Saint86

There is talk of Pope being dropped and Ramsdale starting at Newcastle soon... But there is zero reason for Newcastle to make that deal permanent in January (unless we offer them a discount - which could have pros and cons), and similarly it means we're unlikely to be able to cancel his loan or sell him elsewhere. So buckle up - its Baz for the rest of the year.

Yes, its brilliant. Also takes the pressure of the CBs and GK situation - and means we can also utilise baz's distribution and sweeper keeping a bit more - which actually plays to his strengths.

Automatics: Coventry on 40points (13clear of ipswich, 16points clear of us) are already most of the way home and dry, let alone with a +30GD after 17games. I know they'll suffer a blip, but i can't see them not finishing top 2. The other place i suspect will go to one of Ipswich, ourselves, or maybe Brum. Ipswich are looking ominous now, consistently grinding out results and already in the mix for automatics. Birmingham have a solid team, should keep getting better and better, and have the ability to significantly strengthen again in January if needed. And saints, i think we have a very good squad for the division - need to keep going as we are now and we have every chance of getting the 2nd spot. I don't fancy boro or stoke - i think they'll both ultimately fall away. Playoffs: Whoever doesn't make it for the automatics out of us / ipswich / brum, and then stoke and boro, then pick another - Bristol city perhaps? I am writing Leicester off for promotion. They're getting at least 1 set of points deductions (possibly 2), and i just don't think their squad is good enough for promotion.

I've been broadly impressed by him and have said it previously on one of the other threads. I'd give him a 7/10 so far. Scienza, fellows, azaz, jander are all excellent buys. Quarshie looks a prospect. I also rate Jelert and rooerslev, although acknowledge that for whatever reason they aren't in favour currently. Still didn't work out fine (perhaps should have done, we created loads of chances but for whatever reason it didn't work - could be dressing room antics/respect from the players). He looks to have made a very shrewd decision in bringing Ekert to the club for the U21s and as part of succession planning, and in fairness, credit where it is due to ignoring all the noise, not hiring another manager, and giving his man the chance as interim manager. There must be pressure on him behind the scenes manager wise to save the season. Downs is the only significant blight on his copy book - not sure what is going on there but that one bit of business looks to have been a bad one.... Although on balance, he's done well overall. I think it also goes under the radar that we have almost entirely rebuilt the squad in an effort (i think) to expunge the memory / mentality of last season. So all in - he's overseen a lot of change, and the squad we have now is probably stronger than last season's. I know some fans will hold the Stephens, Bazunu, Macca decisions against him. But frankly i think Stephens is good enough for our level and does love the club. And i think Bazunu works if we want a sweeper keeper and someone we can use to play out from the back with or who can launch counter attacks etc with his distribution. Macca is a good shot stopper, but the rest of his game is severely lacking. Sure we could get a better keeper, but not convinced it was feasible to do everything else over the summer and address the GK position as well. Eitherway, we are now playing at the level i'd expected for the quality of squad we have, and i would expect us to be play off contenders for sure now - its unfortunate that Coventry have built up the headwind they have otherwise i would still say we have a good chance at both automatics. But Ipswich are looking ominous and picking up points regularly now, and Birmingham could still well become a threat by May.

Slight cautionary note was the post match comments from THB (in particular - he struggled to give a coherent reason why he wanted him to get the job other than umming his way to implying he was better than Still) and Scienza. Its a fine balance between having a manager the players like and respect, and having one they are comfortable playing for because things are chummy behind the scenes. Obviously we don't know the true situation, but there is no ducking the point that several first team players clearly weren't playing for Still and there are possible echoes here of when Selles got the job after being popular with the players. That said, i like our play under JE, and at a certain point (if form continues) he has to get the job surely. I'm just not sure i trust some of our players enough to have reached that point so far - if he gets the permanent position will they just relax again?

May have gone under the radar, but Lallana's u21s lost heavily to Sutton United last night. The change in 1st team performances and U21 performances with/without JE is evident. (Not trying to dig Lallana out with this comment - he's got to learn the ropes somewhere and he's walked straight into the u21s at this point.)

Both 9-0's had some utter crap officiating... So as far as Leicester are concerned they can cry me a river.

Bazunu... What save that was.

Looking forward to the next TE masterclass this evening

Precisely this. It may sound harsh, but he's essentially achieved the minimum for the past 3 games: Wednesday are a club in crisis. QPR are a poor championship side, A newly promoted Charlton with multiple key injuries in defence are of a comparable standard to Wednesday (certainly when compared to our squad). We're clearly playing better, and the mood music has changed. But that shouldn't change the fact that he's achieved what should be the minimum expectation for a promotion contending side out of those 3 games. There are posters on here and on social media saying "he's earnt the job full time" etc. etc. But i find i have to disagree with that, because quite simply he hasn't been stretched enough to prove he's right to be the manager that can deliver promotion for us. Don't get me wrong, i am happy enough to continue with Tonda in the interim (and i think the early signs are very good), but i wouldn't rush to give him the full time contract either yet - he just hasn't really been tested, and that isn't his fault - but its games like Leicester and Birmingham, and to a lesser extent Millwall and WBA that will really show us what he's made off. We can't just be giving the managers job to someone because he beat 3 of the weakest sides in the league with a team that includes the likes of Fellows, Azaz, AA, and Scienza. That would be hasty in the extreme.

I guess i am just saying to remain balanced - i.e., for fans not to overact one way or the other to results. We've played Wednesday, QPR, and a depleted Charlton (newly promoted side lacking in championship squad depth).. Team sheet wise, that is 3 of the worst sides in the league and you would expect a recent premier league side chasing promotion to beat all of them, and with relative ease. We've been poor for so long, so its easy to be very happy with the results (and i am), but it doesn't automatically make Tonda the Messiah. How we manage in the next 2-3 will give a much clearer idea of where we stand - if Tonda is going to clearly stamp a mark that he is the/a manager capable of delivering promotion, we should really be getting 7points out of Leicester (h), Millwall (a), Brum (h). The absolute minimum anyone on here should be borderline happy with is 5points.

I mean, we have people on here that rate Archer more than AA...

Yea, but they also had significant defensive selection issues yesterday. So whilst we were good, they were also playing from a disorganised perspective - and that showed by the early goals we scored and Charlton then tightening up with changes.

We're getting 4 more as a minimum, I'm expecting 6 😏

Have said this previously - it's the obvious thing to do, so we almost certainly won't go this route...

Game has changed though - its all about fitness, power, systems these days (over flair and skill). And the Pep in particular has had a huge impact on football - so many managers want to be pep lite these days, which has led to keeping the ball at all costs (the opposite of attacking wing play, crosses into the box, and multiple attackers arriving in the box)... Then ofc teams need to be in very well structured defensive shapes and pressing patterns etc. The game has basically turned into one constantly moving complex American football game, with a series of drawn up plays being instigated at all times and players knowing their jobs and operating like cogs in the machine. Its far rarer these days to see attacking players being given creative freedoms. I suspect players like Le Tissier wouldn't have got on too well with a lot of managers in modern football, and would have wound up being wasted. Looking back, it feels like the late 80s and 90s (in particular) were a bit of a golden age for football (in this country at least). Not helped by the domination of a select few clubs the longer the prem era has gone on.

Never got to see him in his younger years, and invariably good highlights are hard to come by - but watching that its clear that he really was some player even as a teenager! A talent as good as that at 17 would've got Rooney levels of hype in today's world.

What happened to O'leary? 👀

Curious to know how he will have built this up in his own mind...

Please don't take this the wrong way because I absolutely mean it in jest, but reading this caused me a mixture of physical pain and mental anguish. I don't know what crimes full stops and commas have committed against you in life, but i hope you find a way to forgive them - for all our sakes 😘

He's one of the least offensive names I've seen mentioned, and he'd be good with young players.

Key point with all this, is that martin was an arrogant egotistical bell end for a fair portion of his time with Saints... Ralph got smashed 9-0 twice, had fair few other bad beats along the way, and some of his best football was played behind closed doors (and away from the fans) due to COVID... Yet a fairly large proportion of the fanbase would happily take him back. The same cannot be said for Martin, and he delivered us a Wembley final win...

Had a dream where we hired Ralph, AA assisted downs with a through ball down the middle, downs ran onto it to slot in low hard shot across goal (good run, strength, and finish)... And then Ralph ran down the line in front of Jones celebrating before telling himself to calm down. Then woke up.... Knew it was too good to be true. But at least I was smiling about saints for a brief moment at least 🤣😢

If this was something that had been planned, we'd have sacked him a few days earlier and appointed Rohl. No. I don't think this was planned, i think Solak and co were quite happy keeping Still until the fans turned their anger on the board. At that point Spors then got the call to sack Still. But this was after Rohl (who was the manager we clearly wanted over the summer) took the rangers job, and the reality is that there aren't many appetising names available and interested currently. If the plan was just to give it to the U21 manager, they'd have done it at any point. And they would certainly have announced it by now. Spors has too much experience in football, and oversaw a fairly impressive level of squad refresh this summer - it doesn't sit with me that the same guy has intentionally sacked his manager with no good replacement options available. So for me, the call to sack Still when we did came from above Spors, and was probably a complete about turn on previous instructions - so once again, i think we're in our own special kind of Sports Republic mess.

We have an incredibly weak board. They're truly awful. Feels like so many major decisions are influenced by fan unrest or sentiment. No way to run a football club really.