spyinthesky

I enjoy going when we win, or at least seem capable of winning, I tolerate going when our performances are bad (as has been the case for quite a while in the Prem) but I still go as, unfortunately. It is like a drug, expensive and addictive. I am very weak willed so I am so grateful that I have never smoked or taken illicit drugs otherwise I would be wrapped in a blanket outside of West Quay All that said I do find myself needing a bit more alcohol than normal recently to get me through dire times post match.

Rasmus Ankersen must be rueing his departure from Brentford. Seems that the club is on the market for £400m!!

Fair comments and as far as on field decisions they have made then arguably 70% bad and 30% good. However I was at St Marys yesterday and, by and large, they are possibly 70/30 in terms of Stadium/Matchday improvements. I think the railed standing was a positive step, bearing in mind the stadium is over 20 years old, and they appear to be positive in their approach to engaging with supporters even if you dont like the band/light shows/ facilities around the ground. However the stadium exterior is beginning to look a bit tired and ultimately the 'Feel Good' factor is on the pitch not around it. In my opinion SR could be better owners but we could have worse as has happened to quite a few of our rivals.

Championship it is then with the hope we can keep positive, get regular doubles against our friends down the road, and hope to one day to get promotion to the top tier and COMPETE!!

Not me, I'm old school and have a Season Ticket made from a piece of rock and detailed with a chisel. Problem is now I've fessed up and the authorities will know who threw their ticket on the pitch in disgust after another home walloping on Sunday.

I reckon this will be a great chance for Swansea fans who have a beef with their ex Manager to come along and make their feelings known, especially if Swansea do well against us, which is a real possibility if our recent games are anything to go by, especially Cardiff and Stoke games.

Re Sports Republic, they have come in a spent money and actually seemed to have an interest in taking the club forward unlike the previous owner, Chairman Gao. That said, taking away the last ditch promotion from the Championship last season, the team's record in the Prem since Sport Republic took over has been truly awful. The obsession with signing youngsters from Man City at inflated rates (apart from Lavia) has not been at all successful nor have many of the other signings To be successful in the transfer market there has to be a success rate of at least 70% and our signings have not reached that level, nowhere near it. Our transfer and wages outlay have been double or possibly triple what a successful Championship side would expect to spend and taking out the likes of Ramsdale, KWP, THB and Dibling, Saints currently look like a mid level Championship team and possibly worse. Having said all that, I dont necessarily agree with the 'Get Out Of Our Club' comments aimed towards Sports Republic. I say this as someone who has no idea about the club's finances and if Sports Republic did decide enough was enough and sought to recover as much money as possible by selling players, we could end up with another scenario of having to put up with playing youngsters and scratching around for loan players leading to further misery. In such circumstances, we may not have the good fortune to find another Markus Liebherr.

I wonder if that is why we cant get any offers in for him? Conversely why didnt the club check out his background when signing him? The personalities of players are a big factor as well as their playing ability.

To be honest I can remember feeling similar, if perhaps a tad worse, when we were playing at The Dell under Branfoot with around 10,000 in the ground. Even in that time when, circumstances were similar, there was always the possibility of saving ourselves from relegation. Under this regime we are a few games away from Christmas and there is absolutely no chance of avoiding relegation. The Manager is not totally culpable, as the purchasing of players has been pretty poor, but his inability to change the way we play is indicative of his incompetence as a Manager. In financial terms, I wonder how much the club will save allowing his (and his staff's) contracts to run through to the end of the season as opposed to getting rid now. Also I wonder if the players are on win bonuses? Not much to pay out there.

I have to say that I am generally against sacking a Manager, unless he has lost the Dressing Room, which it seems he hasnt, at the moment. However this awful style of play, allied to some woeful expenditure on players, is really causing some significant issues with results and fans feel good factor (which is basically below zero at the moment) The only aim, from most of us, is to get more points than the pathetic low number Derby achieved to herald their return to the lower levels. Russell Martin said that he had to sort out the mess the previous Managers left him and, to be fair he made a decent stab at it in the Championship. Heaven knows what shit show Martin's replacement will have to deal with next season.

Ironically enough I went down to the then lowly Bournemouth for a pre season game during the Branfoot era and was sat next to Steve Williams who had played a couple of pre season games for the Saints at the time. He was left out of the friendly as he had a 'discussion' with Ian Branfoot who had castigated him for coming short to receive the ball from a Saints goal kick. Branfoot had told him not to do that as there was the chance of losing the ball close to goal and suffering the consequences. Branfoot wanted the ball to be propelled up into the opponents half as quickly as possible and make use of the big target man who provided the main target for the teams offensive play. Bit different nowadays. Perhaps Steve Williams ought to come out of retirement!!

Think Branfoot's ghost was giving you duff information. Can you really see our current team scoring three goals in a Prem game this season? We couldnt even threaten the goal when playing most of the game against a 10 man Newcastle team.

To be fair didnt Bree come to us on a Free or a minimal payment? A decent Championship player who has been relatively value for money compared with the majority of players including other full backs such as Larios and Small who cost upwards of £10m in total and have done absolutely nothing.

Agree that he is a great musician and song writer with an decent vocal range. As a 'Soul' fan it is interesting aside that The Beatles covered a few Motown and a couple of other Black American tracks on their early albums. Macca also rated James Jamerson (ie 'The Hook') who played bass with the Funk Bros (Motown's House Band) as one of his favourite bass players.

Agree. We were doing relatively well until that unexpected (at the time) 4-0 reverse at Villa Park. Our Premiership results since then have been awful

As a decent centre half in his day and now Defensive Coach at St Marys, I wonder whether he agrees with the Managers insistence in playing out from the back? All these goals conceded cant look good on his CV

Any updates from those 'In The Know' about our crocked players, in alphabetical order (and dont say back in 2 weeks!!) BAZANU BEDNERAK BELLA KOTCHA (Is he still actually training with us?) LARIOS LALLANA SMALLBONE STEWART TALL PAUL

I feel sorry for BBD. He came on last night and wandered around like he had won a supporters competition to play on the St Marys pitch for the last 5 minutes of a game. My Blackburn supporting mate tells me he was generally piss poor at Ewood Park but had a bit of a purple patch as he did for a short while at Sheff Utd before going off to Spain only to be binned over there. In view of the fact that he has not benefitted from a Premier League win bonus now in 24 games, I wonder if us supporters should have a whip round for him as Christmas is coming

Old Nick Fair comment about the financial repercussions. Most of us thought promotion would not be easy as the standard of the Prem has risen since our last relegation. Not many of us thought the performances would be so dire with only Fernandes proving a decent buy. So recruitment as well as the Managers poor performance has left us with the only challenge will be to achieve more than 11 points and to think, Luton, with less resources put up a better fight. Next season could see us fall back into Football League obscurity

Sports Republic have made an offer to buy Kerry FC to become part of the growing portfolio of clubs sharing the same philosophy of abject failure

To be fair Russ totally avoided making eye contact with him when he went off.

I expected a walloping tonight and was unfortunately bang on the money. We started off well but then got undone by two poor goals, down to Lumley. However he made some decent saves after and we were fortunate that the woodwork and some poor finishing from Chelsea prevented a massacre. Playing out from the back just doesnt work for us as we dont have the right calibre of player. My ratings, for what they are worth: LUMLEY - 6/10 First goal was down to him whilst the second was forced upon him by the Managers insistence in playing out from the back> To his credit he made some decent saves BREE - 6/10 Reasonable performance especially when down to 10 men. WOOD - 5.5/10 Steady performance defensively but not confident with the ball at his feet. STEPHEN - 0/10 Speaks for itself KWP - 7/10 Excellent going forward and put in his usual 100% performance. Will be missed next season. Some team will get a bargain Free Transfer. ARIBO - 7/10 Thought he had one of his better games and in the right place to score his goal. FRASER - 5/10 He ran around a bit but created little. MANNING - 6.5/10 One of the many Championship level players in the squad bur have to give him credit for keeping going and making a goal preventing tackle in the second half. FERNANDES - 7.5/10 Thought he was our stand out player. Very decent display and another who wont be around next season. ARMSTRONG - 5.5/10 Another Championship level player out of his depth tonight. ARCHER - 6.5/10 Did OK but let himself down in the first half by getting forward well and dithered in the Chelsea box and a\ decent chance was missed. SUBS None of them added anything to the game. However I have to say that Brereton Diaz looked like someone who had won a competition and was awarded the opportunity to get on the field of play for a few minutes. He was that bad. Apart from Fernandez and KWP most of the team will be with us in the Championship next season. Mid table at best I reckon unless a better Manager can be appointed and the recruitment of new players/loans is improved.

Big disappointment as he seemed a decent addition to the squad. Did Chelsea pay a big fee to sign him from Rennes(?) If so, just as well as our talent spotters didnt recommend shelling out a tidy sum to sign him up.

Looking back on his career he has been pretty poor at times then seems to hit a high spot when he scores goals and becomes rated highly. Hopefully he is able to able to peak at some stage during his time here.

Not sure if this has been mentioned in earlier posts but does anyone think that Lallana could have had a straight red for the first half tackle for which he received a yellow and probably injured himself in the process?