Saint86

Sorry to break it to you guys, but i think you're getting ahead of yourselves with the Martin / Leicester revival. Reading their forum (https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/topic/140672-has-martin-turned-the-corner-and-we-should-support-him/page/3/#comments) its seems abundantly clear that he's temporarily abandoned his principles to save his skin... as we know he did with saints going into the play offs. In this case, it appears he has switched to a back 3 and stopped the tippy tappy passing along the back line (not too dissimilar to what he did with saints) which has resulted in an uptick in form... He's secured a couple of wins, got himself some breathing space etc., so i'm 99% sure he'll be reverting to type before too long. It would seem that even Martin knows he can't afford to fail at Leicester so quickly (for fear of terminally killing his career). Based on previous Martin form, who wants to tell Leicester that its likely all he's done is temporarily buy himself some more time, rather than having a footballing epiphany?

This will be an interesting game vs the stand out favorites to win the league. 1st year parachute side vs 2nd year parachute side (although West Ham under Nuno should never have gone down). Its also the 2 best managers to ever grace the championship (statistically). If it was the first half of 2026 we'd all be going there with zero fear and expecting to turn them over. This season its still early and a bit disjointed with the personnel changes, spygate fallout etc. But we go into it with 3 clean sheets, full of confidence, and in reality the best CM in the 2nd tier fit and looking like he's come back on fire. No one is living with Jander and JWP in CM and Azaz in front. There defence is better than ours. Only really Schottlerbeck that threatens that starting back line imo. Although Bree would perhaps have a shout at breaking into it. Keeper wise its a lot closer. Still haven't seen last season's Peretz yet - maybe this weekend is the start of that?! Attack wise. Larin (if fit) is without question the best CF in the league. But their wingers are a scary prospect - Bowen will be a real issue vs Manning/Wellington with Scienza playing in front - but then equally that will be an interesting dynamic because will Bowen get full freedom if it leaves Leo free to cause havoc himself? Attack the best form of defense down the left? Pretty confident we'll see Matsuki down the right with Bree - which will give us industry and allow those overlaps we've seen so much off in recent games. If all of Jander, JWP, Azaz, Larin, and Scienza are fit and avaialble, we will cause any side a whole host of issues - and it will be interesting to see whether Nuno goes toe to toe with us on the attacking front, or we see a cagey game early in the season. One thing i think that is in our favour is that we are playing the away game relatively early on in the season - West Ham have been solid if unspectacular lately. 2 wins in their last 5 (all comps) and frankly the 9men Lincoln implosion is the oddity there. The other was a 1-0 win vs high flying Swansea, which is not the comfortable win we enjoyed vs them. I would rather be playing them away now than when they're in full flow later in the season, and when their impressive squad gives them the advantage of depth. As it is, we will have home advantage for the crunch home game at St Marys. In summary, I think this will end up 1-0 to saints or 1-1 (someone needs to back Tonda and the boys!). But lets see. Either-way, its nice to be playing a side of their quality (i.e., not parking the bus or trying to kick the crap out of us) and it will be a very good test of the team. Ultimately, this side beat Arsenal, Fulham away, and it took Man City 80+min (and a deflected bouncing outside of the box strike) to score against us at Wembley. The belief, confidence, togetherness, and relish in this side will come out in a game like this. I also wonder if the 4-1 might odly play in our favour - sets an expectation among their players and fans that has no grounding in reality.

The number of times opposition players have been allowed to kick Scienza (in particular, but not exclusively) out of the game essentially without punishment is really poor. The penalty was also a shocking decision which obviously cost us points. Conversely, boro have had at least 2 offside goals (i think both match winners) and were getting quite evident bias in the games i've watched (Stoke/cardiff). Not saying the refereeing approaches towards both sides are related (as that would be a proper conspiracy), but we're already looking at a circa 4 point swing if you just take one offside goal and the penalty. Add in the bias vs cardiff (which they won), and other matches and its already adding up to a lot of points. Let alone with the 4 points deduction. Unless the officiating luck balances out asap, or west ham's form drops off a cliff, we aren't getting 2nd.

At the moment, the difference between ourselves and Middlesbrough is a load of dodgy refereeing calls and the points deduction. Bit of a farce really. Hopefully it starts to even itself out otherwise we've got next to no chance of coming 2nd.

My point was that he's going to cost them a lot more than double larin. Larin was a great buy.

If he keeps scoring as he is, he'll cost them circa £20M...

No. I'm suggesting we're getting punished.

The officials are absolutely in Boro's favour as well this season. The decisions they've been getting are just laughable.

Yeah obviously that is totally uncalled for. Twitter / X is a cesspool for that kind of crap unfortunately. Thankfully no one on here is behaving like that 🤷‍♂️. But regardless, it is still perfectly legitimate to comment on the hole he has dug himself over spygate and with Eckert.

Not everyone 😏

I don't argue that. But he essentially condemned Eckert for bullying without exercising any impartial assessment of the EFL report at the time. There isn't a single shred of evidence in that EFL report that shows Eckert bullied junior staff. Yet it almost became the principle stick used in the press to hammer the club and Eckert, and to drive home the punishment. Blackmore, regrettably, just joined the national media pile on. The press idealistically should be better than this (but obviously that isn't the case and society just accepts it and we limp on), but Blackmore particularly (as the BBC sports journalist for saints) had to be more dutiful and responsible with his coverage at the time. Ultimately he got it wrong on this occasion (that happens, everyone is human), but it's going to take a while to wash with the fans (and I suspect the club) if he doesn't own it and show a small bit of contrition over the bullying stuff.

What? like not being able to distinguish between a potentially strained working relationship and an extreme state of loathing/hostility? 😄 As @Tamesaint says above, Blackmore had a poor (i would says extremely) Spygate . I listened to the his post FA spygate special last night on BBC Sounds - even then he was still attacking Tonda over the whole affair, and offered essentially no signs of reflection/apology/embarrassment over his pile on during spygate and his hammering of Tonda for the (false) "bullying" accusations. Its like he's oblivious to his own influence/impact and the responsibility that goes with it. He makes his living out of the club - and yet didn't exercise any loyalty at the time. No defense was given, no challenge of the narrative, no highlighting the trumped up bullying charges and lack of evidence. He just spent the whole affair believing every thing that was published in the press, hammering the club and Tonda, calling for him to be sacked, and condemning him for bullying (even when the efl report contained zero evidence of Tonda bullying junior staff). It was all simply quite poor from him. The minimum he should have done is acknowledge he got it wrong and apologized to Tonda over the bullying stuff imho. Blackmore is his own man, is meant to be a journalist, and should have been capable of reading the EFL report himself and seeing the bullying stuff was a blatant stitch up 🤷‍♂️. He did none of that, showed no ounce of loyalty to the club, and just joined the national media pile on - which (in fairness) would been excusable if he hadn't got it wrong. But the bullying stuff was clearly bollocks at the time, and where we are now, in the face of the FA report and the total lack of EFL evidence at the time, i really do think Blackmore should have taken the time to front up about it and admit he got it wrong. Apart from that, i do enjoy his enthusiasm for the club, his commentary with Tessem, and his podcast material. I don't want him to stop covering the club, everyone is flawed at the end of the day - but he had a mare over Spygate and Eckert, and his inability to own that leaves a sour taste for me.

I thought he grew into the game tbh. Norwich are a dangerous side and score a lot of goals - we seemed to handle that threat fairly comfortably.

In my opinion, the top 2 spots will be between us, west ham, and the victims. I am doubtful that Swansea will have the squad depth to continue their early season form (but they might), so perhaps include them as the 4th autos contender. Millwall have been left with a lot to do with their injuries, but i reckon they'll be a solid contender to win the playoffs at the end of the season. Fortunatley we've already recorded wins against the likes of Swansea, Stoke, Millwall, and Bristol City - and those are all teams that will be fighting for play offs come the end of the season as a minimum. Boro and West Ham still have most of them to play twice and will go some to beat out points return against them. Similarly, we have done that with a somewhat (post spygate) unsettled start to the season, and still have West Ham and Boro to play twice - which is a real opportunity for us to hurt them and boost our own chances. The 4 points is annoying, but we are right in the autos and title fight as it stands - and with money to spend in January as needed.

He's just a superb manager for where we are right now. Get him on a 5year contract and lets crack on - trophies ahead olay olay 😍