ClaphamFox

You'd be surprised at how often people seem to upgrade Gerrard's potential because of some vague sense that he might be able to replicate Lampard's achievements, despite there being no connection between them other than being England midfielders around the same time. I'm biased against him because I'm acquainted with two longstanding Villa fans who both describe him as the worst manager they've ever had. Of the names mentioned, the only one I'd be ok with is Challinor—and as far as I'm aware we haven't even been linked with him. An inspired left field appointment seems our best hope.

Why would you be ok with Gerrard? He was beyond horrendous at Villa despite being well supported by their board. Emery walked in and transformed them instantly with the same squad.

Yes. Robins' record before he worked with Adi Viveash was ok but nothing special (he did well in first spell at Coventry but didn't do much at all at Barnsley, Huddersfield or S****horpe). His best years came when he went back to Coventry and had Viveash alongside him (two promotions, EFL Trophy win, FA Cup semi-final, etc). After Viveash left in the summer of 2024, Robins seemed to revert to being a mediocre manager, getting sacked at Coventry and then struggling at Stoke.

Sheff Wed have a manager.

Double post.

They might well be. I have a feeling this Martin story is bogus, however.

That’s just a rehash of the Nixon story, which Nixon himself has since distanced himself from. And the Mercury doesn’t even carry it on its website, which it would if it believed there was anything in it.

Yes there are different ways to get out of League One. But a lot of people seem to use 'possession' as a derogatory term, as if trying to keep the ball was an inherently bad thing. I'm just pointing out that there is a huge variety of ways to play possession football, not just Russell Martin's way. We all seem much happier about the possibility that our new manager might be Dave Challinor, whose Stockport side were 4th in the possession table last season.

Whoever comes in will have to play a variant of possession football because most teams will sit back against us. We will have more possession in virtually all the games we play—it's just a matter of finding a manager who can play possession football effectively.

I'm also curious about this. The two clubs linked with Challinor were Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn, but it seems Sheffield Wednesday's new owners may give Pedersen the chance to prove himself and Blackburn are reportedly looking at getting Mowbray back if they can't get Bilic over the line. I'm interested to see how this plays out.

Any club who does this deserves everything it gets.

Alan Nixon, who first reported our interest in Martin, was weirdly distancing himself from the story last night. If it turns out that all of those—including me—who have lost their heads over this rumour have been getting into a complete paddy over nothing, today will be a good day

That will likely depend on whether his relegation clause cuts deep enough to mean he'll make more money elsewhere.

It’s weird how often this gets misunderstood. There’s nothing wrong with trying to keep the ball—most successful teams do it, including in League One. However, there is clearly something wrong with playing an ultra high-risk form of possession football that demands elite level technical ability from Championship or League One players—and refusing to compromise even when your team is getting stuffed every week.

We scored 58 goals, the 13th highest in the division. Not enough for a team aspiring to be promoted, but a solid mid-table number. We conceded 68 goals, the 2nd worst after Sheffield Wednesday. We kept six clean sheets in 46 games—in the Championship. Are you seriously trying to suggest that our defence wasn’t our main failing last season? It clearly was, and has been a major problem since the second half of Rodgers’ time in charge.

I remember seeing an interview with Martin when he was being linked with us last summer before he joined Rangers. He was saying that he’d learned from his mistakes at Southampton and would be more pragmatic in future. Then he went to Rangers, tried to play exactly the same way, lost the dressing room immediately and was sacked after 123 days. The problem with Martin is not that he favours possession football—most teams that get promoted from League One seek to dominate the ball. The problem is that the type of possession football he favours is the highest risk version there is. He likes both full backs to play high or invert, which results in the centre halves getting split wide open with the keeper acting as a third centre half. This means that when possession is lost, the team is already spread across the pitch, making it vulnerable to transition. His refusal to allow his players to play longer balls means they’re constantly receiving the ball in tight areas and trying to pass through the press, which demands a huge amount of technical ability and 100% concentration the entire game. When one player has a poor touch or misses a pass, the whole structure collapses. We’ve just been relegated (again) with a team that on paper should have done much better but were undone by horrendous defensive fragility—and defensive fragility is the defining characteristic of Martin’s teams. I can’t imagine the club actually wants us to remain a defensive basket case, so if they really do want Martin it must be because he’s assured them he’ll be more pragmatic in future. But do we really want to take a punt on a manager who has never shown any inclination to change his approach on the basis that he might somehow find it within himself to do so with us? On the plus side, it still seems to be only Nixon reporting this—and he’s about as reliable as a Russell Martin-coached defence.

Bettingodds.com is very limited in scope—it only covers a few bookies, hence why all the odds shown are from talksport bet. Oddschecker, which is much more comprehensive, is not covering our next manager because the vast majority of bookies aren’t offering any odds on it. It’s a very thin market, which tends to result in random names being thrown in.

1/500.

Well, not really. But Alan Nixon does occasionally get stories right and was probably told by somebody that we’re in for Martin. It doesn’t mean it’s true but I doubt he just made it up. The Darren Ferguson story was invented by a betting-affiliated website in an attempt to drive traffic to the ‘next Leicester manager’ market. There was never anything whatsoever in it.

Darren Ferguson has never been a candidate.

It’s interesting that none of the more reliable journalists on us have bothered to pick this up yet. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but I suspect it’s not as close as Nixon suggests.

This would not surprise me in the least, but is it something you’ve actually heard or just an educated guess?

If all these rumours are true it sounds like we’ve just opened a call centre at Seagrave that makes automated recorded calls to random numbers asking people if they’d like to manage us.

He’s been most strongly linked with Sheffield Wednesday.

No idea. I’m not sure if anyone on here even subscribes to Nixon’s Patreon account…