Nods

I'm saying I don't mind that they're trying to get us promoted while it isn't impossible. And there is an unlikely scenario that could play out in which Antonio helps to make it happen. As long as it's for this season only, it feels like a low risk and (relatively) low cost gamble. But yeah, we probably don't go up and it'll have been a bit of a waste.

Think it exposes the thinking from the board that they think it's still possible for us to go up. I disagree, but tbf it's still on the cards on paper. It's a big 'if', but if he can be fit, he could be a difference maker. I don't think we make the play-offs with or without him, but to have any chance we'd need a better option up top than our current lot.

As long as it's a this season only thing and he's been putting the hard yards in to be as close to match fitness as is realistic, I don't mind it. Realistically we don't have the funds or the pull to attract the type of striker to build a team around. Not in a January window anyway. Famously a sellers market. We're desperate, he's desperate. In that sense it's a good match. Hopefully he's match fit in a month or two and if nothing else he offers us much needed physicality at the top end of the pitch. Sign a promising young striker in the summer.

I can't even be arsed to argue with someone who can't understand the difference between the word 'of' and 'have' tbh. Leicester's 'style' has been unfashionable since around 2021. You think a new manager comes in and flicks a switch to sort that mid season? Southampton may have taken the handbrake off with this new gaffer, but they were always a better footballing side this year than we are. Still didn't quite get it right, but the fact remains they were only some poor finishing away from racking up the points. Can't say that for us. Everyone on here was pointing to Southampton's business in summer as an example of what we should be doing. They spent about £50m in the summer. Do you need reminding how much we spent?

Ricardo is being played one game and not the next because the guy would literally break if he did Have you watched him this season? His legs are jelly. R.e Hamza. I'm saying it didn't work. He literally played a big chunk of that game in CDM and it barely changed a thing. Conceding still looked inevitable. And then it happened anyway. Yes, Daka is shite. I agree. Maybe you're starting to understand our problem. We have rubbish footballers. What's the alternative? Carranza? He's been fantastic. Evans? Possibly, but he's a totally unknown quantity. You can't with any certainty say that bringing Evans on changes the outcome tonight.

Southampton looked good under Still. Their underlying stats always suggested they were close. They were fluffing big chances every game. The new guy has come in, instilled a bit of belief, they've had some results and it has snow balled. You can't just look at one success story and assume it would be the same for us. Spoiler alert: it wouldn't.

He was crap as well

Yeah, it's almost as though we aren't very good

It's not enough to stem the flow. With Hamza in there (who yes, got in the way a bit), what happens next? He doesn't have the composure or the technique to get on the ball, slow the game down and gain control of the game. It just ends up back with them and they're onto their next attack. No manager gets this group of losers promoted. He's found a decent enough starting 11 and we'll win enough to stay up. He's showed no evidence that he's tactically astute enough to take us very far, but to his credit he is freezing out toxic players and we are showing some improvement as a result. Don't put yourself through the bother, honestly. We're finishing somewhere between 12th and 18th. Not much point anyone getting their knickers in a twist to be honest. We're rubbish. Sack Marti in the summer and try again next year.

And it all started to go so well the moment he made that change?

We don't have a single striker who can be trusted. Luke Thomas doesn't get into any other 11 in the league. Our wingers, outside of our 11, are experiencing their first full seasons at this level. Now that Soumare (who we all rate so highly on here) is out, we have genuinely no viable backup midfielder capable of completing a 5 yard pass. I was stupid enough to think we'd challenge this season and came to my senses 2 games in. I'm sorry you haven't made the same realisation yet. Marti isn't the answer, but we're also the absolute pits.

Ricardo is finished. Finito. Done. He can barely get through 90 minutes, let alone coming on days after finishing a 90. Hamza did go into CDM. And it didn't work. We needed to bring players on capable of keeping the ball and killing the game. Even the players who you could argue might be able to do this are currently injured. As I've said, I don't buy into Marti either, but there's little point in getting frustrated with him in these instances. I really don't know what I would have done differently in his position. Bringing Daka on is a smart move on paper. Pace to punish them on the counter. But as we all know, he's a bit rubbish. And we don't have the players to get on the ball and find him in the first place.

I'm not a Marti fan, but we just about have a functioning starting 11. (Not thrilled with Thomas, Vestergaard, or Ayew, but it's the first 11 this season that makes me think we might win some games.) It's the same 11 from Saturday, so inevitably we need to make subs second half. Our squad is so poor that inevitably we get poorer as we chip away at that 11. Should never concede like that in the first minute of the second, but this is nothing new. We know the culture isn't good. We switched off as we so often do, and then panicked a bit, like we so often do. This is nothing new, and neither is our squad being rubbish. Do I think Marti is the man to take us forwards? No. But I also don't think you can pin the second half on him.

If you told me Nelson has made more tackles in this game than Faes has all season, I'd believe you.

Faes isn't injured, he's literally on the bench. Do commentators do any prep at all these days?

'keeper gets something on it. Does well actually' WHAT?!?! It's a fvcking unbelievable save.

I mean it's probably a good thing that James thinks we're better than we are. If he was correct in his estimation of us, we'd have no chance of convincing him to stay beyond his loan. But yeah, delusional.

If he does go, I just really, really hope Andy King or whoever else is still about informs the new guy not to play Faes, Thomas and Winks. It's not a defence of Marti because the football is beyond turgid, but he is at least trying to drop these morons. Unfortunately their replacements keep getting injured. I'm worried a new manager would come in and we go through the same cycle of the new guy taking his time to realise who the problem players are.

We won the Premier League doing it, so NPCs will call for its reintroduction 'til the end of time. It's the rules.

We somehow managed to get fees for Coady, Justin, Cannon, N'didi and McAteer. On that basis I maintain hope we manage shift Faes before the end of his contract. If we can get rid of him on top of allowing Ayew, Daka, Pereira, Soumare and Winks to go, that'll be a solid start. Replace them with more players in the profile of Jordan James and we can hopefully start to build something worth getting behind again. Even better if we manage to recoup some cash for Skipp, but that seems unlikely. Plenty of money off the wage bill from the 5 or 6 we'll be rid of next summer. Imagine we'll probably need to sell Fatawu to bolster the transfer budget, mind, given how tight PSR is for Championship clubs. Wouldn't be entirely against it.

With respect, the morons were those that didn't realise that this is the trajectory Rodgers had us on. We never got our Leicester back.

You're in for a shock if you think we're spending in this window

It's a funny scenario really. I can't recall anything similar following us. Not much point sacking him, even though I don't think he's the answer. Our squad really is the pits. You can only really make an argument for us being strong on the wings, and even there we have players bang out of form. We are not getting promoted. We're simply not good enough even without the incoming points deduction. Equally I don't think we'll go down because he seems to have the players drilled enough to squeeze out results against poorer opposition. So what's the point sacking him? We can't afford unnecessary expenses. As boring and tedious as it is, the sensible thing to do is probably to keep ambling on in Championship mediocrity until we can truly drain the swamp and start spending again. The sooner fans realise we're in this for the long haul, the better. We've fvcked it beyond (immediate) repair. I'm encouraged we're on the lookout for this Technical Director. It (hopefully) points towards a realisation for a need to rebuild. Until we're rid of the likes of Faes, Vesty, Winks, Ayew, even Pereira, that can't happen. It's rare that such fundamental rebuilds bear fruit within a year, so we're probably looking at the rest of this season and next to consolidate. If finances allow, maybe we'll twist in the summer, allowing a Pearson mould of manager to begin and hopefully see through the rebuild. In my mind, Cifuentes is a caretaker. We're in for the dullest period of following this club in recent memory.

Ideal scenario: Faes or Vesty twats him. Gets what's been coming to him and we don't have to see Faes/Vesty again.

Think he needs careful, strict management. Left to his own devices he makes too many poor decisions. Assumption on my part that that is the case, but I'd be amazed if Marti was asking him to try to cut inside every time he gets it and shoot wherever he is on the pitch. The natural ability is there, but if anything he's looking more raw as time goes on. Currently very ineffective and frustrating, be it surrounded by poor teammates.