Gloucester Saint

But you’d like to be (not as in age) 😉

As @CB Fry says though, there’s talent there but thrown in way too early by idiots treating the football club like a Frankenstein laboratory.🧪

Hideous. Would love to hear WGS’s views on that abomination. It’s failing propaganda football. I’d even watch Branfoot’s bilge over this Martinball/Pep Jr nonsense.

💯 and the players as a result don’t respect them. Saints are an extreme example but you can see it at loads of clubs. A player typically signed on a 5 year contract thinks ‘If I don’t like you there will probably be at least 8-9 managers during my contract if I’m here for the duration so I’ll sack it off and the owners will bring someone else in’.

I’m nearer 50 but yes, feel exactly the same.

Also at 31, any brand new and inexperienced manager in any industry would have trouble with a core of employees still pining after a previous manager and causing trouble behind the scenes, a senior employee more interested in 🍽️ than doing his core minimum job, an interfering and micro-managing Group Director figure (where they shouldn’t be and undermining his actual line manager) added to a losing culture as bad as anything nationally. That’s no excuse or mitigation for the dreadful decisions he is making, but it’s a very challenging cocktail for even an experienced and strong minded manager to handle.

There’s more comparisons between cow and dog shit than the industry magazines @Farmer Saint gets delivered.

I can’t see him being dictated to as Tonda clearly has been. Logic to having him and/or Romeu take the next two games, those two have played in El Classico, Liv-Man U and Merseyside Derby. They can cope with a few toothless island inbreds shouting abuse on the touchline and in the build up. Actually would be very cruel to expose Tonda to that pressure cooker.

Bree has been training and playing regularly at Charlton, will he have returned by then?

Whilst our home support is crap, some of the early football under him was the best we’ve seen for ages so I’m loathe to be too judgemental or retrospective. Unfortunately the longer contract I suspect came with corporate strictures around formations, which players he could pick, and they’ve left him without experienced coaching at this level around him. Ben Garner….Right to Wet Dream Academy…do me a favour. He’s Rasmus and Spors flunky and has zero respect with the fans and players pretty clearly, but as with all of the managers under SR, he’s had a hospital pass of an environment to work in.

If that’s true, THB has to stand up against the formation (and I agree that he isn’t comfortable with 3 CBs) even if Tonda won’t rebel against Ankerson and organise at kick off so that one of the centre backs plays as a CDM anyway. If by some miracle they get a result no-one will notice. It’ll totally undermine Tonda but he’s only a 14 year old anyway so who cares. Sometimes leadership is about recognising that Tonda and AA can’t do their jobs and taking control. It’s what happened under Nathan Jones so form for this under SR and their selection of weak, piss poor managers.

Unlikely, SR love a knee jerk reaction to criticism after being passive for ages and a heavy Fratton defeat is ideal for that. It’ll be Garner, more defeats and then Pearson or someone similar to perform a last day 2008 style escape final days.

Treat yourself and the dog to a nice walk well away from fish territory. This channel has loads and Rob’s Hampshire Pub Walks is a good one. You’ll be bussed past where you live twice on the bus, and have to drive Warsash to SMS twice again, all to watch several of Russell Martin’s mates not try a single leg for the shirt and have their island mutants celebrating as they score more goals than there are teeth in the Fratton End. That bell and trumpet to listen to as well… If the players didn’t give any sort of shit in the home game, they’ll really not give a toss about competing at the rust shed. 2005 was bad enough, but this has potential to be a lot worse.

They didn’t though, wanted to get at Saints fans going back to Fratton Station stopped by the coppers. Turned it on the police and surrounding streets such as Goldsmith Avenue, loads of vandalism, 100 or so arrests and the record set for the youngest ever UK football violence arrest (which may still stand). And they won 1-0! Although how Phillips’s shot hit the inside of the post and didn’t cross the line is still a surprise. Losing Killer in the warm up was fatal longer-term. Will be at least 3 or 4-0 next Sunday to them, the Saints players bar Fellows, Scienza and Bragg (assuming Charles won’t be fit) know we loathe them as much as the skate players and they’ve not run or tried a leg since December. At least two goals conceded from Wood, Manning or THB passing to each other in their own box. If they had any common sense, they’d actually try for this one to avoid grief at SMS games afterwards but they know our fans are too spineless to call them out.

Get the Swansea (plus THB and Bazunu) out of Saints.