Saint86

Maybe the grand plan was always to buy Luton? They're up to 4th since SR saved them from jones and bree and now on a great run of form....

Wish we had recalled him! 😂

I like selles, but we have been outplayed in every game under him bar maybe united, which was fairly even but we did have an extra man. That maybe down to just how shite our attack is I don't know... But whilst we may have more possession under reunen, on the stats that really count (chance creation and xG) we are losing out in every game under him. And we all know we were very lucky to get the 3 points vs Chelsea and Leicester re absolute profligacy from their strikers. United as well really should have scored (as should we). We have absolutely zero chance of survival without carrying an attacking threat. And we're also far to easy to play against as a direct result of our bluntness. Teams don't really need to attack us, if they just defend we'll simply gift them chances... That's the reality. Looking more and more likely that it's all too little too late now anyway.

Was absolutley horrendous when he came on. Terrible touches, awful crossed / passes, and one lazy one to jwp on the final 3rd where he quite clearly could not be fucked and messed it up even though it was a basic 5yard lay off.

Totally outplayed by brentford tonight, and the reality is that they played in training ground mode for the 2nd half.

We could keep playing until the weekend and we wouldn't score. Men against boys.

This game would suit tall Paul, wer'e playing with quite a slow tempo and a lot of hopeful balls into the box.

Money spent on childcare will be directly recycled into the economy one way or another, and it will very clearly help people to get back into work - boosting the economy and productivity. Also, as a general rule, being a new parent is one of the toughest periods in life financially, and easing that process therefore clearly brings social benefits due to imrovoed quality of life for families and children. What's actually going to annoy more people is that this will come into effect in late 2024 and 2025 and won't help current parents who have been battling spiralling inflation and the cost of living crisis. Of all the things to criticise a government for, supporting new families and parents work, is not a topic I'd go after 🤔

BBC News - Credit Suisse shares plunge as bank fear widens https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64964881

I don't disagree. Hence saying that for the rest of the season we need to get the rub of the green more often than not - we simply aren't playing well enough to pick up points otherwise.

There was always a chance, but just not the way we were playing. And the longer that went on the harder it would be to turn around. Even now, the margins are so tight that taking less than 3 points from Brentford and Spurs could very likely leave us adrift once again. Credit Selles for turning around the atmosphere and keeping us in games and getting results, but i do think we need to be objective. We were extremely lucky to beat Chelsea and Leicester (given oppo chances missed), and we ultimately did fail to score vs 10man united whilst also getting a bit of jam with them not scoring. It would not have taken very much for those two wins to have been draws or losses, and for the united game to have been a loss... Any of those results going worse than they did, and we'd be rock bottom/adrift again. We have to just keep going as we are and hope that we get the rub of the green - or become more clinical. If we can take 4 ponts from Brentfor and Spurs going into the international break, we might even get ourselves up to 17th and have put ourselves really in the mix to stay up subject to other results - although think 26points is more likely to be 18th place. But eitherway, its going to be a crazy end to the season - any clubs that can put together some form are going to get out of it, whilst ones that can't get any momentum (or drop points vs rivals) will be trapped in the general malaise right up to the final whistle of the season!!

Heard a few things over the last week or so regarding strain on certain American banks - generally those used by the tech and crypto sectors. The recent run on SVB has obviously made it into the news this week: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64935170 Is this the wheels slowly turning on a new financial crash? Seems to be significant for cryptocurrencies, but even extends to medium tech firms such as Roku.

Was a great defensive tackle 🤣

The Redcafe is hilarious, absolutely delusional fans - I doubt any of them ever go to Old Trafford tbf - but apparently they were playing 10 vs 13 (ref and var against them), it was never a pen, they committed no dives, and they should have had a blatant penalty... also, we played for the draw apparently... despite having 17 shots and hitting the woodwork like 3 times. What a truly obnoxious fanbase.... Anyway, added bonus over how mad its made them 🤣 https://www.redcafe.net/threads/post-match-vs-southampton.476151/page-2 This gem in particular - "we got robbed today. One of the worst performances of a ref I've ever seen. I really hope ETH goes berserk now, ban or not. There is no excuse anymore for the refs, absolutely pathetic performance.Soton are horric though and I hope they get relegated. 1 man more and they still play for the draw those absolute C***ts." 🙄

Not a bad point - but we have to beat Brentford!

What do you want, our most wise and knowledgeable fans wanted Ralph sacked and assured anyone that would listen that we'd get a better manager.... 🤣

More likely we'll get a reaction out of them on Wednesday sadly. Feels like whenever we win, our rivals also win... but when we lose they win as well 😕

On course for another weekend of pretty poor results. Everton and Bournemouth winning and Leeds getting a draw. 🤮

Everton are not going down.

That would be sublime.

Why would we voluntarily go from a squad of nearly 30 to 10, despite being in a financially secure position, and despite having a significant number of those players tied to long term contracts as investments 😅. We will sell the players we have to sell (e.g. contract expiry), players we want rid of (e.g. Orsic - I speculate), and then maybe one or 2 others (as necessary) to cover any financial shortfalls / fund restructuring.

The only time that was ever formally stated, was by Rasmus Ankerson / the board... When conforming disgruntled fans at the fans forum.... when defending Nathan Jones and trying to justify he does stuff right behind the scenes 😂 🤔 😂🤣😅 If Ralph had been given a better keeper, a cdm that was fit, and a Premier standard striker, we'd have been comfortably mid table to top 10... Maybe even higher. Last fully fit squad games under Ralph were the Chelsea win and the narrow loss to united. He certainly doesn't deserve the abuse he's had from some of our more impatient fans, ultimatley he wasn't at fault for our issues no matter how much some of the fans wanted an easy target / thought being a couple of points of midtable was a horrific return that demanded sacking... 🤔🙄

Eh? Of the players we want to keep, we'll be forced to sell Salisu and KWP - simply because they're contracts are expiring. KWP especially will be a massive loss, the guy is class and should be featuring more for England. If we go down, there will likely be one big money departure - Lavia or JWP in my book. Selles has already alluded to Lavia having his eyes on the exit and he has been heavily linked with a move - can take it pretty much for granted that he will be gone for circa £40M+ in the summer if we are relegated. Hopefully a bit more, and maybe £50M-£60M if we survive. I think it will be lavia that goes - and the plus side is that is probably the main key players that we will be pressured to lose. However, there will still likely be an open point running throughout the summer over JWP and whether the club should let him move under the right terms should we be relegated. Given how much of a tight ship we have been over the past 3-4 years, you would like to think that basically the entire squad has relegation clauses relating to wages/bonus etc. Hopefully that will mitigate the impact of relegation. Agree broadly with your point about most of the new signings - they should all have long contracts, and provided we secure a swift promotion, they will retain their value - a lot may well even benefit from playing successfully at the lower level. In summation, we'll sell players to cover the drop in income (i expect 1 major sale to be part of this), and we'll sell the ones we're forced to due to the contract situations.

This has got 2-1 to saints written all over it. Just saying like.