I thought he deserved a crack and would have given him 5-6 games, that’s understandable. This is ridiculous, what are they keeping him for? He didn’t exactly excel in the championship. Are we expecting him to get us relegated, then promoted, then do better next time. it’s all good fun though.
Time to sack Russell Martin. You cannot justify entering the third break of the season with only four points out of a total of 33 available. Been so many collapses and games where we've not been in the fight. No shots on target today against the team in 20th place, with 1 win in 20 games and a toxic home atmosphere. They were there for the taking if we got our heads out of our arses and were able to find a way to penetrate in the final third rather than just shuffling the ball about No manager is keeping this group up IMO, I've been quite adamant about that ever since the window shut, but I'd like to think there's some who'd be less feeble than we are at present. This is shaping up to be a very meek and naive relegation as it stands. So often we're just not in games or just aimlessly drifting through them. 70% possession but no shots is not 'brave' either. RM has been very clear that he will not change himself, so it's on the board to make the change There's an international break coming now and then some games straight after with little to no expectation, so make the change and don't waste any more games on this nonsense. He's had Brentford, Bournemouth, Everton, Ipswich, Leicester, Wolves and come out of it with four points. That shouldn't be enough to keep anyone happy
I'm still of the view that he's a summer appointment. Any manager who gets appointed now is realistically facing a comfortable relegation. And that likely means a sacking at the end of the season, if not before, to enable a clean slate for the following season. Maybe someone appointed in February or March might get the opportunity to continue into a new season, but generally not before then.
I am not so sure tbh, we looked even worse than we do now in his brief tenure and his one league win was Everton.....At best its the same results.
No, I think we accept (as fans and the owners) that we're getting relegated this season. We need to change to a Rohl type acknowledging that, and as long as the football is improving, we take him into the next season to get us up. Now whether or not somebody accepts those terms, well...
I can understand it if they want to stick by him in the hope/expectation that he brings us back up again, but it would stupid for them to think that a season back in the PL in 2026-27 would be any different to 2024-25 - unless they go on an enormous recruitment drive to massively improve the squad. It depends what they want. Norwich were happy being a yo-yo side under Farke. It was only after they finally sacked him that they stopped being that. And at the time of writing they're just three points above the Championship relegation zone.
The worst part is we aren’t even doing the basics. Not closing people down. Every free kick and corner, whether attacking or defending, is horrendous. Just simple, simple stuff. If we have a crap team, surely we should at least try and do the basics well?
Palace have a fairly rough set of fixtures ahead of them too (though not as difficult as ours). And their fans will have greater expectations than us. Difficult to say which of us had the worst day today. But either way, I still think Moyes is keenly waiting to find out which PL club will be getting in touch with him first (and when).
He has to go I don’t know how the away support responded at the end of the game today, but there is no chance we can continue on this trajectory and Russ have any ounce of good will from the fans and players as being the man to get the club back up. He is a nice guy, seems a good man manager, but I think he needs this sacking and the humility that comes with it, just as much as we need a new manager with proven competence at this level.
Rohl, yes. RVN a 'no' for me. (I don't think he'd take the job anyway). Mark Robins has to be a serious consideration. He was a penalty kick away from getting Coventry to the Premier League, which would have meant he'd taken them up then entire ladder from L2 to Prem. Plus he knows the Championship very well. Given one of the better squads, plus a bigger budget, he'd getting us playing very exciting football.
I can see Moyes at Palace and I can see him at Wolves (though we may have just kept O’Neil in the job). I could see him at Everton too. But I just can’t see him here. I don’t think we’d go for him and I don’t think he’d come here either.
I said a couple of weeks ago that if we got past the Wolves game and wanted Martin out then it would be pointless as it would mean that we basically would be relegated. It feels unlikely we could attract someone we want long term to come in now and being in the position we are in having played arguably our 3 easiest fixtures of the season and a couple of other “easy” games means we are very likely relegated. As Laces said an attainable manager could be a younger manager who look like they are on the way up, but are at a club in the tier below us, like Rohl. But if they were to come in and not really change much results wise then it’s still 28 or so games of losing which surely would be enough for the fans to turn. I mean look how the mood on Martin has changed in 11 games and he had a fair bit of goodwill built up which a new manager won’t have. If the board really do believe that Martin is some future world beater then, given the likely uninspiring list of possible managers, I’d just stick with him. The time to change was after the Ipswich game to give a new manager some easier games to kickstart our season. Stick with him now and bin him in the summer if this continues on when we would be more attractive being one of the better teams in the Championship. Target someone like Rohl then by all means, my choice would be Corberan
I do not get this romanticism around Rohl. He was our assistant during a good spell and is doing an alright job at Sheff Wed. He has done piss all to suggest we should even look at him. The thing which i find tough is that if I was to wake up in August as the new season was about to start, only to find we were relegated, if I could pick one realistic manager to get us back up it would be Martin.
I know they like him. He has been linked to a few clubs and their fans have been very worried. But he hasnt even done a full season there. We could do much better - I'd rather keep Martin.
On your last sentence, maybe. Would Martin still have the same effect if we do end up going down with a very low points tally? I can’t see the same squad overhaul as last time so it could be a lot of the squad staying here and having listened to him all year and his tactics etc they could easily be sick of him and he not have the same effect he did last year. And tbh the number of managers who would get us back up with the squad/finances we would have is probably quite a long list
Logically i completely see where you are coming from. But football is fickle. If we were to start with a few wins both fans and players would be loving life again. I'd say it may even be easier than last time round as most of the squad would be used to his style
