I am probably deluded, but it seems to me that the Rules and VAR being applied to us, are somewhat different to those being applied to the "bigger" teams? Us not using this as an excuse seems a bit disingenuous as it is obviously affecting results. It is little wonder we are getting a "loser" complex when we are being cheated and have no recourse, no way of appealing against it.
I am 99% certain we will get relegated . It does make me wonder though about some peoples thoughts . We did put the ball in the net yesterday , so it’s not as if we can’t score .
The question shouldn’t be “was it a foul”, but “was it a foul one of the officials ought to have seen”.
Another thought is that the attitude of Salisbury towards us was probably down to the abuse he received when he disallowed the goal in the first half, that may have come back to bite us?
That match was a draw at least. I have no arguments about Villa's goal, from where we were sitting you could see it coming, marking was terrible from us. But JWP's goal was until........!
We competed. So whilst im not happy losing, things are looking better. So many times in the past year we have looked like we go in not to lose. The substitutions made an instant impact and we did score on the back of it. Can't help the VAR BS. We lost against a better team and really it should be a draw, so Obv I'm not happy, bit I'm also holding out hope.
Going back to the 04/05 season, it didn't feel this bad. I still felt we had enough up top with crouch/phillips/camara that we'd at least be in it. With this current squad, I don't feel any hope with them at all. With the exception of JWP there's no natural talent. All of them have no fight and a complete loser mentality. There's no striker to score goals but there's no one to create them either. There's very little excitement watching Saints at the moment, it's heartbreaking
You just need to get a grip of yourself. So many fans are terrified of the prospect of relegation, but if you just come to terms with it, it's not that scary. Here's something for you to chew on; With Gao, we were going down. Ralph did well to keep us up for several seasons, but it was inevitable that at some point, we would be relegated. And if we'd have gotten relegated under Gao, we'd have stayed down. I think we can all agree on that. Now, under SR, we're probably going down too. Bummer, I know. But, I'd much rather be getting relegated with these boys behind us, than Gao. I'm even a little excited by the prospect of us going down, because I truly think it gives us a chance to become an exciting, organised team again instead of a load of lost-looking disjointed parts of a former football team. What really makes me laugh, is the anger that people are showing towards Sport Republic, who - let's not forget - have totally sorted out our finances, spent loads on players, and really seem to be doing a head-to-tail shake up of the club, which was steadily deteriorating. So why the anger? It's not like with Gao we were achieving success, right? We were f*cked. So what exactly have we lost? Nothing. We've gained ambitious, wealthy owners, who, yes, have cocked up the recruitment (to a degree), but who are making all the right noises about establishing us - sooner or later, as a top-half Premier League club. Just be patient and don't melt down every time we lose a game for f*ck's sake.
I think the anger is understandable personally. It wouldn’t have taken much to keep us up this season, decent striker and romeu replacement. We didn’t need Larios or AMN. As we know too many young gambles, too much thinking about resale value. We may have gone down to Gao but we don’t know that. Lowe and Co kept us up for many many years without investment. This is on SR, not Gao.
Show me a club that makes 100% perfect acquisitions every time. As Fats (I think) used to rightly say, at this level, roughly 50% of transfers come off, and 50% don't. I'd say that's about spot on for our recruitment under SR. Yes, AMN has been sh*te. Larios, Mara haven't done much. But then you've also got Lavia, who quadrupled in value after a couple of games. ABK and DCC both decent buys. Aribo meh. But Edozie, good. Etc. At least SR are putting the money in. Who would we have brought if Gao was still here? We'd be minus a Romeu, but without a Lavia too. Yeah everyone wanted a striker, but what if we'd paid 20-25m on someone who turned out to be not much better than Che? It's happened to us before. The biggest cock-up was keeping Ralph last summer, but if you're going to hate them for being loyal, then you can have no complaints when players f*ck off at the first opportunity.
Itchen I am sorry but I just don't see this. The two cup wins were furtuitous and the victory at Everton was against a woeful side. Having attended the Forest and Villa matches, I cannot see any improvement in the play. The same problems persist and there was not point in the match yesterday where we dominated play. As i said in August, I think we have a good squad which should be mid-table. The issue for us is that we never seem to look a threat. There are players in the team like Diallo, Lycano . Larius and Armstrong who i feel should be bombed out this window. It is staggering that Jones cannot see the weaknesses in his squad nor fulfill the potential of those player who are decent. Quite why he sees it fit to drop Perraud is a mystery as he has been out best player this season. I would also be minded to rest Bazuna for a while in order to build his confidence up. Again, he is one for the future and not up to PL standard. I would be staggered is we ever get off the bottom of the table. In addition, I think that we we be unlikely to amass more than 28 points. We will go down with a wimper, Sports Republic will likely cut their losses and we will be marooned with Nathan Jones in the Championship next season with a radically different playing staff.
The frustration comes from the fact that they didn’t have a very difficult job. It’s not like we were promoted and needed a complete overhaul. We needed a CB, CDM, striker and potentially a winger. The fact that we spent loads is actually more annoying, we shouldn’t be in free fall given what’s been spent and where SR started.
How will going down make us a "exciting, organised team?" Having SR behind us makes it no more likely at all to come back up. They've demonstrated they've no clue at all when it comes to this club. We don't have time for patience we're bottom of the league
SR came in and talked a good game in the summer. I can see why they stuck with Ralph but I do wonder how much his failings were due to be unable tocomnicate his ideas to the team and their ability to impliment them. In the end, it certainly felt like no one was listening to him but many of the dissenting voices had already been moved out by the time the new season kicked off. I would reiterate that the current squad should be capable of being better but the thing that is destroying our season is the inability to score goals. This was apparent in the last January transfer window. The fact that Armstrong is still in the starting eleven does make you question the management of the club when , strictly speaking, we should be looking to find him another club. In addition, it is worrying that some football websites are mooting that Jones is intending to return to his old club to recruit new signings. This strikes me as madness. SR's decision making seems erratic and the poor decisions seemingly having more influence over those elements where we get things right like the signing of Lavia. I do not feel we have a poor playing staff and await the impact of the recent signings. In my opinion, the decision making has been too late with the poor choices like appointing Jones undermining the better decisions.
Totally - VAR should not be checking those. Nor should it be checking those fouls that the ref missed in the build-up, down the opposite end of the pitch, and 30 seconds before the goal. If a ref misses it, then that's the ref's issue imo. Just heightens it all when we are a team at the wrong end of the table.
As someone who is behind NJ and SR, I don't think panicking and ****ting the bed is much of a strategy either - patience more likely to get us out of this than panic, impatience, crowd unrest etc. Whether it will or not, who knows - but I know which of those gives us more of a chance.
Not recruiting Jones and spending money on first team ready players will have given us the chance to stay up. The fans panicking/****ting the bed has no ****ing say in whether we stay up
