That's strange, a bit of a 180 from their usual stance of get rid at the first sign of trouble. Maybe they're changing stance, or just don't want to keep throwing away money on sacking and hiring managers and coaching staff.

Since Chansiri said he isn't putting any more money into the club, does that mean their next manager has to work for free?

I think that's the concern for me as well, this has been going on for a while. People talk about it 'clicking' but I think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of why we're struggling. The team clicks fine and plays good football. We just don't have the quality of players to make the current system effective, as we struggle to score and defend. That's an issue with setup and player quality, which won't magically fix itself by the team suddenly 'clicking', as much as I wish it was that simple.

As per the pessimism thread, optimism thread is just for optimistic posts. Literally every other thread on the board can be used for pessimistic takes or discussion.

Birmingham broke out of their recent slump in style with a 4-1 hammering of Huddersfield at St. Andrews. It was their first win in six matches, and having been struggling for goals recently, they'll be delighted with the scoreline. Having conceded a late equaliser against Ipswich in his managerial debut, Darren Moore will be very disappointed with this performance in his first away match at the helm. The game was marred by alleged racism towards Huddersfield's Juninho Bacuna from a home fan. Victory leaves Birmingham in 12th, whilst defeat puts Huddersfield in 19th. Ipswich showed no signs of slowing down as they handed Hull only their second defeat of the season with a comfortable 3-0 win at Portman Road. It means Ipswich have won eight of their first ten matches, only losing one so far. They remain tied with Leicester as top scorers in the division. Hull slip to 9th, as despite only having two defeats to their name, they've also only won one of their last five matches. Boro continue to climb up the table, recording a third win in three matches as they recorded a 2-0 home win against Cardiff. Their sudden upturn in form coincides with much better defensive displays. The result hauls them to 17th. Defeat for Cardiff ends a run of four successive league victories, and they drop to 8th. Plymouth's inconsistent form continues as they fell to a 2-0 home defeat to a Millwall side who have been struggling with their own inconsistent form as of late. Millwall 14th, Plymouth 16th. Southampton will be very pleased with a second win on the bounce and a clean sheet, as they edged a 1-0 victory at the Bet365 against a Stoke side whose form is failing to pick up. Stoke 18th, Southampton 10th. WBA condemned the division's worst team to another defeat, with a 1-0 win at the Hawthorns against a Sheff Wed side who already looked doomed for the drop. bottom of the table Wednesday have still only scored five goals this campaign and are already seven points adrift of Watford in 21st. WBA's win meanwhile pushes them to 5th - their second win in a row and undefeated in five. The bad times for Rovers roll on as Coventry stole a 1-0 win at the CBSA. Rovers continue to spurn chances and concede goals, equal with Rotherham as the competition's worst defence. It was Rovers' fourth defeat in a row and leaves fans increasingly looking over their shoulders at the relegation zone. Rovers drop below Huddersfield, with only Watford and QPR between them and the bottom three. Next match - QPR. Meanwhile it was a second successive win for Coventry - albeit only their third win of the season - and moves them up to 14th. Leeds bounced back from defeat last time out with a 1-0 home win against QPR, keeping QPR in 22nd and moving Leeds up to 6th. QPR have only collected two points from the last fifteen available, and just eight goals from their first ten matches suggests issues at the attacking end of the pitch. Leicester made easy work of Preston, who suffered their second defeat in a row with seven conceded and none scored. Tragic. With other teams in the Championship playing catchup, with a number of clubs recording lukewarm beginnings to the season, Preston cling on to 3rd spot for now - but they have fallen five points behind Ipswich in 2nd, and seven points behind Leicester who top the table with nine victories and a single defeat. One of the teams creeping up on Preston is Sunderland, who recorded a fourth win in five matches as they dispatched Watofrd at the Stadium of Light. I'm shocked Ismael remains in post, honestly, but maybe not for much longer as Watford succumbed to a third successive defeat, leaving them just outside the relegation zone in 21st. Sunderland meanwhile are now 4th, just a point behind faltering Preston, but with a significant number of teams only three points behind them. Swansea's third win in a row lifted them to 15th in the table, as they were able to overcome Norwich 2-1 at the Swansea.com stadium. Norwich have lost three of their last four matches, and despite a strong start to the season now find themselves just outside the playoff places in 7th. Twenty goals scored is a great return, but eighteen conceded will be a huge concern, as they register as one of the weakest defences in the division. Much like Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham also continue to look League One bound as they once again lost, this time 2-1 at home to Bristol City. All goals came in the closing stages, with Bristol City going ahead in the 81st minute, Rotherham equalising in the 86th minute, and the winner being scored in the 95th minute. The result leaves Rotherham in 23rd, with a single win, two draws and seven defeats to their name. They share most goals conceded with Rovers. Bristol City had lost their last two, so this was a welcome three points for them, and leaves them 11th in the league standings.

We can keep changing managers, but until the root problem is addressed we will remain on this path to slow oblivion - and we all know what that root cause is.

With better quality we win that match, but you can say that about a lot of our defeats. The fact is the quality is not there, and Szmodics is the only fit player capable of scoring at anything resembling a regular pace. If he gets injured we are completely sunk. Venky's have absolutely destroyed this team with their summer shenanigans. What I fear is that, with these repeated defeats, the confidence will drain from the players we do have out there. They aren't really good enough as it is, but without any confidence it could get very grim. Huge game against QPR now.

If Szmodics doesn't score we don't have anyone else contributing, and he isn't even a striker.

Well, at least QPR and Watford are losing as well.

Typical. This is on Venky's - their budget slashing has left us with a squad that is simply too thin on the ground to capatalise on the chances we create. Having to start Markanday and an out of form Dolan, Szmodics having to play up front because we could only afford a chronically injured striker and a guy who has only played regularly in the fourth division of German football.

Probably a lack of game time over the past few months that has eroded Siggy's decision making a little. I can remember when JRC came back from his long injury layoff his decision making was dreadful for a while before he finally got going again.

I think the ones that do occasionally come down from the Prem for a game are often worse. Probably difficult now for them to remove themselves from the VAR safety net that essentially absolves them of any blame in terms of making big decisions.

Seems to be a problem across all levels in this country tbh. I mean, you've got multiple refs/assistants in the PL with instant replays and motion technology available to them and they still somehow manage to get some glaringly obvious decisions wrong.

Cowardly from the officials there. Got it right initially and then caved to pressure.

Happy that we've got to the break with a clean sheet. Just need to nick a goal from somewhere.

Yeah I know, it's just a shame that our fabled striker search in the summer yielded nothing of use, really. Maybe Ennis at some point in the future. Sammy is our best player and threat, but it's a bit like when Dack was played up top - I always felt like it limited his impact because that wasn't where he was best suited. It is what it is though.

A bit disappointing that Telelovic is rated below an AMC in the striker position. Oh well. Let's see what this team can do. I've seen ridiculous starting lineups many a time from old Tone and been surprised by the outcome. Hopefully tonight the same happens.

This is the only one we know of. Agree that Webb has a very difficult job on his hands though.

Bizarre that it needed an incident like this for the people in charge of this to realise that clear and concise communication is important, honestly. Just shows how utterly unprepared and mismanaged the implementation of VAR has been up to this point. It's not like there aren't other established examples in other sports to follow for guidance. VAR itself has been in the PL for, what, 3+ seasons now? It's embarrassing that basic communication protocols aren't mandated.

Incredible what decent ownership and the right managerial appointment can do. From being mired in the middle of League 1 for multiple seasons to this. Granted it's still early days, but as it's been for the past few seasons now, there's nothing to fear in this division. A bit of common sense along with the right person at the helm and you're going to be up there, excepting the likes of Plymouth who are nonetheless really performing admirably so far considering how low their wage bill is relative to the rest of the division.

Really strange that there isn't a protocol where the VAR has to explicitly state "we have concluded onside/offside", rather than just saying "check complete". VAR is supposed to remove ambiguity, but that conversation is pretty bloody ambiguous, let alone when it's happening in such a short space of time. "Good process" ... I have to disagree. This is just a very poor standard of communication between officials. The obvious question is whether it's a lack of a proper process in place, a lack of training, or if the VAR/AVAR in this instance were just being grossly incompetent in terms of not following established procedures. The fact the ref didn't request for specifics in terms of being told onside or offside suggests it's more likely to be one of the first two possibilities, though. Honestly, it's no wonder VAR is such a mess if this is how they're communicating with each other.

VAR: “Thank you mate.” Referee: “Well done boys, good process.” Replay operator: “Wait, wait, wait, wait. The on-field decision was offside. Are you happy with this?” Lol, the replay operator like... wtf are you doing lads? You can tell by the transcript that he's totally baffled by what they're deciding. Transcript makes it seem like total chaos tbh.

If we do batter someone I think it'll be at Ewood, like Cardiff in the cup, not an away game. I know we beat Harrogate 8-0 away, but it was Harrogate. All I want from this game is proof that we're working to address our defensive problems. I'd very happily take a 0-0 as a sign of progress in that area. A scrappy 1-0 win, even better.

Lol yeah, didn't see literally come out and say that he stopped the owners from putting money in to build momentum for a further push? He'd rather "build slowly" which, as it turned out, meant hang around for 5 years making us incrementally better but never quite good enough.

Don't think VAR is required for goal line as Hawkeye can tell precisely if a ball crosses the line or not. It's really just needed for blatant refereeing errors that are obviously and egregiously wrong. I think the vast majority of fans would accept the on pitch ref and linesmen getting the occasional marginal call wrong if it meant the game flowed better and you could celebrate goals without fear of VAR ruling it out for a hair follicle being offside four minutes later.