ClaphamFox

Will Still was a horror show at Southampton. Why on earth would you want him?

‘Sitting tight’ might be plausible if we were upper-mid table and were not facing a potentially big points deduction. As it is, we’re facing one hell of a battle to stay in the division—and with a squad of players who have shown no sign whatsoever of being up for that kind of battle. You do not give that job to somebody with no managerial experience and who has been on the coaching staff during this season’s shit show.

Jason Bourne was on the radio a short while ago saying that there are rumours of a deduction of ‘up to 10 points’. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but it appears this is the growing view among the journos who follow us…

Mark Robins has a job with a team two points off the play-offs that is not facing an imminent points deduction. Why would he want to swap that for a relegation scrap with a basket case club? Plus, we couldn’t afford the compo to get him anyway. Why are people even mentioning him?

I don’t think he’s ever shirked from asking difficult questions. He’s a reporter, not a pundit, and as such he has to tread a fine line because he’s supposed to be impartial. But he always seems very happy to allow his guests on the WYS podcast to let rip into the club. I don’t think he’d do that if he was a yes man.

Did you hear his post-match interview with Cifuentes yesterday? He didn’t sound much like a yes man then.

We would literally need to have no brain to trust somebody who has never managed to secure our survival this season.

Indeed. And he turned us down several times when we were a much better prospect than we are now.

Precisely.

Marti is crap but he’s not the main problem. The main problem is the deep rot that has set in the club under Top’s ‘leadership’ since Vichai’s death. And while Top/KP remain in charge, it absolutely can get worse.

My point of view is that I don’t think we’ve necessarily reached rock bottom yet. That doesn’t mean I think we should keep Cifuentes, but we should at least be aware of the very real possibility that the club sacks him then appoints someone even worse.

Yes.

Robins has a job already.

I’d go one step further and say that may even be unique.

He’s reached the point at which he knows he cannot turn it around but won’t resign for financial reasons, and is just waiting for the sack. When managers reach that stage, they just open their mouths and allow any old shit to come out.

Ok. It sounds like he may be repeating gossip he’s heard in the media suite at the KP this afternoon, in which case I’d expect other journalists to also be reporting it later today/tomorrow…

Is the match analyst at the game or in the studio?

BBC Final Score? Who said it? That would be a very odd thing for them to just casually mention given that nobody else seems to have got the story…

Page’s natural position is 6.

No.

Finally listened to it. As other have said, the main takeaways were: 1) It isn’t clear whether the PL can legally punish us while we’re in the EFL, which is one of the possible reasons why we haven’t heard the verdict yet; 2) The outcome of the 23/24 charge is still being determined/wrangled over—ie it’s not true that the club already knows the outcome but has negotiated to delay the announcement; 3) We were a significant outlier compared to other clubs in the way we structured our contracts, and that was a major cause of our PSR issues; I came away feeling even more frustrated than before at the club’s ineptitude yet simultaneously more optimistic that we might get away with a relatively small points deduction, or even no points deduction, for 23/24. A very interesting listen.

Chagos Islands no longer going back. https://breakingthenews.net/Article/UK-said-to-abandon-Chagos-bill-over-Trump-criticism/65536226

He's a full-time academic specializing in football finance. He spends his entire working life immersed in the topic, which means he understands the rules better than the vast majority of us and also regularly scrutinizes the publicly available accounts of professional football clubs in a way that most people would not have the time nor the inclination to. This does not mean he is going to know everything that is going on behind the scenes, but it does mean he's likely to have more of an idea about what's going on than most of the rest of us. I'm puzzled by your hostility towards him. It's a bit strange.

It’s easy to keep your job if your boss has mentally checked out and no longer cares what happens in your organisation.

I remember reading one 'expert' (can't remember which one) suggest a while back that if the PL can't retrospectively apply the rules, they might announce what points deduction would have applied without actually imposing it. This would help to set a precedent for future cases but would not directly affect us. I've no idea whether any of this is true, but I wonder if a dispute over the legality of imposing the rules retrospectively is one of the reasons for the delayed announcement.