Considering some of the guff we've signed this season, I'd argue Gestede should be packing his bags too. Yet another example of why you don't hire amateurs at this level of football.

It's not going to get any better for us either, the teams he's had to play so far have been some of the worst the league. Insipid, uninspiring dross and is 100% a reflection of him as a manager.

You clearly didn't warch 90% of the games under Southgate then. 17 shots, albeit not a lot of quality in them. Gareth would have sat with 2 DMs passing it around the back 6 for 45 mins. Things won't change overnight.

We're actually creating chances. Under Southgate we'd create one or two chances all game in a tie like this. Only criticisms so far is that a few have clearly been chosen on name value alone (Rashford, James for example) and our shooting has been poor.

And that season under Mowbray where we were in and around the automatics. If I remember rightly at the time no one had ever missed out on the play-offs from where we were at that time, and now we're making an awful regular habit out of it - and only a couple of people stand to benefit from it.

Wrong man for the job, right man for Swag and the owners.

He's already talking about doing a full rebuild in the summer. Imagine instead of having to rebuild with a new manager we every season we actually back the ones we have when in a good position? Crazy I know. Dour football, dour personality, zero motivation and has turned us into cannon fodder. Next season is going to be awful.

Was it? I don't think there's much in it to be completely honest. Szmodics is leagues better than anyone who has come in under Gestede, with the exception on maybe Beck, but he's not our player.

At this point the players not being paid would be a blessing in disguise. Though I'd be seriously questioning why not being as even without Venkys we should have the money from Wharton/Szmodics/Raya etc to pay them. If it were the case I'd also be asking why Waggott gets such a big pay rise. I mean, I'm asking that anyway, but especially so in that instance.

The results aren't even the worst part, it's the performances. Even at our worst under Eustace, there wasn't the petulance we're seeing under Ismael. In addition, Ismael seems to have no interest in motivating the team whatsoever, sitting on his ass scribbling on his pad. Under him we play with no intensity, create nothing offensively and have regressed significantly at the back against some of the worst sides in the division. He's got 2 weeks now to show a significant improvement, but I just don't see it. This has a Gestede power play written all over it and he shouldn't be at the club either.

They'll fly past us next season if he keeps them up.

Don't forget Captain Coyle being what, 3 or 4 down at half time on his first game of that season? I imagine that turned quicker! That said, I reckon that Coyle team would have battered what Ismael put out there last night. Him talking about the second half being better is utter delusion - I don't think I've ever seen a team look less arsed about attacking.

Their keeper literally made 2 saves and did nothing else the entire game. The game was just so bad in general and they had to give it to somebody. We had no attacking threat. In fact, we arguably created more for Stoke than ourselves.

That's all well and good until we inevitably start badly one season and still collapse after Christmas

When did that happen?