ant

Everything is political. And given your history on here, I'd offer it'd be worth you heeding your own moratorium.

I've spent thousands supporting the club since Sports Republic took over, and am not affluent enough to keep pissing good money after bad. A sensible pricing structure would've gone a long way to bridging the gap. This isn't that.

How daft we were to bin off Maik Taylor in favour of Jones. Could've had another decade from him at the top level.

Oh, give over. Why do you support the original comment, then?

I could very well be wrong, but there's something about the tone of it. For sure, it could be that Solak wants to permanently protect his asset. But he's got fingers in a lot of pies. Can't imagine this was a priority - more a necessity.

Bodes a bit better than expected in the sense that Solak isn't afraid to throw his weight around. However it appears that the Sports Republic project was sold to him as a turnkey solution. I wonder what he thinks about needing to get his hands dirty? Seems the intention is that Solak is only in interim charge. But do we think he'll be getting a bit hacked off about needing to be so closely involved? And if so, enough to start looking to offload us?

Heading out for the day with the family instead. Sports Republic have had more than enough of my money. If I feel the need to inject some misery into the day I'll tune in to Adam and Jo when we're driving home.

Won't get a great view of the pitch from there. Albeit that probably adds to the value.

'Pedant alert' moment, but I think you've confused 02-03 (last at Maine Road, finished 1-0 with a Michael Svensson goal) and 03-04, which was exactly as described. 8th in the league and the FA Cup Final... An impossible dream now. 😪

We picked up 7 points from the 21st to 26th games of 2022-23, so the gap will surely only widen. Takes some doing to make us THIS much worse than that horror-show. 🤦‍♂️

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.