Russell Martin

[Weston Super Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Look at how Brighton are copying us. The revolution has begun!! 

We're infecting the league one team at a time.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

We're infecting the league one team at a time.

Once they're all as bad as us we might have a chance. 

[Weston Super Saint]

3 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Once they're all as bad as us we might have a chance. 

It's only temporary - look at City, they've snapped out of it.

[SambaMaverick]

Bournemouth and Iraola are mighty impressive.

All their players are fit as a fiddle, well drilled, they don't fuck about with it at the back - everything we ain't.

[Osvaldorama]

16 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

Bournemouth and Iraola are mighty impressive.

All their players are fit as a fiddle, well drilled, they don't fuck about with it at the back - everything we ain't.

They remind me of us under Pochettino. 
 

Shows what a massive difference a good manager can make to a fairly average squad. 
 

 

[austsaint]

2 hours ago, coalman said:

I agree. The worse your side is relative to every other team the more important it is to protect your defence. Our best times in the Premier League were based on solidity in front of the back four.

Oh for a Wanyama, Schneiderlin or Romeu to partner Downes.  That, a clinical striker, an Andersen replacement  and a different manager would be a good starting place for change.

[austsaint]

Just now, austsaint said:

Oh for a Wanyama, Schneiderlin or Romeu to partner Downes.  That, a clinical striker, an Andersen replacement  and a different manager would be a good starting place for change.

Ankersen, not Anderson.

[saintant]

47 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

We're infecting the league one team at a time.

Spurs have also conceded some big chances playing Russball.

[Gloucester Saint]

14 minutes ago, saintant said:

Spurs have also conceded some big chances playing Russball.

And lost to a set piece. Ange is good on camera but they concede some very basic goals for a top 7 side.

Whereas their great rivals have scored more goals from corners than anyone else in Europe. Eat that stat and eat shit Russell Martin. If it’s good enough for Arteta, good enough for a prick like him.

[Dark Munster]

4 hours ago, Challenger said:

Problem is SR appear happy to keep their   " floater" around, either that or they haven't got the balls to pull the chain.

The bigger problem is SR themselves are a couple of huge Danish turds that Dragan is happy to keep around or hasn't got the balls to flush.

[Master Bates]

He's leaving today,

 

For Aston Villa.

[coalman]

20 minutes ago, Master Bates said:

He's leaving today,

 

For Aston Villa.

Which would be fine if he wasn't taking a coach load of impressionable young adults with him.

[Weston Super Saint]

2 minutes ago, coalman said:

Which would be fine if he wasn't taking a coach load of impressionable young adults with him.

Lots of hugs on the love bus today then.

[Wade Garrett]

They get praised after getting hammered at home and playing some really stupid football.

Of course the players like him.  It’s like the lazy cunt on site who the foreman never gives a bollocking to.

[Doctoroncall]

9 hours ago, saintant said:

Spurs have also conceded some big chances playing Russball.

And yet I can only see Spurs giving us a spanking ☹️

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

1 hour ago, Master Bates said:

He's leaving today,

 

For Aston Villa.

Bold move by Villa to hire him. The Champions League won't know what's hit them.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

THB the latest to stick up for Martin.

[Mr X]

12 hours ago, Challenger said:

Problem is SR appear happy to keep their   " floater" around, either that or they haven't got the balls to pull the chain.

 

 

I think where they haven't flushed soon enough and didn't have the  nous to pull the chain there's no point flushing now as we are affectively going down the drain anyway and noones going to want to come in to a club that could be down the drain by January 

Edited 6 December, 2024 by Mr X

[SouSaint]

11 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

THB the latest to stick up for Martin.

No surprise as Martin's vanity project suits him. These lot only have an eye for their next club, unfortunately. 

[tdmickey3]

29 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

THB the latest to stick up for Martin.

Most will stick up for him publicly but privately they will be mighty pissed of at being made to look shit and blamed for the stupidity he asks them to perform

[Turkish]

12 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Once they're all as bad as us we might have a chance. 

You know this might be part of the dynasty. Create a new brand of football which is seen as hipster which everyone copies which makes teams so shit it gives us a chance. Brighton are copying us, they were shite in the second half of our game and again last night. Pep has learnt from us, they've been shite since they played us. The Southampton disease might be more infectious than we hoped. 

[beatlesaint]

1 hour ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

THB the latest to stick up for Martin.

"It's not the gaffer telling us, 'If you have a chance to run forward, turn back and play'. That's not the message. It's important people know that."

In that case why the hell do you all keep doing it then? Anybody thought of asking these guys ffs?

[Oldandtired]

12 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

Bournemouth and Iraola are mighty impressive.

All their players are fit as a fiddle, well drilled, they don't fuck about with it at the back - everything we ain't.

This is what I don't understand about all of the RM acolytes on here. I don't think that many of Bournemouth players are outstanding, their manager has simply instilled a system in them that works. Surely even an egomaniac like Martin must watch this and see the difference between that and his woefully inadequate way of doing things.
 

How can you possibly defend him?

[tdmickey3]

9 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

"It's not the gaffer telling us, 'If you have a chance to run forward, turn back and play'. That's not the message. It's important people know that."

In that case why the hell do you all keep doing it then? Anybody thought of asking these guys ffs?

Its clearly a club directive to say this

[Farmer Saint]

1 hour ago, SouSaint said:

No surprise as Martin's vanity project suits him. These lot only have an eye for their next club, unfortunately. 

Not judging by the fact he doesn't look PL quality it doesn't.

Edited 6 December, 2024 by Farmer Saint

[Lord Duckhunter]

8 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

"It's not the gaffer telling us, 'If you have a chance to run forward, turn back and play'. That's not the message. It's important people know that."

 

It’s more nuanced than that. I’ve no doubt Lego tells them once they’ve broken the press or have an overload on to play positively like they did for the Liverpool goal. But the mindset is clearly, keep the ball and more possession cuts down the opponents chances to score. There’s no doubt they’ve been told to try and break the press by mincing about at the back to shift the opposition into a poor defensive shape.
 

The result of Lego’s coaching and instructions are players first instinct is to keep the easy ball to maintain possession. When under pressure players heads get scrambled and they don’t take chances. The upshot of this is players stop making runs ahead of them, as they never get the ball, and a vicious downward spiral of boring safe Lego football entails. Long ball sides were the same. Managers didn’t tell them to hoof the ball aimlessly, but to hit the channels or hit the big man and run off him. Whatever happens they weren’t to get caught in possession in their own half, so what ended up happening was they just lumped it whenever in any doubt. I’m sure wimbledon players would have defended Dave Bassett, saying he didn’t tell them to hoof it aimlessly, but at its worse that was the outcome. 
 

It’s the culture Lego creates with his ridiculous take on the game but they’d soon be talking about the breath of fresh air the new man has brought to proceedings once Lego is gone. 

[notnowcato]

32 minutes ago, Oldandtired said:

This is what I don't understand about all of the RM acolytes on here. I don't think that many of Bournemouth players are outstanding, their manager has simply instilled a system in them that works. Surely even an egomaniac like Martin must watch this and see the difference between that and his woefully inadequate way of doing things.
 

How can you possibly defend him?

What you think about Bournemouth players doesn’t really matter. Fact is they can spend more on one player than twice our record purchase. Or put another way twice more than our total forward purchases this summer. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

12 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

What you think about Bournemouth players doesn’t really matter. Fact is they can spend more on one player than twice our record purchase. Or put another way twice more than our total forward purchases this summer. 

And that is a fuckin embarrassment, and a clear indication of how shit we are and how it's been allowed to happen under a series of owners who have no clue on how to run a football club. What people were saying about plucky old Bournemouth 5 or 6 years ago is exactly what they are saying about us now. 

[Oldandtired]

14 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

What you think about Bournemouth players doesn’t really matter. Fact is they can spend more on one player than twice our record purchase. Or put another way twice more than our total forward purchases this summer. 

Which doesn't necessarily make for a successful player. As I keep on saying RM could take Ronaldo and Messi and destroy them as players within a month.

[Lord Duckhunter]

17 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

What you think about Bournemouth players doesn’t really matter. Fact is they can spend more on one player than twice our record purchase. Or put another way twice more than our total forward purchases this summer. 

They had a squad just as bad (if not worse) when they got back up. They even got battered 9 in that season. They stayed up because their managers didn’t think they were the reincarnation of Pep, and played proper football. What they are now is a direct result of that first season back in the top flight. Tactically they did what was right for the club, not what would boost the managers ego. 

[S-Clarke]

13 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

Bournemouth and Iraola are mighty impressive.

All their players are fit as a fiddle, well drilled, they don't fuck about with it at the back - everything we ain't.

Our execs should look at what Bournemouth are doing, shut themselves in a dark room and have a long hard talk to themselves about how the fuck they've messed it up here so bad.

There is no way Bournemouth should be light years ahead of us given the respective sizes/structure, but that's been allowed to happen because of the biggest load of incompetence I've ever seen.

Bournemouth were similar to us in that they bounced back from the Champ, they didn't' run away with it, Parker was questioned a bit etc. They acted quickly when Parker started to flop at this level and the rest was history. They also acted quickly and decisively when they ditched O'Neil, who by all accounts was doing a decent job, but they identified the need to do better. It was similar to when we ditched Adkins.

We just sit on our hands for way too long, so indecisive due to them not wanting to be seen as getting it wrong (but they're making it worse). Stubborn execs and a stubborn manager is an absolute recipe for disaster. In a way they're all suited to each other, but not for the benefit of the club they're working for. That's how it feels to me anyway.

[saintant]

3 hours ago, Doctoroncall said:

And yet I can only see Spurs giving us a spanking ☹️

Of course because we won't press them like Bmuff did but they'll press us and score from our usual howlers. Bmuff right now are everything we are not and make us look like a bunch of amateurs which is probably what we are.

[saintant]

1 hour ago, beatlesaint said:

"It's not the gaffer telling us, 'If you have a chance to run forward, turn back and play'. That's not the message. It's important people know that."

In that case why the hell do you all keep doing it then? Anybody thought of asking these guys ffs?

Well clearly he's not specifically telling them that but his overall message is not to give the ball away so, rather than play a more risky pass that might get us up the pitch, we mostly take the easier option which is a nothing pass backwards or sideways - it's the mantra that he is instilling not specifics that is the issue.

[Toussaint]

3 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

THB the latest to stick up for Martin.

On what basis? The players are fully behind the humiliation “process”? They need to pull their over privileged heads in and think about the life long, loyal, paying, Saints fans who are having to endure this shit. All the players, the hopeless manager  and  the shady / incompetent owners will move on and we’ll be left with the wreckage. 

Edited 6 December, 2024 by Toussaint

[Turkish]

it's funny to see so many players drip fed into the media supporting the manager, a very amusing PR piece. 

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Oldandtired said:

This is what I don't understand about all of the RM acolytes on here. I don't think that many of Bournemouth players are outstanding, their manager has simply instilled a system in them that works. Surely even an egomaniac like Martin must watch this and see the difference between that and his woefully inadequate way of doing things.
 

How can you possibly defend him?

And the fitness issue is a really good point. It is sheer laziness by the coaches not to have us as fit as every other side and quite clearly we are not when you see our players continually blowing out of their arses part way through games. Bmuff never stopped running and pressing last night and shame on Russell that we can't match that work rate.

[S-Clarke]

43 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

What you think about Bournemouth players doesn’t really matter. Fact is they can spend more on one player than twice our record purchase. Or put another way twice more than our total forward purchases this summer. 

I don't agree with that at all, we have spent a fortune under SR. It'll probably be around £250m come the end of January.

That is enough money to have built a very competitive PL side. 

Bournemouth's key players are Senesi - £10m signing, Kerkez was £13m, Kluivert was under £10m, Semenyo was under £10m.

You've just looked at their striker Evanlison at £40m, but that's not really half of the picture.

It all boils down to using the resources you have well. We didn't. That's allowed Bournemouth to overtake us which shouldn't ever happen.

[Oldandtired]

13 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

On what basis? The players are fully behind the humiliation “process”? They need to pull their over privileged heads in and think about the life long, loyal, paying Saints fans who are having to endure this shit. All the players, the hopeless manager  and  the shady / incompetent owners will move on and we’ll be left with the wreckage. 

This. They are wrecking/have wrecked the club.

[coalman]

1 hour ago, beatlesaint said:

"It's not the gaffer telling us, 'If you have a chance to run forward, turn back and play'. That's not the message. It's important people know that."

In that case why the hell do you all keep doing it then? Anybody thought of asking these guys ffs?

But is he telling them to not do that? He clearly has form for shouting at players who hit it long. Are they doing it in training? If not then why is match day different? Though one reason we struggle to defend may be we practice defending against Russball.

Edited 6 December, 2024 by coalman

[S-Clarke]

19 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

On what basis? The players are fully behind the humiliation “process”? They need to pull their over privileged heads in and think about the life long, loyal, paying Saints fans who are having to endure this shit. All the players, the hopeless manager  and  the shady / incompetent owners will move on and we’ll be left with the wreckage. 

They don't really give a shit, they know they'll get a PL gig next year and a tasty signing on bonus and loyalty fee from us, whilst we're left with the carcass of the club.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

12 minutes ago, coalman said:

But is he telling them to not do that? He clearly has form for shouting at players who hit it long. Are they doing it in training? If not then why is match day different? Though one reason we struggle to defend may be we practice defending against Russball.

Am not sure what we do at Staplewood can be classed as training. Feels to me like it's more like a six a side kick about with a bunch of mates.

[Dman]

12 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

Bournemouth and Iraola are mighty impressive.

All their players are fit as a fiddle, well drilled, they don't fuck about with it at the back - everything we ain't.

Exactly why I’d go for Rohl. Back to direct, high intensity football which doesn’t require a load of technical talent. Just a fit, committed side who are coached well and know their roles on and off the ball.

[Dman]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

They had a squad just as bad (if not worse) when they got back up. They even got battered 9 in that season. They stayed up because their managers didn’t think they were the reincarnation of Pep, and played proper football. What they are now is a direct result of that first season back in the top flight. Tactically they did what was right for the club, not what would boost the managers ego. 

Absolutely spot on. Ironically, if they’d kept Scott Parker all season they’d have gone down. 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Unless we change managers we are doomed, in fact it is probably too late! Unfortunately, having made a mess of the Nathan Jones appointment Ankerson is reluctant to lose face on admitting that his new prodigy, while having many positives is fundamentally flawed. 

The problem is that when faced with appointing a new manager Ankersen will never go down the 'safe pair' of hands route and go for a wily old manager he will insist on gambling to unearth some new pioneering manager to raise his own profile.

[danjosaint]

50 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Am not sure what we do at Staplewood can be classed as training. Feels to me like it's more like a six a side kick about with a bunch of mates.

You can't knock the poke the ball then run backwards for 10yrs drill , that was a great video clip from our pr team of geniuses 

[Miltonaggro]

3 hours ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

THB the latest to stick up for Martin.

It was the hug and hair ruffle after the England debut that did it! 

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

it's funny to see so many players drip fed into the media supporting the manager, a very amusing PR piece. 

No coincidence that the PR fluffers have vanished off here last couple of days, too busy preparing those brown nosing pieces. Means they are feeling the pressure.

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

I don't agree with that at all, we have spent a fortune under SR. It'll probably be around £250m come the end of January.

That is enough money to have built a very competitive PL side. 

Bournemouth's key players are Senesi - £10m signing, Kerkez was £13m, Kluivert was under £10m, Semenyo was under £10m.

You've just looked at their striker Evanlison at £40m, but that's not really half of the picture.

It all boils down to using the resources you have well. We didn't. That's allowed Bournemouth to overtake us which shouldn't ever happen.

☝️ 

[Lord Duckhunter]

THB should have a word with his future father in  law, see what he makes of RussBall. 
 

Don’t think he’ll be impressed with him being such a pussy & not giving Lego some clog either. Can you imagine Keane sucking up like this

Edited 6 December, 2024 by Lord Duckhunter

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

Our execs should look at what Bournemouth are doing, shut themselves in a dark room and have a long hard talk to themselves about how the fuck they've messed it up here so bad.

There is no way Bournemouth should be light years ahead of us given the respective sizes/structure, but that's been allowed to happen because of the biggest load of incompetence I've ever seen.

Bournemouth were similar to us in that they bounced back from the Champ, they didn't' run away with it, Parker was questioned a bit etc. They acted quickly when Parker started to flop at this level and the rest was history. They also acted quickly and decisively when they ditched O'Neil, who by all accounts was doing a decent job, but they identified the need to do better. It was similar to when we ditched Adkins.

We just sit on our hands for way too long, so indecisive due to them not wanting to be seen as getting it wrong (but they're making it worse). Stubborn execs and a stubborn manager is an absolute recipe for disaster. In a way they're all suited to each other, but not for the benefit of the club they're working for. That's how it feels to me anyway.

You’re killing it today S-Clarke.

Should be read by Dragan if he had any sense, which seems very unlikely.