DE.

It's not a contentious statement, his name was known from his relative success early on with Reims. He was in consideration for the Sunderland role at one point, before they hired their current manager. Correct decision on their part, it would appear. The Football Manager stuff is just exaggeration for belittlement. He played it growing up and it helped him decide to go into coaching/management as an educational path - when he was 17. Not really a reason to drag him when he's 33 and already managed two clubs in the French top flight. There are enough legitimate reasons to question the appointment based on his actual record thus far.

Still was definitely considered a bright prospect before joining Southampton. Huge risk to hire a 32-year-old, though. Rohl and McKenna were 34 & 35 respectively when they joined Sheff Weds and Ipswich, and were at the time considered young and risky appointments. That's at clubs with players who would have been on a much more modest wage than the likes of Southampton. Still had left Reims by mutual consent after a dismal end to the 23/24 season and at Lens finished one place lower than the previous season - debateable that such performance in Ligue 1 merits a three-year deal at a club just relegated from the PL. Not complaining mind - could be a decision that helps us keep our heads above water come the season's end, although sadly I imagine he won't last too much longer.

A lot of managers who you'd think will likely already be very concerned, despite it being quite early in the season. Marti Cifuentes is seeing things go from average to outright poor at Leicester. They have us next so will likely get some reprieve, but it's been a rough start for a team expected to go straight back up. Javi Gracia has lost two of his first three matches, so he'll soon be given the chop at Watford, one imagines. I only partially kid. Birmingham's owners may have expected a better start, considering the money spent there. Really inconsistent form for them so far. It remains to be seen how much time Brady and co are willing to give before deciding to change things. It's possible they'll have learned from their first season the dangers of being trigger-happy. Wrexham kind of similar to Brum, but I get the feeling they'll have patience with Parkinson for now. I don't think there's quite the same level of expectation there, owing to Wrexham's smaller overall stature. I assume consolidation would be enough for them, this season at least. Will Still has had an awful start at Southampton, and without much history in his CV to point to, he might be vulnerable to a swift sacking. If a team had finished 7th the season before and was now struggling at the wrong end of the table you'd assume their manager would have concerns over his job. Not at Rovers though, so not even going to bother including Ismael. Wilder will obviously be given time at Sheff Utd but it hasn't exactly been the start he'd have wanted. Probably the most concerning thing there is that they still can't at least save a point, even if they're unable to win. It's three points or nothing. Liam Manning - surely must be under pressure? That Norwich team should not be 23rd. I read recently that the players are still "very happy" with Manning and "really enjoying" things. I am not sure that's what I would want to hear as a Norwich fan right now.

We beat a team who have won 4 in 50, and who now have won less games than us this season. It's nice to get a win but we shouldn't be reduced to being thankful for scraping past the dross of the division. Even under Venky's we have, historically, been better than that.

We should spend the next three months helping him get a move away from here. Would be best for all parties at this point. I would be curious to know what our scouts saw in him beyond pace, because I can't say I've seen any other worthwhile attribute that would justify paying money for.

I expected Keef to struggle, but appear to have been totally wrong with that prediction! Early signs look good for Brentford, anyway.

I read that Southampton have won 4 out of their last 50 games, lol. Not difficult to see why. Think that unless they get their next appointment spot on they may well be scrapping it out at the bottom with us, Oxford, Norwich, etc. An unexpected addition to the relegation mini-league... welcome!

Have to take that, and honestly, credit to the manager and players as they deserve the win after a much improved second half performance. A shame we still cannot play a full 90 minute game at a high level, but it is what it is. We'll have to hope we can edge out the dross of the division in matches like this and scrape to safety. Southampton are in serious trouble. They need to think very carefully about who they replace Still with (matter of time until he's sacked at this point) because there is a culture of failure embedded into the club from last season that clearly hasn't gone anyway.

Did the ref forget he is always supposed to be biased against us as per EFL mandate?

Holy moly, we might actually win a home game. Genuinely think Still could well be gone by tomorrow.

Time surely up soon for Big Willie if they can't even beat us. We've arguably been slightly better than them over the course of the game.

Would be quite something to go an entire season without winning a home match, but this manager and squad can absolutely do it.

No worries lads, the data says we're staying up. Results aren't important.

If De Neve is considered part of our best eleven then I despair. He's fast and got good positioning, but his technique is non-league level. Hedges appears to have lost favour as a first-teamer, for now at least. Kargbo has vanished - is he injured? Morashita starting for this one. Tavares back on the bench. Ismael really does have no clue what his best team is. Truth is there's probably very little difference in any combination of players he puts out there. The only one who could make a significant difference is Cantwell, and he's obviously not available.

From how much the results differ from reality, it would probably be more reasonable to conclude the model is just extremely poor when it comes to accurate predictive ability.

Too many fans who inexplicably see Venky's as good owners, and have such contempt for the club they purport to love that they genuinely think Blackburn Rovers is of no interest to anybody else.

This time last season we were 6th, Val. Hadn't lost at home yet. If the squad is not worse this season, then where do we place the blame? Oh. Stupid analysis indeed.

Yeah, the technical deficiency across almost the entire squad is a massive concern. These guys need a manager to coach them in the absolute basics and make sure they stick to it. The type who can get the best out of very limited players - kind of like the manager we literally had before the current one. Ismael is for sure not that man and never will be.

Love how the "apology" was blatantly written by somebody who has basic literacy skills as opposed to Duffy. Assume the club had a word with him and provided that statement for him to post.

You know what, whilst you clearly jest, with the current state of the club I could still believe this.

Don't worry, "the data" says we'll be fine, so no need to be concerned.

Wednesday's players have put up an admirable fight considering the conditions there. Won't do them any harm when the vultures eventually come to pick the carcass.

You either fill the ground and make it extremely difficult for the ownership week-in week-out with banners, chants, game interruptions, etc (will never happen with our fans - get behind the lads ffs, etc) or mass boycott (will also never happen for the same reason as the first suggestion). There isn't really an in-between that will get any attention. Not that I think Venky's would care either way, and that's the biggest problem. Protests are only effective if it makes the owner(s) squirm. They just ignore it all as it's far away and has zero impact on anything they actually care about. It's tough to know what to do, but your typical crowd protests at the match aren't going to get their attention.

We were also told our number one target was Baradji, who may or may not actually ever play for us. I'm curious how much of his wage we're paying to rehabilitate another club's player. Someone's doing alright out of this deal, but it isn't us. Tavares also hyped up as a big talent when he joined... within two months he can't even get into this team. Embarrassing. We've made literally one signing who comes anywhere close to being at the level we need - Alebiosu. That's it. The rest are significant downgrades on what we had before.

If you work in data you know it can be manipulated to suit whichever narrative is most favourable. It isn't even difficult if the dataset is big enough and has multiple vague, stupid metrics. Anyone with eyes and a functioning brain can see we're going down.