BenTheFox

If he was like an academy keeper I'd feel bad for him, but he's a complete parasite leeching us for £40 grand a week. Sorry, but at that point, there's no leeway.

Cov have been woeful. The bottom five seem to be not picking up any points. Otherwise they'd be in a spot of bother.

Point still stands. That was looking like the most comfortable 1-0 you could imagine. Absolute chaos though.

Luton are woeful.

He pulled off somewhat of a miracle keeping Wednesday up last season. They had something like 2 points from their first 14 games with the club being a conplete basket case with a terrible owner. They're now comfortably mid table with a squad that leaves a lot to be desired. I think he's a very good manager.

Wednesday aren't getting promoted.

He keeps them up, I reckon.

Can see Martin rocking up at Burnley if it goes belly up with Parker.

I hate working, but the only thing worse than working is being unemployed. Honestly, it was horrendous.

Absolutely gutted. Such a huge loss for England.

Southampton sacking Martin is a bit of a funny one. They're going down unless something truly miraculous happens and it's highly unlikely that a new manager saves them. Martin had gotten them promoted previously, and is capable of doing so again. However, I completely understand that Southampton fans do not want to see their club get completely humiliated and they want this to look at least somewhat respectable. Also, I'd imagine it's difficult for a manager to get the backing of the board, players and fans after delivering this humiliation to then be able to turn things around and get promoted.

They'd have to move the Scottish cup final to a bigger venue. You can't fit both of those egos into Hamden.

I was gonna say, people really do romanticise the championship. Ask Stoke fans if they've enjoyed any part of the last 6 years.

You get a lot of people moaning about parachute payments, but what is the alternative? Scrap them and no club that gets promoted to the premier league will make an effort to spend to try and stay up in fear that they'll be facing financial oblivion if they go down. All three promoted clubs were relegated last season, there's a chance of it happening again this season and you wouldn't bet against it happening next season either. Why make that problem even bigger?

Standard at the top of the championship is truly horrendous this year. Any of three teams that get promoted will go straight back down unless they seriously invest in their squads.

It all hinges on January for me. If we can get three players that significantly improve our starting 11, then it can make a big difference.

We have some decent players but my God, we have so many players that are miles away from being at the standard of football that we're playing at. It's embarrassing that the likes of Ward, Choudhury, Kasey, Faes and Thomas are anywhere near a premier league football team in 2024. Many others that the jury is still out on.

Our midfield today was championship standard. We already knew that about Hamza. However, what's this guy's excuse? He cost us over £20million and was signed from a club that finished 5th last season.

I don't disagree, but I don't want to see people getting on Ruud's back for having to put out footballers that are not premier league quality in a premier league game.

I didn't want Cooper as our manager, but I never overlooked the fact that our squad is crap. You can only go so far with a poor squad.

His wages are the biggest problem. There are championship clubs that would have him, but they'd be paying nowhere what I imagine he's on here.

Mid-table championship footballer and is completely out of his depth at this level. In fact, is he even mid-table championship standard? Sheffield Wednesday are currently mid-table in the championship and I'm not convinced he'd start for them.

I can never get my head around someone having so little professional pride that they'd be happy to sit on the bench every week and collecting a fat pay packet whilst only being known as one of the worst top flight goalkeepers in history. Surely you would want the opportunity to go elsewhere and rebuild your reputation somewhat. It's naïve, I know, but I'm embarrassed for him.

He went onto to say in his prediction for Southampton vs Tottenham.. It was a similar sorry with Leicester under Cooper, where expectations were unrealistic. He got the sack but I hope Saints stick with Martin because with a bit of patience they could come back, stronger. I hate myself for biting, but a few things, there is no evidence that Leicester have unrealistic expectations. We just want a manager that plays with a coherent game plan and is best suited to get the most out of our current playing squad. He was banging this particular drum when Claude Puel was our manager. He was sacked and we went onto finish 5th twice and win the FA cup with his replacement. He was proven spectacularly wrong. Finally, Southampton do not have unrealistic expectations for thinking that 5 points from 15 games is unacceptable. Many Southampton fans would have thought that relegation was likely, but they don't want to see their club completely humiliated.

From what I've seen from us under Ruud so far, I actually think we are going against the grain somewhat. You can see that there is an emphasis on trying to draw the opposition out and play the ball in behind them for our forwards to run onto at pace. He's also favoured two destroyers in midfield rather than having a playmaker. This might be down to him seeing what he's and trying to get the best out of it rather than it being his preferred way. I don't know. We are still trying to playout more often than going long from goalkicks, but we're at all comparable with Russell Martin's Southampton for instance.