Match Day Thread Queens Park Rangers vs Saints - Wednesday, November 5 - 19:45 KO

Well, I've not done one of these since Will Still was our manager way back when, so why not...

Saints head to Loftus Road on Wednesday night under the leadership of our new (interim) head coach...

*ruffles papers*
*checks notes*

Tonda... Eckert... apparently?

No, me neither. But get this: he's even more hardcore hipster than Will Still and arrives in the big chair at Staplewood at the age of 32 and having never managed a senior team in his life

Eckert worked as an assistant at Genoa and Barnsley and before coaching he worked as a video analyst in Germany, alongside some additional coaching experience with some of the kiddies teams in the Red Bull group. To his credit, was most recently spotted coaching our U21s, where he does admittedly seems to be having quite a decent season

He will presumably be 'assisted' by Trollope and Lallana, who despite both being older, more senior and with established careers behind them, have been banished to remain in the cuck chairs for the foreseeable

Anyway, away from the dugout, there are some key questions to be addressed:

Will things take an immediate upturn with Still out of the door? Unlikely
Will players come in from the cold and be back in the XI? Perhaps
Will Sport Republic be considering just installing the interim if he can win this one game? Probably

Over to you...

 

Sadly SR have got me wanting to lose these next two games to not encourage them to make another trendy hire that isn't what we actually need. Yeah that will really galvanise the bunch of egos we have at the club. Just what we need.

 

Genuinely scared that if we win this, they'll appoint Eckert full time.

That is so far from what we need, I'm kind of hoping we lose disastrously, to be honest.

 

Yep scared we win this by 2 or 3 and then we know what will happen.

 

Even if we win I don't think they'd just hand it to him. The only chance that happens is if we win back to back in the next two... does anyone really think that is going to happen?

 

I don’t want us to lose, purely because I’m scared that we might actually go down again at this rate, so we need all the points we can get.

Unfortunately, I’d be amazed if we get anything. The toxicity at SMS at the weekend was mental. I don’t recall such a loud rendition of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” aimed at a whole team before.

And the even worse part is, it was entirely justified.

 

1-1 I reckon.

I wonder if new person in charge means the return of Bazunu and Stephens.

 

Wednesday 5th November 2025. Football League Championship
Queens Park Rangers v Southampton
Referee: James Bell,
Assistant Referee: Matthew Smith,
Assistant Referee: Callum Gough,
Fourth Official: Alex Chilowicz,

There could be some fireworks on this night!

 

Interested to see if he makes more use of Oyekunle.

 

I agree that we shouldn't just appoint him if he wins this and the Sheffield Wednesday game, but if we genuinely play well and get back 2 back wins, then surely we would be mad not to just see how he does for a few more weeks. the club is a mess at the moment and confidence will be rock bottom so I think anyone capable of getting back to back wins must be worth a trial run.

 

So you'd suspend the new manager search until December?

 

You can still have a shortlist and sound people out whilst giving him a trial run, its not necessarily one or the other. But yeah, if by some miracle we play really well and beat both QPR and Sheffield Wednesday, then I'd see how he gets on in the remaining 3 fixtures in November. I can't see it happening so not really one im worried about!

 

If they aren’t aiming for experience, given our current position, then they’re quite mad; which is clearly possible

But it depends who’s available at this time of year

The new guy will need December to sus things out before some potential dabbling in the Jan window, so we’ve got a month to make the appointment

Will SR avoid the lure of another undiscovered genius appointment? Who knows?

COYS

 

If (a big 'if' of course), Tonda was to get a few wins in the next few games, taking us into December, we would look a far more attractive job to potential new managers. Right now we look desperate.

 

The potential options of managers available in three, four, five week's time might also be different to today. Someone currently available might no longer be available; someone not currently available might become available.

Sure, the risk of SR getting excited and giving Tonda the job full-time if he does well on Wednesday and Saturday does concern me. But I still want us to win both games. And then continue winning thereafter. It would be good if we could appoint a new manager in ahead of the international break, but if it takes longer than that I won't mind if we're picking up wins in the meantime.

As for what to expect on Wednesday, I have no idea.

 

Was in West London when Ruben Selles won his first game in charge (I think) against Chelsea. The travelling supporters loved him (and JWP) that day....

 

I'm really worried that we win the next two games (on Wednesday and against Wednesday on Saturday) and then we just continue to win. That's not what we need just now and that really worries me.

 

Yeah, not sure I'd be able to cope if we suddenly started winning. And then kept on doing it.

 

I’d give it a go

 

I'm willing to try it out as long as it continues till the end of January.