CliftonCliff

So Cardiff fans will be a bit disappointed, then? Shame, couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

Tough on James, but you can also see why the decision was given. Can be argued both ways. 50:50

I actually think Adam’s played quite well.

I think he’s had a very good game.

Either way, not great is it? Adults setting an example for a future generation? I’ve done a bit of traveling, but never visited Hungary. Doesn’t exactly make you want to go, does it?

Tight game.

Very conspicuous lack of pressing from Hungary when England have possession at the back. An early indication as to the type of game we can expect?

Good man.

Thanks guys. Nice to know I’m not alone. Yes, Bellingham, in particular, will be interesting.

Logged in and was surprised to see nobody has started a thread. Somebody out there must be watching. Anybody...?

Anyone with close ties to Hun Sen deserves to be regarded with extreme suspicion. The man presides over an odious, repressive and profoundly corrupt regime. The title 'Prime Minister' is misleading. He is effectively a dictator. When I travelled in Cambodia, I stayed briefly in the capital, Phnom Penh. On the second day, a small gathering of workers from the textile industry staged a peaceful protest against poor pay and conditions, as compared with those of similar workers in neighbouring Vietnam. Several of the protesters were unceremoniously gunned down by the PM's personal guards. As far as I know, nobody was ever brought to justice for these summary executions. It will be interesting to see how the EFL reacts to the news that BCFC have (allegedly) failed to disclose that Wang is a significant shareholder with close association to the Cambodian regime. If past performance is anything to go by, they'll procrastinate in deafening silence for months on end and then do absolutely bugger all. I know nothing at all about Wang, other than what I've just read above, but judging from the company he keeps, having him on your register of shareholders is not a good look.

Maybe. Depends who with...

I remember. back in the day, coining a phrase about exactly this culture, when GL was manager, his brother was chief scout and his son was a player. I said that the time that the mentality was that of a corner shop proprietor. Now we have something that resembles a slightly larger enterprise - perhaps a small department store, say - a mostly absent proprietor and his son at the helm. Nothing much has changed, fundamentally, has it?

You’ve chosen to quote me, but I don’t really know why, because we’re actually talking about different issues. About Pearson himself, I neither strongly agree nor disagree. I, along with many others, am talking about organisational failings that were evident ten years before he was appointed and will likely still be evident in another ten years’ time, by which stage Pearson’s tenure might, for all we know, be a largely forgotten historical blip. You can sack or appoint who you like: it won’t make a great deal of difference to the long-term trajectory of the club as a whole, unless there is meaningful change in the overall structure and ethos. It couldn’t be any more obvious.

And Pearson agrees with you, as do I. He stated quite explicitly yesterday that it is not a question of players’ abilities, but of the culture of the club, both on and off the pitch, which is also what many of us are arguing - and have been doing so for years. It is an incredibly difficult task to change the ingrained culture of any organisation. Ask those at the top of the Metropolitan Police. Only a strong personality like Pearson, who is not afraid to speak truth to power, has any chance of turning it around. As for the strategy the club is supposed to be founded on, there have been plenty of sound principles that it would be hard to disagree with. It’s the implementation that has been woeful. The explanation for that is to be found in the Boardroom, as again, many OTIB members have pointed out over and over. In another thread yesterday, someone said (quite rightly and for the umpteenth time) “the problem lies at the very top”, and I responded by pointing out the blindingly obvious - that this is a much more profoundly difficult problem to fix than a need for change in the manager’s office or the dressing room. It would require that those at the very top recognise that the problem is at the very top. With apologies for repeating myself, it’s about as likely as Putin resigning because he massively miscalculated over Ukraine. Don’t hold your breath.

Correct. As has been pointed out countless times on multiple threads. And because it’s at the very top, it’s a lot harder to rectify than it would be, if what were required was a managerial change or new player signings. It would need the very top to recognise that the problem is the very top, which is about as likely as Putin resigning because he made a major miscalculation over Ukraine. Don’t expect a resolution any time soon.

Absolutely. Despite our obvious deficiencies on the pitch, I am, and have been for as long as I can remember, less concerned about the occupants of the dressing room or the manager’s office than I am about the boardroom. We simply don’t have the right balance of senior executives, with appropriate knowledge and expertise in the football industry, to steer us consistently in the right direction. There is a massive leadership vacuum, which makes the club appear directionless and rudderless, and it’s dangerous.

Well said. Vital distinction.

No, you’re not wrong, and your points about Newcastle and other clubs are relevant and valid, but it’s beyond fixing now and has been so for a very long time. The roots of the problem lie in the foreign ownership of English clubs. That, and the abject failure of the game’s governing bodies to take a principled stand on such issues. It was an open secret when RA took over Chelsea that he was a crook and that the club was being funded with dirty money. Since then, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that your nationality, politics, legality and integrity don’t matter for the purposes of the “fit and proper person” test, as long as you brandish enough cash. In this context the game is, to put it bluntly, corrupt, and in that respect it is a microcosm of the country as a whole, in that it is simply one example of the way government has stood by and looked the other way while allowing billions in criminally acquired wealth to flow into the UK. The tragedy in Ukraine has highlighted it once again and we’re seeing a lot of hypocritical posturing by by the class of people who are responsible for this state of affairs, who would have quite happily continued to ignore it in other circumstances.

You have to take account of the circumstances under which he was operating. It was actually a situation not altogether unlike the one now confronting NP, in fact. The occupants of the boardroom had once again steered us into a position whereby they were obliged to place him under extremely tight constraints. (You know, usual scenario: recent history of appallingly incompetent player recruitment; bloated squad full of overpaid mediocrity; blind panic about the state of the club’s finances, etc.) SOD implemented their instructions to the letter and spent next to nothing, though he still managed to bring in one or two astute signings. The team struggled (surprise, surprise), the same incumbents in the boardroom collectively soiled themselves at the looming prospect of L2, SOD was predictably sacked and SC was appointed with the scope to sign pretty much whoever he wanted. SOD was quietly responsible for starting a rebuild and putting in place a number of measures that contributed to subsequent success, for which he is only rarely given any credit. Hence my reference to the convenient and frequently inaccurate rewriting of history. Happens all the time on this forum. Never let the facts get in the way of a keenly held antipathy towards a former manager,

There’s a lot of convenient and lazy re-writing of history that goes on to suit agendas on OTIB, and Millen is far from being alone in suffering from that. SOD is another, and there are more besides.

Absolutely on the money. Well said, that man. There has clearly been some flack aimed at HNM on this thread that I’ve missed and can’t be arsed to backtrack to, so apologies for any repetition of comments already made by others, but one observation about the lad, FWIW. I love the energy that he brings to the side and the tempo at which he likes to play. The one (very occasional) drawback is that his desire to do everything at 100mph can sometimes lead to hastily executed passes and mistakes. If there is one thing lacking in his game, it is - arguably - composure. The injection of intensity, he excels at: what he may need to learn is when to slow the game down, rather than speed it up. I would see it positively and as a developmental issue. He is still very young and very talented. I see no reason why that quality cannot be coached into him. He’s what? Twenty? He’s well ahead of the curve compared to many at his age, but he can hardly be expected to be the complete midfielder at this stage in his career. As always on OTIB, some are quick to condemn.

Me too. relieved to hear I'm not the only one.

Yes, and for once the BBC have it about right. (Some of their guesses at our formation have been startlingly inaccurate. I half expect them to have Massengo in goal and Dasilva at centre forward.) Back four. Diamond with HNM at the base, AW the apex and Scott & Benarous right and left, respectively. Antoine and Martin up top. Should be fun...

Third goal, game over. Millwall been watching City's first team defending set pieces...