ExiledAjax

They both need to settle into the team and in Mehmeti's case the division, but I think they're looking like good additions to the squad.

You could also argue that Weimann is technically free given we resigned him at the end of his last contract. It's a technicality but I think it's correct. I reckon our starting XI today was assembled for under £10m in fees and probably costs us under £150,000 a week in wages.

Naismith was on Comms on RobinsTV and was living every tackle, pass and run as though he'd played for us his whole career.

What a win. Maldini and Cafu are ordering Pring and Tanner pyjamas right now. That feels like a game where this team has come of age.

I think he's just edging Tanner. Both fullbacks have been fantastic.

The secret is that I'm laid up in bed with a honking headache and cold. I'm not exactly leaping around today. But thank you.

Pring is having a brilliant game.

Swansea and Coventry losing so we're up to 13th as it stands I think.

Such a good goal. Lovely patience from Pring. Gunn will be livid with that though.

O'Leary claimed that free kick very well. Naismith on RobinsTV that they'd looked at this deep free kicks in the week and know Norwich will try them. I said it's like the PNE game. Norwich are better than PNE but it's still scrappy in midfield.

It's similar to PNE. Scrappy, neither team with a clear chance. Competitive but a little dull.

Good applause in the 9th minute there.

27th out of 92. 20 wins, 14 draws, 13 losses. https://experimental361.com/2017/12/31/2017-league-table/

I don't even think we'll need 14. I reckon 46 or 47 or so will see a team safe this season.

That type of person will never be satisfied. They'll always be thinking that because we achieve one goal, we "should" then achieve the next. Even if we one day win the Champions League we won't win it well enough. Pretty sure I said 11th as a pre-season prediction. With a bit of luck that's doable, much higher than that would be impressive/very lucky.

I'm pretty sure we can go 13th today if we win and Swansea, Reading, QPR and Coventry all lose. We'd have better GD than all of them so would be level with Swansea and QPR on 39 points, but above on GD.

Less than the £1.7m Mancini was paid for four days of "consultant" coaching in Abu Dhabi. @Lanterne Rouge although presumably HMRC will happily accept just 25% of that £1.4m, given the deal they struck with Derby last year. They can't be going after the whole amount just because Southend are a smaller club in a lower league...could they?

Less than the £1.7m Mancini was paid for four days of "consultant" coaching in Abu Dhabi.

I heard we're doing the whole of 2023 undefeated. So the stats will get a lovely bump.

Yeh that's a reasonable assessment. It depends as well on what you call a "bigger crowd". I went for 20k, but there's a level above that of 22k and up. I wonder though whether it's to do with the crowds or whether it's more than we get big crowds when big clubs with good teams visit us. It's not necessarily the crowd size that is the determining factor for the result. For example Man City will be our biggest home attendance of the season, but they'll also be the best team we'll face...so if we lose is it because of the crowd or because De Bruyne and Haaland take us apart...I'd hypothesise that it's the latter.

But that's a general issue of form and particularly home form. Over those 2.5 seasons our general home form has been: 2022/23: 5 wins, 4 draws, 6 losses 2021/22: 8 wins, 8 draws, 7 losses 2019/20 8 wins, 7 draws, 8 losses So 21 wins (34%), 19 draws (31%), 21 losses (34%) overall. So...we actually have a better win rate in games attended by 20k or more people than we do in our overall home games. Compare it just to those games that have fewer than 20k attending and it's even starker. In those games the aggregate is 8 wins (33%), 7 draws (29%), 9 losses (38%). So you could argue that we actually get better results in front of big crowds. But it's not what was said. What was said is that we typically lose in front of big crowds. That's not the case. We might not win either, but we don't necessarily lose.

We'll get one eventually.

This season, of the 8 home games with attendances of more than 20,000, we've won 3, lost 3, and drew 2. Last season there were also 8 such games. Won 3, lost 4, drew 1. Season prior to that was COVID so no crowds. In 2019/20 we had 17 games with more than 20k attending. 7 wins, 5 losses, 5 draws. So over the last 4 years we've won 13, lost 12, drawn 8 of our 33 home games with more than 20k attending. So that's roughly a 39% won rate, a 36% loss rate, and a 24% draw rate (allow rounding). Of really big crowds of 22k plus it's a total of 2 wins, 5 draws, and 4 losses. So not so good with the wins, but still more games where we don't lose than do. So no, we don't typically lose home games with large crowds and away followings (all large attendances at AG have big away followings).

I think with Birmingham winning the zeitgeist will say relegation, however tomorrow if we win and go 13th people will be booking hotels in Wembley.

Ha thanks. But please stop now. You're getting me all optimistic and hopeful.