ExiledAjax

Nah. We've seen plenty of runs where we've played ok but had bad results, and fans get angsty. I've been told enough times that "the only stat that matters is the scoreline". I don't think most fans go much deeper than the scoreline.

The club must be so happy that we've managed to put a little run of results just at the right time.

Which Tommy, and Tommy's agent, will know. They'll also know that strikers get paid more than CBs. Yes Tommy is a contract below Vyner in his "contract cycle", but I'm sure he'll be asking, quite fairly, to be one of our top paid players.

I should clarify - my post was meant as a cold statement of fact rather than an argument for us to move heaven and earth to re-sign Tommy. He has a good enough record, and market conditions (ie a lack of young out and out strikers with a decent record) mean he will get another club without issue, but I don't think that necessarily means we should offer him. Yes he's a Taunton boy, and believe me I love us having academy products in our team, but there will be other options.

A 21 year old striker who's scored roughly a goal every 225 minutes for two seasons (noted penalties) will have absolutely no issue at all getting a contract at a Championship club. Any club that feels they can give Tommy the right service will be queuing up for him. I'd be surprised to see him stay tbh.

Frazer was shit, almost felt like she'd not read it. Debbonaire was much better. Crouch's bit quoting the PL submission to the FLR was exceptional. Largely a bunch of grandstanding, and some of the MPs who spoke were clearly just there for the banter and didn't have any idea about football. But it was interesting, and hopefully some of the amendments we've suggested get accepted.

Yes. To be fair, she spoke pretty well and was more impressive than her government counterpart Lucy Frazer. However, she made several claims saying that the Rovers owner was a good owner, ran the club well, and that Rovers were good for the community. That's a shame, and I expect her to be strung up before the privileges committee by noon tomorrow. Lying to the House is very serious.

Thangam Debbonnaire (sp?)

Rovers are currently getting a worryingly large number of mentions in the second reading of the Football Governance Bill (because the MP for their area is shadow DCMS Secretary).

I've long said that it's the Laws that are the issue. VAR just exposes those issues. It's an objective tool that is layered on top of subjective Laws, and it doesn't fit. The Laws haven't been rewritten to accommodate a game where VAR exists. Until they are there will be a chance of VAR getting the flak when it's just imposing the Law to the letter.

No I wasn't criticising you. I was apologising doubly. It's a cold brittle word, but sometimes it's actually better to use the language that the industry uses. We all know that no one is belittling the death off Mr. Sala (not this side of the Severn anyway).

Yeh IIRC essentially the policy hadn't begun because, to put it coldly, the "asset" (horrendous word for this) had not been delivered. Pretty much goes back to Cardiff trying to have Schroedinger's player. He simultaneously is and isn't their player, depending on whether or not it benefits them financially. Your Spiderman picture is very apt.

It's not even that really. It's that they didn't have the 10 year licence (not technically the same as a lease) in place by 1 March. They have it now (albeit conditional), but it came 27 days late. EFL and NL are technically enforcing their rules and regulations by the letter. The legal challenge is now two part (in brief): 1. to show that those rules and regulations are not compatible with the Competition Act 1998 (and related EU legislation); and 2. to show that the EFL cannot force the NL to run it's own play off competition in a certain manner. Worth saying that Gateshead have been aware of the requirement to have a 10 year secured tenure for at least two years, and have been in dialogue with the EFL for both of those years on this subject. As unfair as this may seem, and as stupid as the rules might look, Gateshead were well aware of the danger.

As I said last year. I cannot see it holding water. If a court, any court, upholds the use of xG to formally predict a player's performance and extrapolates that out to formally predict a team's finishing position, then honestly we may as well just get AI to generate the league table on 1 August every year and all save ourselves £1,000s. It cannot fly. Ps. Do remember this is in a French court. Different court system, different basis of law (civil v common).

Why are you laughing? We've gone from 14th to 12th with this little run! Storming. The. League.

Ms. Christodoulo seems to be a teacher who now runs a comparative marking company. What are her credentials regarding football governance, football financial distribution, football refereeing, jurisprudence, dispute resolution, post-modernist theory, politics in general, or future trend prediction? Not that she needs any of those to comment, but if we're to take her as a a serious thinker in this then she should surely have some sort of background in this? Otherwise it's just a brain fart isn't it?

Is Sam good at asking good questions? To my knowledge he's not a practised journalist, and I think the only time I've seen him asking questions is over a pint of wine...which went poorly for him. I think I just want to know whether Pearson thought we had a squad capable of competing at the top of the division. I'd also be interested to know whether he thinks there are any managers out there that play his style of football, but do it better than him.

Is the other most logical gagging date yes. In a sport where a player can go to prison, come out, and be re-employed, or where a man who stubbed a cigar out on an academy player can get a job, a little bit of truth telling hardly seems like career suicide.

Sacked on 29 October 2023 right? So 6 months is 29 April 2024. Does this podcast come out after that date? 6 months is a fairly common length of time in settlement agreements...it might be that he can say certain things from Monday onwards...? PS (I may be guilty of stirring the pot a bit here) PPS I thought I was quite up on the football podcasts but I'd never heard of this one. Is it big?

Interesting. I see Plymouth having a chance of a point or even 3 in both their games. Edit. Hmmmm. Actually do I? They were limp as against us and it's the win v Leicester keeping them safe atm. Maybe no. Wednesday I think are capable of getting something at Sunderland, but although WBA are in the playoffs with little threat of finishing outside of them, I think WBA come out on top there. Birmingham's last game will likely have nothing on it for Norwich, and they may even rest up ahead of the playoffs. Huddersfield have a horrid last two games. Fail to beat Birmingham and I think their in big trouble. So I think I'd cautiously predict Plymouth +1, Wednesday +1, Birmingham +4 (beating Huddersfield), and Huddersfield +0. So... Birmingham 50, Plymouth 49, and they survive. Relegation for Sheff Wed on 48, and Huddersfield on 46. But the massive variable is, as you say, that game between Huddersfield and Birmingham. If that goes the other way then the way I have it Huddersfield stay up on 49 and Birmingham go down on 47.

Use your money how you like. But that's a pretty specific set of results you need to get Blackburn into trouble. I reckon it's most likely to be two of Huddersfield, Birmingham and Sheff Weds.

I think Blackburn stay up. I don't see 3 teams getting to 49 and with better GD. Birmingham playing Huddersfield gives the teams already clear a big advantage. So even if Blackburn don't get a single point more, I think they'll be just about ok.

If QPR and Sheffield Wednesday stay up and Birmingham go down then we can conclude that changing manager sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

As away fans we were right in line with it. I didn't think it was offside, didn't hear many grumbles from people around me either. So live, and with a decent view, I think the consensus was that it was good. Ps. Norwich have this big moveable, turnable flat screen for replays. The don't turn it to the away fans but it looked pretty good.

I thought it was better than Leicester. I agree with @joe jordans teeth that yesterday was a more even and consistent performance across the 90 minutes. We matched Norwich nicely and I think there were fewer "oh shit" moments. It was a nice performance yesterday, an away draw is always a good result. But I still think we'll need to be slightly better to properly challenge for a top 6 spot.