Dr Jinx

He’ll be fuming at that. Players just threw the towel in. Losses are inevitable at some stage but the manner of it is what matters. He spent less than 2m during their whole transfer window, you’d wonder if he’s walking into another situation where he’s being restricted. He’ll suffer through it but it won’t end well.

Yeah I think Hope covers this quite well, when they came in they only then realised how much of a skeleton staff the club was running on and that they couldn’t just let him go as they didn’t have anyone in place. All this will change but he’ll probably still be here going into 2022. They think he’s a capable operator apparently though given the circumstances he was working under. For me, he goes hand in hand with the previous regime and has been on the record essentially gaslighting the supporters with comments about the club, especially the training ground. There’s no way he can stay long term.

If Jamie Reuben is mates with Redknapp, great, we need more friendly faces in the media, doesn’t mean that’ll translate to making poor choices in terms of what the club wants to achieve. It won’t be Rafa. It won’t be Wenger, who even if he was interested, he’s been out of the loop for too long. He moved football forward in this country for sure but everyone caught up and some surpassed him in the end. No thanks. We like Fonseca. Young, confident and capable. Hopefully it’s him. We keep hearing Conte is not in the conversation but I’m wondering, say if Ole gets the boot soon at Man Utd, they’ll be in for someone like him, so why wouldn’t we at least have that conversation before they get in there? The fact the new owners are being methodical about this process is great though, almost seems like it’s happening to another club

Leave SJP alone, build a new stadium and call it whatever you want but then again, all the most commercially successful clubs (historically) .. Man Utd, Barca, Real.. they left their stadium names alone. Maybe to play catch up financially with clubs like that you have to go further but it would be a last resort.

Although Martinez wound still be a massive upgrade on Bruce, he does feel like a step back from some of the others we’re linked with. But.. in the time since Everton he’s gone on to work with some of the best players in the world and we should give him that benefit of doubt that he’s probably improved as a manager. Fonseca is still my preference but I also understand the risks that are involved there, it could turn out to be a disaster. We simply don’t currently have the players to carry out how he sets his teams up. Can we afford to write off between now and January?

Details please. Pm if it’s not to be discussed openly

The formation Fonseca likes to use can certainly be risky. If he gets the job, I would expect huge investment in the defence and midfield. We could essentially be playing with 3 at the back so we’re going to need big boots to make us formidable there. He’ll try and take Ibañez from Roma and why not Koulibaly if he can be bought? Schär could also quite easily play on the right side of a back 3. He plays wing backs but they play really high up so maybe Murphy gets a chance there? I’d assume the existing squad (or some of them) are going to get a chance to stake a claim.. Lascelles, Clark, Fernandez, Lewis and Manquillo will be toast though.

Eh Paddy’s Day?

You think Sacha Baron Cohen’s voice for Borat is authentic Kazakhstan? ?

I’m totally sold on Fonseca but after watching a few interviews with him speaking English I can’t get it out of my head that he sounds like Borat ?

Right time, wrong day ?

Peak handsome at Newcastle was Cabaye.. and he could play! Probably the best midfielder in a similar role we’ve had since Rob Lee. Leaves a bad taste that he wasted the second half of his best years at Palace.

I have no doubt that to the people he knows in his private life, he’s probably an affable bloke. Like I said before, I had no ill feeling toward him before he took the job, I just knew he wasn’t going to work because of his track record. But the thing is, we’re not all millionaires who can go swanning off on holidays and playing golf most days a week, we work jobs we don’t really like so that our heads are above water and then on the weekends we have something to look forward to, for us it’s the club. And this man has been ruining this experience for far too long. Dont get me wrong, the run of games we had at the end of last season was fun, especially that late goal against Liverpool. It’s not all been doom and gloom but overall we can all see the teams regression, all good habits being forgotten and basically replaced by unorganised chaos, poor fitness and no plan whatsoever. It makes it so hard to look past a persons redeeming qualities when they are hurting something you love because of their total lack of ability. Its done now, let whoever praise him for how they saw him in their own personal relationship, it’s not how we see it but there’s a universe where we can both be right. I do think the comments about his weight are a bit beneath us, but again, when someone is hurting what you love, all reason goes out the window. Feeling such a relief that it’s all over and looking forward to the clubs next appointment.

I love how they’re basically going to sack Bruce and announce his replacement in the same sequence of moves. Not even giving him the satisfaction of being the headline story for a day or so.

What an absolute dinosaur Bruce is that he doesn’t know what to do with a ball playing centre back. I can’t even describe how relieved I am that he’s almost gone.

Regarding Howe, if he's that good, what the hell happened at Bournemouth then?

I’d say it was the other way around this time.

Some decisive action needs to happen soon. In fairness they did say they are conducting a complete and thorough review but some things that are more obvious need to be addressed sooner. AS shouldn’t be running the club day to day, it’s not her area of expertise and the likes of Lee Charnley who is staying on, you really don’t want someone like him having the chance to worm his way into their thinking. I’d even give Peter Kenyon a temporary role if he’s available. Someone with big club experience who can hit the ground running. He did this at Chelsea for about a season when Abramovich took over before they got their own people in.

There’s no way any of that sticks. It’s anti competitive and wouldn’t get through court. Like mentioned before, if they were really worried about it they wouldn’t have sent Charnley. The other clubs seem to be trying to act quickly before our new owners have a grasp of what’s going on. We need a beast of a CEO in quickly, someone who knows this lot and will put manners on them.

He'll go, either today or tomorrow. Am surprised it hasn't been announced yet to be honest. The only possible delay I can think of is down to them wanting something else in place so they can just make the announcements and not have to entertain the circus. Steve Bruce still officially being in the job gives them the breathing room to negotiate with at least some amount of privacy.

The problem is, who worth their salt is going to take a contract until end of season? If we stay up, the goalposts move considerably.

10.30

He’s struggled to fit in at clubs and he’s fallen out with players. I think he did a good job with Man Utd, but was up against it with the likes of Pogba who has far too much influence there. I see these moves as just poorly timed, the wrong place at the wrong time perhaps. Both Man Utd and Spurs have had and still do have problems that run far deeper than a managers skill level. Ole will be sacked this season, at some point and then what? Rebuild again? Nuno was being talked up for the sack after those three losses, these are not stable clubs. Maybe he’s found it with Roma, they sit 4th and lost to Juve tonight. Will he be given the time there to do what he wants? He’s far from a busted flush, just need to find the right home.

I only see a handful of managers in the world capable of coming in and shaping that defence into something remotely workable until January. Rafa obviously but he ain’t coming, Conte, Mourinho and Poch but again, pie in the sky. Martinez wouldn’t leave Belgium right now either but also not convinced by him either, his last stint in the PL wasn’t so convincing. Has Conte ever had to work with such shite before? Even if he would come here there’s question marks there, working with good players no problem, but a bunch of unfit out of form players who don’t seem to have the heart for a struggle. You go back to Rafa, we know he’d do it and we also know the rest of what he’d bring. He’s the best option by a country mile. Same for Mourinho, he’d be able to do it but would he come?

I had to go all the way back to page 6 to find this bottle job’s thread. He’s developed a skill of being absolutely invisible when he plays for us, I expect more from a club captain, who’s job is to lead the players on the pitch by example. He does none of this. It’s the most disappointing one of the lot for me because he played the part of captain fantastic when he first came on the scene. He’s just going through the motions now.