Playing against ex-pros, chaps who didn't quite make the grade and were released, or players just under the pro-level the one thing you quickly learn is firstly how much better they are than you, but also the other is how friggin' fit they are. My late brother (who despite his drunken slovenly ways, was actually a very good forward and if he had taken things seriously could have certainly played beyond the level he did) trained with players who he said could run faster than him backwards in a straight line than he could forwards. So to be unfit at a professional level is unforgivable and absolutely says amateur and bungling. I know that Sports Republic have pumped money in but the entire lot of them needs to sell the club to someone with perhaps less money but more of clue of what to do and how to get around problems. This is dire as it can get. I have been supporting since 1970.
I can't claim to do the above and beyond bit that you do (after a couple of years of supermarket nightshifts earlier in my life any willingness to spend more time in work than I have to is long dead), but it doesn't even matter when comparing with them to be honest. Sure they might not get full weekends, but then they do what for most people would be a hobby for a job and get paid extremely well for it, whereas very few people choose to go five a side spreadsheeting on their evenings. And they get to retire in their 30's too, anything else they do in their lives they do it because they want to not because they have to unless something goes very wrong.
Somehow the ABK situation reminds me of the Branfoot -MLT standoff. We need another Alan Ball character to come and sort them out.
Can you imagine for a nanosecond Alex Ferguson giving his team a couple of days off after a hapless result as on Saturday? They’d have been lucky to get the team bus back home. When I think of Alan Ball, Mick Channon, Terry Paine, MLT, Jimmy Case, Peter Shilton, and more recent heroes and their passion, even when alongside lesser talent too, giving the opposition something to think about, throughout their careers then I look at the present set up, then we are miles and miles off the mark of actually seeing a SAINTS team in this season of all seasons.
Seeing alot of martin out banners posted on sfc social media post. Maybe that explains why sfc have barely posted anything today
It might highlight the real dilemma when they review the last few seasons and note the effect of mid-season management changes?
Exactly, saints ahead of the curve with a four day working week. Maybe we should try and get extra points for morale
I really like Martin. I reckon he has done a great job since he came in with a lot of different aspects of the club. I feel for him in a lot of ways but ultimately I think he is going to be the architect of his own downfall. He is blind to his faults and looking to blame others for his failings. When we lose every week to silly mistakes it’s external noise to blame. It’s fans jeering, it’s pundits criticising us, it’s anything except what it actuallly is and what it is is naïveté and poor strategy. He knows it because he predicted it, he saw this coming but isn’t humble enough to accept it. he is 70% on the way to being a good coach but he will never exceed that until he accepts that what he wants and what he believes is not always what he will get. No good leader should be so invested in one way of doing things that the are blind to the problems. At the moment he is an airline boss crashing a plane every week because of his beliefs in how it should be run.
If he can’t/wont adapt to different scenarios and play to the strengths of his squad he is 0% on the way to being a good coach.
It's clear Sports Rebuplic don't care if Saints go down. They want the parachute money to invest into their other clubs. They will then begin selling the family jewels, Dibling and Fernandes will be gone, and anything else they can sell for big money. They will essentially asset strip us. My wish for the Saints fans going to the game would be, as soon as the ref blows for kick off, everyone who wants change walks out. I know it won't happen though.
The thing that annoys me most about Martin is that the whole of the season looks like being a write off from the first game. I was of the opinion that mant fans had overrated hom.last season. Leeds werw more derservingbut shot themselves in tbe foot. Part if me thought that Russell Martin's tactics might work better in the Premiership but it was clsar after the Forest game he was not good enough. I think many fans wod have been up at arms at the time but we should have upgraded in the summer. Don't think i can recollect a more pointless campaign. We will surpass Derby's record under Martin who will get the whole season to manage the club. He will not get sacked but will be replaced next summer. I think we will also cash in on our bettet players in January whilst they still have some value. This campaign will go done as our most pointless ever. Hardly any point watching Saints if they have no attempts on goal. I can also see Russell Martin's future being limited to 1st and 2nd division. He has destroyed his own reputation. Have to say that i cannot see the Sports Republic experiment lasting unto 2026. Amazing that we have been left behind vy Bournemouth.
He’s like Dark Adkins. Has the ability to harmonise a squad and get them to like him, but is tactically deficient at the top level.
I struggle to see how no one has spoken out against him yet. The fact that we constantly lose and often fail to make attempts of goal must surely count against. I do not believe that we will avoid relegation and perhaps the board do not ser the need to sack him as the damage has been done. The only additional damsge will be to the prospect of Martin being trusted with a decent sized club.
