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Mateusz Lis
at 18:12 31 Jan 2024

Still on loan at Goztepe. Played 19, conceded 14 and 10 clean sheets

Made some good saves against us in the pre-season game.

Is he worth recalling as I'm not keen on Lumley if Baz gets injured
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Charly Alcaraz
at 08:40 2 Jan 2024

What does he have to do to get selected
He was the one positive out of last season’s debacle. Tim Vickery said he was shocked that Saints managed to procure his signature as he was one of the hottest prospects in Argentinian football yet he’s struggling to get a game under Martin
Against Plymouth he gave a man of the match performance, scored a great goal and was subbed off with over a third of the game left and then doesn’t get on until the 90th minute against Norwich in a game that was crying out for his moments of quality that none of the rest of the squad possess
I just don’t get it
Martin brought on Smallbone and Shea Charles just after they equalised. We should have been pushing for the win but Martin went for the draw.
Don’t get me wrong I agree we’re on an excellent unbeaten run but then again with our team and depth of squad we should be. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be out in front with Leicester but we’re too negative
Come on Martin, unleash Charly and give him free rein. At the moment he’s playing with shackles on
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Mid season assessment
at 09:46 14 Dec 2023

Almost halfway through the season and what do we think?

Okay we’re unlucky that Leicester and Ipswich have made record breaking starts. Everyone is saying Ipswich will drop away because of their squad but we’re halfway through and there’s no sign of them falling away. If anything they’re getting stronger. It has to be said that they are way out in front because there are a lot of really poor sides in the Championship.

Having said that I think we have the players and the squad to be doing what Leicester and Ipswich are doing.

Are we going to get an automatic spot? I think Leicester and Ipswich are uncatchable. Are we going to pip Leeds for the third spot? I don’t think so.

We’re 13 points behind Leicester and 12 behind Ipswich. We’ve thrown 8 pts away against Coventry, Watford, Huddersfield and Rotherham. We dropped 8 pts at home against Norwich, Leicester and Ipswich and we dropped 6 points away to Sunderland and Middlesborough.

A lot of the goals we conceded were due to the style of football and we were told the players have to get used to a new style of play. Well they’re used to it now and we’re still dropping points we shouldn’t be. I think with the players and squad we have if we should have had 14 more points and that’s allowing for a draw at home to Leicester and Ipswich and Sunderland away. That would put us top on 53 pts with Leicester on 50 and Ipswich on 49.

So is Rustyball working? I’d say no. We are not killing games off and we’re dropping too many easy points. Okay we’re dominating teams on possession but what has that got us. We had more possession at home to Leicester and Ipswich and away at Sunderland but we came away without a point. At Sunderland we had nearly 70% possession and lost 5-0. Teams have worked us out. Sit back with 11 men behind the ball, we won’t find any telling passes and then catch us on the break late on.

Martin has had the squad now for nearly 6 months. They train probably 5-6 hours per day 4 or 5 days a week so really Rustyball should be like a well oiled machine. After all he’s been developing this system of play for over 4 years now. So how come he’s increasingly saying that the players are not doing what he asked them to do?

We’re struggling to beat teams using this style of play. We’re winning by single goal margins. Our promotion rivals are putting teams to the sword. The problem is when we go into added time with a narrow lead there is always a chance we’ll drop points late on. Apart from Leeds at home I don’t think we’ve beaten anyone comfortably.

My worry is that if we go up how will Rustyball fare in the Premier League? We’re dominating possession in a very poor league and just about beating sides. In the PL there is not a cat in hell’s chance we’re going to have anywhere near the same amount of possession so how will we beat teams then? I think if we go up we need to get all Cortese on Russell’s ass and bin him off for a better manager.
[Post edited 14 Dec 2023 9:47]
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Russell Martin reviews Rotherham game
at 19:07 8 Oct 2023



Three years ago. Sound familiar?
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RM previews Leeds
at 23:25 29 Sep 2023

He’s had a great week in training and has really enjoyed it. The energy at the club has been great and the players are fully committed to what he’s trying to do. It’s so different to the energy when he came in 12 weeks ago. Excellent, we are going to hammer Leeds then?
Apparently you can’t just be outcome based??? I’m assuming wins aren’t as important as % possession.
When asked about why Leicester and Leeds aren’t struggling he came out with a load of excuses then said it’s not excuses
Talk about Billy Bullsh1tter.
He seems an intelligent bloke so I’m sure he doesn’t actually believes the crap he’s spouting and is just trying to con us.
The one positive thing is at the moment we’re only 3 points out of the top six
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RM blames his predecessors again
at 08:23 26 Sep 2023

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/russell-martin-makes-candid-admission-amid-poo

Yet again RM is putting the blame for the last four games diabolical performances on a hangover from last season. How does he explain 10 points from the first 4 games and none from the next 4
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Next manager
at 18:19 24 Sep 2023

I have a feeling he’s already at the club.

Andréas Georgson. Came up through the coaching levels at Malmo, then went to Brentford under Ankersen as assistant manager, then asst manager at Arsenal, back to Malmo as head of first team football then caretaker manager

This has Sports Republic and Ankersen written all over it
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Piroe
at 16:36 23 Sep 2023

Scored again

Meanwhile Stewart has had another physio session
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Andreas Georgson
at 09:30 22 Sep 2023

Saints set piece coach - are we able to sue for misrepresentation?

My guess is Krafty/W@nkersen have brought in a Scandi to take over if Rustyball doesn’t work out.

Looking at his resume he seems to be an up market Selles
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Sports Republic
at 18:54 20 Sep 2023

It really is time for Dragan Solak and Kat Liebherr to re-evaluate how SR is performing.

SR are always saying they learn from their mistakes and take action where required, well I think they must have learnt more than any other football club ownership.

I've been trying to think of what they have actually got right over the last 21 months and I'm struggling.

In my opinion they should have got Ralph a couple of strikers and a keeper and I think we'd be mid table PL now. I know a lot of people will disagree.

Having decided probably before they bought the club that Ralph was not their man, they should have sacked him when they got there. He was sacked with us 3 points from mid table.

Having sacked him they appointed someone far inferior who was clearly a massive gamble, which immediately got the fans backs up particularly when Jones started to open his mouth. It was clear from early on that the fans didn’t like him, he had massive ego issues and was completely out of his depth.

Having realised their mistake and reacting to fan unrest they sacked Jones. Great we thought, they won’t make the same mistake again, and to be fair to them they didn’t – they made an even bigger mistake and appointed Selles, who not only had no managerial experience, less than 5 years earlier he’d been working as a Chief Data Analyst at Strømsgodset Toppfotball in Norway.

They entrusted him with keeping us in the PL. Again it was clear from the outset that he was massively out of his depth and his team selections, line ups and substitutions made Jones look like Pep. They then kept him in place until he relegated us. There were so many opportunities to sack him and get a Dyche or Allardyce in. I’m not saying they’d have kept us up but they’d have had more chance than Selles.

So finally SR and Selles parted company and we all waited with baited breath to welcome someone of the calibre of Potter or Koeman or the likes, but no we got Guardiola-Lite.

And SR’s disasters aren’t limited to managerial decisions. Their transfer record is truly diabolical. What other club in the history or world football has spent £150m plus, more than any other team in Europe apart from Barcelona and Chelsea and relegated the club in bottom place.

They have brought in 23 players and really only Lavia and Alcaraz are the quality we need

Having said that I think we need to stick with Martin until Christmas. I partly think this because he may get it right but more so that I don't trust SR to pick a better manager
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Interesting stat
at 18:49 18 Sep 2023

I know RM will quite rightly not criticise players and clearly backs Bazunu but here is an interesting fact

Sheffield Wednesday had 1 shot on target and scored 1 goal
Norwich had 8 shots on target and scored 4
Plymouth had 2 shots on target and scored 1
QPR 3 shots on target and scored 1
Sunderland had 10 shots on target and scored 5
Leicester had 8 shots on target and scored 4

So basically teams are scoring with more than 50% of shots on target against us. Whereas I'm not putting the blame entirely at Baz's door as our defence has been poor he must take a lot of the blame

In 6 games we have conceded nearly half as many as the top 6 sides combined. We have conceded more goals than any other team in the football leage apart from Sutton Utd who are rock bottom.

RM needs to sort this out and quickly
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Tall Paul
at 08:16 18 Sep 2023

Tall Paul scores 29 minutes into his Trabzonspor debut with a header out forwards could only dream about

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Rustyball
at 21:00 15 Sep 2023

We’ve been found out. Teams are letting us have possession, sitting deep and hitting us on the break

We’ve been fortunate to get injury time goals up to now which have kept us out of the drop zone

There is a big risk trying to play like Man City and Barcelona when you have players the standard of Preston.

The big question is does Martin have a plan B
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Saturday’s game
at 10:20 4 Sep 2023

Not good enough from everyone apart from KWP and possibly Stuart Armstrong
Let’s see how the team and RM react

COYS
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Team for today
at 08:53 2 Sep 2023

GK: Bazunu

RB: KWP
CB: Janny B
CB: Harwood-Bellis
LB: Manning

MF: Downes
MF: Alcaraz
MF: Smallbone
MF: Sulemana

ST: Stewart/Adams
ST: A Armstrong

Doubt whether Stewart will play
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Striker
at 08:11 25 Aug 2023

So we’ve lost out on Piroe to Leeds which for sure is a disappointment and Che could still leave, not that in my opinion Che is good enough

The one position we have desperately needed to fill since Pelle left is still missing. Okay we had one good season out of Ings in that time but it is glaringly clear that we need a top notch striker if we’re to get promotion

Yes Che has scored 3 crucial goals this season but they weren’t difficult chances and luckily for him he was offside with the shocking open goal header miss against Plymouth that could have cost us points

I can’t believe the owners still haven’t addressed this position in 3 transfer windows

Let’s hope they have something up their sleeve
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JWP
at 08:30 20 Jul 2023

As WHU appears to be the only club showing interest that Prowsey would probably consider how about JWP for Flynn Downes, Danny Ings and £25-30m?
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Striker
at 10:42 15 Jul 2023

Do you think there's any chance of getting a decent striker before the start of the season.

Thankfully there appears to be a lot of interest in Che but that would leave a strike force of Mara and Adam Armstrong

This is not just a problem for this season

Pelle scored 30 goals in 68 games for us. Since he left at the end of the 2015/16 season our main striker scoring record is:

2016/17 - Austin — 6 goals

2017/18 - Austin — 7 goals

2018/19 — Ings — 7 goals

2019/20 — Ings — 22 goals

2020/21 — Ings — 12 goals

2021/22 — Adams — 7 goals

2022/23 — Adams — 5 goals

Joel Piroe has scored approx a goal every two games for two seasons in the Championship and played under Russel Martin. Why isn't he a Saints player already. SR should pull their fingers out.

Piroe is valued at around £12-15m. Swansea want £20m. Just give them £20m and get the deal done. We spaffed £40m on Aribo, Mara and Onuachu.

Between them they have a scoring record for us of 1 goal every 17.5 games
[Post edited 15 Jul 2023 10:48]
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Complete News vacuum
at 08:23 15 Jun 2023

Still no new manager installed

Is there a bigger issue than we think? Surely if the difference between our valuation and Swansea’s is just £400k and we want Martin installed as early as possible we should just stump up bearing in mind we spent £150m getting relegated.

Just throwing it out there
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9 weeks until the opening game of the season
at 08:45 7 Jun 2023

And we still don’t have a manager in place

The question has to be asked would we have been better off staying with Gao

He was tight as a duck’s arse but he ran the club a damn lot better than the current crowd
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