Lighthouse

Whenever I read about Trump saying he will negotiate a deal between Russia and Ukraine, I can't help but think of this.

That makes no sense, you’re comparing this to other players in different positions. Saying Rodri needs two CBs behind him is completely different to saying for eg. "Nathan Wood can’t play in a CB pairing, he’s much better in a there with Vidic and Stam." Putting it simply, if you think he’s decent enough in an advanced position, would you be happy with just him and Downes in CM next year?

No that he can’t play in a pair effectively in any sort of capacity. If you can only effectively play in a three and need two other players to cover your inadequacies, you probably aren’t that great.

Another reasonable enough Championship player who looked out of his depth at PL level. We have dozens of those already, I’ve no idea why anyone would want to sign more. We have absolutely bucket loads of ‘squad players’, ‘options’ and ‘filler’, anyone we bring in needs to be of real quality, in order to a) get promoted and b) stay there.

Pretty much every preacher in the history of mankind. The point is you have to have some reason to hope or believe, even in you don't have evidence and that reason is nothing more than 'faith' in your own abilities and the support of your loved ones.

Surely that would depend on whether that was faith in something reasonable and tangible, or pure fantasy. For example, quitting a well paid job to set up a business you've always dreamed about doing or giving a slice of your income to celibate old men in robes, who say they've got the keys to paradise?

I haven't really watched much of Pompey to give any kind of opinion on Bishop, but on the face of it that's a really underwhelming suggestion. He's the same age as Armstrong but has spent his whole career in L1, apart from one season scoring 11 goals in the Championship. To me that screams, "building a bottom half Championship team," rather than one that'll go straight back up and stay there.

To me that just says he isn't that great. Like when people said Shane Long was good running around alongside Danny Ings and 'his job wasn't to score goals'.

Yes it is, it's a tiny sample size of very little substance other than one decent strike from Les against a crap West Ham team. When Selles took over he won three of his first three games and a lot of people said he was very obviously a massive improvement on Ralph and Jones. The problem was he wasn't and we almost immediately went back to losing every week. It wont be Rusk next season and nor should it be, so don't get your hopes up.

So basically everyone got a draw out of the weekend apart from Essex beating Worcs. Spare a thought for Notts, bowling the Brummies out for 93 on their own ground, posting 367 in reply and still not getting a win.

That's probably because League 1 (and below) are not stuffed with Rickie Lamberts and most players in there are in fact a bit sh*t. Lee Barnard scored 20 plus goals in a L1 season, their current top scorer is currently on loan from QPR. I've no idea who you think is likely to outscore BBD, AA and CA from that league but no names leap to mind. I think Lambert got about 30 goals for Rovers the season before we signed him, he was clearly far too good for that league, even before we banned him from eating takeaways.

By the time they play us in their next home fixture it'll be: 5 months 3 Saints managers 2 Popes 2 US presidents 6 F1 races across 2 different seasons, with an entire off season and testing in the middle Jesus has been born, died and resurrected again (I might be stretching the truth on that one) The Six Nations, the Grand National and the Boat Race Christiano Ronaldo has been paid enough money to buy Declan Rice Since they last scored at home.

Who gets to finish his Mini Eggs?

We were after a man to take us to the Premier League. The plan was obviously not to sack him when we got to the Championship. The point is that neither manager has ‘done fk all’ in the Championship just because they both finished 15th (ish). The merits of what they did are relative to the resources they had available.

That was my point. Adkins got them promoted and was around 15th in the Championship when we appointed him, Rohl kept Wednesday up and is currently around 15th in the Championship. Neither has ‘done fk all’ as ally originally claimed.

This kind of reactive thinking will get us absolutely nowhere in the long run. Hating 'philosophy managers' seems to have become a mantra on here, mainly because of Martin, but we need to have a clear understanding of the way we want to play, the players we need to bring in and who the best manager is for that job. There has to be some semblence of a style of football and how we're going to get results, you can't just 'be pragmatic'. With Rohl we almost need to disregard the current situation at Wednesday and decide whether he does or doesn't play the way we have in mind for next season. Judging a downturn in results at that basket case of a club is of little relevance to the situation we'll be in next season.

He's basically come in and tried to play for a 0-0 in every game. Not the worst idea in the world, when you're trying not to get embarassed with this squad but there's absolutely nothing about him that makes me think he should be in charge next season.

Most people will care about the players we sign in summer.

Adkins 'did fk all' at Scunthorpe, would you not have appointed him either?

No. West Ham are clearly out of sorts and we did well to get a point but we're not finding another seven.

Interetingly, I saw a couple of days ago that he had signed for CSK in the IPL, presumably as a replacement for the injured Gaikwad, so we should get a decent look at him, if he gets a game.

Ram that up your arse Derby!

I know Hampton was a late, short notice replacement but when an overseas player looks less dangerous and more expensive than Brad Wheal, you’ve not quite got it right. I’m not sure what the plan is for when he departs and Barker returns, we’re probably still light a decent batter.

TBH that would be much more enjoyable than watching a Saints match, so I’ve been told by a friend, who says he sometimes uses anal beads, apparently.

"Get rid of the deadwood," is a catchphrase trotted out by many football fans of every club, in the run up to every transfer window. The reality is always the same, some unwanted players move on and other linger. Most clubs in the bottom half of the Championship would take most of our players and many will have interest from abroad, it's just a question of finances.