Right folks, this is the first of what’s hopefully going to be a reasonably regular update on all things Albion, which probably means the next one of these will be in April. But anyway, where shall we start.

Russell Slade

Yes, I think Slade is the obvious one here. After Saturday’s defeat against Oldham, audible boooooooooo’s could be heard all around ‘fortress’ Withdean, after yet another home defeat. More significant however, could prove to be the reasonably loud chorus of “Out out out” from behind the dugout. While this wasn’t as loud as it was under McGhee and Adams (2nd time round), it should be noted that there’s yet to be a manager lose the support of the Withdean ‘faithful’ and remain in a job.

As I write, Slade has not been sacked, and it would appear Tony Bloom has a lot more patience than many of us imagined. To be fair, we’ve been unlucky with red cards and Slade certainly can’t be blamed for injuries. However, we’re in the bottom four, and that’s frankly not good enough. Defeat at Withdean on Saturday might well finish the bald one off. Certainly, the Steve Coppell rumours aren’t going away…

Falmer

Hopefully we’ll have a new feature on this soon. Frankly, it’s looking bloody brilliant. The East Stand is almost complete, and the South Stand is well under way. Check out progress here. You’ll notice too that what can only be described as a f*ck off crane is on the pitch area, with the task of erecting the East Stand arch. How exciting! Anyway, it would seem the NIMBY’s wre right after all - how on earth did the club convince us a football stadium would “fit into the scenery” of the Downs when it looks like that already. And don’t forget, the biggest stand is still to come, once the final Uni buildings have been demolished. As I said elsewhere on this site, get down to Falmer and have a look!

The SCR Phone In

Not too popular as far as we can tell from NSC. Richard Reynolds (ex Southern FM) and Mike Ward (ex Arsenal) are currently hosting the show, and to be honest, it’s crap without Harty. In contrast, *shameless plug alert* the Albion Moan In is getting rave reviews on that well known message board, and is going from strength to strength. Check it out if you haven’t already - it’s on Itunes as well!

North Stand Chat

Currently debating the Pro’s and Con’s of Russell Slade, Steve Coppell, the positioning of the clubs webcam, the forthcoming Doctor Who episode, and the prospect of Uncle Spielberg (moans more than me) actually attending a game. Oh, and it’s now shut as the police are investigating recent racism on there. Marvellous

The Team

Apart from being absolute turd at the moment, there are a few underlying issues with the squad that can be summed up as follows:

Kuipers seems to be excelling at blaming everyone else for his cock-ups at the moment.
Elphick and Virgo are looking like shadows of the players we’ve seen in previous seasons (even though Slade has clearly told them to stop smashing it).
Elliot Bennett is clearly the business.
Alan Navarro is clearly not the business.
Glenn Murray needs to either get his head down, look interested and score the goals that get him a move elsewhere, or bugger off sharpish.

And that’s about it for the moment.

I’ll be back when I can next thing of something to write.

Cheers - Up the Albion!