Red-Robbo

As has been pointed out, bringing these in to large cities is compulsory and has been ordered by central government. London has had a low emission zone through most of the inner M25 area for more than a decade. Charging depends on the emissions made by your vehicle. It simply isn't true to say it is a tax on old cars. Nor does it only apply to diesel vehicles.

Well, someone did suggest we'd be parking the bus...

To be honest more were laughing, rather than booing. It's not like everyone reads everything about every player on other teams, so I, too, thought his hair was a rather bizarre footballer affectation. There are lots of other players with questionable and occasionally ludicrous hairstyles. I'm glad it was posted on this thread to explain and, yes, the man does deserve plaudits for raising so much cash for a very good cause.

It's November: all sorts of bugs going about. Anecdotal evidence suggests colds and viruses are more widespread than usual this year due to us being in lockdown last Winter.

I would be staggered if Pearson kept his job if we were relegated. It isn't as if he's banked much goodwill through success since he was here. In terms of fitness, I'm not sure we are a hell of a lot better than we were under Holden. Fewer injuries (so far), but we look slow and knackered compared to virtually everyone we face. Maybe starting four, 30+ year old players against Brum had something to do with that. I'm not a Pearson Out man, but if the players need a kick up the arse after that performance, so does our manager. He's making mistakes and doesn't seem to be able to communicate what he wants people to do. It makes me quite nervous.

I imagine his words to the team were a tad lest restrained than the ones he used to the media. And rightly so.

They were gonna make me club captain for this, and I wasn't even in their ******* First XI anymore. Everybody wanted me to do it. Him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take his pain away... Relegation to League One: The Horror, the horror...

He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the High Performance Centre coaching players.

Got 29 in his last season with us. Ignoring Lita's potential was the blindspot that cost Danny Wilson his job. A fair bit before Baldock though.

I like that list! Forward it to Pearson, Gould and Lansdown with a copy of "the AFC Bournemouth Guide on How To Break FFP Rules Without Punishment" and I reckon we could be in business next season.

The departure of Ashton and the naive "throw some mud at the wall and see what sticks" Lee Johnson makes me a bit more optimistic. Apart from Simpson, who has just lost whatever it was he had, all Nige's incomers have strengthened the team, without breaking the bank. We're still a weak, unbalanced, unconfident side, but players like Tanner and Atkinson should improve further as they play more Championship games and move into their mid-20s. With the right coaching of course!

He was a funny player. Many games he'd just amble around and couldn't, as the saying goes, seem to be able to trap a bag of cement. Then he'd do something wonderful and turn the game for us. His obvious disinterest towards the end of last season was a capital offence as far as a manager like Pearson was concerned though. I think even if the Turkish move had collapsed and Fam had wanted to stay, Nige would've moved him on. In those games, he wasn't on the bus, wasn't waiting at the stop, in fact he hadn't even mentally left his house! Unacceptable for a professional.

And before that is Baldock the last 20+ goals a season man? Any stattos confirm that?

This echoes what I posted on another thread. That side had no galacticos in there, but worked together well enough to give us our highest finish for more than a quarter of a century. Sometimes success can be about finding the right players that can work together, cover all the roles a team needs and remain fit and healthy.

Precisely. Which is why I think it'll be still work-in-progress at the start of next season, rather than a sea of new faces. I'm quite optimistic in that I think if the right gems can be unearthed, the remaining team can click together and become more than the sum of its parts. No one in Gary Johnson's 07/08 season was individually outstanding, but they did mesh as a team well enough to earn a play-off shot. Time to find another Vardy, Nige!

I think that would be the fall-back position. Personally, I'm hoping that Joe W will be fit enough, but if he's only just started training on grass that seems unlikely.

Han-Noah is a very talented player, but he isn't really defensively minded. If both James and Williams are missing on the weekend, we've got ourselves a problem.

Simple economics means we aren't going to be waving goodbye to the majority of those on that list, in the summer. However the departure of any one of them wouldn't concern me, and in some cases would cheer me.

Dunno which is worse, knackered older players or naive young cubs. Maybe he was the naive one, thinking we could manage 46 games with the players he has decided are indispensable.

Quite. I don't mean to insinuate he's ready for the knacker's yard. But he's an ageing striker and he simply cannot play the number of minutes he's being asked to. Nige doesn't help the situation, by leaving him on when he's clearly tired.

That's a very fair point. We shouldn't underestimate how the malign influence of that backroom knocked the stuffing out of competent players.

We got rid of 12 players last summer. This isn't fantasy football league where you can just sack most of the rest off and bring in a lot of newbies and expect them to be a great team. Apart from anything there isn't the money to do that. Realistically, Pearson (or any manager who'd replace Pearson) will have to work largely with what we have and seek to improve and get the best out of them. Blackpool have shown this can be done with "L1" players. But ATM we're miles from getting the best out of what we have. We seem to have regressed people, not improved them. For this reason, I think Pearson and Fleming - both of whom seem genuine, feet-on-the-ground, decent guys - could do with a bit of coaching help from someone with a fresh perspective. Someone really good. As an investment, it's more affordable than "buy 10 new players next summer".

The Johnson blame is starting to remind me of that scene from Fawlty Towers where Basil wakes up in hospital after knocking himself out by firing a fire extinguisher into his face and hitting his head on Manuel's frying pan and he goes on a big rant culminating in blaming everything on "Bloody [Harold] Wilson!"

I think Williams is the big miss. Things seemed to fall apart as soon as he went off in that Bournemouth game and have continued to look calamitous. Thing is, he's our only defensive-minded midfielder who is young enough to run back and not be caught stranded upfield when he makes attacking moves.

Unfortunately, Chris Martin's glory days were in the past and he isn't the player he once was. You don't get many Wilbrahams, able to compensate for his lack of pace in his 30s with a canny positional eye. We're pretty toothless. Apart from untried kids, there is only Antoine "5 goals in 70 games" Semenyo waiting in the wings to save us on that front.