lookwhaticando

At least they allow substitutions, some of the more pretentious eateries have strict No Substitutions policies.

Do we even have any standards left?

And three from the trap door.

Who, me?

Must win. Do or Dai, even. So I’m a little surprised he’s stuck with McCarthy in goal.

Don’t be blue, Peter.

“Needless to say, I had the last laugh.”

I’ve heard she makes her own clappers.

Would we be in this specific mess? Maybe. Maybe not. Would we be in some mess of similar nature? Almost certainly. Imagine we didn’t sack Brendan when we did (already too late). We probably still got relegated. Let’s imagine the board was happy for him to relegate us without sacking him (if we didn’t sack him in April, presumably we wouldn’t have bothered sacking him in May or June)… well we would then have Brendan being responsible for trying to get us promoted back at the first attempt. We spend Enzo money on Brendan recruitment… and would a man who took a team that finished 8th and get it relegated have what it takes to turn them into promotion contenders? The very man who set the standards (or lack thereof) in the preceding seasons… I’m finding hard to imagine Brendan would get us promoted if he was here post-relegation. Presumably since we don’t want to sack anyone, he’d see out his contract. We’d be in the Championship still - the finances take a bigger hit sooner with a second consecutive season in the Championship. As far as I can picture it, not sacking Brendan puts us in a mess. It may not be League One under Martin, maybe it’s Championship under Martin with rapidly deteriorating finances. Either way, it’s still a mess.

The same thought process that resulted in the promotion of a director of football who had overseen three relegations in four seasons. Almost as many as us… Brendan was spent, he had to go. He spaffed all that money on the squad in the summer of 2021 then bitched he wasn’t being backed when we couldn’t afford to spend on the rebuilt he needed in the summer of 2022 - as the result of his own failures. He was talking himself out of a job and needed to be sacked much sooner. Just look at his second Celtic spell - basically a carbon copy - the difference is Celtic acted much sooner after he started slagging them off in public.

First choice centre back Luke Thomas.

Du du du DU Ack-ah-Dem-me to the tune of Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag.

Rumour is Rudders is trying to cobble together a management buyout in conjunction with other directors. Expect a submission from the trusty fax machine around fourteen seconds after midnight on the 15th.

Could do, but we only have about four names to put down in that range.

This. If the answer isn’t the Summer of 21, then I’m not sure I understood the question.

So far.

One for every pass between our back five. Nice touch.

Charlie?

Is he bringing Robert Huth with him?

100 Football Managers With Stronger Track Records Than Russell Martin Elite / Legendary 1. Pep Guardiola 2. Jürgen Klopp 3. Carlo Ancelotti 4. Sir Alex Ferguson 5. José Mourinho 6. Arsène Wenger 7. Diego Simeone 8. Zinedine Zidane 9. Louis van Gaal 10. Fabio Capello 11. Marcelo Bielsa 12. Ottmar Hitzfeld 13. Vicente del Bosque 14. Joachim Löw 15. Roberto Mancini 16. Didier Deschamps 17. Hansi Flick 18. Rafael Benítez 19. Antonio Conte 20. Max Allegri Modern Top‑Tier Managers 1. Thomas Tuchel 2. Mauricio Pochettino 3. Unai Emery 4. Xabi Alonso 5. Julian Nagelsmann 6. Erik ten Hag 7. Luciano Spalletti 8. Gian Piero Gasperini 9. Marco Rose 10. Ruben Amorim 11. Ange Postecoglou 12. Simone Inzaghi 13. Stefano Pioli 14. Niko Kovač 15. Paulo Fonseca 16. Roger Schmidt 17. Fernando Diniz 18. Arne Slot 19. Oliver Glasner 20. Christophe Galtier Premier League Managers With Stronger Résumés 1. Mikel Arteta 2. Eddie Howe 3. Thomas Frank 4. Julen Lopetegui 5. Nuno Espírito Santo 6. Graham Potter 7. Sean Dyche 8. David Moyes 9. Brendan Rodgers 10. Roberto De Zerbi International Managers 1. Walid Regragui 2. Hervé Renard 3. Tite 4. Fernando Santos 5. Carlos Queiroz 6. Gustavo Alfaro 7. Gerardo Martino 8. Marcelo Gallardo 9. Lionel Scaloni 10. Murat Yakin Championship / European Managers With Bigger Achievements 1. Enzo Maresca 2. Kieran McKenna 3. Michael Carrick 4. Daniel Farke 5. Mark Robins 6. Steve Cooper 7. Tony Mowbray 8. Alex Neil 9. Vincent Kompany 10. Valérien Ismaël Managers With Major Domestic Success 1. Manuel Pellegrini 2. Jorge Jesus 3. Abel Ferreira 4. André Villas‑Boas 5. Rudi Garcia 6. Laurent Blanc 7. Claudio Ranieri 8. Slaven Bilić 9. Quique Setién 10. Walter Mazzarri Managers Known for Tactical Innovation 1. Ralf Rangnick 2. Cesare Prandelli 3. Domenico Tedesco 4. Adi Hütter 5. Peter Bosz 6. Urs Fischer 7. Gerardo Seoane 8. Lucien Favre 9. Leonardo Jardim 10. Javi Gracia Managers With Strong Cup or Continental Records 1. Jorge Sampaoli 2. Juan Carlos Osorio 3. Marcelo Lippi 4. Alberto Zaccheroni 5. Héctor Cúper 6. Manuel Baum 7. Dick Advocaat 8. Guus Hiddink 9. Bert van Marwijk 10. Phil Neville (yes — his résumé is still objectively stronger at senior level) Could always ask Copilot for s’more. Yeah yeah, 90% of them a bit pie in the sky, but I’m sure there’s a few obtainables in there.

Maybe not. But without Brendan spaffing all the cash the previous window - or securing the European football the big spend was intended to accomplish - maybe we could’ve afforded a better replacements or refreshed the squad (again) as was demanded.

I’d be curious to know where he thinks we “should” be… because he came to the club in the championship, and he’d left the club in League One. Many challenges on the way… trying to overcome being saddled with dossers was certainly a big one. Just imagine applying that logic to any number of horror show signings in the last five years, or the poisonous little dwarf himself who shall remain nameless. I prefer the old “once a cockwomble, always a cockwomble”.