Lighthouse

Clearly a team very low on confidence and cohesion but they dug deep and saw it out, so fair play to them for that. It's about as good as you can hope for with an interim manager in charge and should keep us within reach of the playoffs by the time the new bloke is appointed. My main worry is that Leo's injury will keep him out for a while. Why aren't we allowed to have nice things?

I never said either was better, but to pretend McCarthy has done nothing wrong this season is just plain weird.

Apart from an absolute howler against Liverpool, both goals against Blackburn and one against Bristol?

Get in boys!

What exactly were you expecting to happen when we sacked Still?

Not with a caretaker manager in charge, who usually plays the same way with the reserve team.

I wasn't really expecting a change in formation and I don't expect a change in result. Oh well, let's see how they get on.

People keep saying this and it never makes sense. We're going to have a massive uphill task recruiting for the PL whether it's next summer, the year after or in eight years time. If we don't go up this year, all that will happen is that better players like Leo will start wanting out when PL or foreign clubs start showing an interest. How's Sheff United's second season going?

What you’ve done there is make me agree with Delldays, now I need to go and clean myself with Brillo pads and boiling acid. Congratulations, I hope you’re happy.

We’re clearly one of the most attractive propositions in the league, in terms of wages we can offer and the squad we have to work with.

No, it was Yvette, you’re right, although I can’t say no to a woman in a beret and a trench coat. Anyway, I think we’ve solved the mystery of why young men are turning to the far right.

He’s a young lad who’s clearly having a stop-start beginning to his Everton career but that’s hardly surprising. Martin’s football clearly suited him a lot more than the more direct style of Juric and he lost his confidence considerably in the second half of the season. Whether he does eventually justify his price tag remains to be seen but I still think it was a decent move for him. Everton will just need to be patient, as Arsenal and Spurs were with Walcott, AOC and Bale.

Allo! Allo! Has tormented me since my adolescent years, trying to decide whether I prefer Helga or Michelle.

No, the goal of Sports Republic is to run a portfolio of successful, profitable football clubs. Player trading is part of that but you can only make profits on players who improve here. We made profit on Van Dijk, Lavia, Tino and Lovren. There's no profit in signing Finn Azaz, not playing him and being bottom of the league.

He beat teams like Ukraine, Panama and Denmark with one of the most talented England squads we’ve ever had, then bottled the semis and finals when we came up against decent teams. I wouldn’t want him here either, his only experience of club management was taking Middlesbrough from European contention to relegation in about three years.

They shouldn't have been. We should have been able to fight for promotion with Jander, Charles, Aribo and Downes fighting over two places in a 4-2-3-1, with Edwards able to play there if needed. JWP I though would be unlikely to drop down a league anyway and I still think somewhere like Leeds or Burnley is a more likely destination than us. I think the reason OR is coming back is 70% dressing room and 30% Charles being injured.

That's the same manager though. I was asking who these 'every managers' are that senior players are causing issues with.

We wouldn't be able to get JWP for another two months anyway and Charles should be back then, so I can't see us putting that team out, even if Prowsey did come back. I've no idea why people keep advocating for Oyekunle, who's never played senior football before, over Armstrong who has been a regular Championship scorer throughout his career. The former isn't even a target man, he's 5'9".

Do they? Seems to me that Still just didn't have a clue how to set his team up and lost the dressing room accordingly. Last season they were just crap, full stop.

Not the worst idea in the world with Charles' injury and the absolute sh*t show of a team we've got at the moment. Just tell him to go easy on the chicken tartare.

We're a football club, it's a picture of the Forlan Maradona.

I can well believe that there are a section of players who weren't happy with Still but I can't see why they'd want Martin back specifically. He'd clearly lost the dressing room before that Spurs game where they all downed tools, so I doubt there's any particular nostalgia there. I think they actually just want a manager that inspires confidence and leadership in A plan of some sort, rather than just putting out random teams and subs and hoping something happens.

I'd love to be a bookmaker. Just come up with a bunch of random names, stick some random numbers next to them and the idiots just give you their money. Then if anything looks like it might actually happen, you just stop taking bets.

No, they appointed Selles off the back of sacking Ralph, hiring Jones, giving him the world cup break to set his team up, signing a bunch of players to suit his game plan in January for about £60m, THEN sacking the bloke ten days after the transfer window closed, trying to appoint Jesse March, being rejected and saying, "oh f**k it, we give up." We aren't at that stage yet. There are 33 games and a transfer window still ahead of us.

Not as good as the premiership of Liss Truss seeing more monarchs than Saints victories. F**k me, that was a stat and a half.