TeaMen Tom

So let's talk about Dean Smith. He seems to be firmly in place at Charlotte FC - a club owned by a billionaire - David Tepper - who has more money than God. Why would he leave a relatively comfortable job where he's well paid - for this train wreck? Just keep King at this point - you'll get the same results and won't have to pay yet another manager's salary. This club is rotten to the core right now and is not at all an attractive job for any manager looking to advance his career.

They fired Ruud for a guy who tried to insert square pegs into round holes - and then gave him no support on top of that. So now add Marti to the list of managers they're paying. This organization is run by idiots. No one who isn't deparate for a job would take on this debacle. So it's either going to be someone like that - or someone so loyal to the club that they won't say no. But anyone who takes on this job is stepping into a no win situation and hoping for an amazing amount of luck.

Nice goal.

If Fatawu drops that pass off to Daka instead of shooting, there's no way Daka can miss, right?

There are zero signs of this debacle turning around - not even a hint. And they've gotten worse week by week. Can't see any excuse for keeping him.

One would think that our too-well-paid Tottenham alumni central MF could at least get ahold of the ball once in awhile and push it into the attacking half of the pitch.

Who's gonna have the breakdown that leads to the inevitable Norwich goal?

Two goals - that alone made it a good match. However they deserved all 3 points.

Mavididi letting a seaon of frustration out today.

Atlanta has money to spend, they need a striker and teams begin training in the next week or two.

Good question. Maybe he wants to check out the USA and/or get paid more than he's likely to make in England. Atlanta, based on their history, would have no problem selling him, but if he doesn't move to the Premier League now, he may never have another chance.

He may not be the best manager in the world but this club has total crap on its bench. No one he could have turned to was going to make a difference. Outside of Facundo, who on the bench tonight has Premier League quality?

I don't think so. He's just awful. Can Cannon come back next month? I think any warm body would be an upgrade on Daka at this point.

Stolarczyk was the biggest positive. I thought Vestergaard and Coady were OK. Biggest issue to me was our central MF not being able to hold onto the ball and allow a little possession. Just constant giveaways plus no real threat for a counter attack. Daka sucks (nothing new there). The rest is just the talent gap between the clubs, which is ginormous. Justin with his usual breakdown that results in a goal didn't help either. Ayew takes a lot of crap on here, but I thought he was solid tonight. He at least wasn't coughing up the ball all night to the degree that several of his teammates were.

Even down 2-nil I didn't think it was a horrible performance. They overextended looking for the equalizer and got caught on the 2nd goal. But the way it ended - wow. Really excited for what Ruud can do with the squad moving forward. The energy is shifting, lol.

My favorite football player ever. Hope he remains a Fox for a few more years.

I guess this is a statement about how Tops wants things. No more just stay in the league - he wants to build a proper club to get it back to where they were before everything went south with Rogers. Just have a plan B in mind for when Ruud moves on because it will happen (maybe even in mid-season) if he's successful. That said, really looking forward to what he can do with this club. They've got enough talent to move up the table a few spots.

Ruudie can't fail! And if he succeeds he'll be on to the first big club that comes sniffing.

Oh I agree with that. Cooper still had to go - and soon. But you would hope they'd have been more pragmatic about it - assuming reports of not having reached out to anyone specific are accurate.

If they did sack Cooper without having a replacement lined up it smacks of the 'ready, fire, aim' approach this club has had in recent years. Long term it just doesn't work.

Football can be such a cruel game. Gotta make the most out of wins like this one.

My guess is there’s a lot of unhappy players on the squad currently.

They haven’t been able to get control of the ball at all. Cooper is so f—ing stubborn.

I watched the Atalanta game. I thought Arsenal was playing just to get a point. My guess is they'll get their 3 goals in the first half and put it on cruise control after that. We'll give up a 4th due to some stupid giveaway by Faes or Justin.

I thought this was a certain L so getting a point is somewhat of a bonus. Mavididi MOTM. The rest......The play not to lose mentality of the manager eventually filters down to the players and that's how you underachieve - i.e. get relegated.