Ralph Fastenbüttl

Never a truer word spoken.

Great job, OP.

My problem with Selles at the time was his unwillingness to deviate from Plan A, which was the very same plan that had failed for Ralph. Interestingly, this exact same inflexibility was a problem for him early doors at Reading, and it wasn't until, like, three months in, that he finally abandoned Ralph's 4-2-2-2 and tried something new. And in the process he completely reversed the club's fortunes and has emerged at the other end of it all as a really loved manager over there. It was always clear he was a very decent and principled chap. I'd love it if he continued to grow and became a top manager. I never thought I'd say this, but I'd have to say I'd welcome him back right now to be honest!

Upon reading the Echo report on Martin's post-match comments, I texted a mate the following: "For fear of tempting fate, every one of these comments reads like a bloke who is out of ideas and knows that he's losing his job, no?"

So how does this corruption manifest? Who makes the decision about who is to be wronged? Who is then told to wrong them, and by what means? Does each ref have a list in their pocket with big green ticks next to some teams and huge red crosses next to others? Are they disciplined at clandestine liaisons in abandoned and derelict buildings in the dark of night by men in black suits and dark glasses should they be deemed to have not been sufficiently unfavourable to those clubs being conspired against? And no-one has ever blown the whistle on this because all refs fear that if they speak up they will one day be taking a walk by a canal with their loved ones only for a man carrying a suspicious bouquet of lilies to 'pop a cap in his ass' via a cunningly concealed silenced P99?

Yeah, I'm convinced fitness is a big problem for us. Which is inexcusable from a management perspective.

It's not corruption, it's... just an inescapable whirlwind of pain and suffering and shit.

Fuck me dude, please. The football is bad enough without the added pain of the constant pedantry.

I've remained broadly pro RM thus far. He seems like a sensible, loyal and honorable chap who doesn't get the credit he deserves on this board for achieving his sole target last season - namely, promotion. But today's clusterfuck is pushing me right to the limit. Such a bizarre selection. I can't decide whether he was trying to be clever or if he has genuinely lost the plot. Right now it feels very hard not to crave the broad ability of a possibly dull but clearly tactically competent manager like Potter or Moyes, especially as I believe the squad ARE capable of more than we're getting from them. Perhaps I'm a fool, but I do think that in the right hands we've got the players needed to stay up. Which only makes the need for change more urgent. I'm not sure how much longer he should be given, sadly. Things feel like they did at the end of Ralph's tenure - it's clearly not working and there's ever diminishing hope of that changing.

Can't blame RM or Russball for that - we created more than enough chances to finish this one off and that equaliser was flukey bullshit. The gameplan worked, but the players failed us. Again and again and again.

How do you come to that conclusion? Because of his rich history captaining the team through an almost historically poor top flight campaign? I'm not saying JWP wouldn't do a job for us, but let's not pretend he's shown any sort of ability to help our team grind out results when all around him are poor.

This is true. I'm convinced the owners would have given Nathan Jones a lot longer to continue his reign of mental terror were it not for the fanbase which saw through it long before they did - and let it be known. However, I think we're quite some way from that point with RM. For starters, I think the relatively small sample of board users here is not (yet) representative of the larger fan base, who in general think Martin has with promotion shown enough to at the least enjoy a proper chance at cracking the PL. After a string of managers whose philosophies were either unidentifiable or indistinct, a manager with an actual discernable plan is appreciated. And it must be said, the anti-RM sentiment on here is pretty insane. We've got folks who hate RM because he didn't get us promoted "well enough" (one user recently cited the fact that we lost some games last season as evidence of RM's inadequacies), we had lots of folks who were calling for his sacking after ONE GAME! In fact, the calls began the moment we went a goal down to Newcastle. We've got users predicting that we'll not get a single win all season and even that we'll amass zero points in the League. It really is quite insane. The other thing going for him is that I really do believe that he has the squad by his side. We've all seen how loyal he is with his pack; following promotion his principle driving force was keeping the 'gang' together, with folks such as AA and AM being given new contracts when really we all know they're not PL quality. The new contract for AM, in particular, was bizarre decision - we've been waiting to get him off the books for ages. Regardless, check out this report from The Athletic on the signing of Ramsdale: Arsenal’s goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale had gone to [the Play-Off Final at] Wembley to cheer on winger David Brooks, who was on loan to Southampton from Bournemouth. Brooks is one of Ramsdale’s closest friends, and it is a tradition among their group to go to an end-of-season game in fancy dress. Ramsdale chose to go as Hagrid from Harry Potter. Those at the party, which took place at the Hilton London Wembley, told The Athletic that Ramsdale was the life and soul of the evening, revelling in the celebration, despite having experienced a personally disappointing season after losing his place in the Arsenal starting XI to David Raya. The affection Southampton’s players and staff had for Ramsdale flourished during that party and it was followed by a summer transfer window in which the club tried to woo him. The England international arrived at Staplewood, Southampton’s training ground, over the moon. He used to live on the south coast when he played for Bournemouth between 2017-20 and had an enjoyable time in the area. He is thrilled with the move and is desperate to get going, especially after fearing at one stage that Arsenal’s initial demands might price him out of a move. Martin, the Southampton manager who is known for being able to woo new signings, received a glowing reference from Brooks, who Ramsdale spoke to before the move. And Martin played a key role in convincing the 26-year-old to join the club, speaking to him several times throughout the summer. Despite late interest from another Premier League club, Ramsdale had already decided that he wanted to move to the south coast and play for a manager he likes and who worked hard to get him. Ramsdale has already been relegated twice from the Premier League before — at Bournemouth and Sheffield United — and is not daunted by the prospect of a relegation scrap at Southampton if it comes to it. However, Ramsdale believes Southampton can survive under Martin and he is ready for whatever challenges may come. RM's problem won't be if we carry on losing for the next month or two - it will be if we keep losing in the same way. Having a football philosophy is very good and all, but a manager's main job is getting the best out the players at his disposal. If your system isn't suited to those players, then of course one must eventually concede that the system is not fit for purpose. We've all seen how wedded RM is to his ideals. But if things don't change he's going to need to adapt because it will not take many more losses where we've handed the ball to the opposition in front of our own goal before the wider fan base finally does turn on RM. And as we saw with Mad Nate, once we get to that point, the club can shift from real and genuine support of the manager to turfing him out remarkably quickly. With all they've invested this summer, SR are not going to sit by and watch us quietly descend into relegation without taking action. But to write RM off at this stage the very definition of bed wetting!

My hope is that he'll use the international break to start bedding in some of the newcomers and we'll kick off upon the league's return with some new ideas. Personally I'd love to see a formation and line-up along the lines of: Archer Dibling Fernandes Lallana Les Downes Saga Bednarek THB/ABK KWP Ramsdale Alternatively, if you drop one of Downes or Les we could get another attacker in there: BBD Archer Fernandes Dibling Lallana Downes Saga Bednarek THB/ABK KWP Ramsdale Or if Adam's not up for the full 90 or we're absolutely wedded to three up front: BBD Archer Fernandes Dibling Downes Les Saga Bednarek THB/ABK KWP Ramsdale

Sugar tits!

I know opinion is a bit split on Ryan Fraser on these boards, but you've got to just adore how much he clearly loves the club!