ant

Yes, it is. Our support's been OK this season, relative to the football served up. There's an argument to be made that it's been too good. The sell-outs and vocal support perhaps played part in a longer grace period than Martin and the players deserved. Now, I think many people (myself included) are trapped in a state of quiet inevitability. With the odd moment of reverting to chanting, but mostly to stave off the worst of the boredom. Generally tinged with gallows humour. In the majority of matches the away support's barely registered for me. Brentford were near-silent until they'd stuck a couple of goals away (with many of them sat down?!) If consistently decent from that point onwards.

His first window with us was broadly worthwhile (and included van Dijk!) But I think Koeman's connections did at least some of the work. The following year, we didn't replace Mane, Pelle, Wanyama or Fonte well enough - all of whom were pivotal players. That was the exact point we went from European contenders to a mid-table side. We really didn't back Puel well at all. Across 2017-18 you've got the holy trinity of Hoedt, Lemina & Carrillo. So... That. A year later, Vestergaard, Elyounoussi & Gunn... I take it Wilson wasn't particularly popular at Rangers either. But yes - credit where it's due, he's had a positive impact at Forest. It is indeed galling to look back to the much-criticised times of Wilson, Puel et al, realising quite how much further there was to fall.

Granted, there weren't many fans left by the end of the Brentford match, but a growing number were voicing their ire specifically towards Sports Republic. Both lone voices and wider chants. It'll be interesting to see how quickly the poison spreads.

In the same way that 100 passes across the face of our own goal don't create goalscoring chances (but will add to a 'successful pass %' stat), I'd like to understand how many of those are in the opposition box. Somebody like Shane Long (all 5ft 11 of him) had an incredible leap - and the positional sense to use it. Onuachu does not. He still feels a blunt instrument to me. The physical attributes aren't translating into ability.

Whether in business or sport, to be a disruptor you need to spot an opportunity by identifying what established competitors have missed - then exploit it ruthlessly. The 'opportunity' we spotted is to take our pants down and wiggle our butts. It's pretty difficult to exploit when the establishment is exploiting you.

Notwithstanding minor individual differences, this thread summarises to a pretty decent manifesto. The 'brains' in charge would do well to heed it. We know the club monitors this site. Even if they only see us as customers, their customers are showing the will to accept a pretty low bar for satisfaction.

Again, I wasn't chanting anything those around us weren't. You're pally enough with the group behind and they were the same. Martin was perfectly happy to make snide, barbed remarks about the fanbase. Did he really not expect to get anything back?

I took up that seat in 2010-11, actually. And I wouldn't say my chanting last night was incongruous.

Last night was actually quite fun, in a way. Bit like a leaving party for a colleague that overstayed their welcome. The fanbase was almost wholly united - and in fine voice. Making it very clear that just because Martin needed to go, we're Saints through and through. Hilarious that Martin waved when asked by the crowd. 😆 And quite indicative that even with the tide against him, he never did 'get it'. Unfortunately it says a lot that he slunk off at the end. Thanks for the promotion, Russell. And almost nothing since.

The Northam doing the goal music celebration after Fernandes' disallowed goal is a level of gallows humour that I didn't credit our fanbase with. Genuine highlight of the night.

The crowd has arguably been too mellow 'til today, but very much turned tonight. I was just just about too young to see Branfootball in the flesh, but yeah... Not seen a manager survive many matches with that level of vitriol.

Certifiably moronic. Again. He's not learnt by the 10th time; he's never going to learn. Go. Please.

"It's not just about the results" applies to under 9s football, not the top end of the game - where 'elite' athletes (allegedly) go toe to toe. If we humour for a second that it's not about getting points on the board, then our matches must surely be judged as entertainment rather than sport. And given my first thought as we lined up for the second half against Chelsea was "fucking hell, is there really 45+ more minutes of this?" Well...

This point's particularly pertinent. It's almost 2 years ago that I sat across from Ankersen as he claimed that: a) Sports Republic's recruitment to date wasn't the problem; b) That the players were not being poorly managed. We were told, po-faced, that the board had equipped Jones with the "tools" he needed to succeed. It's scary how few lessons have been learned since. If they double-down in January the long -term effects don't bear thinking about.

Take Walker-Peters & Fernandes out of these predicted lineups and you're looking at a bang-average Championship side. Yet another Summer of rebuilding. Yet another Summer trying (and failing) to clear the dead wood... Fun, this.

I'm not ITK, but it doesn't seem unrealistic that he had a clause in his initial contract which was triggered upon promotion. If that's not the case then yes - the decision was reckless at best.

Especially bizarre given Celtic had a far superior chant that we could've wholesale nicked, as we usually do. As Turkish said, somebody made the link. RE: the Onuachu chant, this stuff has been going on for years. Always about black strikers (Lukaku, Toney, Gnonto at Leeds, Diallo at Sunderland, and more before them). Plus it's a shit chant anyway.

Rob Stiles is from Waterlooville and lives in Denmead - or at least did around the time my brother was dating his daughter! But I suspect that means he's more likely to be blue than red...

Just realised this comes exactly a decade after we faced them in the same round of the League Cup at their place. Pelle's no-look top-bins goal from 25 yards... Long's first Saints goal... Crouch going mental and getting sent off. What a night. Bloody miss Koeman's squad.

Yeah, it absolutely was. And there was another edge to it with the unbridled hostility any time West Brom dared touch the ball. Goosebumps thinking about it. Suspect the suits thought it was something they could recreate on the regular. But an atmosphere like that is driven by the occasion; the stakes. You can't fake it.

According to this article, Wade Elliott - the very same that was a 'dead cert' to sign for us at one point - now scouts for Sport Republic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ckg23yj959ro

I was going to facetiously say Aaron Martin. Googled him, found he's retired and (being two years his senior) I just feel sad now.

Ooh baby, Do you know what he's worth? Ross Stewart is allergic to turf.

You can say all you want about concentrating on the league, but they've got until Saturday before we play next. Given the number of new players in our league starting lineup, wouldn't it make more sense to put out a team closer to that, in order to give them bonus time to gel? This seems the worst of both worlds, i.e. the likes of SAA are missing valuable game time whilst we're not learning anything of tangible value for the rest of the season.

He played for Andy Crosby at Port Vale, which is a nice little link to our past.