Ric Flair Live & Direct on BSLB Podcast

[CosbehFox]

7 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

It’s been a:sustained reduction in quality over the last two seasons Ric. We have a net combined profit of £100m and we spent nothing in the Championship relegation on transfers and that includes loans. This represents a significant reduction in overall quality. Less than £7m has been spent plugging holes we couldn’t fill last season.  

Yeah we’ve have reduced quality but the existing quality and budget is better than 23 clubs in League 1. No other club gets £7m to ‘plug holes’ in the division. 
 

Plymouth lost their goalscoring striker yet second highest scorer and are holding par against their size/budget in the division. 
 

Martin isn’t going to get sacked, that’s as good as a near on fact. So I ain’t wasting time calling for him to go. I’m debating that the argument that this is a work in progress and he needs time given the relative size of our budget/transfer budget which dwarfs everyone else in the division and has never been a problem when larger clubs such as Birmingham have fallen in the third tier. Only Russell Martin has or is made/making a dogs dinner of it (in recent years).

Edited 25 September by CosbehFox

[CosbehFox]

8 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

I don’t think anything comes close to the Leicester decline tbh 2 consecutive relegations. I’m surprised you’ve used Birmingham to back up your argument too

. They actually improved their squad from the relegation season - spending £30m in League 1.

Birmingham had a budget which dwarfed the rest of the division while coming off the back from serious bad vibes where the new American owners appointed Rooney etc. They also their best academy talent since Bellingham during that summer. 
 

Despite the expectation and bad vibes, they absolutely crushed the division as to be expected when a clubs overall budget is twenty times more than anyone else’s 

[AKCJ]

11 hours ago, orangecity23 said:

Great first episode of the new era, off to a good start lads. Although, when it got to any other business, and Ric was talking about the great post in this thread by @Drew Peacock, and Ric said he'd been "touched by Drew Peacock", I couldn't help but crack up, and wonder if we'd all been set up like when Bart calls Moe's bar in the Simpsons  

Couldn't believe nobody laughed when he said it  

[funkyrobot]

11 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Yeah we’ve have reduced quality but the existing quality and budget is better than 23 clubs in League 1. No other club gets £7m to ‘plug holes’ in the division. 
 

Plymouth lost their goalscoring striker yet second highest scorer and are holding par against their size/budget in the division. 

It’s SEVEN games and 3 months in charge. Cleverley had a very challenging start to his Plymouth management career and was given the opportunity to turn it around. Any serious club (never mind Leicester 👀) wouldn’t realistically make a sacking call with a new manager with a new squad after what has been a middling start with the players showing improvements. If you don’t want this manager and I see that the majority on here seem to be in that boat, you show every statistic in the worst possible light. All I’m trying to do is apply a bit of balance to the one sided discussion. I’ve outlined my reservations about Martin’s football style. I don’t give a shit about any perceived arrogance, his hair, his clothes. I’ll just give him a fair chance and ultimately results will dictate  how long his tenure will last. It’s clear from the Watson interview that the players are on board with his ideas.  

[Gazza3]

I think Cleverly had a bad start but then changed his approach. Can't see Brussell changing anything.

[Ric Flair]

3 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

It’s been a:sustained reduction in quality over the last two seasons Ric. We have a net combined profit of £100m and we spent nothing in the Championship relegation on transfers and that includes loans. This represents a significant reduction in overall quality. Less than £7m has been spent plugging holes we couldn’t fill last season.  

But we have gone from the PL to League One pal, this squad/clubs objective is to get promoted from the 3rd tier. No club jas dropped to this level and had a squad with such talent retained. I understand the point you are trying to make and I agree the task any manager has here is not straight forward but the task and demand is quite clear and there's minimal margin for error.

 

I reckon any manager at this level would fancy their chances with the budget we have given Martin, an academy as good as ours and the other players already still here to be very strong at this level. 

 

Hopefully we return from the 3 week break and put together some results, we get much past the first dozen games without significant improvement and we'll be in trouble.

[Drew Peacock]

13 hours ago, orangecity23 said:

Great first episode of the new era, off to a good start lads. Although, when it got to any other business, and Ric was talking about the great post in this thread by @Drew Peacock, and Ric said he'd been "touched by Drew Peacock", I couldn't help but crack up, and wonder if we'd all been set up like when Bart calls Moe's bar in the Simpsons  

I can confirm that it definitely wasn’t a set up. 🤣  

Just a stupid user name I chose over 10 years ago, which I now regret if I have anything serious to say.
It was after reading a supposedly true story where Mr and Mrs Peacock named their son Drew, before realising he’d be laughed at for the rest of his life. 🤣

Touched by the mention though @Ric Flair. 🦊💙
 

[JJD_LCFC]

2 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

It’s SEVEN games and 3 months in charge. Cleverley had a very challenging start to his Plymouth management career and was given the opportunity to turn it around. Any serious club (never mind Leicester 👀) wouldn’t realistically make a sacking call with a new manager with a new squad after what has been a middling start with the players showing improvements. If you don’t want this manager and I see that the majority on here seem to be in that boat, you show every statistic in the worst possible light. All I’m trying to do is apply a bit of balance to the one sided discussion. I’ve outlined my reservations about Martin’s football style. I don’t give a shit about any perceived arrogance, his hair, his clothes. I’ll just give him a fair chance and ultimately results will dictate  how long his tenure will last. It’s clear from the Watson interview that the players are on board with his ideas.  

I like that you aim to provide balance, and having differing views we should be able to do so. 

 

My view is I didn’t want Russell as manager. Felt completely the wrong appointment for our club, what we need and his record as a manager is barely positive. We are seeing exactly as feared. 

 

His teams repeatedly make the same mistakes and he never changes. I would like him to have improved from rangers and saints but he just repeats the same patterns. To me that is not coaching and is actually stifling the players, which we see every week. 
 

If we had a manager who understands league 1, plays for results over style, I think we would be in a far better state than our lowest ever league position. 

 

 

 

[orangecity23]

1 hour ago, Drew Peacock said:

I can confirm that it definitely wasn’t a set up. 🤣  

Just a stupid user name I chose over 10 years ago, which I now regret if I have anything serious to say.
It was after reading a supposedly true story where Mr and Mrs Peacock named their son Drew, before realising he’d be laughed at for the rest of his life. 🤣

Touched by the mention though @Ric Flair. 🦊💙
 

One silly username choice leads to a brilliant comedy payoff a decade later, sounds like a great slice of accidental genius to me! 

 

Genuinely great post you wrote though mate, you really summed up how listening to the pod and supporting the club makes up such an important part of day to day life, in the midst of all the good times and troubles that everyone goes through in life.

[Claudio Fannieri]

Another cracking episode as always, the analogies just get better and funnier every week, although I do wonder what strength alcohol @Ric Flair is consuming during the pod to come up with them, but carry on sir as that moonshine is contributing to some grade A content 😂

[Anonymous F.O.X.]

 

[CosbehFox]

5 hours ago, funkyrobot said:

It’s SEVEN games and 3 months in charge. Cleverley had a very challenging start to his Plymouth management career and was given the opportunity to turn it around. Any serious club (never mind Leicester 👀) wouldn’t realistically make a sacking call with a new manager with a new squad after what has been a middling start with the players showing improvements. If you don’t want this manager and I see that the majority on here seem to be in that boat, you show every statistic in the worst possible light. All I’m trying to do is apply a bit of balance to the one sided discussion. I’ve outlined my reservations about Martin’s football style. I don’t give a shit about any perceived arrogance, his hair, his clothes. I’ll just give him a fair chance and ultimately results will dictate  how long his tenure will last. It’s clear from the Watson interview that the players are on board with his ideas.  

Yeah agreed and that's what worries me. Other big budget teams in recent years found it easy with a new squad or a new manager or both. When clubs have had that huge budgetary advantage, there's no 'work in progress'. The latter both had heavily possession based styles too. 

 

25/26 Cardiff - 11 new players in, new manager - First seven games was P7 W5 D2 L0

24/25 Birmingham - 15 new players in, new manager - P7 W6 D1 L0

24/25 Wrexham - 8 new players in - P7 W5 D1 L1

23/24 Derby - 15 new players in - P7 W3 D1 L3

 

Edited 25 September by CosbehFox

[Drew Peacock]

1 hour ago, orangecity23 said:

One silly username choice leads to a brilliant comedy payoff a decade later, sounds like a great slice of accidental genius to me! 

 

Genuinely great post you wrote though mate, you really summed up how listening to the pod and supporting the club makes up such an important part of day to day life, in the midst of all the good times and troubles that everyone goes through in life.

Appreciate that bud.

If only the club could truly understand the psychology of fan engagement and understand why the tribal identity of being a football fan is so important to so many.
Like many others now, I feel a total disconnect from the club, yet still crave that identity despite not wanting to.
5 lads and their guests on the pod over the last few years have provided that feeling of belonging.

Edited 25 September by Drew Peacock

[Anonymous F.O.X.]

@Claudio Fannieri Energy (The Russell Martin Mix)

 

[Claudio Fannieri]

8 hours ago, Anonymous F.O.X. said:

@Claudio Fannieri Energy (The Russell Martin Mix)

 

Tuuuuuuuuuuuune 😂 absolutely love it @Anonymous F.O.X. nailed it that is a banger, you provided the energy, real positive energy 😂

[Anonymous F.O.X.]

On 14/04/2026 at 21:15, Libertine said:

WAGE ODDITY by CITY AREBUST

 

Wage control’s a failure, Jon

Wage control’s a failure, Jon

Check your first team bills and whack a bonus on

Wage control’s a failure, Jon (Ten, nine, eight, seven, six)

Commencing countdown to League One (Five, four, three, two, one)

Exec position, and may Top’s love be with you

 

This is Wage Control to Failure Jon 
You've really made a waste
And the papers they all know the purse is bare 
Now it's time to solve the cashflow if you dare 
This is Failure Jon to Wage Control 
I’ve blessings from the board 
And I'm gloating in a most peculiar way 
And the squad looks very deficient today

 

For here 
Am I sitting in the West Stand 
Far above the turds 
City fans are blue 
And there's nothing I can do

 

Though I'm past one hundred thousand pounds 
I'm feeling very chill 
And I think my wage slip knows which way to go 
Tell my boss I love him very much, he knows 
Wage Control to Failure Jon 
Your club is dead, it’s all gone wrong 
Can you hear me, Failure Jon? 
Can you hear me, Failure Jon? 
Can you hear me, Failure Jon? Can you-

 

Here am I gloating 'round my West Stand 
Far above the turds 
City fans are blue 
And there's nothing I can do

@Libertine