S-Clarke

I'd say a good % of their fans, just have a read up on their views on him. He was hated up there, lumbered them with a load of crap. He may be pulling off some good things at Forest, but like others have said that doesn't automatically abstain him from his time here - where he quite frankly started our decline and financially handcuffed us with players like Elyounoussi, Vestergaard and Carillo to name a few.

It probably correlates to when Bednarek became a regular starter for us.

Dibling injured for 'a long time' according to Juric, whatever that means. Sulemena and Les fitness/fatigue.

This is a different level of horrible though, like we're not even close. We're not competitive in any game we play. I get the gap is big, but it's not this big - which is why I can't see things being too different in a lower league with this bunch. Mentally most of them will never recover.

I honestly fear for next season, I can't see how we recover from a year of this. God knows what the future holds for this club, but I don't think it's pretty.

There doesn't need to be a previous example of things happening, they can happen for the first time in any walk of life.

This is where I'm at to be honest, even though he had an eye-catching in-game moments he still flattered to deceive as nothing came of them. He'd need to do a hell of a lot more than that over a longer period of time to convince me he's any cop.

Lots of talk about JWP scoring etc, but he hardly plays for them. Unused sub most of the time. He's played about 20 mins of PL football since Nov.

They also supported him by recruiting his younger brother for their reserve team, so the family were 'close together'. Yeah, he's a knob.

I think structured criticism of Smallbone is fair, but when it gets personal it's just pointless and not based on anything. From a footballing point of view I just don't think he's good enough. He wasn't particularly good enough last year either, especially when he played in a 2. He was food and drink to anyone with a bit of physicality. He is your typical lower league journeyman midfielder to me. There is nothing to do but moan and complain at the moment though. There's nothing positive. We sit bottom of the PL with 6 points at the end of January, -34 goal difference and adrift of absolutely everyone. We're already relegated and from where I'm sat right now I'm fearing for the future, because this sort of season can take a long time to recover from at a club level. I get that Dragan is trying to get more involved, but there is significant damage here that is going to take a long time to bottom out.

I don't see what Charles would add to us for the rest of this season, whatever we do between now and May is irrelevant as we're just playing friendly matches - so let him play competitive football and get ready for us next season. As I've said before, some players won't ever recover from seasons like we're having - so let's not bring in players like him to this shower, let him continue to develop in a competitive environment. My cynical side is expecting us to agree a loan to another Champ side, with a buy clause if they get promoted, so we'll probably never see him next year anyway.

SR are odd - they do make some good appointments like this. On paper both Shields and Wilcox were good appointments, but we never seem to be able to keep them longer than a few months. I guess it's because the good appointments see the reality once they've settled in and bail asap?

He'd have refused to play by mid-September once the going got tough, so it's a moot point really as he wouldn't have been available. He runs away from trouble, only likes basking in the success of others.

Sadly the game changed when we lost Dibling and then Fernandes, our two most technical and influential players - they allowed us to retain a threat up top. As soon as they went, and we had bloody Smallbone and Armstrong in their roles we were no longer able to retain any ball in the attacking third, thus allowing United to back us into a corner and the rest is history. The drop off from Fernandes to Smallbone and Downes is too big, way, way too big. This isn't new news either, whenever we had Smallbone and Downes in CM last season we were often played through. So I don't know why anyone expects any different this year. We're probably 5 or 6 first team players away from being competitive at this level. The money spent on Wood, BBD, Archer and Suguwara needed to have been spent on better quality for us to have stood a chance. The only take away is that I could see what we were trying to do for the first hour, good counter pressing and playing them into mistakes - but we just don't have the ability to see anything through at this level. A real chastening season, which some players will never ever recover from.

No real surprise to see the Lemina story end up like this, he moves around clubs like a bad smell. Technically he is top notch, but he'll never be remembered as a ''good player'' because his attitude and application stink every club out. He apparently favours Saudi, no shit.

For real? I always assumed he was in his 60's. That's crazy.

I must have missed the Kraft news, I expected some shifts but this is the first notable fist on the table by Dragan. He's let 'his guys' run the show, but now he's openly admitted things aren't right - that's sometimes the first step of creating a better atmosphere amongst the club, admission that things are wrong and we're no longer just plodding along with our fingers in our ears. More football people at the top of the club has been a must ever since they took over, it sounds like Dragan is now fully of that belief.

It's certainly nice to see a win for a change, a very rare event. It's hard to read much into it though, we were playing against a L1 standard team really what with the players Swansea were missing - but you still have to turn up, and we did. It was a very comfortable and straight forward win. I find it hard to get too excited though based on what we've had to endure the past 5 months. Not worth getting too carried away with details or individuals as it was such a low standard of opposition.

I think an open letter would probably create more angst, I've had enough of their words - it's time they actually started delivering properly. I do agree that the footballing side internally, at upper levels, needs to be ripped apart and started again. I'd be able to get behind that. Our footballing decisions are currently being driven by a tech guy (Kraft) a former dyson exec (Parsons) and a rugby performance director (Bitcon). That is where the problem lies. Those 3 positions are critical and are currently filled with people who have zero football experience.

I'm glad nothing is happening, it would have been stupid if we went out there trying to buy players in our position. Loans are all i'd want to see, no more Sulemana/Onuachu/Orsic windows. There's no point improving the squad now as nothing will come of it, so keep the powder dry.

Yep, I can totally believe that! Like others have said, it's a public sector thing, but I do still believe the management in the NHS play the system to the extreme to try and manipulate things. Although the councils probably do as much as well, but I only really have experience of seeing it in the NHS system. There are many things I've witnessed in the past re: saving money, like for example a system being improved for free (with may require some overtime) by utilising the inhouse internal knowledge/skills, but that was vetoed and external consultants and companies were brought in for 3 figures to do the same thing - which the internal staff, who'd have done it 'for free', then have to unpick in their own time. None of it makes any sense. I don't pay much attention to the hospital critical incidents either, this is another game being played by upper management. As soon as they declare a critical incident, NHSE/DOH release extra support and funding. There is an understanding that money is directed from other departments straight into A&E, but this doesn't tell the whole story.

These sorts of roles aren't limited to a single NHS Trust either. Every trust is littered with roles like this and in some cases even entire teams dedicated to it. We have over 300 individual NHS organisations across the country, all employing their own boards of directors and fluffy roles like this. I see it every single day and even though I work in the NHS, I'll never agree that it's underfunded. It's financially mismanaged, absolutley, but the money is there - there's just no control to how it's spent. The fear organisations have by not spending all their money, and in turn potentially getting less from the DoH in the next year is fuelling overspending and waste.

In what world do they think we're going to get £16m for Sulemena? They're still sniffing glue by the sounds of it. He'll be with us until the last day of the window, be shipped off on loan, come back to us in the summer and we'll pay him off. No one will spend money on him as he's crap.

I'll give you Ramsdale, THB, Downes and Fernandes. Sugawara has been next level shit and Edwards may be good for us, but not proven yet. The majority of their transfer additions since they have taken over have taken us backwards. Bazunu - Rubbish Lis - We were a Vehicle for his Gotzpe adventure Taylor - Not really sure what the point of that one was. Larios - Pointless ABK - A disaster all being told. Aribo - Pretty crap. Sulemana - Utter heap of turd. Onuachu - Not good enough. Charly - Decent, but probably not quite suited to English football Lavia - Class - their one standout. Charles - May be good, not really shown up for us yet. Stewart - Pointless. Could have told you the outcome on that one before we signed him. Cornet - Horrendous Ugochuckwu - I think he's rubbish. BBD - Horrendous Edozie - Not really good enough. Mara - holy mother of shite. Orsic - wtf? AMN - Trash DCC - Awful So bar Lavia, THB, Fernadnes and maybe Charly the majority of their 'driven' signings have been trash. You can't really argue with that list. I wouldn't say their blind spot is limited to the attack, they've made shit calls in multiple positions. That's why I don't want any of this crew making any additions this window. They cannot be trusted. Save the dollar, go down, scrap the lot of them and rebuild a decent recruitment setup and then start again.

They'll be good enough if they're complimented with players who mitigate their physical weaknesses, i.e pace. But as we've seen this year, we've put Downes and THB on the pedestal as the two main men in their respective positions and they're not good enough (physically) for that at this level. In summary we went into this season totally underprepared and hung them out to dry, trying to get them to do what they did in a level below. Neither Fonte or Toby were particularly quick, and they were two of our best PL CB's in a generation, but we complimented the team with players who helped alleviate their physical weaknesses. It's not all about individuals, it's about building a team to get the best out of everyone. We didn't do that, we didn't do it last season either. Our team might be a good bunch professionally, but as a unit in terms of how they compliment each other they are utterly horrific. We couldn't have got it more wrong had we tried.