Dman

That's it though, right? We wanted Meresca (i've no doubt about that), he dind't fancy us so we saw Martin as the second (maybe 3rd, 4th, 5th) best choice?

Was Martin a SR choice or a Willocx choice? imo I think it was probably the latter...

Yep. If we fail to get anything at Bournemouth, give the new man a free hit at Arsenal and go to leicester with a realstic chance of picking up 3 points. Still believe under Martin in chagre, we'll fail to make the 12 point mark.

In fairness, I think he'll be a decent player. The step up from L1 to Prem (as shown by Bazunu) is just too great - especially for a team who are struggling. He'll beneift greatly when we're in the championship next season imo.

The only one I've been surprised with not being able to step up is THB. The rest, it was absolutely obvious wouldn't be good enough at this level. I actually find it pretty comical that we allowed MArtin to have a say on signing Wood. A bang average championship player was never going to be good enough to step up. It might only have been 4m, but that's 4m we could have put towards a number 9 (on top of what we paid for Archer). I'll give the board benefit of the doubt over BBD, he had a decent enough go at it last season.

TBH, I think he'll be here for the next 5 or 6, which are going to be piviotal to our survial chances this season. Bmouth, Arsenal, Leciester, City, Everton, Wolves. If hes still here come Wolves 9th Novemeber, we'd have either won a couple or that will be his last game. We have to be picking 7 or 8 points minimum from that lot (I don't think we will), or theres a chance we'll be down by Christmas.

So a bit like Martin then, just with a better track record and the possibility of keeping us up.

well the quality of football can't be any worse than 5 games, 1 point, 2 goals for and 9 against... can it.

All but last season, when we had the 3rd best side & budget (still finished 4th), has Martin come close to promotion from the championship. For reference, Corberan's record in the championship; 20-21 (first season in management) - Huddersfiled - 20th. 21-22 - Huddersfield - 3rd 22-23 (joined in october West Brom 2nd bottom after 16 games) - West Brom - 9th 23-24 - west brom - 5th. Compared to Martin; 20-21 - MK Dons - 13th L1 21-22 - Swansea - 15th 22-23 - Swansea - 10th Eustace a little harder to compare as he has a bit more of a scratchy record. But looking at it, he had a piss poor Birmingham side fighting for the play-offs until ridiculously sacked (who then went down) and looks to be doing something similar at Blackburn. Given the resources avalible to all 3, I'm not convinced Martin could achieve what the other 2 had at their respective clubs.

Eustace and Corberan would both, imo, be better appointments than Martin. However, both are championship appointments and not ones we should be looking at if we want to really give ourselves a chance of survival. I'd fancy our chances significantly higher next season to bounce back with the either of those in the dug out though.

Ipswich are exactly the sort of side who'll cause us big problems, a bit like Forest did. They're well orgainsed and will hit us on the counter with directness and pace. This could easily be the beginning of the end for Martin - A comprehensive defeat like the other 4 games and I can't see him lasting until Novemeber. I'm gonna go for 0-2.

if - and its a big if - his post is genuine and commited to the cause (until January at least), its a bit of a no brainer to try and integrate him back. Quality wise, he pisses all over every single other CB we have and would improve us. I have my doubts and was really hopeful that we'd shift him. As you said, only really those on the ground will know what gone / going on.

I'm not sure that's actually true. Martin and this style was clearly introduced and championed by Wilcox. He's now gone and SR have history of completley changing style in Ralph -> Jones -> Selles. I'm not saying it'd be sensible, but I wouldn't rule it out.

I don't disagree. As I said, staying up was always unlikley. However, we don't have the players to try and dominate the ball and games at this level, that is on the manager. We can't afford to ship 80+ odd goals this season, which, excessively conceeding, is the norm for a Martin team. A different style might give us a fighting chance. As good a chance as Leicester, Everton and Ipswich anyway.

one thing I would say, the fanzone(s) before and at half time are a great idea. In the 2 games they've been absolutely packed. I would expect that to dwindle as the winter draws in.

by drastically change, I mean the manager.. so you're agreeing with me. Perfect.

Naive to say the very least if you can't tell after 4 games that we're absolutely fucked, unless things drastically change.

I'm saying that we'd likley struggle to stay up with this crop current, but with Martin and his sytle of play, that becomes no chance of staying up. A decent manager who could set us up to be harder to beat and hit teams on the counter, a bit like ipswich, would give us a fighting chance.

I'd go strong, but give opportuinty to give those who haven't previously had a sniff an chance to impress, whilst trying players in a slightly different position (i.e archer Left wing) Ramsdale Suga ABK THB Taylor Downes Les Fernandes Cornet Tall Paul Archer

Perhaps we should try and find a target man. Someone really tall 6'7ish, with a decent scoring record in europe would do the job.

With each week that passes, we're less appealing to a manager who's capable at this level. If (when) we fail to beat Ipswich and Bmouth, we simply have to pull the trigger if we're serious about giving ourselves a chance of survival this season.

He's out of his depth at this level and imo was last season as well, carried by better players. Granted the squad isn't good enough in key areas (center of defence and center of teh forward line), but with Martin in charge, we're on course for smashing the Derby record.

Execpt Stewart has been in training, so yes, it has....

Could really do with a flames reaction, because the COT have been on fire.

United are unmotived and a poor side. However, they'll stick 3 or 4 past us with relative ease if they fancy putting some effort in and pressing us. I don't see any situation where we win this one. I reckon a comfortable 0-2.