St Louis

Im not questioning that they have made many bad decisions so far, and multiple bad managerial decisions and that things often dont feel like joined up thinking. What I was questioning is the thought that Sports Republic would deliberately be only looking for mangers who 'know less about football than they do'. It's just bonkers and I dont believe anyone really thinks that. Sport Republic have professional and financial skin in the game, they dont want us to fail. They are doing a good job of failing I agree, but that isnt what they want to happen. If we assume they are just a bunch of giant ego's, then they wont enjoy us being where we are right now.

Statements like this blow my mind... do you genuinely believe this? That our owners would rather appoint inferior managers/coaches, who will then provide worse results (on the pitch and the bank balance) because of their ego's? Wow. We have so many people on here going on about how we deserve to know exactly what they are doing and who they've interviewed, etc. Even criticising Rasmus for his selection processes, the time its taking him and that he only wants someone who knows less about football than him....FFS!? We dont even know that Rasmus is involved in the process at all (or to what degree) at the moment he probably has his hands full trying to guide Goztepe into Europe, under his chairmanship. FWIW, theyve lost 2 in 12 this season under the new manager that Sport Republic recruited 2 years ago. Sorry, rant over, it just does my head in how many people on here make so many ridiculous assumptions... how they are selecting potential managers, how many we are choosing from, that SR only want the cheap/crap options really. I never knew had so many forum members sitting in the boardroom and involved in the process.

Exactly this. I know from a previous director that when we have a manager vacancy, we typically have over 100 credible applications. There are 1000's of managers around the globe who would love the job, it would be in the Top 25 jobs in English football and desirable to many (facilities, potential, fanbase, route into English footie... Poch et al) We seem to think that there are only 3 or 4 managers at the table, because thats all we have from whispers and rumours on here. We quite probably will end up with Tonda, as thats the type of thing we seem to do (and have for years... Gray, Wigley, Pearson, Selles, etc) but there are definitely options out there and managers/coaches who would love this job.

George, Bobby and yourself?

I’m not saying you haven’t heard this, but I would be amazed. One reason is that we are pretty strong in the central areas now, so certainly not a priority. And he’s a lesser player than the JWP we sold. Secondly, it was widely reported he was on £100k a week with us, and left for West Ham and a nice big payrise. I don’t see how the numbers could ever work, as we can’t pay anything like that anymore. Would West Ham really cover £80-90k of his £120k weekly wages, just to make him able to play for us? I can’t see it. JWP also won’t be keen to walk away from those wages, as he will never get a contract like that again.

Barnaby Williams on the bench on Saturday then, anybody know what he's like as a player? I dont know anything about him.... attributes, style, position?

The presser is 2pm today, so maybe get an update of sorts then. I guess if he needs to rest for a couple weeks, then Sheff Weds at home followed by an International break is probably 'good' timing.

He also got busted (internally, not made public) for getting it on with my mates Mrs, whist he was manager at AFCB and she worked there! So I must admit... that and the fact he's a Skate really does put me off! Not sure I could bring myself to chant his name! 😂

Mick?

Interested as to why you think Reed ‘got lucky’ with those signings? For me, it’s obvious we need to also be signing proven established players like those two during transfer windows. I’d say that signing those two, and them hitting the ground running and performing to a decent level, wasn’t ‘lucky’ at all, the complete opposite.

I wouldnt say it's Will Still 'supporters', I would say its not feeling like the time is right to give up and ditch him yet. And I'd say I'm one of those. Based on a few things... like the fact I dont think chopping and changing managers/coaches/staff/squad every 5 minutes helps anyone (we have tried that for the last 25 years!) I also think this club is properly rotten/cursed/demoralised (whatever you want to call it), and 4 wins in 50 games, 1 home win in 12 months, etc shows that, and that has been the case long before Still arrived. My main reason though (which is highlighted well in the video embed above)... is that we are creating LOTS of chances in games, and lots of big chances too. We are just not sticking them away, and that isnt Still's fault IMHO. If we werent creating anything, then I would be more worried. I dont think we will go up this season now (we may scrape playoffs if we can start to turn it around soon), but I also dont think we are anywhere near as bad as our league position suggests. Fine margins and all that, and a couple of those chances stuck away and we win those games and are right up there. I understand that the bottom line is that we need wins and points, so my patience will wear pretty thin very quickly if this carries on, but I want him to be given longer for now, probably to reassess at the next International break.

Sorry if already shared elsewhere, but I thought this was interesting and worth 10 mins of viewing...

18th!? We can dare to dream... 😉 Perhaps that lofty height can be reached on Saturday?

Weirdly, I kind of hope he does. I know he's looked less than great so far, but I dont want him binned forever just yet. I still hold a glimmer of hope that he can be useful for us, at least until Stewart is back 'fit'. I'd love to see him have a decent game and get a goal for us, we need all the attacking help we can get! My preference (like everyone's I hope) is that he can turn it around still and grow into the team/division.

I'd assume Bree was the one who wanted the move, and I wouldnt blame him. He clearly has a good relationship with Jones (and plays really well under him), and was probably promised to be a starter, which is something he never really had here. I wish he was still in our squad, but good luck to him.