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Having arrived in an uncharacteristically timely fashion, it's the first time in a long while I've witnessed the shooting drills. Fucking hell. 😂

Earlier I put Rusk's press conference on as background noise, but ended up attentively listening to most of it. He speaks well. Certainly seems to 'get it', in terms of the common, obvious discussion points surrounding us. If nothing else it'll be interesting to see whether that translates to the way we play or not.

On one hand, I'd be lost without it. On the other, this is the 3rd or 4th consecutive renewal where I've seriously questioned it. And do I really want to hand SR more of my hard-earned to squander? Hmm.

Much of the board attends home matches, no? All and any ire should be turned towards them. To a man they have utterly fucked it, or presided over those that have. Awful, amateurish decision after awful amateurish decision, with a bottom line of 13 wins, 15 draws and 60 defeats at Premier League level; a win rate of 14.8%. They're shysters, and should be ashamed to show face.

Got to be Lallana, hasn't it? At least Brereton-Diaz and Sugawara have some form of sell-on value, no matter how meagre. Cornet was quickly off the wage bill, and Grønbæk will be similar. Nobody expected significant minutes from Lallana, but he's only accumulated 444 - less than 5 full matches. With incredibly limited impact within that. No amount of 'great to have about the dressing room' (🙄) makes up for that.

Send a few hundred of our lads to this and get them to do everything possible to rile up the Spurs lot. They boo their team from the first whistle; Postecoglou finally snaps, and instructs the players to stage a sit-down protest. We eventually squeeze the ball into their empty net on 90+2, securing the points. Season over, and we can forget it ever happened. Easy.

Careful now, that's the sort of extrapolation that led to signing Brereton-Diaz.

That was a golden chance to stumble over the lowest possible bar. But of course we spurned it. This is one of the most gutless 'top' level sides in history.

RE: season ticket holders not bothering, it's my step daughter's birthday today - and it's only because she's a little 'un (and will be in bed by the time I leave for the match) that I'm not staying home/prioritising that. Rightly or wrongly, this season has made me re-examine my relationship with football a bit.

I was shouted down last summer for suggesting we should disregard sentimentality, thank him for his service and look to sign better. Seemed patently obvious that whilst he'd played a role in the Champ, his days at the top level were numbered. But what do I know?

Not sure that's entirely fair. It's pretty much twice what they can fit into, say, Snows Stadium. And if you constrain matches to smaller grounds it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. With the League Cup being priced increasingly less competitively, these matches are a good, inexpensive route to give young fans a taste of the big stadium experience. It's also 1.5x more than attended for the youth cup match when we beat the skates 7-0. Should that not have been played at St. Mary's?

Enough games left to give them one each, with another to spare. Presumably that'll be a Sammy Saint & Mary Saint joint effort. Or Gorman & Dodd, back to get us the magic 3 points and seal their redemption. 😅

Digging deep here, but at least Ted Bates doesn't have to see us in this state. I believe we were 8th in the Prem on the day he passed.

To my mind the reason Pep praised Russell is because Martin was/is a bit of a Guardiola acolyte. Some of the main issues with that are: Pep has City's squad at his disposal (which in itself became too reliant on Rodri); The philosophy was never particularly well-suited to us as a club; Being closely tied to a philosophy is inherently fallible, as what wins out is cyclical. Just as tika taka was stifled by the gegenpress, possession-at-all-costs football is struggling against raw physicality & quick turnovers of play. Successful managers fall from grace when they're incapable of out-maneuvering the new guard; when City couldn't buy a win, even Pep had to admit their football needed to evolve Martin talks like an innovator whilst advocating tactics that have been and gone.

God, yeah - weren't a mass of IP addresses tracked back to some PR company? Or was that even earlier, on Saints Forever?

Adam Leitch's account of the day is still available on The Echo site. Lost count of how many times I've read it! https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4000947.stormy-ride-for-rupert-lowe-at-saints-agm/

Not unless you attach them to his arms.

Penalty decision made like the ref was looking for the first opportunity to give one.

FOUR at the back, playing deep; Central midfielders providing genuine cover for the defence; Playing on the counter, utilising Sulemana's pace. It's not been pretty, but it has been pragmatic. Why the fuck has it taken so long to try this setup? We'll still contrive a way to lose this particular match - and probably by a good few goals. But against some of the shitter sides we'd probably be good for the odd point.

Liverpool won't be bothered much beyond 3-0, given their other fixtures. You'd imagine their brightest & best will be taken off at that point. Do you get an appearance bonus for 5 minutes on the pitch?

Sacked by Tranmere after accruing just 3 points from their last 10 matches? Actually, yeah - he sounds right up our street to be fair.

...And then a set piece routine that makes it look like men against toddlers, followed by a gentle, bewildered wander back to the centre circle. Some of these players don't deserve to have their careers survive beyond this season.

SR have had an incredibly easy ride from the fans. Whether it's productive or 'right', surely it's only a matter of time before ire is directed towards them on match days?

Blue skies, and one of the highest temperatures of the year to date - yet the weather got increasingly volatile as we approached the stadium. Bodes well. 😅

I was away last week - and despite getting my ticket on the exchange as soon as that opened, it didn't sell. Was very strange that we continued to (easily) sell out for as long as we did. I'm glad folks are finally starting to vote with their feet. Heading into town now, prepared for another miserable experience. FFS.