downendcity

You got there a second before me Dave!

...and the award for the most predictable post of 2021 goes to........................ Gary Johnson was able to produce a team where the whole was greater than the sum of it’s parts. Every manager since seemed better at doing the exact opposite.

Give it time and we’ll knock the eruditioness eruditity eruditeness erudity eruditedness - whatever it is, we’ll knock it out of him!

There’s only one thing that “Ted” Popodopolous is interested in, and that’s finding bent football clubs!

The problem is not Mr P letting it go, but that the EFL look increasingly likely to let it go, as far as Derby is concerned. What’s the point in having a set of financial rules brought in, to which the majority of clubs adhere ( in most cases to the cost of their competitiveness on the pitch) only for some clubs to chose to ignore those same rules in order to maintain/improve their competitiveness and then, when found out, to be let off the hook by the governing body? In “Arry’s day it was brown envelopes, now it the title deeds of a club’s stadium.

With Ashton things never add up.

It could work, but them again we could be like lambs to the slaughter.

I wasn’t suggesting we break the bank to keep him. We have to face the harsh financial reality of post pandemic ( and post Ashton!) life and if we’ve offered the best we can but it’s not good enough for him then he will go elsewhere. I can’t help but think there must be many other clubs in much the same position ( or worse) than us. If so, then might a few players be in for a rude awakening when negotiating terms with prospective new clubs? I suppose out of contract players will be able to secure better contracts as the new club can factor in a decent signing on fee, as they won;t be paying a transfer fee,but it does seem that clubs are releasing a lot more players than normal for this time of the year, so it will be a buyers market.

I do agree re Weimann’s contract and, much as though I like him as a player we have to cut our financial cloth accordingly just now and if he thinks he can get better terms elsewhere then he will go.

I think AW will leave and join the ranks of ex-City players that will come back to bite us on the arse when they line up for their new teams against us next season.

“Wineing” has been a pretty common thread subject this last season, so not sure it counts as derailing!

An extract from today's East Anglian Times article. 'All the names will go into the funnel' - Ashton explains his data-driven recruitment approach Ipswich Town have started to make summer signings, something new CEO Mark Ashton promised on Tuesday, his first day in the job. He told Mark Heath about his scientific approach to recruitment, and how he plans to upgrade it at Town... "You have been doing your research!" is how a laughing Mark Ashton responds to my question about his famed 'data dashboard' and technical approach to player recruitment. It's ironic, of course - because if anyone's been doing their research, it's Ashton. Town's new CEO prides himself on getting recruitment right. At Bristol City he spoke of the aforementioned dashboard, a matrix of all the latest information on the club's rivals, transfer business, targets and inside information, fed into a screen in his office. Obviously, I ask if he's bringing that with him to Portman Road. And how it works. "Absolutely, 100%," he replies. "I've already been on to my PA this morning saying 'right, can we send the analysis, my data dashboards! That’s them buggered then! P.S. He must have had the funnel upside down when he was here. P.P.S. Is that the data dashboard that coordinated so many players’ contracts to end this summer? P.P.P.S. When he refers to the matrix being fed to the screen in his office, this is the screen he really meant....

In local football can remember a few occasions when the away team turned up with a shirt clash and no alternative kit. The only option was to turn one set of shirts inside out (where inside was different than outside, of course!)

Didn't he have a prescription to drink beer? Something to do with being able to release the cue!

Are you sure that wasn't one of any number of City games last season?

Given their absence from the list are WRDC being quoted odds for promotion from league 1?

That sounds the line for non league teams in the first round of the FA Cup.

Ah, I see that you’ve chosen to play your joker in this game!

Hold my beer!

You could say exactly the same regarding refereeing decisions prior to the introduction of VAR. Players, managers and pundits only ever spoke about “bad” decisions, but never commented on the overwhelming number of occasions when officials got it right. Ive commented before that Var has become a dogs breakfast, so that whereas in the past a man with a whistle had a split second, in real time, to see an incident and make an instantaneous wrong decision, now, a panel , sitting miles away, with every bit of technology, every camera angle and slo motion replays and time to review still come to the wrong decision!

You obviously weren’t the right sort of human being and had the wrong DNA!

A CHINESE millionaire owner has made a huge impact at his new club - by taking the No10 shirt for himself while forcing the boss to start his SON in every match. He Shihua, 35, has become the principle shareholder at second-division side Zibo Cuju, who won promotion last term. 2 A Chinese millionaire owner has given himself the No10 shirt at his new club 2 He Shihua has also ordered that his son, who weighs nearly 20 stone, starts every game

Jon Lansdown? Looks more like something my Grandchildren would come up with when they end up with more paint on themselves than on the paper!

I’ve just got my tracker badge, to go with the knot tying and lighting a fire using kindling badges.