ClaphamFox

If Top is serious about relinquishing control over managerial appointees to the new CEO and technical director, you’d hope that Martin wouldn’t even be in the conversation.

We might have to wait for another week or so.

That punk ass bitch is full of it.

When Top finally decides to bury the hatchet and let me back in his inner circle, I’ll let you know.

We can’t appoint a new permanent manager until the new technical director and CEO are in place. Therefore we could only realistically sack Marti now if we had an interim manager at the ready who we’re confident would do a better job. And there aren’t many of those about.

The old saying "misery loves company" really does ring true with the pod these days, doesn't it? But it's true: when you're utterly demoralised and depressed about what's happening to our club, it really does help to know that others feel just as shit about it as you do. Plus, the hippo thing made me laugh out loud, which was rather unfortunate as at the time I was on a packed commuter train in which everybody else was completely silent.

Yep.

Sadly, I don't disagree.

I think you both describe the problem in a nutshell, albeit in different ways. Our club is institutionally very weak, and has been for several years. There is no clear direction coming from the top, and no clear sense of identity. This means that whoever occupies the manager’s position not only has to coach and pick the team, he also must be the engine that drives the entire club. It’s a lot to ask of somebody and there aren’t many who will be up to the job. Enzo succeeded for a season before he was plucked by Chelsea, then when he left the building we immediately resumed the downward trajectory we were on before he arrived. If we were institutionally strong, led by owner with a clear vision and the ability to communicate that vision throughout the club, we’d be less reliant on finding a Svengali-type manager with the charisma and energy to effectively lead the club as well as manage the first team. As it is, that is exactly the kind of figure we need to get us out of the mess we’re in. If—and it’s a big ‘if’—the new CEO and Technical Director turn out to be very good appointments, we won’t need to rely so much on the manager to lead the club. That’s why these two appointments are massive for us.

They won't find it hard to finish above us if they're in the division above.

Really? Can you name a few? But an even bigger problem than the dearth of decent candidates is that we don't really have a 'project' in the way other clubs do, so even if we did manage to identify somebody with pedigree the chances of them agreeing to join us hovers around zero.

Us watching the PL on TV today...

During times of trouble, some fans respond by nostalgically wishing for previously popular club figures to return like Aslan and save us from our present woes. It's understandable given how grim things are at the moment, but usually it's just idle fantasy with no real basis in reality. That said, MoN as DoF, with Pearson as manager, Izzet and Lennon as first team coaches, and Matty Elliott as kit man will do for me

That doesn’t seem to be an impediment for most people who work in journalism.

Accidents will happen….

Don't even joke about it!

Not really.

I find it hard to get too worked up about players exchanging pleasantries as they leave the pitch, but this boils my piss. He is either incredibly stupid or he is making a deliberate point of disrespecting the club he has been with since a boy. I have a weird feeling it may be the latter.

Presumably Top wants any decision on replacing Cifuentes to involve the new CEO and technical director, neither of whom have been appointed yet. If so, I actually think the club is making the right decision for once—the new leadership team has to make the call. Unfortunately this means we may have to wait a while yet until a decision is made.

The sound of a dozen different names being chanted by different sections of the crowd at the same time is only likely to generate an incoherent noise and, yes, the board would probably just ignore that.

There is a reason those type of managers are very rare these days.

It won’t be. We’ll have the same owners in the division below.

There have been persistent rumours going back to the Rodgers era that Top is obsessed with Man City and wants us to play like them—probably too persistent for there to be nothing in them. It would also explain a lot.

You’d imagine that at some point the penny will drop that this strategy is not working. But when?