Nods

Slot has just become available so expect the next month will be spent finding his agent's number followed by daily rejected calls.

Since when did managers of elite clubs decide which club their youth players go on loan to?

I've heard from the Adidas side that they work for months with whoever it is at the club they deal with on the kit, only for Top to wade in at the 11th hour and rip everything up. We're apparently well renowned as one of their most difficult accounts. We've all worked with bosses like that. It's no wonder the mess we're in. When nobody respects the boss, things go sour pretty quickly in any organisation.

Unless he's doing it charitably, which he wouldn't, we can't afford it whether we'd want to or not.

I don't disagree, he was great. But his weakness, if he had one when at his peak, was in tiny details like not making a foul at the right time, not kicking the ball out of play when it would make sense to, or sometimes making the wrong decision. Never something I'd mention at the time because he was great. I'm more bemoaning our lack of intelligence as a group and the fact he's ended up in the role of a leader, unfortunately says a lot about our lack of them.

Even at his best he struck me as a bit thick with some of his decisions on the pitch. Not captain material. Making him captain on the basis he's been here the longest just sums up our lack of strategy and direction as a club. Just one more lazy decision in a long line.

Doubt it. All I took from Elm/Steve videos was that Top appears very ready to agree that the players have let us/him down. To me that says he's looking at it as an isolated issue which starts and ends with this group of players. As we know, the issues run far, far deeper than the playing squad.

Oh no, not our entire squad!

I understand the apathy. Really, I do. But would an Everton or a Newcastle be apathetic in this situation? Would they b*llocks. As fans, we're part of the problem. The game should be stopped over and over again as vocal protests are made against the ownership. Anti-ownership signs. I don't mind the players taking some flack, too. They deserve it. But it misses the point and most of them won't be here next year anyway. I accept that like-minded people feel they'll be in the minority. All it needs is a show of hands and a commitment from a few hundred that they will be there and they will be making efforts to stop the game. That they'll bring homemade anti-ownership banners. That ought to empower people to crack on. At the end of the day we aren't Everton or Newcastle, but at least if people know it'll be them and a few hundred others, not them and them alone, they will follow through. Does a more prominent poster than I, perhaps with links to Union FS, want to mobilise on this? Create a roll call on who will be taking action for a given game. With a couple of ideas for chants and banners so that there's at least a little coherence to it.

Let's put aside his sh!te touch, his refusal to attack his full back, his sloppy passing and general moping for a second and talk about his total lack of discipline. It doesn't take a rigid tactician in the mould of Guardiola to tell you that your left winger consistently drifting central (or to right wing??), is a problem. Even if he was doing something creative, which he absolutely wasn't - just the odd random amble to a different part of the pitch - you can't do that. Once or twice maybe if there's an opportunity to exploit space. But for long stretches of the game for no apparent reason? It killed us. BDCR was having to cover his side all game. Not that he's ever likely to have been effective, but any threat he may have brought was completely taken out of the game. Moments after this, Portsmouth obviously easily got at us (because we're positionally all over the shop due to his lack of discipline). They created a chance which led to the corner they score the game's only goal from. It was happening all game. He's as lazy as he is thick as he is sh!t. And he starts every game. How any manager can watch what he's been doing and not drop him from the squad, let alone start him, is just beyond my comprehension. I am not a football manager. Why can I see this and the useless tossers we employ not?

There is no way our set pieces aren't evidence of match fixing. Let's put the goal to one side for a second and take a moment to appreciate the last 10 minutes: 83' - Pompey free kick on half way. We're 1-0 down and must win. Our entire team lines up on our 18 yard box. 85' - Corner straight at goalkeeper. Catches it unopposed. 86' - Long throw from 30 yards straight at goalkeeper. Catches it unopposed. 89' - Foul in opposition half. Get back into shape ready to pounce? No, start a fight with the opposition to waste more time. 90+1' - Luke Thomas, and I sh!t you not, attempts a long throw in from in line with the centre circle. You'll be shocked to hear it gets cleared with ease. 90+2' - Free kick from 40 yards. Shot. Dribbles 5 yards wide. And that's just the last 10 minutes. Has to be match fixing. For my sanity, it has to be match fixing.

4-2-3-1 with Mavididi off the left and BDCR in the 10 didn't yield a result. Well I am shocked. Cheers Gary.

If Mavididi got sent off and we didn't make any changes, there would be no difference. He's too deep to impact our attacks and too high to be any use defensively. Also keeps drifting central so BDCR keeps having to come over and cover the space. His being allowed to continue starting every week for us in this crucial run of games couldn't sum us up better. The guy has checked out. He's sh!t as well, let's have it right. But he has checked out. Play somebody who will at least want it. Anybody. So, so infuriating. 2 goals and 1 assist in 38 games. There are players in Sunday League who'd notch better numbers. How embarrassing for him, and how embarrassing for us that he hasn't been made an example of.

I get where you're coming from, but nobody is forcing him to play basically the same team every week in the same formation. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it's broken... Well, at least try to fix it. Nobody is worse than Ricardo and Mavididi right now. Nobody. Alternatives might not work but this definitely won't. I'd prefer 'might not', to 'certain failure'.

Been said a thousand times r.e. Rowett isn't to blame for this mess. And I do agree. But my god he hasn't helped has he? Mavididi not getting dropped this whole time is just outrageous. Jordan James not walking back into this team despite being on the bench for a few games now is a crime. And unless the question is 'who's the last person you'd ask for a lift back from the pub?', Hamza Choudhury is not the answer.

So not a single person read the OP then 😂

It all makes sense now. We are intentionally getting relegated. It's the only explanation for a lot of what we've done, so maybe we're actually run by geniuses. We just can't see it yet.

We don't do rebuilds under this ownership. We sell what we can and then we buy whoever agents offer us at the end of the window with what budget remains (probably overpaying still and flouting FFP'.) If you're expecting any sort of coordinated, strategic rebuilding of a squad based on key positions required and the personalities needed to transform the culture of the club and playing squad, prepare to be disappointed.

Rudkin? Thick. 'Top'? Thick. That's well documented by this point and we know this about the way the club is run. But is anyone else just sick of mind numbing decisions on the pitch? Worse, the fact nobody seems to recognise these things and tell the players not to do them? I've found myself just flabbergasted at our players for years now. Poor quality and a lack of effort? Yeah, absolutely - and the latter is unforgivable. But how many times have we seen Luke Thomas attempt a long throw from 35 yards to a box of 6 or 7 Leicester players outnumbered by 8 or 9 opposition defenders? Or our wingers running down the 17th blind alley in any given game. Or our centre half shooting from 35 yards just as we're building momentum. Or leaving ourselves outnumbered at the back from a corner or free kick. Or not taking a yellow card to break an attack where opposition would every single time. Or not running the clock down and instead losing the ball when 1 up with minutes to play. I could go on. It might be bias because I obviously don't follow anyone else as closely as I follow Leicester City, but I'm struggling to imagine a more naive football club for such a sustained period. It shows up in our dealings from the top, but that culture follows right through to the minutiae of on-pitch decisions week after week, year after year. Just cannot wait til the day every single piece of this current iteration of LCFC is replaced by something else.

Not his fault for our predicament, but it takes a limited individual to observe our recent history and continue to play 4-2-3-1 with essentially the same combination of losers (minus some youthful enthusiasm.) Yes I know the options are limited, but just the sense of a fresh approach alone would have brought about a feeling of hope and optimism, which is more than can be said for continuing to roll out the corpses of Ricardo, Mavididi, Winks etc etc in the same tired formation. Just change something. Anything. For crying out loud man. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I know that the solution isn't the status quo when the status quo put us in a relegation battle.

In his heart of hearts, he must know he's a useless fraud. Even if he tells himself that the Premier League win was under his watch, he'll know. He'll know this is largely on him. Deep down. He'll know the Premier League win was built under the steam of Nige, Shakey and Walsh and the team and culture they built. He'll know that there is direct correlation between his own level of control and our downfall. That brings me some comfort.

The one slither of enjoyment - the silver lining if you will - is the realisation that the people who got us into this mess, and the absolute morons that have lapped it up, will finally get what has been coming to them. And everybody, bar none, will recognise the sheer idiocy of both sets of people. Nothing quite like actual consequences to hold people to account. Clearly we don't have it in us as a collective to pro-actively achieve that, so the cold light of League One will have to do.

Kind of feels like watching a terminally ill family member finally take their final breath. At least we can start the mourning process now.

Thanks. Not for me but then I am on crap hotel wifi so could be that

Or play 2 strikers. I know they're both rubbish, but in a rare exception to 'two wrongs don't make a right', I actually think it could work. They both need to leave the club, but I think they would both benefit from playing in a 2.