Saint86

I mean, if we want him we should pay it. We've gladly wasted far more than that on shite transfers and wages on a rolling yearly basis under SR - why the hell wouldn't they appoint a good manager who is actually interested?!

Surely even Martin must realise that getting the record lowest points total in prem history isn't going to get him a champions league job?!

More to the point, he doesn't have the players to play the way he wants in the prem, and he won't adapt. Give him unlimited funds to buy the best players and we'd look like a pep team... What Martin can't / won't do, is change style.

If the board are going to keep him regardless, they have managed it horrifically. There has been zero management of fan expectations - no plan or communication etc set out, they're allowing negativity and toxicity to creep in, and they're hanging the bloke out to face the music every week. Board need to own the decision if that's what it is. Martin would get us promoted again next year if suitably backed and if the fan relationship isn't in tatters... But the latter is very questionable now.

There are plenty of things to criticise martin about without trotting out this fairly nonsensical one liner. Did i live in a parallel universe where we weren't the worst of the sides to get relegated, where we didn't then sell £160M of players and completely change the playing style, and where Ipswich didn't exist (let alone didn't get 96points)?! He got us promoted when we weren't one of the best 3 sides in the league. Fair play to him - great memories at Wembley and something we'll all remember fondly. And this season, the reality is that as much as we're all pissed off with him - its fundamentally because the players aren't good enough for his style at this level, and because he refuses to do anything other than go out doing it his way. Which is a recipe for disaster, grates with people, and everyone is tired and fed up of losing... It doesn't mean he's now a manager incapable of getting us out of the championship again. I said it fairly on in the season, if the board are going to keep him regardless, then they need to just come out and say it. If they don't do this, or keep him around just to sack him later on, then all they're going to cause a lot of damage and negativity to set into the club. Also the stress and uncertainty it puts on Martin and his team cannot be healthy and isn't nice to watch on a human level, and publicly stating the plan (is there even a plan) would end any uncertainty with the fans which is now starting to become quite toxic, and similarly it must be getting to the players by now. If we get relegated and keep him, the reality is he'll more than likely do fine in the championship. He's more experienced now than he was previously, he knows his players, and ultimately he got us promoted last year despite not having a top 3 team, and despite having an absolute car crash start to the season re players leaving and arriving from one weekend to the next and being tasked with turning around both player morale and utterly changing the playing style. I say all that after being utterly furious with him at times this season and calling for him to go... but then i ask myself - do i think anyone else will keep us up? No. Do i think Martin will get us promoted next season? Yes probably..... and so, unless we can get someone in who wants the job, who'll stick around next season, and who clearly is a better pick that Martin (all 3 combined is unlikely lets be honest), then i don't see what we gain in sacking him in a hurry to be honest. Even if it is a car crash season, adding more instability to the club isn't going to help us - as Benali said, what we need is stability again.

In all serious, I can't be that angry with him for last night (as much as I wanted to be). We've got one of the worst squads in the league, and last night were without nearly all our best players - especially defensively (THB, bednarek, Downes, ramsdale), plus ofc dibling and lallana both out. Against that Chelsea are something like a billion pound squad that could field a third/second string that routinely wins in Europe 🤷. Yes it was poor at the back, but equally that back 5 was completely ramshackle - which is going to get even worse (somehow) thanks to stephens being suspended (what a statement, how can it get worse? 🤣😭🤣😭🤣).

Whilst i don't disagree. Stephen's still isn't good enough and shouldn't be in the starting 11. THB or Downes would make a better captain figure.

Looks like one of Rasmus' TED talks to me... "if it ain't broke, break it etc etc..."

So apart from being utterly atrocious you mean?

I watched Ralph's team through every minute of the 9-0s and all the other shit fests. I'm not watching the rest of this car crash tonight.

Right. Silver lining time. We were never going to win this game, and now stephens is suspended for the next 3 games and in all seriousness must surely have royally pissed off Martin...?!?1 Surely?!?! Thats worth a point or 2 potentially? 😄

I reckon we can reasonably attribute a good 6-7points to refereeing this season. Then consider at least some of those points were given to the likes of Leicester, Ipswich, and wolves - so deduct at least 2 to them - Its not at all clear we should even be in the relegation zone if we'd had fair or even consistent refereeing.

I think you may be right. It was interesting what Martin said after the Brighton game, i.e, quite a quiet lad, fairly introverted, how they just try to keep it about the football for him so that he can come in relaxed and play etc. May well be that a club like saints (with less spot light) is seen as a good place for him to develop over the next year or two. I don't think he'll be rushing to move whilst he's playing regularly - just to go and sit on a bench at a bigger club. Equally though, Dibling did remark on the manager not playing him last season in his own interview 😅

The official reason it was ruled out as offside was because Armstrong stopped the defender playing the ball. One of them is in front of Armstrong and misses the ball, which then goes behind Armstrong. The other one is on the other side of the 6yard box and a meter behind Archer. Armstrong therefore had no impact on either defender's ability to play the ball. Which means var were making it up as they went along to justify ruling out the goal. I actually wouldn't have an issue with it being ruled out for him impacting on the keeper... but that isn't how the rules are applied - time after time after time, offside players 'positions' interfere on other defenders and the keepers resulting in goals and it's generally ignored. So it would be typical if that was used to punish saints.... But it wasn't, and that wasn't the reason given.

First half was absolute dog. Some of the worst i've seen us play at this level. Lucky Brighton weren't at it. Second half much better. More points robbed again by var in the end. But we didn't deserve to be in a position to get any points out of this game after that first half. Lumley did alright in fairness. Better at kicking than macca! Dibling absolutely superb! (was sure Downes was going to get himself sent off at some point, so the fact he didn't is defo a bonus!)

We must be the most screwed over team this year. Var has cost us enough points to put us adrift put it that way.

We are the charity case for the league. We're bottom and adrift, considered as no hopers. So we're seen as an easy team for them to give var calls against and keep the other teams at least partially appease.

They wanted to rule it as offside. They couldn't see the ball and the player to show it clearly, so they've made some nonsense up about Armstrong to justify it. Simple as that. We were never getting that goal.

Not sure they can see the ball and the player to draw the lines. They thought it was off, so they were looking for a reason to rule it out - hence the Armstrong ruling. Farcical.

Surely offside. Thought that when it went in. Plus ofc we need var to screw us over again 😅. Superb by dibling again though. How good is this kid!

Tried are hardest to not score there 🤣 Great play by dibling again though.

Not just Martin. Sports republic as well. They've gutted the club whilst spending hundreds of millions... But they basically sold off all the valuable assets at this point - imagine how things will get when the money is gone.

This is a training game for Brighton. We can be thankful they aren't really in the mood.

It's half time vs Brighton - anyone willing to state an argument in his defence?

This is worse than any 9-0. We aren't in this game. There is no belief, no system... We've turned up to lose and are just playing for time whilst it happens. And that is entirely on Martin. He picked this team, he set them up, he's left it unchanged for the first 30min when the entire fanbase can see how appallingly bad we are. Just a joke. Or maybe this is the players finally saying they want him out. They sure as hell aren't playing for him today.