Saint86

I think the issue was rasmus and Kraft primarily, and it was no surprise they set about undermining Ralph on the coaching and player front before sacking him. Haven't given up on Spors just yet like most of our fans have. But he does need to make the right appointment on the next next manager.

It's absolutely insane to me that anyone can do a list of worst signings, and not have Tommy forecast (who was shit, let alone the fact we swapped bale for him) over bazunu 🤣😂🤦

In his defence for the goal yesterday, I thought he was unsighted when the shot was taken, and then it's hit down and bounces up whilst at the same time he has to get right in the corner.

....

Reckon he's got as good a chance as anyone else of getting it. The past week should go someway to preventing GON at any rate.

Significantly better performance. I would keep him on as interim rather than hiring GON.

This. It won't be monumental, but it will be broadly unpopular. He will have to get off to the perfect start or forever be a manager the fanbase doesn't accept. And besides that, he just isn't very good. It would quite blatantly be a bad appointment... which sadly means it's more likely than not that its the kind of appointment SR will make.

Whoever we hire will have less support than Ralph would have done, and will be coming into an atmosphere of significant fan discontent - it's a shame that it won't be Ralph really, as amongst the fanbase, he is likely the most popular name mentioned so far by some distance, is a good manager, and would have settled a lot of issues with some initial positivity and zero tolerance in the dressing room... He may be getting on and eyeing up the Austria job, but I would have thought there was a chance at a deal for the rest of the season as a minimum. Something in the rumours that SR won't swallow their pride when it comes to him (and the shit show decision making since)? It is still odd to me that he came all the way to England to see a former colleague and chose to do that whilst watching an evening saints game at the same time - has to be something there for the club from his side at least.

Is GON being linked so that everyone will accept eckert?

Wrong thread!

You seem to have left Challinor off this list Hypo 🤪

Its academic that he's ex Pompey to me. He just isn't very good.

He's a Redknapp style manager to me - first and foremost, he doesn't coach/develop players, he's reliant on the quality of players he has given to him. His football/tactics are simple, lacking in any real tactical nous/depth, and he comes across as one of the lads - albeit with the distinction to be the boss and show dissatisfaction. Just like Saggy, he's the sort who sticks players in simple positions, and when it works he'll be happy when his team win or get plaudits for a good performance, but really he's pretty clueless and lacks the ability to adapt or change things when he's being tactically outplayed. He might get this squad out of the champ, but his football is also generally quite dire - or at least it was in the prem. Very uninspiring. Sigh.

I am very underwhelmed if it is him, and tbh somewhat concerned for the future of the club. The task is promotion and i just don't think he's up to it - obviously I hope to be wrong.

The club has told both Alfie House and Blackmore to rule out Martin for them - Football clubs do not come out and disrespect and turn down managers publicly when looking for a new manager. Let alone when they're struggling and humbled at the wrong end of the table.

I don't think Spors will rush now. We could be on 6points from 6 going into the international break and look a far more attractive proposition as a result. I actually (possibly very naively) have a feeling Spors will make a good choice on next manager. But equally it will depend whether its really his choice, or whether he is being interfered with to play in the "preferred" SR way (as Blackmore eluded to a couple of weeks ago).

I would be appalled if anyone at the club makes an appointment to "keep us up". Whoever we appoint should be hired with targeting playoffs in mind.

Do you have the source for this, and the rest of the figure?

I meant we can play a higher line as he can sweep and is far better with his feet and positionally, that we can drop deep with him and pass the ball to him (and not get a Macca newcastle-esq cock up like first game last season), and that his kicking is genuinely very good and can be used to launch counter attacks etc. These are all things Macca is significantly worse at. If we're going to park the bus and just invite shots on goal, play Macca... Either keeper is going to struggle with our CB's spontaneously deciding not to compete for headers or track runners, or react to rebounds etc., inside the 18yard box - we can't keep giving oppo attackers chances on a silver plate.

https://news.sky.com/story/the-x-effect-how-elon-musk-is-boosting-the-british-right-13464487 Not quite sure this thread is the most relevant place to put this, but it offers interesting insight into the current political battles and powers of social media. This article specifically deals with X, but it will be no different to platforms like Bluesky and facebook, and is probably the opposite to how twitter functioned prior to Musk taking it over. In many ways it is a very astute move by Musk with respect to the whole "grand game" that is politics. He learnt from people on the other side of the political divide and has found a way to directly use his wealth to influence politics the way he wants, and potentially more than any other "non political" person, and he has also (i suspect) tried to tactfully pitch himself on the side of protecting free speech (to give himself protection/longevity whilst he's doing it). I was trying to work out sky news' angle on going after Musk (given i would say sky is itself on the centre right), and i can only really come up with it being an attempt by MSM to undermine the power of social media companies? Perhaps i'm being too cynical or overthinking that aspect of it, but i see it as entities like facebook/twitter/x/bluesky etc are doing the modern version of what main stream media has always done historically (with respect to political discourse and narratives) - MSM just failed to adapt and will likely never enjoy the same influence again. As the article mentions at one point, in an ideal world the "algorithms" would be impartial (although i think that is impossible to truly achieve) - or perhaps better yet, there should be no algorithms and you only discover people based on broader forums and through people that already gain traction, like a mirror of how societies have always operated, but then i guess even that is influenced by "benefactors".

I don't think its that clear cut. Bazunu may make a mistake a game but he allows the team to play more expansively and further up the pitch. We're a better footballing side with him in it. And ultimately Macca also has mistakes in him and is a fucking car crash 1-1 and on dealing with high balls... we've been exposed to both a lot under Still. Macca is the better shot stopper though. I'd suggest it makes more sense to pick the keeper depending on who we're playing and how we intend to set up. And lets not excuse the defending, the goal last night is being blamed on Baz, but stephens and particularly THB had that striker between the two of them, neither watching him, neither noticing him move, neither tracking the run, and neither defending the cross or anywhere near it to be in with any chance of intercepting it or clearing it. Its abysmal defending before its on the keeper as the striker should never have been left unmarked by two defenders that were notionally appearing to mark him ffs.

He's a good manager... but his football is absolutely dire.

And yet they are worse than gao / semmens who had no pot to piss in. That's how bad they are...

Pretty much the most realistic way I see of us getting rid of SR is for the parachute payments to run out, commercial revenues decline, financial trouble and administration hitting, and us ending up with a relegation to the 3rd tier and a points deduction - but at least with new owners. That may be pessimistic of me, but frankly I've seen very little from them that implies they are capable of delivering a sustained period of success - and from where we are now, that is what is required to get us back to being the established premier league club that we were under gao/Ralph/semmens etc. So, if you adopt the approach that SR are a slow death (that will kill the fanbase for a generation and cause awful damage to the clubs standing / facilities / academy etc), the argument could be made quite easily that this next management appointment by spors really is their last throw of the dice. We will never have a better chance to compete in the championship under SR than this season and next season... Scary times after that.

He directly calls out bad attitude amongst the players and that makes him part of the bad ones? Eh?