revolution saint

Don’t you want a fight in a pub first?

It was Steve Grant (not Alfie House) and he was also guessing that there was probably a clause in his contract which stated he needed to be in the match day squad as well as a further instalment when he hits 25 games. Seems a bit far fetched but who knows? I think we're all just guessing but on the surface it's bizarre to have ABK on the bench and then play anyone but him in defence. Fairly certain Juric would have used Sam Amo (if we still had him) over ABK.

Just got into stadium and seen that midfield. Bastards won’t let me out again

Meh, doesn't really make much difference this season whether he plays or not and who knows what the situation is going to be in the summer. It's in Downes interests to get it sorted though because it's a small pool of potential suitors who would be interested and capable of signing him. Assuming Ipswich go down then I'd be surprised if they offer us anything close to getting our money back. Not too fussed over the attitude stuff - no one knows the full story and players redeem themselves in the eyes of fans all the time. Wasn't that long ago Bednarek was supposed to have a bad attitude, Puncheon was similar too.

Pure speculation on my part but I reckon a midfielder and a striker. Doesn't appear to be a big fan of Downes and pretty much all the forwards have been tried but not really managed to cement a starting position for themselves. He'll probably have to find a way to work with Downes and Archer because it'll be difficult to get our money back on them.

I don't disagree with you but, in their defence, not many parties are successful campaigning on higher taxation.

Mitrovic for Fulham to an extent. He got 26 goals in the championship in 20/21, 3 goals in the premier league in 21/22 followed by 43 goals in the championship in 22/23. Not quite the same as the next season he followed it up with 14. It's a pretty small list of suitors for him even if we did want to sell though - not many championship sides have the cash we'd want and no premier league team is coming in for him. Basically leaves the two clubs that come down with us and possibly whoever doesn't go back up out of Sheff Utd, Burnley or Leeds.

I think he'll still be here next season so wouldn't worry about it. No premier league team is coming in for him and I doubt any championship side outside of those with parachute payments can afford him. Same goes for Archer too. In that context getting some game time and hopefully a boost to his confidence is better than sitting on the bench here. As for motivation, he's a professional footballer and shouldn't need to be motivated. He had a shocking time in the premier league last time round and it wasn't an issue back in the championship so no reason why it should be this time either.

I agree although 55,000 posts? I'm willing to bet a few thousand of them have been spent on attention seekers........

Completely agree with you - Archer doesn't offer too much different to what we already had. No idea how much truth there is but we were supposed to be in for Fotis Ioannodis https://onefootball.com/en/news/southampton-failed-with-bid-for-uefa-conference-league-clubs-striker-40012605 He looked the right kind of profile for what we needed going into the season. If we can get Leeds to agree to an obligation if they get promoted and we can get our money back on Archer then I'd probably take it. I'd like to have seen a bit more of him but he's not been that great when he has played and both Martin and Juric have benched him more than played him.

He would say that though wouldn't he? I can't imagine he'd come out with anything to undermine a manager midway through a season even if he does decide to reassess at the end of the season. I'm not that fussed if Juric stays or goes. There's enough mitigating factors to warrant giving him another chance but equally I expected better than zero points from a possible 18.

Good to see the ADHD thread veer off topic. Who'd have predicted that?

It’ll be very difficult to justify keeping him on if he hasn’t got more points than Martin did. Only reason to sack Martin was because we didn’t think he was getting enough points out of what he had available. If his successor does the same or worse then logically, he has to go. Obviously that’s simplistic and there’s a few mitigating factors but I doubt he’ll be here come August

Based on that logic, I'd assume if we had stayed up then you'd be advocating a loan move to the championship for Dibling?

I don't think dropping down to the Championship would be terrible for him but for the sake of his career he should really be looking at another season in the premier league or equivalent. He's already proved he can cut it at this level so dropping a division wouldn't enhance his reputation much at all. There's a lot he can improve on and his next choice of club should be one that offers him the most chance of playing regularly because that's what he needs - regular gametime at premier league level.

If he does move then maybe he can ask to come home at weekends?

Didn't do George Michael any good though, did it?

Did we really though? Whilst we may have kept the ball under Martin it was all pretty safe passing and not the kind of quick incisive adventurous passing game you see from the successful teams. I think Fernandes is a decent passer and THB has his moments with long diagonals but I'm not sure you could call many of our players "passers". Personally I think we just bought really poorly and whilst looking at different styles etc can be a bit of fun, ultimately whatever the style used, I don't think many of the players are good enough at premier league level. Agree with you that it feels a bit strange to keep changing managers with what appears to be different philosophies and although I don't think it makes as much difference as many people would, it does point to a lack of clarity and direction at boardroom level. Hopefully a director of football will address that. No real inside information but I think Juric is probably more stopgap than long term and if we get a DoF in then they normally want to make their mark and bring in someone they know and can work with.

I dunno, I still think next season could be decent. Sheff Utd were appalling last season and they're currently 3rd and only a point behind Leeds in first. Plus I think we're probably better equipped for the championship this time around - we'll have players leave but I don't think it'll be on the same scale as at the start of last season and the ones left are still good (mostly) proven championship players. Obviously could go the other way but it shouldn't be cataclysmic. Important thing for me is to be clear on getting everything ready for next season now. That means getting a DoF in, a decision on the manager relatively early, identifying players and all that stuff.

Except that's really not true is it? You keep threatening to leave but never do, or you want a fight pre-game with the lefty morons. It's not the actions of someone who doesn't care about them and more like someone obsessed by them.

Despite not being a fan of putting too much reliance on data, I think it's just poor decision making. Brentford and Brighton are both largely credited with focussing on data with regard to their recruitment and they seem to do fine. We're just a bit shit. SR really have been crap - the amount of money they've spunked down the drain to end up with a worse squad and two relegations is quite remarkable.

Musk isn't the living embodiment of the internet or social media though. Of course he has a voice, and of course social media has an impact but (and I want to be quite specific here) he is not "in some ways the most powerful and influential person in all of human history". He's not even the best exponent of social media to leverage attention into power (Trump). There's been many many people in human history that have been powerful and influential and they've all done something - what has Musk actually done (apart from making a shit ton of money)? The starlink thing is a good exercise in his execution of power and that's a good example to use but there's not much else besides creating some headlines that get people worked up. So, yeah, you can make an argument that the internet is a powerful tool but don't conflate Musk with the internet.

Straw man argument. The only judgement I’m making is that Musk is not, in some ways, the most powerful and influential person in human history. It’s a stupid argument, ironically ignoring virtually all of human history.

Where would you place Tom Paine in your list of power and influence in the whole of human history? When he wrote Common Sense, still the most widely read pamphlet ever, he helped galvanise a nation into revolution. And then, blow me, if that wasn’t enough he buggers off wrote The age of reason and helped out in the French Revolution. Clearly not on the same level as Musk or Rogan. Maybe fourth behind Russell Brand?

Indeed, in some ways Joe Rogan has more power and influence than anyone else in human history.