Marti Cifuentes appointed new manager

[Mickyblueeyes]

The one major criticism is the way the squad has gone in the last few games. Aluko, Silko, Page, okoli etc. being removed from the match day squad and replaced with Faes, Khritiansen, BCDR (ok he scored) etc. 

 

Say we do have a great season and go up. Take the back 4 for example. Riccy, Faes, Vestegaard and Thomas. Riccy can play in the PL but his injury record restricts. The other 3 have no business in that league so we are immediately ****ed on promotion. While if you’re playing Nelson or Okoli with one or the other waste of space in Faes or Vestegaard, at the very least you have a base. Aluko getting minutes over Thomas adding to his experience. 
 

The choice to go with this lot is very risky. He can’t win, even with success of promotion as it will **** him one way or the other. I hope he reverts back. This season is rebuilding and rebuilding with Khrisitiansen, Faes etc. is not on. 
 

Nelson, Okoli, Page, Silko, monga, Aluko all need to be above Thomas, Vestegaard, Faes, Khritiansen. No question 

Edited 28 September 2025 by Mickyblueeyes

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

The one major criticism is the way the squad has gone in the last few games. Aluko, Silko, Page, okoli etc. being removed from the match day squad and replaced with Faes, Khritiansen, BCDR (ok he scored) etc. 

 

Say we do have a great season and go up. Take the back 4 for example. Riccy, Faes, Vestegaard and Thomas. Riccy can play in the PL but his injury record restricts. The other 3 have no business in that league so we are immediately ****ed on promotion. While if you’re playing Nelson or Okoli with one or the other waste of space in Faes or Vestegaard, at the very least you have a base. Aluko getting minutes over Thomas adding to his experience. 
 

The choice to go with these lot is very risky. He can’t win, even with success of promotion as it will **** him one way or the other. I hope he reverts back. This season is rebuilding and rebuilding with Khrisitiansen, Faes etc. is not on. 
 

Nelson, Okoli, Page, Silko, Mings, Aluko all need to be above Thomas, Vestegaard, Faes, Khritiansen. No question 

Eventually, yes they do. No question. They need to be integrated as the season progresses.

[Shane]

26 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

The one major criticism is the way the squad has gone in the last few games. Aluko, Silko, Page, okoli etc. being removed from the match day squad and replaced with Faes, Khritiansen, BCDR (ok he scored) etc. 

 

Say we do have a great season and go up. Take the back 4 for example. Riccy, Faes, Vestegaard and Thomas. Riccy can play in the PL but his injury record restricts. The other 3 have no business in that league so we are immediately ****ed on promotion. While if you’re playing Nelson or Okoli with one or the other waste of space in Faes or Vestegaard, at the very least you have a base. Aluko getting minutes over Thomas adding to his experience. 
 

The choice to go with this lot is very risky. He can’t win, even with success of promotion as it will **** him one way or the other. I hope he reverts back. This season is rebuilding and rebuilding with Khrisitiansen, Faes etc. is not on. 
 

Nelson, Okoli, Page, Silko, Mings, Aluko all need to be above Thomas, Vestegaard, Faes, Khritiansen. No question 

Thank you for mentioning Silko. I thought he did enough in pre-season to replace McAteer on the bench after we sold him.

[Lambert09]

So we should be enough into a season to get a real sense of what he’s trying to create. It’s a cart vs horse type conundrum because either the tactics are flat or we just don’t have the players he needs. 
 

But if I’m zooming out (and taking off my rose tinted glasses because I like him)  much of what we are seeing, is reflecting qpr.  The striker issue that is easy to point at, was also common there. His strikers were not tasked with traditional goal scoring roles, they were focused more on build up. His love of ayew is not surprising as that’s exactly what he looked for.  
 

We are caught in a bit of a limbo, where it feels like we tap it around, then take a long punt. It’s not a meticulous maneuver to create space, we seem to just run out of ideas. Overall it’s not been working so far but in the next few games, we need to see our identity because we are already using up our get out of jail for free cards.
 

If we are going to go back to the old guard and play vesty and faes, we need to play better football, it’s as simple as that. Because any time the ball is in our half there’s a risk they go to sleep  

[Mickyblueeyes]

10 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Eventually, yes they do. No question. They need to be integrated as the season progresses.

I can just about understand that with Page. However to go from starting to out the squad completely isn’t great. 
 

Nelson and Okoli behind both Faes and Vestegaard has me more worried. Nelson did well last year in this league. If he wasnt a youth player, he would’ve been a very reasonable signing. He’s had one game v Huddersfield in the cup and granted, looked shakey but out the squad altogether ? It’s not great management. Okoli out too, we’ve not exactly looked levels above with Faes back in. The reality is, if an offer comes in for Faes in Jan or even the summer (even if we go up and he plays 40 odd games) you easily sell without a thought. 
 

For me at least, the current match day squad is very short term thinking. Soumare, Vestegaard, Faes, Thomas, Khristiansen, BCDR, Ayew, Daka could all leave the club tomorrow morning and there would be very few batting an eyelid. If we don’t go up, we will be desperate to get them out. If we do go up, they’re not good enough. 
 

Bed them in yes, they can’t be bedded in by sitting in the stands in a nice suit.

Edited 28 September 2025 by Mickyblueeyes

[VG Fox]

4 hours ago, Swarles Barkley said:

I guess the bottom line is we have been shite and are 5th. You would hope with more time (and bearing in mind he had little pre season) that performances would improve. Having said that Enzo said the same and we got worse  

 

I think the biggest problem I have with Marti which has been echoed above is the team selection. We clearly want to get Faes out so why not play Okoli/Nelson. Same argument should apply to Vesty as well. 

I agree with this, but doing this which is my preferred option is that we are probably less likely to get promoted by whatever route, but I'm happy with that if we are building for the future and giving Nelson a chance to gain experience and hopefully up his sell on fee if he proves to be as good in time as we all hope....many on here though think not getting immediate promotion is financial suicide...I would argue us missing out on promotion in 12/13 put us in a better position to do so the following season which lead to a team who fought hard to stay up in 14/15 and after that well the stuff of dreams, but my point is a culture had been built which Claudio didn't mess with

[Dahnsouff]

2 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

I can just about understand that with Page. However to go from starting to out the squad completely isn’t great. 
 

Nelson and Okoli behind both Faes and Vestegaard has me more worried. Nelson did well last year in this league. If he wasnt a youth player, he would’ve been a very reasonable signing. He’s had one game v Huddersfield in the cup and granted, looked shakey but out the squad altogether ? It’s not great management. Okoli out to, we’ve not exactly looked levels above with Faes back in. The reality is, if an offer comes in for Faes in Jan or even the summer (even if we go up and he plays 40 odd games) you easily sell without a thought. 
 

For me at least, the current match day squad is very short term thinking. Soumare, Vestegaard, Faes, Thomas, Khristiansen, BCDR, Ayew, Daka could all leave the club tomorrow morning and there would be very few batting an eyelid. If we don’t go up, we will desperate to get them out. If we do go up, they’re not good enough. 
 

Bed them in yes, they can’t be bedded in by sitting in the stands in a nice suit.

Would love to think Marti is doing what Enzo did and getting the senior pro’s on side first, before slotting the youth in as the season goes on. Not sure I believe it mind, but I hope.

[Mickyblueeyes]

5 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Would love to think Marti is doing what Enzo did and getting the senior pro’s on side first, before slotting the youth in as the season goes on. Not sure I believe it mind, but I hope.

You see that would worry me lol. Why is he trying to get Faes and Vestegaard on side. What benefit is it to us in the long run ? I mean, I completely get it on Winks. I still think Winks alongside competent midfielders could still do a very decent job in the PL. he is an absolute superstar at this level. 
 

But those other two and Soumare, 4 year contract Thomas, Khristiansen, Daka - be honest and tell them they have no place here, whatever the league. Build a side the fans can relate to, a group who the club can get behind. 
 

Imagine we did go up and we did it with Faes and Vestegaard at the back, you don’t spend the summer thinking, if one of them adapt, we could really well - that hope, optimism, unknown. Instead you know full well both will fail miserably and be desperately short of competent levels. And same with the others. 
 

I basically want him to be a bit more forceful . And initially I thought he would. The change recently worries me. Let’s see what the next set of match squads look like. 

[Dahnsouff]

Just now, Mickyblueeyes said:

You see that would worry me lol. Why is he trying to get Faes and Vestegaard on side. What benefit is it to us in the long run ? I mean, I completely get it on Winks. I still think Winks alongside competent midfielders could still do a very decent job in the PL. he is an absolute superstar at this level. 
 

But those other two and Soumare, 4 year contract Thomas, Khristiansen, Daka - be honest and tell them they have no place here, whatever the league. Build a side the fans can relate to, a group who the club can get behind. 
 

Imagine we did go up and we did it with Faes and Vestegaard at the back, you don’t spend the summer thinking, if one of them adapt, we could really well - that hope, optimism, unknown. Instead you know full well both will fail miserably and be desperately short of competent levels. And same with the others. 
 

I basically want him to be a bit more forceful . And initially I thought he would. The change recently worries me. Let’s see what the next set of match squads look like. 

Because as good as all these youth players may end up being, they aren’t there yet and it makes no sense to impair their growth, as they still need to get there with help from the training team and inevitably the senior pro’s match day experience (this doesn’t mean they will become slow like Vesty or terrifying like Faes  

[Mickyblueeyes]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Because as good as all these youth players may end up being, they aren’t there yet and it makes no sense to impair their growth, as they still need to get there with help from the training team and inevitably the senior pro’s match day experience (this doesn’t mean they will become slow like Vesty or terrifying like Faes  

Hmm. I’m not sure I want any of these young players learning off any of the senior “pros” 

[Dahnsouff]

Just now, Mickyblueeyes said:

Hmm. I’m not sure I want any of these young players learning off any of the senior “pros” 

I know what you mean. 

 

Trouble is this distrust of these old players has become so ingrained, they are beyond parody in the eyes of the fans ( I get that) but we know younger players need experience heads on occasion (You would hope one of them would have a quiet word with Monga about his diving for example)

[Mickyblueeyes]

40 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

I know what you mean. 

 

Trouble is this distrust of these old players has become so ingrained, they are beyond parody in the eyes of the fans ( I get that) but we know younger players need experience heads on occasion (You would hope one of them would have a quiet word with Monga about his diving for example)

Yes but does he trust them to do that ? 
 

Surely if so, he plays Nelson to learn and be guided by Vestegaard or Faes. He did it with Veste and Okoli for a while and reverted. Or Page alongside Soumare and Winks. At the moment, the last 2,3 (?) squads it’s very experience with experience. 
 

if you’re going to bed in 19,20,21,22 year olds, they need to be part of it. 
 

I think Marti is as worried about the senior pros leading as the rest of us. He’s gone senior as a sure thing at the moment and not sure it’s the smartest play, regardless of where we finish,

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

Yes but does he trust them to do that ? 
 

Surely if so, he plays Nelson to learn and be guided by Vestegaard or Faes. He did it with Veste and Okoli for a while and reverted. Or Page alongside Soumare and Winks. At the moment, the last 2,3 (?) squads it’s very experience with experience. 
 

if you’re going to bed in 19,20,21,22 year olds, they need to be part of it. 
 

I think Marti is as worried about the senior pros leading as the rest of us. He’s gone senior as a sure thing at the moment and not sure it’s the smartest play, regardless of where we finish,

Fair, don’t see a direction evident of efforts to integrate youth, I shouldn’t expect too, but it would be reassuring.

 

Then again I also don’t want to turn into a Watford (Sorry @Super_horns ) and often circulate managers, as our best work has often been with patience (excludes Ranieri obviously)

[Mickyblueeyes]

35 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Fair, don’t see a direction evident of efforts to integrate youth, I shouldn’t expect too, but it would be reassuring.

 

Then again I also don’t want to turn into a Watford (Sorry @Super_horns ) and often circulate managers, as our best work has often been with patience (excludes Ranieri obviously)

Yes, you might be right here. 
 

it’s interesting, as I’ve said before, I think it’s too early to judge Marti. A lot of what he has done seems very positive for me. I don’t know, I’m very much keen for a refresh and while I want to do well, it’s hard to not watch 6 of our starting 11 and throw things at the telly and boo (😃). That, with the lack of signings, comes from the young players - hoping they all do well. 

Just wanted to see more with active role than we currently have. Long season though the Championship. 

 

[Blue ROI]

Like the rest of us Marti probably knows the limitations of the current starring 11 and is looking to the seniors for now to build in the short term. 

 

I'd like to think that he will blend in the youngsters bit by bit but playing 2 or 3 in a game now would be a bit of a disaster.

 

After Ramsey his hand has been a bit forced of late attack wise.

 

And then replacing vardy is another matter entirely. This has been a 7 to 8 season struggle even when the club was at its height.

 

Would be less inclined to stick the boot in given the mess around us but if things dont change much by January then I'm less inclined to argue against the doubters....

 

[murphy]

3 hours ago, VG Fox said:

....many on here though think not getting immediate promotion is financial suicide...I would argue us missing out on promotion in 12/13 put us in a better position to do so the following season which lead to a team who fought hard to stay up in 14/15 and after that well the stuff of dreams, but my point is a culture had been built which Claudio didn't mess with

This is true.  It is mad to think that without Deeney Day, the title probably wouldn't have happened.  However, there is a difference, Pearson's side were a team on an upward trajectory.  2025 vintage hasn't even started the rebuild yet.  I think that promotion is vital to clear up our financial mess.  I don't expect us to stay up.  If we are smart, we go down again with in a position to spend. 

 

The longer we stay down, the weaker we become and the likelier we are to become another West Brom. 

[Pita]

22 minutes ago, murphy said:

This is true.  It is mad to think that without Deeney Day, the title probably wouldn't have happened.  However, there is a difference, Pearson's side were a team on an upward trajectory.  2025 vintage hasn't even started the rebuild yet.  I think that promotion is vital to clear up our financial mess.  I don't expect us to stay up.  If we are smart, we go down again with in a position to spend. 

 

The longer we stay down, the weaker we become and the likelier we are to become another West Brom. 

With an owner who does not back the manager we are in very big trouble if we go up. 

[MPH]

22 minutes ago, Pita said:

With an owner who does not back the manager we are in very big trouble if we go up. 

 It will mean we might come back down again. To me, it’s a team like Sheffield Wednesday are in big trouble, not us.  It won’t be financial suicide if we don’t go up, but, as long as we stick with our apparent new sense of fiscal accountability we seem to have found then it can only be a good thing , even if we do come straight back down..

[Pita]

13 hours ago, MPH said:

 It will mean we might come back down again. To me, it’s a team like Sheffield Wednesday are in big trouble, not us.  It won’t be financial suicide if we don’t go up, but, as long as we stick with our apparent new sense of fiscal accountability we seem to have found then it can only be a good thing , even if we do come straight back down..

Our owner seems to have lost interest in the club he totally out of his depth we are following Wednesdays path 

[MPH]

1 hour ago, Pita said:

Our owner seems to have lost interest in the club he totally out of his depth we are following Wednesdays path 

 

this whole conversation has been done before.  But even selling Fatawu at the end of the season will see us as financially secure for a  season… Monga the year after.. 

 

 

there really isn’t any similarities .

[BKLFox]

20 hours ago, VG Fox said:

I agree with this, but doing this which is my preferred option is that we are probably less likely to get promoted by whatever route, but I'm happy with that if we are building for the future and giving Nelson a chance to gain experience and hopefully up his sell on fee if he proves to be as good in time as we all hope....many on here though think not getting immediate promotion is financial suicide...I would argue us missing out on promotion in 12/13 put us in a better position to do so the following season which lead to a team who fought hard to stay up in 14/15 and after that well the stuff of dreams, but my point is a culture had been built which Claudio didn't mess with

 

16 hours ago, murphy said:

This is true.  It is mad to think that without Deeney Day, the title probably wouldn't have happened.  However, there is a difference, Pearson's side were a team on an upward trajectory.  2025 vintage hasn't even started the rebuild yet.  I think that promotion is vital to clear up our financial mess.  I don't expect us to stay up.  If we are smart, we go down again with in a position to spend. 

 

The longer we stay down, the weaker we become and the likelier we are to become another West Brom. 

The money stakes are to high now to even miss out on the top table trough this 1 season let alone 2 or 3.

Back in 2012 the tv rights were £320m per season, it’s now £5bn thinking we can allow 3 other teams a slice of that but then compete against them the following season when potential they get another huge slice is a bit of a stretch.

 

[Pliskin]

On 28/09/2025 at 15:58, Lambert09 said:

So we should be enough into a season to get a real sense of what he’s trying to create. It’s a cart vs horse type conundrum because either the tactics are flat or we just don’t have the players he needs. 
 

But if I’m zooming out (and taking off my rose tinted glasses because I like him)  much of what we are seeing, is reflecting qpr.  The striker issue that is easy to point at, was also common there. His strikers were not tasked with traditional goal scoring roles, they were focused more on build up. His love of ayew is not surprising as that’s exactly what he looked for.  
 

We are caught in a bit of a limbo, where it feels like we tap it around, then take a long punt. It’s not a meticulous maneuver to create space, we seem to just run out of ideas. Overall it’s not been working so far but in the next few games, we need to see our identity because we are already using up our get out of jail for free cards.
 

If we are going to go back to the old guard and play vesty and faes, we need to play better football, it’s as simple as that. Because any time the ball is in our half there’s a risk they go to sleep  

Great post. 

[deep blue]

On 28/09/2025 at 15:58, Lambert09 said:

So we should be enough into a season to get a real sense of what he’s trying to create. It’s a cart vs horse type conundrum because either the tactics are flat or we just don’t have the players he needs. 
 

But if I’m zooming out (and taking off my rose tinted glasses because I like him)  much of what we are seeing, is reflecting qpr.  The striker issue that is easy to point at, was also common there. His strikers were not tasked with traditional goal scoring roles, they were focused more on build up. His love of ayew is not surprising as that’s exactly what he looked for.  
 

We are caught in a bit of a limbo, where it feels like we tap it around, then take a long punt. It’s not a meticulous maneuver to create space, we seem to just run out of ideas. Overall it’s not been working so far but in the next few games, we need to see our identity because we are already using up our get out of jail for free cards.
 

If we are going to go back to the old guard and play vesty and faes, we need to play better football, it’s as simple as that. Because any time the ball is in our half there’s a risk they go to sleep  

Interesting.  The irony is ... if, with Ayew in the team, we tap it around but end up by punting it up in the end anyway  then we'd be better off having Daka in there to chase the punts, so he might as well start in preference to Ayez.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

On 28/09/2025 at 16:30, VG Fox said:

I agree with this, but doing this which is my preferred option is that we are probably less likely to get promoted by whatever route, but I'm happy with that if we are building for the future and giving Nelson a chance to gain experience and hopefully up his sell on fee if he proves to be as good in time as we all hope....many on here though think not getting immediate promotion is financial suicide...I would argue us missing out on promotion in 12/13 put us in a better position to do so the following season which lead to a team who fought hard to stay up in 14/15 and after that well the stuff of dreams, but my point is a culture had been built which Claudio didn't mess with

If we don't get promoted this season the remnants of our PL quality all leave in the summer either because they want to or becasue we have to sell them or they're out of contract. We're left with a firmly second division side with only the "we used to be good when you were a teenager" line to try and attract new signings. 

 

If we don't go up this season I think we'll be here a good few seasons more as it'll be a total clearance of the decks, which is apparently what everyone wants but I dread to think what this place would be like after 2 or 3 back to back seasons of Championship football. 

Edited 30 September 2025 by Sol thewall Bamba

[Shaqq]

Javi Ortiz confirmed as our new GK coach by Sandefjord!