CB Fry

It's not counter intuitive. It's just an irrelevant metric. Possession in and of itself does not impact a team winning or, as we've seen, even scoring a goal. It's just propaganda football as a wise man once said. We can very easily finish bottom with magnificent possession stats.

Remind us next time you bawl your eyes out because someone on here calls you a nasty name 😭💔😔😥

No one can accuse Nathan Jones of not caring. I actually think he comes across OK, just frustrated. They've had a good start to the season - won their first three so he probably could have brushed that defeat off - 9 from 4 games is fine, they are top 6 - but he clearly can't do that. I hope Charlton go up.

Pochettino didn't "save us from immediate relegation", he steered us into mid table and did a terrific job in the following season. But it's ridiculous to suggest we were heading for definite relegation under Adkins.

Fourth and a play off win is still a fairly low level of success, especially with our goals against column. We did not streak away with the Championship title. There are countless managers who have got promoted from the Championship, I think the hype around Russell Martin's successes a little out of hand, especially in the head of the man himself. In the same way the Adam Armstrong is never going to be a Premier League level striker, it's entirely possible that Russell Martin has a natural level that is below the Premier League.

You don't spend £25m on a goalkeeper to just let the manager lose over and over because of his "principles". He's probably got until fireworks night.

Er, yeah. There is a reason why Kompany got that job, and Koeman got the Barcelona job for that matter. Russell Martin is not a global name. If he finishes bottom and leaves Saints his next job will be Norwich or West Brom or something. Not Bayern Munich.

I think the club know it KWP knows it. If he wanted to sign a new deal he would have this summer. Dibling will know his worth in a few months time, that's for sure.

63 goals is how many we conceded last season.

Jones won one in eight Premier League matches, which isn't 35% of anyone's money.

I'm pretty much ok with this. I loved last season, and it feels like we will be very well placed to actually push for the title next year.

Get the feeling we will be up against a caretaker manager for our cup match at Goodison.

Under Russell Martin we are nailed on relegated. Under another manager it's pretty likely as well. But the way we are being set up is not going to get us anywhere near enough points or goals.

We played away at a team in red and white the day after last years’ summer window closed as well.

Still, Russell Martin is being softly marketed by Sport Republic as a “Golden Hen” coach.

Smallbone and Armstrong waving goodbye to their starting positions.

I think just young and new to this level. And playing a system which is absolutely unforgiving for a young centre back.

That is nowhere near what the post I replied to is saying. Read it back, absolute pie in the sky. You don’t get to say any old bullshit and then caveat it with “oh he’s not there yet”. He’s nothing yet. Just one of an armful of coaches who have been promoted to the Championship.

And we have people on this forum blathering on about how players all over will all be desperate to learn at the feet of Russell Martin. Absolute suicide football.

Jesus wept. There is a list a mile long of managers who have managed to get a team promoted from the Championship. At elite level it's not that special. Russell Martin needs to do a hell of a lot more before he becomes a managerial "brand" in the way you're babbling about.

The final piece of the jigsaw 👍👍👍

Only free agents like when we signed Caseres all those years ago. The main thing we will be doing is selling as other windows (eg Turkey) are open.

I am saying 7/10. Goalkeeper signing is outstanding but beyond that a lot of running to stand still. Apart from the keeper it doesn't feel like we have leapt forward to Premier League quality. If we finish fourth bottom then mission accomplished. Not sure we have the squad to score the goals do it at this point.

I think that is overegging how much we are like that Forest summer two years ago. We're nothing like it at all. There will be a reason why their window in 2022 was a national media talking point/standing joke and ours will elicit zero response from the same quarters. We signed players that played for us in the Wembley final weeks earlier. Forest basically binned off their Play off team and bought new twice over.

Everything Russell Martin said in the pre-match press conferences etc suggested he is going straight into the team. Always a bit of a risk but he's too good to stick on the bench. And equally playing a McCarthy who knows he is out whatever he does today is just as much of a risk. I will be amazed if Ramsdale isn't straight in today.