IAmNick

I'm not saying we should, just that it's more complicated than saying the cost to the club is the same whether you try and offload a player or just keep them for the duration of their contract.

Presumably though there is a cost (not necessarily monetary) of every player being at the club though - physio time, whatever training they can do, medical time, and so on? You might also be able to negotiate some lower lump sum I guess, the benefit for the player being they can take that and then potentially get a new contract elsewhere.

Ok ok, but get this - have you tried all those same songs, but randomly shouting "you ****" at the end?

Ringside seats for the apple roll though!

Right, but that's because I don't give two shits if Steve pockets £30m. I care about what's happening on the pitch, which direction the club are headed in, and if/when we do sell players - how much of that is then used to benefit the club... which appears to have been £0m. At the moment, as a fan, the only effect those sales have had on me are a) I no longer get to watch 2 of the most exciting players I've seen at AG in a long time, and b) er... that's kind of it. As far as I know we didn't need it for FFP, and even if we did the amount doesn't matter there as we weren't far off. You've talked about him being in credit with SL. Maybe he is. But what about whether he's in credit with YOU, as a fan?

You could do it across the whole of the back though no? I'm not sure if that'd help as people would be more spread out, but it's an option. I just think they should just go for it personally. You're right there are negatives and people would have to be moved but the other option is just to never make any change to anything - because you'll disturb people anywhere you try and do stuff. Half the ground have already had to move in the last 10 years due to the rebuild. It's doable. I'd give all the moved people first refusal on any other seat in the ground, and match their current season ticket price for the first year or two as a gesture of good will. The real thing to do to improve the atmosphere is improve what we're seeing on the pitch though. Shuffling folk around might help a bit, but it's not addressing the real cause of the malaise. Lots of grounds (and at times at AG) have shown that exciting football creates a good atmosphere even in crap conditions.

I don't play fantasy football and worked out what you meant, don't sweat it

Downsy is kind of annoying I guess but tbh I just tune him out, and I do that for basically all the stadium announcers and mute the half time chat on RobinsTV. I don't really understand why people get so worked up about him, he has zero effect on my enjoyment of the game.

Yeah I get that, especially when we all put so much time, money, and emotional energy into the club. Emotions run high and like with Ashton I'll have a smile on my face if Ipswich blow it this year. I think karma is whatever happens in his professional life though... he's still just a guy at the end of the day and doesn't deserve personal abuse.

I partly agree and think his role is probably overstated a bit, but it's also disingenuous when people try and remove him from everything good just because of current sentiment (not saying you're trying to do that btw). In reality he was part of a team up there who were successful. No one of them was fully responsible, and I'm sure Probert would say the same thing, as would Pearson. They probably deserve an equal share along with many more names we don't know - but that's not at the exclusion of Tinnion imo. It appears he was an important figure up there and was for some time. I get the feeling if he was academy director we'd be saying he was just sat in an office pushing paper and the folk on the ground deserve the real credit. So I think you're right - his contribution is probably overstated, but let's also not diminish it completely. That serves no purpose.

I think it's absolutely fair to question, critique, and be vigorous when talking about his professional role. That extends into how he communicates, his literacy, etc. In my opinion due to the position he's in. It sometimes descends into personal attacks or basically bullying though, and the same with Jon Lansdown which is just sad and unnecessary imo.

Isn't this Murray on that picture?!

£700 for crap mid table Championship football next year, not very enticing. I'm pretty sure Leicester do a renewal discount of 10% or something, would be nice for City to do something like that imo.

Right, so he knows and is skilful at playing football and developing/running an academy. He is poor at communication, first team management (see: his failed attempt here), and basic literacy and numeracy. So given all that which presumably you agree with, do you think he'd be better placed as some kind of academy director, or a technical director/CEO hybrid role of the entire club/footballing operation?

Yeah I agree, what's the point in lying/obscuring the truth? What does it gain them, unless it's something quite personal and they've decided with the player not to release it. But even then you'd think they could be a bit more forthcoming without giving details away, like they did with McCrorie. They're just making life easier today, at the cost of it being a lot more awkward in the future. So naive/short termist. Very odd.

Last minute pen for FGR to give them a 2-0 lead (and win presumably) What a job he's doing, very impressive

Just an absolutely awful game. I'm really pleased we got the points and that'll hopefully be the end of the relegation talk but my god... It was not easy watching. I can't remember being that bored at a game in a long time.

Is it unusual this season? I feel like every season roughly half the division changes their manager and they're usually not all or even mostly all happy. The number of managers who even have back to back success is quite rare too imo. Most we'd even consider reasonably successful have one success then two or three dud appointments. That's just how the game works, there are so, so many variables each time the consistent ones are almost non existent, especially at our level. I think the truth is there's a huge amount of luck, both "on the day" and in them being in an environment they can work well in - people around them, players, facilities, expectations. That's not meant as a derogatory statement, luck is vitality important in success. As someone above said, were Gary and Cotterill really a cut above other managers we've had? Or did the stars just align. In some ways it could equally be Wilson and McInness we're looking back fondly on as other teams do. So the answer is - I don't think there really is an answer!

That'd need every team down there to find better form than they've had all season. I'd be surprised.

High 40s I reckon. 48/49 or so.

FGR 9th in the form table, W3 D1 L2. Long way to go but if Cotts somehow keeps them up it's an absolute miracle he's worked there

Eh? We were four points weren't we, with a worse goal difference and having played an extra game compared to most?

I heard a rumour Tinnion stormed into the dressing room at half time and told them they better start playing terrible boring football or else, then made them watch him take a massive shit (which he subsequently didn't flush)

This season is done though, right? So it's not about getting someone in who'll do a better job until the end of the season, it's about getting someone in who's more deserving of / likely to produce success with the summer and a few reinforcements on top of this current squad. If he's not good enough to keep indefinitely, why keep him for now? Sounds like some sunk cost fallacy there to me. (I agree about there being little point to appointing King either though)

I agree - and as you said, it's incompetence. It also doesn't give us much of a clue what might come next, which is I guess what I was getting at, when their appointment is so at odds with their communication. I guess it maybe comes down to whether you trust that the words they've said recently were the truth, and that'll be our path now - or whether you look at our recent(ish) history and think they're likely to continue in that way. I think they're at odds with each other, so both can't be true. I'd probably be tempted to agree with what I think you're saying, that their actions speak louder than their words and regardless of what they say, we'll likely continue down the tortuous and confused path we've been on for a long time now.