today. Source: Florian Plettenberg and Fabrizio Romano

Ajax have to balance the books and get the wage bill down. After Overmars left/was sacked (after sending ‘dickpics’ to female employees) Gerry Hamstra and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar took over and invested poorly. Besides that they also appointed Alfred Schreuder as a replacement for Erik ten Hag and sacked him mid season. Then appointed Johnny Heitinga as caretaker who didn’t do much better. They now have former Arsenal scout Sven Mislinstat (spelling) as technical director who has to sell players and buy cheaper players as replacements.

The statement by the club regarding Lallana’s move to Liverpool was just one sentence if I remember correctly. Something along the lines of: ‘Adam Lallana has completed his move to Liverpool football club’.

Whilst singing ‘Premier League your having a laugh’ and subsequently upsetting their manager (Holloway?)

Tomorrow this will be on MLT’s Twitter feed.

Has anyone, who knows or has sources close to the players, heard anything of what they think of Martin and the pre season so far?

If Prigozhin is smart he’ll say to the Russians fighting in Ukraine, join us in removing this government and I’ll end the war and you all can go home. War ends and Putin removed. Worry is that Prigozhin is an absolute nutter (based on his videos and comments) and what would be the next action.

However bad some chants are, just remember it couldn’t be worse then the Hull one. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tgS1RFk1cU8&pp=ygUbaHVsbCBiZWluZyBtYXVsZWQgYnkgdGlnZXJz

Former Saint loanee Jacob Mellis has sadly fallen on hard times. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12140341/Jacob-Mellis-Chelsea-wonderkid-destined-big-stage-32-hes-homeless.html