Ostrich

there are some similarities to how he left leicester first time around - he was back 18 months later with unfinished business once everyone realised the mistake

A real shame this - I genuinely thought when he joined this was a real opportunity for both parties. Nige would get the chance to really shape something again after a few difficult years and Bristol City might finally push on and stop being known as perenial underachievers - from the outside you always seemed a bit like Boro. Over the last couple of years, I've come to see it a little differently but still thought you could go places. Reading some things over the last couple of weeks I realised maybe there is just something in the water there, a determination to meddle and stop good things happening and when you piece it together with some of the other things I've read on here over the lat couple of years, it just suggests dysfunction (a dysfunction that got us relegated last year albeit in circumstances where someone was given too much time and loyalty). No surprise the players current and former also seem disappointed. The fact staff and players wanted to work with him again + the things said about him by Kasper et al shows the environment he will create with the right people on board. You all seem like a decent bunch so I wish you well with whoever comes in to build on what Nigel has done (albeit as with Birmingham, a part of me wants the decision makers to end up smeared in proverbial shit) and I wonder if that is it for Nigel - think he'd actually do well in the media and might be better for him with his health. I'm now interested to see how it transpires next - see you on March 29th.

Absolutely mad seeing Andy King at CB, given there was a time with us when he was the Championship Frank Lampard, actually thought he did alright though. Knight looks a useful little player for you. Thought it was a fair result really. Ipswich are having an unbelievable season tbf, any other year and they’re top. So direct and quick - was hoping you’d win tonight but with a small squad that’s got lots of injuries against a rested team that’s flying, it was a decent effort.

B*****n ******* R*****s

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I think there probably was that feeling through last season and certainly at the end. If we were currently performing as Southampton are then it would have carried over. Recent success possibly meant relegation felt about 10x worse sure and I doubt this season will ever feel as good as Nige’s promotion year. But now we’ve had a reset and we’ve got a new era starting so there’s excitement around where that can go. We know we’re probably not winning the PL again but there’s still the chance to go up, be competitive like Brighton rn, go on another European tour etc. Things we’ve done in the recent past were great but that doesn’t diminish the possibilities for the future.

Great reception for Nige, just as good if not better than when Ranieri first came back. It was tough like I expected - very solid defensively and great commitment to get back in, block shots etc. I also haven’t seen a team swarm us as well as you did first half. Well coached and resolute but just lacked quality to get up the pitch consistently. I was trying to compare it to Hull who were very similar in their stout defence. They were probably that touch braver which meant they got themselves a goal to defend but idk whether it was a lack of bravery vs the fine margins of Hull just managing to knit a few things together for a bit whereas you weren’t quite able to. Your making it difficult aside, I was a bit disappointed with us first half, letting ourselves down in key moments and it’s obvious we’ve still got plenty of improving to do - everything could be a bit crisper and bit more fluid. Better second half & again we make teams suffer so they tire. Although when you changed the press after Cornick came on we looked a little unsettled at times, I fully expected you’d wilt completely after the goal. I see another set of fans happy to give Vardy some stick but can’t back him giving any back. He’s done it for years to numerous fans and you love it when he’s yours. I remember you started well last season and fell off in the middle but that shouldn’t happen this year. Are goals the concern? Should be up around the top 10 and challenging for better but wonder if that will be what stops you?

Looking forward to seeing Nige back (plus James & King), hopefully in his shiny white trainers, will be disappointed if he’s ditched them. It will be the first time he’s brought a team back and the only other time he’s been publicly back was after the helicopter crash I think. Expect a typically tough Championship game like they’ve mostly been so far. In terms of fluency and authority, we’ve not yet hit the heights but the extra quality and the energy teams have to expend to match us have ended up deciding all the games apart from Southampton, hence we’ve scored so many after 75 mins. It’s a new idea of football for the squad so it’s been great to be getting results and building performances as we go. I expected a start similar to Southampton or Leeds. We lack a bit of pace at the back and that’s an obvious place to hurt us if you can get it right. That being said, you can see as the team gets more used to Enzo ball, it’s harder to get it right. We struggle a bit more down the left side which Rosenior noted and where Hull’s goal came from. I think the Hull game, they struggled first 10, came into it for a few mins as we struggled with the press and they got their goal. After that they played really well for 25 mins and then second half defended well, really narrow, threw their bodies at everything and got a win. Hull went man to man with us, as most temas have so far and I don’t think we quite know how to unlock it yet. But on the flip side, as I said, they tire and mostly we come out on top. Enough gets said about the squad quality and depth and some names seem to always be mentioned. But it is a joke that Harry Winks is playing in the Championship. Wish he’d stop getting yellow cards but he’s too good for this level. I mean now I’ve said that, Matty James will probably spend 90 mins giving him a masterclass himself ? Unfortunately, only really seen extended highlights of your game against Hull (how have you not won that) so not entirely sure what to expect but results have been ticking over nicely and we know what a Pearson team should be like. Fair play on selling out too, always adds to the game. It sure why we still give teams over 3k when we don’t need to and could sell it ourselves but should add to what I expect will be a competitive match.

There’s a big chunk of the reason. Man turns toxic as soon as things stop going his way and it infected the whole club. Then there’s the folk that let him keep cucking them until it was too late cos they didn’t believe relegation was possible. And then a group of players that also thought they were too good to go down and a subset who wanted out/thought they’d be leaving either way so didn’t give a stuff. Alas its done now, shouldn’t have happened and I think most of us are just glad for the refresh of pretty much everything. The start to the season, at least results wise, has been a welcome bonus.

Why do you think there’s any issue for us up to 22/23. I think the extension of the accounting period got Maddison into last year so we should be fine. Your calculations above suggest we’re likely fine if flying a little close. Villa report near enough 15m in youth development costs - imagine we’re looking at similar which shows how much adjustment probs needs making from headline figures.

Yes they seem to be applying the new UEFA rules because I’m pretty sure the Premier League hasn’t changed yet to come into line with them. I don’t doubt we needed to do something for existing PL rules but the complete lack of activity last summer from us seemed to be about coming in line with UEFA rules/getting us ready for a PL rule change. The reason this was believed was because before the UEFA rule change came about, there was talk about a big rebuild in the summer, then come pre-season after the full details had been released in April/May it very clearly changed. But it didn’t end well so I’m not sure Wolves need to worry about UEFA rules right now too much.

Maybe I spend too much time around fellow Leicester fans/reading what our fans say and you’d find many a happier funeral but I’m surprised so many of these predictions put us up at the top. I always think Southampton currently look stronger, they spent last couple of summers building a Championship squad. I don’t really see that the league is particularly strong and expect much of it to turn out to be dogshit which gives me some hope but right now we’ll at least be slow to start I think. We’re pissing around playing pub sides in Thailand ffs, week late on pre-season, fewer pre-season games, have no wide players, a lack of creativity, uncertainty over a ton of players that didn’t want to be here anyway, a relatively expensive CB injured for the first time in his career, a multi-season history of piling up injuries. We will see but there’s so much still to do in the transfer market in and out that I’ll have no idea on us until September

It’s just our fans being in denial and also just not getting it. I think what our fans aren’t getting is that there’s choices to be made about how we allocate our budget and that’s the FFP factor here - we could have signed Doyle permanently but that would mean not signing someone else etc. They spent all last summer in denial about it and that’s just going to be repeated this summer along with the smattering of people who think everyone but us is just ignoring it (an irony for one of few clubs to actually pay a penalty for breaking it). It’s clear we need outgoings to do what we want and need to do. That seems too slow atm.

It’s how they smoothed over the cash flow issue ever since we got promoted - there’s plenty of reasons why you would choose to finance it this way rather than yourself but also realise that in a downturn scenario you might have to step in. In that same time they have loaned 200m+ and converted most of it to equity. As I say they cover the working capital requirements too anyway, they could just extend that facility. Im not saying they will definitely step in to cover it but if they’re serious about ‘getting back’ and having said they’re not selling up despite some fans telling them to (sad but that’s football fans) it would make the most sense to if it’s needed because as you say it would be harder to refinance commercially now.

His performances announced it at least 18 months ago