Nordic Saint

Let's hope Chaz and Dave don't read this or we'll soon be hearing Tottenham versions of all of these.

The transfers of Romeu to Barcelona and Fonte to Braga highlight the increasing number of players who've gone on to play in the Champions League after leaving Saints. Fonte has already for Lille and Romeu did for Chelsea, but both are likely to play in it again this season for their new clubs. These spring to mind: Forster for Spurs Hojbjerg for Spurs Wanyama for Spurs Alderweireld for Spurs Lallana for Liverpool Clyne for Liverpool Lovren for Liverpool Mane for Liverpool van Dijk for Liverpool Shaw for Man United Schneiderlin for Man United Chambers for Arsenal Fonte for Lille Stekelenburg for Ajax Tadic for Ajax How many others are there who've played in the Champions League after leaving St Mary's?

They are in the Champions League this season. We certainly couldn't have offered him that.

To accompany a record 156 passing move from Alex McCarthy to Adam Armstrong and back again.

Russell Martin's teams don't exactly get off to flying starts to their seasons. I guess they are too busy concentrating on their passing stats. One win from their opening 8 games is about par: Swansea 2022-23 30 July Rotherham United 1–1 Swansea City D 6 August 2Swansea City 0–3 Blackburn Rovers L 13 August Blackpool 0–1 Swansea City W 16 August Swansea City 2–2 Millwall D 20 August Swansea City 0–2 Luton Town L 27 August Middlesbrough 2–1 Swansea City L 31 August Stoke City 1–1 Swansea City D Swansea 2021-22 7 August Blackburn Rovers 2–1 Swansea City L 14 August Swansea City 0–0 Sheffield United D 17 August Swansea City 1–3 Stoke City L 20 August Bristol City 0–1 Swansea City W 28 August Preston North End 3–1 Swansea City L 11 September 2 Swansea City 0–0 Hull City D 15 September Swansea City 0–0 Millwall D 18 September Luton Town 3–3 Swansea City D MK Dons 2020-21 12 September Doncaster Rovers Away 1–1 D 19 September 2Lincoln CityHome 1–2 L 26 September Crewe AlexandraAway 0–2 L 3 October Ipswich Town Home 1–1 D 10 October Portsmouth Away 1–2 L 17 October 0Gillingham Home 2–0 W 20 October Oxford United Away 2–3 L 24 October Blackpool Away 0–1 L

The Owen Hargreaves skit on BT Sport springs to mind. "It's not fair. How come they get compensation and a better manager?" "Not everybody gets a better manager, you know."

We should tell Swansea we no longer want him. They'd be really stuck then because they wouldn't want to keep him and nobody else wants him.

At the other extreme, Leicester play Spurs in Thailand and Liverpool in Singapore while Leeds play Man United in Norway. I'm hoping we'll get our usual game at St Mary's against a mid-table team from La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga. That's become something of a tradition, starting with the first ever game at St Mary's against Espanyol in 2001.

I was there too, with Dougal's mob in the middle of the Fratton End.

Top 5 biggest wins in the South Coast Derby: 1960 Saints 5-1 Pompey 1906 Saints 5-1 Pompey 2019 Pompey 0-4 Saints 1975 Saints 4-0 Pompey 1966 Pompey 2-5 Saints Statistically, in terms of results, it is the most one-sided English derby game.

Anybody who thinks they'll let us have any of their better players, like Piroe, is dreaming. We'll get a couple of journeymen they aren't bothered about losing, like we did when we got Bree from Luton.

If they'd had Alex McCarthy in goal, City would have lost 4-1 tonight.

Click on the link to the list of MK Dons' managers. Russell Martin's record compared to their other managers is mediocre at best. He certainly wasn't one of their better managers.

They went from 13th under Russell Martin to 3rd under Liam Manning the following season. So, yes, there was a big improvement when he left. Basically, Martin's career is a bit like Nathan Jones' at the time we recruited him in that other managers immediately before and after him got much better results with the same players. List of Milton Keynes Dons F.C. managers - Wikipedia

Why should they be? He was a big downgrade on their previous 2 managers. They went from 4th under Steve Cooper down to 15th, their lowest position in the 2nd tier since 1984, under Russell Martin the following season. Swansea were struggling for most of this season too and in March 99% of their fans wanted him sacked but a late run took them up to 10th and saved his job. Even MK Dons were glad to see the back of him after he took them to 19th and 13th in League One. The highlight of his career was a record breaking passing move in a game his team lost to Gillingham.

BarrySwanRussell Martin : The sticking points and the truth behind them on 13:18 - Jun 4Whilst I'm fully supportive of the Swans giving Southampton compensation to take Martin off our hands I'm also supportive of the board playing hardball in regards to how much we should give them.

It will be even better if one of them does take him as that will be one less promotion rival we'd have to worry about. When even MK Dons fans were glad to see the back of him, you know we can get better than him. These are just some of the managers who've been more successful in the Championship and League One than Russell Martin. There are many more as well as dozens of good European managers who'd be happy to come here: Carlos Corberán Darren Moore Tony Mowbray Scott Parker Mark Robins Michael Carrick Paul Warne Steven Schumacher Kieran McKenna

He was probably in a hurry to get to the Fitzhugh. He used to sit in the public bar there after training.

And Alex McCarthy's wages could pay the wages of 100 staff. Why not make McCarthy redundant instead?

He seems to be one of those managers you always have to find excuses for if he doesn't make them himself. I wonder what his excuses were for only finishing 19th and 13th with MK Dons? The manager who replaced him took them up to 3rd and the playoffs with no better resources. After Swansea had finished 4th the previous season, Martin came and took you down to 15th, your worst finish in the 2nd tier since 1984! That was quite a fall. I just had a look at the MK Dons messageboard to see what their fans thought of him. Oh dear: "Greatest thing that ever happened to our club him Leaving!" THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR) • View topic - Russell Martin* (sitdownorwellstealyourclub.com)

That seems to be all he has going for him. But, there are dozens of managers with experience of the Championship, most of whom have been more successful than Russell Martin. We're not that small a club. At least we could have gone for one of the better ones.

We can but hope.

Is there really any other Premier League club that would be stupid enough to take Alex McCarthy, even as a back up??? They've all seen him play now. When does his contract end? We'll probably need to release him in order to finally get rid of him. It will be absolutely soul-destroying if he is still lining up in goal for us AGAIN next season.

Sorry, my mistake. He only took them to 3rd place and the play-offs. List of Milton Keynes Dons F.C. managers - Wikipedia