Ted Bates Statue

Happy to take the point, although it seems mental that such soft penalties can get awarded. The ref had a good view so there must have been 'sufficient' contact, but I would have been fuming had it been the other way round.

During the recent satirical comparisons between Hasenhuttl and Branfoot while the former was still in post, I delved into the results of the early 90s and saw that in 1991-1992 we ended the season winning 9 out of our last 13 matches, yet finished only ten points clear of the relegation zone, having been shit for most of the season. Perhaps due to the man in charge at the time, it doesn't warrant a mention in the same breath as other great escapes of that decade.

Unusual lapse in concentration from our former U21 keeper Harry Lewis.

My personal rule of thumb is I reckon that for any team if 50% of the transfers work out, then it's a decent transfer window. Definition of 'work out' is going to vary hugely according to individual interpretation but 'doing a job for us' would do for me. Extra points if it meant a sale for profit but it's not really the sole aim, is it. If it means we need to sign a Billy Sharp for 6 months to get promoted but he barely features in the league above, the ends justify the means. Same as Danny Fox to cover the 12 months before we decided Luke Shaw was ready. What it definitely doesn't mean is 'Moi is still here after 5 years and used by many different managers, so he has been good for us as we slide down the league'. As long as there are enough decent signings over a sustained time period, that is what gets teams through tough times and fallow periods. Our problem as others have pointed out many times already is that the recent substantial investment has followed an extended period of existing on a relative shoestring. The fact that we've relied so long on defenders who get nowhere near the matchday XI at our competitors (Vest, Bertrand, Bednarek; Stephens the only exception) supports this. As I said before, perceptions may vary but if we were to look back over the last 20 years, I reckon most of us would be unanimous on the successful windows where we beat the 50% rule comfortably. At a guess, maybe 3 times... when Liebherr took over and we signed Lambert et al, again when we got promoted to the PL and signed J-Rod and Clyne and then when Koeman joined and we signed Pelle, Tadic and co. We did sign plenty of forgettable players in that time, but the sheer number of good signings carried us through for years. Since then, however, it's been a bit of a slide with the occasional individual bright signings like KWP or Ings being seen as good business rather than transfer windows as a whole. Even Fergie made signings that didn't work out, but there was sufficient quality over the years that the Djemba-Djembas get forgotten about. And I only have to look at the transfer spend of Everton or Villa to know that however much they have splurged over the years, it's not really been working for them. A manager may be responsible for moulding a team out of individual players, but it is coherent recruitment away from the touchlines and press conferences that will really determine the fate of a football club and not very much else. Now it's easy to say this while we're bottom of the league, but I'm not sure we've been doing that recently.

Many people would describe Will Still as young, hungry and guaranteed to improve. High praise if you feel that applies to MLG He is a West Ham fan who used to play FM, as a kid. One to watch, definitely.

Continuing the 2004-2005 comparison, as reviewing against any other season is a bit depressing right now. Match day 26 featured an infamous 2-2 draw against Everton, versus our 0-0 against Man Utd. Match day 27 was a 0-0 against West Brom, in comparison with our 0-2 defeat tonight. That gives 20 points after round 27 in 2005, so we are still +2 points up over that season, at this point.

4-2-3-1 doesn't seem like an outrageous suggestion to me.

Agree with both of the above two previous posts. The concern for me is that if teams don't fall away, the required points total would end up being in the high 30s. I think we can achieve 35-ish, but so can a lot of sides whereas in recent years, you would expect a couple of teams to fail to reach 30 points. I'm not saying it's going to be us (it's the hope that kills you), but I reckon at least one team is going down with a higher amount of points than normal.

Yes, I think of it as having beaten Man City, we basically gained nothing out of it in the long-run other than an additional grace period of 2-3 games for NJ. Had we been knocked out then, Selles would probably have been in charge by the Wolves match.

Not sure we're allowed to question the victim's role these days, but it does sound like a lifetime of bad choices came home to roost. https://www.footballforums.net/threads/general-championship-chat.278920/page-44

As fans of a provincial club on the South Coast, we have to put up with this sort of shit commentary on a weekly basis and this is why for my own sanity I only bother with BBC Radio Solent. I can't face paying for other broadcasters' fan bias. It's allowed because it's one of the Super League clubs winning. On the other hand, when it's one of the Super League bastards getting done, I can only raise a smile at one of them taking an absolute waterboarding of their own medicine. Liverpool can have their celebration, but I would love it if they just missed out on CL qualification on the final match of the season. After all, there will quite possibly be more important matters at stake that day 😇

Take out his first match against Wednesday and he's got a 50% win percentage. 😉

As a slight twist on this exercise, I've been glancing at our performance in 2004-2005, as that has until now been my benchmark for a terrible season. Match day 25 back then yielded defeat against Birmingham City on 2nd February. Until that point, we had managed three wins against Blackburn, Pompey and Liverpool, and 9 draws. So, 18 points, which makes us +3 right now by match day. That said, back then, we subsequently went on an undefeated run over five matches. Could do with something like that now.

four points from four? 25% win rate? Yeah I'd take a manager who could do that with this rabble.

Absolutely agree with this, I thought that would be the intended striker partnership when Tall Paul arrived but Che has been injured for a while and won't feature tonight. Fingers crossed he comes back soon as he is our best bet in open play.

They would have played together a few times under Hughes in 2018.

Looks like Che Adams is taking ABK's place on the treatment table. Any word as to when he might return? Bet he regrets turning down Leeds etc to stay with us now.

It was a set-up by @Saint86 paying tribute to an enthusiastic Saints fan from Kenya who used to post on here a couple of years back. I don't normally pay attention to the multiple user types as they only seem to be performing to a select audience, but that one was pretty memorable. I know username sales don't happen, because mine would definitely have been one of the first to be sold to the highest bidder. Bearsy did return recently, spurred on by our form under Nathan Jones. Well spotted, that's excellent sleuthing. While we're on the topic of missing posters maybe you could shed some light on what happened to LeG, the ITK who not only stopped posting but seems to have had all his posts erased from existence too.

Got a decent bit of facial hair for someone in his early teens. It would take me a while to cultivate a patch like that. Reminds me of being at a wedding reception one November's afternoon as a +1 and asking someone on my table what he did for a living. He told me he was studying for his GCSEs the following summer. 🤦‍♂️

I've been looking for the original articles leading up to the unveiling without much luck, but that is the main quote. Only the articles relating the aftermath seem to have survived - https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/1267518.crisis-talks-pledge-over-ted-bates-statue/ In second place, we have this: The spokesman added: "We defy anyone to say that the pictures we saw were not Ted Bates". "We have not tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. "That is what we saw and what we thought we would see when the statue was unveiled". Every football club needs their own version of the original Ted Bates Statue, something to cheerily remind them that they aren't so fucking special after all. Sad to think that it no longer exists.

Seeing the name Javi just makes me think of the 'fan' who others seem to have come into contact with. My recollection is that he worked or hoped to work in a local hotel, but I can't find anything with a casual googling. As with the guy who ran Saintsforever, he must have eventually moved onto other teams more worthy of his devotions. Looking at de Pedro's wiki entry it seems he didn't do much at Blackburn and retired a couple of years after. I don't remember the episode but surely it doesn't rival Rudi Skacel's saga.

If we intend to stay up, we need wins and particularly so against our relegation rivals. I don't need to look at the Leeds build-up to tell you that it's not a unique belief among our support. If you think that's strange, you must be surprised by a lot of things.

Definitely interesting to hear and thanks for sharing for those who haven't listened. I do agree with the decision to sack Jones but it does feel like the easy thing to do, blaming the obvious departing scapegoat in Jones. The players were still the ones on the pitch, they can't take all the credit when things are going well against Man City or in the first half vs Wolves, and then lay all the blame at NJ for the capitulation. It does sound plausible that Selles got sidelined for Jones' backroom staff, but if this is genuine, then we can expect a massive upturn in form and we should power out of the relegation zone before long. If only life were that simple. I think the reality is that we don't have a lot of time to make up ground on our rivals, even if it was very encouraging in a number of ways at the weekend. It might be back to earth with a bump if, for example, we only manage a draw against Leeds.

Called it

We have a great record with caretaker managers. Considering he wasn't exactly first choice with Sport Republic's hierarchy, I wish him well but I don't have high hopes for him.