Saint86

Yeah obviously that is totally uncalled for. Twitter / X is a cesspool for that kind of crap unfortunately. Thankfully no one on here is behaving like that 🤷‍♂️. But regardless, it is still perfectly legitimate to comment on the hole he has dug himself over spygate and with Eckert.

Not everyone 😏

I don't argue that. But he essentially condemned Eckert for bullying without exercising any impartial assessment of the EFL report at the time. There isn't a single shred of evidence in that EFL report that shows Eckert bullied junior staff. Yet it almost became the principle stick used in the press to hammer the club and Eckert, and to drive home the punishment. Blackmore, regrettably, just joined the national media pile on. The press idealistically should be better than this (but obviously that isn't the case and society just accepts it and we limp on), but Blackmore particularly (as the BBC sports journalist for saints) had to be more dutiful and responsible with his coverage at the time. Ultimately he got it wrong on this occasion (that happens, everyone is human), but it's going to take a while to wash with the fans (and I suspect the club) if he doesn't own it and show a small bit of contrition over the bullying stuff.

What? like not being able to distinguish between a potentially strained working relationship and an extreme state of loathing/hostility? 😄 As @Tamesaint says above, Blackmore had a poor (i would says extremely) Spygate . I listened to the his post FA spygate special last night on BBC Sounds - even then he was still attacking Tonda over the whole affair, and offered essentially no signs of reflection/apology/embarrassment over his pile on during spygate and his hammering of Tonda for the (false) "bullying" accusations. Its like he's oblivious to his own influence/impact and the responsibility that goes with it. He makes his living out of the club - and yet didn't exercise any loyalty at the time. No defense was given, no challenge of the narrative, no highlighting the trumped up bullying charges and lack of evidence. He just spent the whole affair believing every thing that was published in the press, hammering the club and Tonda, calling for him to be sacked, and condemning him for bullying (even when the efl report contained zero evidence of Tonda bullying junior staff). It was all simply quite poor from him. The minimum he should have done is acknowledge he got it wrong and apologized to Tonda over the bullying stuff imho. Blackmore is his own man, is meant to be a journalist, and should have been capable of reading the EFL report himself and seeing the bullying stuff was a blatant stitch up 🤷‍♂️. He did none of that, showed no ounce of loyalty to the club, and just joined the national media pile on - which (in fairness) would been excusable if he hadn't got it wrong. But the bullying stuff was clearly bollocks at the time, and where we are now, in the face of the FA report and the total lack of EFL evidence at the time, i really do think Blackmore should have taken the time to front up about it and admit he got it wrong. Apart from that, i do enjoy his enthusiasm for the club, his commentary with Tessem, and his podcast material. I don't want him to stop covering the club, everyone is flawed at the end of the day - but he had a mare over Spygate and Eckert, and his inability to own that leaves a sour taste for me.

I thought he grew into the game tbh. Norwich are a dangerous side and score a lot of goals - we seemed to handle that threat fairly comfortably.

In my opinion, the top 2 spots will be between us, west ham, and the victims. I am doubtful that Swansea will have the squad depth to continue their early season form (but they might), so perhaps include them as the 4th autos contender. Millwall have been left with a lot to do with their injuries, but i reckon they'll be a solid contender to win the playoffs at the end of the season. Fortunatley we've already recorded wins against the likes of Swansea, Stoke, Millwall, and Bristol City - and those are all teams that will be fighting for play offs come the end of the season as a minimum. Boro and West Ham still have most of them to play twice and will go some to beat out points return against them. Similarly, we have done that with a somewhat (post spygate) unsettled start to the season, and still have West Ham and Boro to play twice - which is a real opportunity for us to hurt them and boost our own chances. The 4 points is annoying, but we are right in the autos and title fight as it stands - and with money to spend in January as needed.

He's just a superb manager for where we are right now. Get him on a 5year contract and lets crack on - trophies ahead olay olay 😍

Maybe out of context, but i wouldn't be confident in saying the relationship between Tonda and Blackmore is okay tbh. End of the day, this is the same Blackmore that wanted Tonda out over spy gate, and who put out numerous pieces where he prostrated himself (and the club) in the media and poured more fuel on the fire at the time. In fact, Blackmore came across as extremely biased against Eckert, particularly over the (unfounded) accusation/narrative that Eckert bullied junior staff, and i thought it was at best extremely unprofessional how he took those allegations as gospel when even a cursory glance at the EFL report could see there wasn't even a single piece of evidence directly linking Eckert to bullying junior staff. Blackmore was seemingly unable or unwilling to do even the basics of reviewing the EFL report and challenge the narrative against Eckert. A narrative we now know conclusively to be baseless (although anyone who read the report at the time could see that); and it was very poor from a journalist (let alone a Southampton aligned journalist) that he failed to review the evidence before condemning the club and/or its staff for bullying. So if Eckert does give him short shrift this year then it is deserved, and tbh, has Blackmore even apologized for or acknowledged his hysterics over Spygate?

Norwich consistently knocking our players over off the ball - especially on their corners (watch the dobbin save again and see one of them bump Peretz before the cross came in). Ref doing absolutely nothing about it.

Good save. Not being in a defense playing suicide football doing owners for him. What a surprise. Lovely 3rd goal as well.

I don't think it will be comfortable. They are a good side and an obvious rival for us - they know it as well, which is why they spent so much effort in the media to try to screw us over.

Another game where they had a lot of help from the referee tbh. They're decent and we all know that - but we need to up our game to challenge top 2 or its irrelevant.

46 game season and we have great depth in CM. Ultimatley we are spoilt for choice with JWP, Jander, and Downes. Becuause (nuno issues aside) - any of the 3 should expect to start for any other team in the league. And Bragg is a great understudy to have and who will get plenty of game time and exposure as we get into the thick of it.

Any ideas how much he is meant to be on? Is it possible that they can't afford to sack him?

I agree with what you're saying. But whether or not that vote had passed, a significant number of green supporters would still have backed it, and it's little different to factions within a given political party managing to get their preferred candidate to lead it. As for PR, I think it would almost certainly result in the greens forming part of the next government. As soon as we switch away from FPTP, people will stop gifting their vote to the big 2 parties and smaller parties (that previously had no chance to form a government) will start picking up lots of votes. Most of the electorate is thick and has minimal awareness, and as you say, the greens won't include their hamas parroting policy in their manifesto.