Merrick's Marvels

Or Tom Bower's. No punches pulled.

You got the nod, didn't you?

April Fool's Day is early You've been on the source* You're an idiot Which one.... no-one knows * "s-a-u-c-e" autocorrecting to "source" and being unable to edit it isn't remotely funny

You or I could have spotted the potential in Semenyo, Dave!

What's he adding right now? No loans of any note to manage (Moore, Janneh, Edwards Britton, Bakinson and Pearson are all loans with a view to getting rid, in my opinion, not with an eye on developing players we see as having a future here) He doesn't coach. He doesn't talent spot. I suppose someone's got to be Academy Director though. What does that entail? Have we gone out of our way to find the best possible candidate for that job? An important one, given the emphasis we're now placing on fast-tracking our youngsters along the pathway and into the first team. The truth is, he's always been a cosy Lansdown appointment. Under Pearson, there's no room for cosy any longer. And rightly so.

Not sure that Tinnion adds much these days but agree with everything else. Given time, Pearson will have us in better shape than we've been in for decades. After all, he's about the best qualified manager we've ever appointed.

No to Cundy. He's a red herring in our search for Baker's replacement. Or anyone's for that matter. Imo. Who knows if Klose is fit enough. Seems unlikely to me. But I'd still take him, given the options currently on our books. Which says it all !

Putting tonight's result to one side, imagine the team we'll be once Pearson has had the time and money to sort our joke defence out. A new tall bloke to win some headers in our box might be a good start...

I agree which is why Mel Morris, and other owners responsible for sinking football clubs into the ground, are massive ucnts. Imo. Morris will walk away. Derby County football club and their supporters will suffer. It stinks. Twas ever thus - when the rich and powerful ufck up, it's not the rich and powerful who suffer the consequences, by and large. Well, not rich and powerful men anyway. But that's a whole other discussion.

Yes it does. Derby disappearing and having to climb their way back protects ALL the other EFL clubs from being in a similar mess in the future. And that's the EFL's role - to act on behalf of all their members. It's not foolproof protection but it sends a message to owners, a mighty powerful one, that if they go rogue, they're putting their club's very existence at risk. That's the EFL protecting ALL of us, as best it can. If the opposite happens, Derby "get away with it" and pay a pittance, a precedent is set that might just encourage more dodgy owners to act like Mel Morris - and as we've seen, that's no good for anyone. And for the benefit of any visiting Derby fans, I have no beef with you or your club. Whatsoever. But I certainly do with the people who got you in this mess.

There's a joke in here somewhere...

According to this Swindon fan at any rate: https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2022/jan/25/david-squires-on-drones-ghost-ships-and-a-weird-premier-league-weekend

The manager believes in Conway and has played him when he's been fit. Ditto Bell. Sam Pearson's not good enough. So what's your point? It's demonstrably obvious, noted by various posters with reasoned arguments more than once, that Britton isn't physically up to Championship standard. There's no doubting he has natural ability when it comes to putting the ball in the net but modern football requires supreme physical athleticism above all else which he hasn't got and is unlikely to develop no matter how "fit" he gets. Semenyo is the exact opposite - superb physical attributes, poor technique. But his technique can be improved through hard work and good coaching - we've seen that already. The areas Britton needs to work on cannot be so readily improved, if at all - it's down to DNA by and large - watch the video with Dave Rennie talking about the most important quality in modern top level football being explosive power. Semenyo has this in spades, Britton has the explosiveness of a tub of lard. That's not to say he can't have a career - there will always be a need for players who can find the net as well as he can, just not at the level City are aspiring to. This is all pretty obvious stuff so I can only assume the reason you're getting your knickers in a twist is you're his dad or something. We took a punt on a local lad with some ability. Like most punts it wasn't a winner. It hasn't cost us much so no harm done. Next.

Yep. Pricks both.

When you put it like that...

A very tidy player who I'll always have time for based on the excellent service he gave us. The fact he's now annoying loads of baadiff fans is the cherry on the cake. Keep it up fella!

Agreed. Sadly 3 months is more likely! Lovely thought though + Benarous, Tanner and Atkinson improving, Conway finding his feet....

True but he'll solve our FFP worries at a stroke. Every cloud.....

How much time do you think he has? And how much do you think he needs?

What we're paying them to get rid, right?

Sadly, no-one's that stupid. It'll be the summer, at the earliest, before we get rid of that millstone round our neck.

Well said, that man.

No, apparently not. Turns out it was actually an evil EFL vendetta against them. Who knew, eh?

Too late. Jon Boy's decided that already.

Are we missing a trick? Of course we are. "Soft City" innit. Then again, does the OP actually want us to be a Warnock team?? Because that's what the savvy, cynical alternative is - a cross between Sergio Ramos and Dave Martin. Christalive, what a bunch of c**ts that team would be. I'd rather we tried to play teams off the park than go there. So I'll compromise - we'll play 'em off the park but have a Gerry Gow standing guard in centre mid. Over to you Nige.