Fuber

What in the Bristol's cocaine riddled water system is that logic? I've seen some stupid takes - but dear lord. If that makes Rovers worth £105m, what on earth are we worth? - Someone tell SL to up the asking price pronto.

My misunderstanding. Thought Gabs feedback was him being tagged into discussion Dilks' point. To be fair to Smith - thought he was generally good first half. Just completely fell off second.

Transfermarkt has Engvall at €1.6m. And undisclosed with regards to the Mechelen fee. Talk at the time and since also pointed towards very inflated agents fees as part of the deal. I'd also point out I'm not only slighting LJ, but MA and JL as well. Transfermarkt makes errors, a common problem is not exchanging to GBP. My error was actually thinking we signed O'Dowda for £1.6m - the above correction is valid, again noting Transfermarkt have the fee in Euros in error. However, being the case, I remove Cornick from my £3.5m total. Doesn't change much, does it? I could put immeasurable other signings from the MA/LJ era. Wish people would stop assuming any criticism of LJ is somehow being heightist - odd tangent. I have never insulted LJ personally in reviews of his terms as manager. Fact of the matter is, we blew nearly £35m of which only a small portion will be recouped, Kalas, Baker, Bentley, Palmer, DaSilva; alone nearly £22m in fees. That's indefensible.

Nige has effectively spent £3.5m on Atkinson, Tanner, Mehmeti, and Cornick. LJ spent more than that on Engvall and O'Dowda.

My only reason to disagree with Sutton - is that too often managers don't get enough time. We've cleared the deadwood now and improved upon last season. Let's see where momentum building now takes us into next season, especially regarding recruitment -would be remiss to sack Pearson now. Nige's contract ends next season anyhow.

My general personal view with LJ is that spending and performances, irrespective of league position, were woeful. I was all for countering the opposition, the problem with it, is that when you can't counter the opposition - you look a bit stupid. Que the zero shots on target etc, and our general lack of having any idea what to do with the ball at the end of his tenure. I'd take the current football under Pearson over anything LJ served up in his final 24 months in charge. Namely because I actually see us trying to play with an identity, irrespective of opposition, with an academy pathway, something much mooted under LJ that never actually happened, Kelly aside being the only example. We're on task to finish 14th, roughly 4 point behind LJs 63 point finish in 2020. Signing fees of LJs 18 most played players - circa £46m. Pearson - £9m, of which £6m was two LJs signings (Weimann, Wells). Wages, £34m per annum vs £25m per annum (circa 26% reduction in playing staff cost). On another note - Ryan Dilks of the Second Tier pod really needs to do some research before spouting some utter bollucks. Not sure why you'd put out an opinion on a club without basic fact checking or feedback and be surprised when you get pilloried for it. Had us favourites to go down, we're midtable, still insist we need a 'young and upcoming manager' without providing a viable name as an example and reckons we need a complete squad overhaul and new identity. Then the next second praises the younger players. I... what?? How does it not click that part of the the reason academy players have integrated so well is because of NP?

Realise this is said in jest but I can't help myself. Actually it's not - BlackBoy Hill, at least, is a nickname of Charles II.

Think based on his last 5-6 games - I genuinely fail see how Weimann keeps a first team spot next season. Need fairly sweeping recruitment in the Summer; GK, CB, CM, RW, AM, and ST.

Simple. They (MA and LJ) spunked it, and more, up the wall on wages than Boro did. End of Story. 123% of turnover wasn't just Championship norm, but stupidity.

In other words, we now have confirmation the player trading strategy came from Ashton. At least he got it right with Webster for us, but that was about it. It's not sustainable, as we found out the hard way.

Him and Atkinson are ACL - that's simply more down to bad luck and chance than anything else, so I'd agree not much of a point score. Williams and Kalas - as you mention, damaged goods from Rolls. I'd also argue King from his time in Belgium. Naismith didn't have the best availability at Wigan iirc - think his availability has been slightly disappointing. Think it comes down to squad depth, mostly - we're just way too thin in midfield and defence.

Worth noting I think in their last three theyve had zero shots on target. Even missing a goalscorer thats pretty dire.

Not sure I completely agree with that, think it's more likely in the middle. I.e. Ligue 1 being down to mid Championship or Lower and Ligue 2 being Lower Champ down to upper League 2. I don't think someone like Kodjia was League 1 standard. Equally Arnie Garita did decent at Plym in L2 and he was National level.

Underrated part for me. Bentley never was at all preemptive with communicating with his defenders. O'Leary is less vocal than Bents was, the problem with Bents was it was all reactive - used to give me kittens when he'd come and and try punching it without a shout to his defenders. Can't remember the game it was against, but earlier in the season before he got injured Kalas all but headed a ball out of a waiting pair of gloves that O'Leary gave a clear shout for, still can't believe people thought it was Max's fault - simply because Bents never left his line nor commanded his area. Max still gives a me kittens with his distribution at times, but that mostly comes down to lack of experience, easy to forget that he only has circa 80+apps above non-league. For context, Zak has 180+.

We don't have the cutting edge in possession and it shows. Add in Andi not match fit, no end product, and it was a disjointed performance. Would have preferred Cornick on the right and Weimann through the middle, where the latter's press would have been a bit more consistent - not that Cornick did too much wrong, just think he needs to get a bit more match fit and then possibly moved across once a bit more comfortable and up to speed. Anyhow - we go again, remain unbeaten, and in Nige we trust. On the bright side, Wigan made me realise that we could be much, much worse.

Retires.

True - it would just be great if said counterpoint/debate was within the pod itself and discussed, not unquestionable 'fact'. Sometimes, something akin to "Do you have a source?" for some of his supposed figures would be interesting.

Some take disagreement as some kind of personal attack, not constructive criticism. Agree with you as to why block Fevs - but then to be fair I tend to agree with his viewpoints myself.

To be fair HH, no one doubts the podcast itself to any degree, and in spite of many views, with regards to podcasts - more the merrier, more content for us fans, etc. Its going to do well as people will always want to see the contrasting opinion(s) across the fanbase - I can guarantee a portion of fans likely listen to all three for some context. As for the bit of bold, that's basically nail on head. I'd amend it and say the biggest gripe with people, myself included, who quite like digging into the performance numbers - is that if he simply stopped saying "I've done the analysis" and said "In my point of view" instead, he'd get a lot less frictional views from members on here. I have to agree with Fevs; he literally plucks numbers and draws his own conclusions with not much foundation. That is not analysis, as there's no balanced counterpoints to his own arguments to lend his views any credence, and the problem is there's nobody to bounce off of on the pod when he does raise points to encourage said further debate and analysis, at least with any statistical knowledge - I know myself and a few others have cursory coaching badges etc. When he is questioned - usually such as the twitter take below, its all evidently very shallow analysis, or at the very least lacking any context with regards to tactical system within which the players operate. ^ This being a prime example. If we were to use the logic above, James, et al, are going to be 6/10 every week based on what they can do and no better - they're playing on a system where job is essentially to screen, turnover, and play the ball up the pitch on the counter-press as quickly as possible - usually via the channels. Despite the fact even the statistical rating systems have the three of them rounded 8 (Williams), 7 (Scott), and 7 (James) respectively on whoscsored. Are whoscored always accurate? - by no means, however its worth noting that Sergeant (James' man), had 22 touches. Which is what I'd bring Ian up on - as he was marked from the game so thoroughly he was subbed off at the 60 mark for Idah. If that doesn't speak to James' performance I don't know what does. In a team whose biggest weakness is defensive - to then turnaround and complain about a players attacking/creativity output in a defensive role?

Not sure we can complain ala Nakhi v Preston - that at least was albeit arguably consistent.

For some reason I read this in Jamie Vardy Danish Friends vibe and now can't unimagine it. Goddammit.

The part that beats me, is that he's literally listed all the reasons we have 35% possession (playstyle, player output, etc), and can't seem to work out the manager has realised - why play possession if we don't have the players for it, ergo playing a system to fundamentally get the best out of them? By that logic he should go study Reading's record breaking season under Coppell - who averaged something like 42% possession and guess how many points they had. That would be interesting. As for the input output comment - that's just tripe. As Mourinho said when we beat his United side, and many others have said the same - you make your own luck. I usually take Ians post with a pinch of salt, but that's one of the most stupid comments I've seen be amended to football in a long long time.

Doesn't just put Norwich's recruitment into Context, as the three most expensive players are by far LJs, one of which started.

Correct. Figure that I recall from the times was £1m. As Wigan fans were furious he went that cheap.

Cornick can play anywhere across the front three, is fairly quick, and from all accounts a hard worker. All it takes is Sykes or Sykes getting a knock and he's starting. Same with Mehmeti if Bell gets a knock. You then have Weim It's, for me, about options. Cornick may not be as clinical as Andi (who for me before his injury struggled slightly), but he's very similar to Baldock albeit not quite as fast - but then better aerially. Baldock also used to be awful at 1v1s, then got a bit of confidence and started bagging them. Compare that with CM - one position, no versatility, lack of mobility. Add that to the way we play and a lack of depth, and it's a very straight forward signing.