ClaphamFox

This was the obvious solution if James had to come off. A right back to replace Choudhury, who then moves into defensive midfield (where he has played many times). Then BDCR can carry on in the position that he's effective in rather than being pushed back into one he can't play. Horses for courses. Unfortunately Marti strikes me as one of those managers who rejects the obvious choice in favour of bizarre and over-complicated 'solutions' that the players don't understand and therefore can't execute. We've seen his like before.

Marti said after the game last night that he’s available for Saturday.

From the moment we came out for the second half, we looked like a team that was completely dead on its feet after battling its way through a 120min World Cup final against vastly superior opposition rather than one that had just played 45mins of second tier football against an average side. Fitness seems to be a major problem. It’s very odd.

“We have spoken to the club this week and the less said about that, the better.” 🤔

Winks is a good footballer with a poor attitude. If Braybrooke turns out to have a similar skill set but with a better attitude, he’ll do alright.

I doubt we’ll see much of Faes from now on.

Indeed.

He celebrated the second goal but not the first or the third.

We need Martin, Gary O’Neil and Steven Gerrard all safely employed in new jobs before we even consider sacking Marti.

One of those predictions is far more likely than the other.

Did you read/hear the full interview with James?

Late entry for post of the year

I would give up on football and finally try to do something meaningful with my life.

You know things are bad when our own fans are advising our best players to leave for their own good

Does the article contain anything else that’s interesting apart from the Wrigglesorth rumour? Collomose is a bit more informed than most…

But the article very clearly does not say that. It quite literally says, “Keir Starmer did not create this problem.” How on earth did you reach this conclusion?

Surely their value drops every time they play? Better to keep them hidden.

I’m not sure that people who end up voting for Reform will frame the decision in their own minds in quite the way you describe. That reads more like a projection. As the article says, the problem is the number of people who have lost so much faith in the mainstream parties that they genuinely believe that voting for a batshit party led by a con man offering economically nonsensical policies will deliver a better outcome for them. They are wrong to believe that, of course, but I don’t think their anxiety about the future can be dismissed as mere ‘abdication of responsibility’.

If he starts Faes and Vestergaard after the last two games I will assume that Marti either wants the sack or is being told he has to play them. I would have dismissed either of these suggestions as nonsense until recently, but if those two are in the starting 11 on Saturday I can't think of any other explanations that would make sense.

The 'we've got PL players' quote is just one small snippet from the interview. If you read all of his quotes, they do not suggest complacency at all—just a determination to put things right. I actually quite like him saying things like, "I won't let that [relegation] happen." That's the attitude we want. There is nothing in that interview that suggests he's complacent, and more importantly for us he doesn't play like he's complacent either. We need more characters like James.

This is quite good on why current Labour policies may deliver us a Reform government (or at least a Reform-led government) in the next election: https://www.ft.com/content/1052957c-90ef-4e00-b599-e45643c5c8e4

Amazing, isn't it? Maybe people would be happier if he was saying, "To be honest most of us are bricking it about relegation. We're not really sure whether we've got it in us to stay up."?

If our squad was basically of good character and just lacking in confidence or tactical direction, I'd be inclined to agree. But I suspect the issues with the club and the squad run so deep that a manager who is merely competent would struggle to get much out of our players. I fear we need somebody exceptional—and they are hard to come by.

Successive managers have tried and failed to instill a strong mentality in the squad. It's been a major problem for four of the past five seasons, interrupted only by Enzo's brief stay. And so far it looks like Marti is more Cooper/RVN than Maresca. It's not his fault he isn't an elite manager, but it's a problem for us when that's what we need to get out of this mess.