The Humble Realist

On 30/11/2023 at 10:22, Robin101 said:

Nah, not for us.

Wednesday, Rotherham and QPR look cut off already. Can’t remember the Championship relegation places having such a solidified look at this point in the season before.

Wednesday must surely have the lowest points total for this point of a season for any team in years and years. Even if they got a decent point last night, they’d have to go on a great run of form pretty much to the end of the season to catch 21st.

QPR been consistently one of the worst teams/worst team for 12 months now. 

Rotherham always swimming against the tide somewhat at this level.

Six points clearly not an impossible ask to make up over best part of 30 games, but would anyone be willing to bet it won’t be these three sides relegated?

I was 100% with you....who would ever have believed qpr and sheff wed would both survive!

4 minutes ago, Mr Hankey said:

It's on sky sports main event, no chance they were going to snub it. They usually show 3 games on the last day of the season if there is multiple teams in the promotion/relegation race.

Ah the sky sports  app must be wrong then as the other two games are listed there 

Looks like sky have snubbed the ipswich game to show leeds v saints and brum v Norwich instead !

15 hours ago, Malago said:

All well and good, but football existed before the premier league and championship were invented.  I would expect the record number of appearances in the second tier would well exceed 525.

My chronology might fail me but I would think that list possibly is 2nd tier ? Surely adebola didnt make all those appearances post the rebrand as he wasnt young when we signed him.

People were hailing him as a super star when he first came into our team.

Shows how temperamental early player exposure can be in a first team.

Clearly has some talent but letting himself down. Hopefully he turns it round eventually. 

How has a player who has played less than 90 minutes for us got a 9 page post 

4 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Pretty much everything about the Prem is shit.

I know that many want us to get there but having seen us play 4 seasons of top flight football in my life (a totally different, fairer world), I’m genuinely not bothered about joining that circus.

This is a view I share althoguh maybe not as strongly. 

I've never seen city in the top flight and would love to see some of the best players in the world week in week out but I'm not sure how much we would actually enjoy it. 

Have Sheffield united enjoyed this season? Have burnley?

Even teams like forest just seem destined at best to finish 2/3 up the league.

I think I'd also hate how much things are focussed on the big clubs. People moan about sky always choosing leeds etc in the championship...they would lose their minds seeing us overlooked virtually every week in the media in favour of conversations about the big boys. 

All that being said,  obviously do want us to get there because it means we will be doing well. I just wonder if the novelty would soon wear off. 

Haha I should have predicted this thread would lead to a load of SL comments rather than WSL comments but thanks @JBFC II for rising above it with an explanation. 

Does this mean lansdown can spent 40% of the mens/womens team combined on the womens team if he wants to ?

Yeah, but forget the city specific narrative. I mean for any WSL owner ? 

Why not buy the title?

Didnt post in the womens team thread as a fundamental question about the set up of the womens game.

There are rules in the men game like FFP that stop Lansdown or any other owner just pouring money in. Even then the prices are so large that it would cost 100s of millions to achieve anything in the top division. 

What are the rules in the WSL? I think the world record for a womens transfer is about 500k? 

What stops lansdown spending 10 millon and having one of the best , if not the best womens team in the world ?

Are there FFP rules and if so how is it governed? If it's based on revenue etc do womens team publish accounts etc? How does their commercial revenue compare to our mens team.

Be interesting to see, if the WSL grows like some are suggesting it will whether it goes through an episode like the mens game had when Abramovich came in and 'bought the league '.

Thoughts ?

P.s. no comments on lansdown not putting his hands in his pockets because hes lansdown !!

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Aye.   think it’s one that when the full match replay is uploaded we can fast-forward to 90 minutes and see how much of the initial 5 minutes extra they actually wasted.  From memory but no timings, they wasted almost 2 mins with the tummy-ache, another 30 seconds with a sub and then some more time looking for a ball at a free-kick….so the game could’ve easily been 90+8.  The penalty was given around that time.

BBC timings above.

Id forgotten McCrorie’s injury too.

i’ll do it properly when the match is uploaded.

Thanks. Will be interesting for sure. I'm a big fan of them adding on the time and cutting out the dissent (which fair play to the ref today she was very good at doing).

I just felt that if we were huddersfield we would think she let us have one attack too many... but the timings will reveal all!

36 minutes ago, The Fat Controller said:

But that is irrelevant as the added time displayed is a minimum of x minutes 

They wasted plenty of time with players rolling round on the floor and got exactly what they deserved. 

Hmm fair point actually...and something I hadn't considered. 

Ironically I said to my old man in the first half how it's meant to be a 'minimum of' but never truly is.

I stand corrected

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Rules are….a penalty must always be taken.

Bit confused here (I'm easily confused !)...not suggesting she should have blown on the penalty...I mean before we had the attack that led to it.  I fully expected her to blow from the goal kick after Twines effort

17 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

They wasted at least the first 2 minutes of the added 5 with the shot to the midriff from distance, for which the player went down as if he had been hit by a sniper. Then there was their substitution with Sorba Thomas walking from the far side of the pitch to go off , hugging his teammates and waving to the Huddersfield fans in the Atyeo, so that was at least another 30 seconds. It all added up and the penalty award can’t have been more than 20 seconds before she was planning to blow for full time. Then it took ages to get taken, because of Huddersfield arguing and time wasting. Which is why there was only about 20 seconds played after the restart. All makes sense and perfectly managed by referee sticking to the rules of the game. God knows we have had some awful refereeing performances at home in the last few seasons and this definitely was not one of them!

They wasted the 1st minute with the stomach issue (I was keeping an eye on the clock to see when the actual 5 mins should start!)

I agree, definitely not a awful refereeing performance , although huddersfield may feel aggrieved about the time added on.

4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I thought the early yellows for Spencer and Matos, set the tone, and made the rest of the game easy…players knew the score from those two decisions.

And then re injury time, she followed the rules set over the summer, that so many are now paying lip service to.

Cant comment on the pen, tv angle wasn’t good.

Agree with much of this...but only 2mins in the 1st half after those 2 lengthy injuries suggests perhaps she didnt apply it consistently in both halfs.

Would be interesting to watch the 2nd half injury time back...felt generous to let us play til 98 but maybe...not for the first time my eyes deceived me. 

2 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

The penalty was awarded in the 97th minute. The Huddersfield players then spent 2 minutes arguing with her about it and time-wasting, which earnt them 2 more yellow cards, and that’s why it wasn’t taken until the 100th minute. Huddersfield only have themselves to blame for such blatant time wasting, especially as it came back to bite them hard on the arse!

Was 98th minute, saw it on the clock but happy to be corrected if someone can prove otherwise.

Yeah I'm not saying anything about post the penalty as obv lots of arguing etc.

Making the point that if the ref should have played 'to at least 100th min'  that would mean they wasted 4 minutes in the 5 minutes ...which they didnt . 

6 minutes ago, elhombrecito said:

They wasted a LOT of time within injury time, so I think she'd have been well within her rights to play on to 100 minutes, to be honest.

That would mean they wasted 4 minutes in the 5 minutes which obviously didnt happen (the 5 mins started on 91)

Generally,  male or female people praise the ref when we win or they do something positive that goes in our favour and I suspect all football fans are the same !

No way anyone on here praising the ref would do so if we were huddersfield.

And that doesnt mean ref had a bad game today, just a comment on fans opinions!

37 minutes ago, nickolas said:

You missed their centre half going down like he was shot for 3 mins then, before he was resurrected? Then McCrorie. 10 mins was the least she shouldve played. 

The 5 mins started on 91 so that takes us to 96. 

There was an injury after that but not sure it lasted 2 minutes as the penalty was awarded on 98. 

Incidentally oleary and another stoppage in the 1st half only led to 2 minutes being added on so explain that one. 

I'm all FOR refs adding on time especially for time wasting but I think if we were huddersfield we would be livid. 

Shock...we get a last minute penalty 3 mins over the initial 5 mins added on and we think the ref was great !!

She was fine , would be interesting to see the handball back again to know if she got the that right. She gave quite a lot, but she was consistent for both teams 

I have said for a long time that he is 'ok' but have to eat my words and say that recently hes been excellent. 

Some great saves to earn us points (or further embarrassment!)

Well done max 

7 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

Honestly, I don’t think you’re on your own…. but I think you’re in the minority. Quite a small minority, I’d think. When you get away support booing and mocking the team - it’s bad. 

Yeah fair point. The away support booing/mocking today concerns me as it's the absolute hardcore turning against the current situation. 

To expand on my original post further . I am furious at JL and Tinnion and think how they handled the Pearson situation. 

I'd normally give a manger 18 months before judging them too much but given the circumstances i was happy to pretty much write off this season and then judge manning from game 1.  FWIW I would have been getting v nervy if we had not beaten swansea and might have started thinking about mannings position more deeply. However, I think we will be safe so figure give manning the summer as it isnt his fault how he was appointed...

Also FWIW I am very sceptical about some of his decisions,  but again prepared to give him the summer to work things out and be in the top 10 minimum (JL and BTs minimum expectation)

2 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

This club won’t ever progress until it stops getting signings wrong.  Signing Mehmeti and McCrorie for over £3m when you don’t have much money is ridiculous 

Ironic thing is we do have money!

Scott and semenyo sales nowhere near 'spent'

47 minutes ago, harvey54 said:

I'll eat humble pie on this one. I thought he was overrated and we'd picked Bournemouths pocket. 

He looks like he could be unstoppable in a couple of years. Heading for a bigger club soon for a healthy profit. With Toney reported to be £50 million minimum he could easily be £25 million soon 

Yeah likewise...I thought he would barely play and be at a top 6 championship team on loan by now. 

Really pleased to have been proved wrong though and pleased to see him doing well.