ExiledAjax

Pearson changes players. Johnson changed systems. Pearson has a smaller squad with fewer options. He's simplified things. Sometimes, when the 352 doesn't work or is let down by individual performances, he changes a player or 3 to compensate. Johnson had so many clubs in his bag that when his busy bees lacked that little bit of quality he was able to switch to a 4222 magic box and back again. Both are reactive, both make changes, but the one we have now allows for consistency of system despite inconsistency of personnel. It's far superior as it actually allows an individual's failure to be a positive. They come out of the team, watch someone else play the same role and if that new player does better than there's a role model created. Retaining the same system allows the group as a whole to grow and develop within a known framework. It's much better than lurching from formation to formation with no player knowing where they stand - literally and figuratively.

The only shame was that everything happened at the other end of the pitch from where we away fans were! I'd not even twigged that the second goal was a header. Thought it went straight in to be honest. First half was a lesson in control. Despite all the fans around me yelling "forward" the players showed great composure as they probed, went left, went right, then came back to Klose or O'Leary to recycle and restart. My gut feeling is that this came from James/Williams/Scott being a little less frantic and a little more calm in the middle. I've not seen much of that confidence in a City side for a long while. Ultimately that measured and very adult performance paid off with a couple of good goals. I'm pretty sure WBA went to 4 at the back in the second half and that plus some better intensity meant we weren't as able to control the pitch. The first 3 subs also definitely took us down a level or two. Not to the point of making us bad, and perhaps Martin's nous was preferable at that stage to Semenyo's buzzing energy, but we lost that little spark we'd had. Regardless, the game was won by that late stage and WBA's heads were gone. Our defending was very solid - I'd go Klose MOTM over Vyner personally - and O'Leary dealt well with anything the defence missed. An incredibly professional and mature performance. This was great to see. Much, much more of this sort of canny play is needed if we're ever going to challenge at the top. As good as a goal in many ways.

First half was great. Second half has been just about good enough.

James was great but I'm going with Klose as "man of the half". Done really well under a big press from Asante. Performed the Naismith role of starting attacks pretty well and jus generally looked composed.

Some decent recycling and passing from us here.

I think they're playing the bloody Marvel Avengers theme over the tannoy ? Game's gone.

Made it in time. Hope you did too.

Cheers. Currently stuck on a frustrating call so going to have no time to explore the area. Hoping this bloody call wraps soon!

Well it's my first trip to the Hawthorns tonight. Very much expecting us to concede from a set piece and likely lose, but still have a glimmer of hope that we might spring a little surprise.

Happy to put what I DMd to you in the main thread I guess. Nice report that really reinforces two things we know 1) being in the PL gets you loads of money and 2) selling players gets you loads of money. Buendia being booked in 20/21 means £0 transfer profit for them. But then look at staff expenses and you see that when they're in the PL their wages nearly double. But given the revenue they have a turnover:wage ratio of about 75% in a PL season, compared to 116% in an EFL season. So even though wages are half the income drops so much more that the ratio goes above 100%. Puts our position into perspective. Assuming they've a similar wage bill this season to the last time they were in the Championship they are running a wage bill very roughly 3x what our is! Interesting stuff on governance reforms although light on detail. Overall though it gives an impression of a well run club that maximises it's current yoyo role. Also - £6.4m in "loan player income". They loaned out 14 players in 21/22 according to transfermarkt, so very roughly £500k per loan. Tell that to anyone who thinks getting loans from the PL is cheap!!! That's loans from pissing Norwich ffs. I'd be satisfied with that were I Norwich fan.

If that does of doesn't happen (is it really "expected"?) then please can the questions not be just shouting and calling for signings etc. We get answers to those every week in the press conferences. We all know how Pearson will answer "why haven't you signed a better left wing back". The fanbase is better than that. We've all got time to come up with some intelligent and meaningful questions.

When Pearson was appointed I was cold. I recognised his pedigree but didn't (and still don't) think he will ever get us promoted. If promotion is the aim then yes we need a change at some point. However when he was appointed promotion was a pipe dream. Stability was the quest, and broad stability - ie mid table mediocrity - has been delivered. For me that's ok. 20 months to that is fine. If you think we're now ready to go to the next level then ok. I think we need another 6 month of boredom. Wait and see what the accounts say (clue, it's going to be awful), then go from there. IMO we are not ready for the next step (ie top 6, promotion etc), so for now it's ok to stick with someone who's very good for our current level. Not exciting, not sexy, but solid and sound.

It's not substandard. It's standard. Given the finances we have, the gates we have, the fans we have, the city we have, the players that we have, the manager we have, the CEO we have, the owner we have, we're pretty much exactly where you'd guess we would be. It's standard. Some of those things can be changed easily, but many cannot. Those that can be changed, will not be changed quickly. So it's best to accept that we're a mid table side this season and roll with that. Better that than living off of the most recent result and defining the mood by 3, 1 or 0 points. It's all fine. Nothing more, nothing less. Enjoy the ride to mid table and 55-60 points.

Yes. For good reason that is what we are, so why worry that this is what we are. No. Because right now, that is what we are.

They won't

Well well well how the turntables.

Ah biscuits. You're right.

This is all true. His mistake though is not stopping at the word "performance". Keep the rest to yourself and to the training ground where you can go through the data in context with your coaches and players. To the media and fans simply say "I'm disappointed with the result but I can't be disappointed with the performance."

Nearly 4,000 paid the price we sell at though. For some games it's 6,000 or so that do that.

Yes. For example verifying digital copies of passports. We use those for AML purposes. I never see a physical passport or photocopy, I get sent a pdf scan of a piece of paper certified or notarised locally by some solicitor that I never meet. There is there some scope for an application that can allow me to verify that. Currently thought AML regs don't require it, and are happy for me to proceed based on what I describe. That is fine, but could change in the future. Likewise these cards aren't tied to anything physical. All I can say to this is that I work in law, and we still see plenty of queries, questions and new clients interested in blockchain/crypto. Companies being formed, funds being launched, ICOs and the like. Some of those do come from people who don't understand it and want to make a quick buck (see the dog walking) but some are from serious investors and business people who see real-world application. I agree though that much is just marketing fluff and overcomplicating solutions for problems that don't really exist. Specifically on Sorare, if the question is "should EFL clubs sign up to it and promote it their fans" then for me the answer is a resounding no. I did not intend to defend them at all, but as I've said the problem for me is not the existence of Sorare, nor that they sell digital trading cards. The problem is their promotion of an unregulated trading marketplace and the manufacturing of scarcity that drives it, and that this is then promoted by football clubs to fans who will not fully understand the risks.

Less distance and time than Marseille to Brest, Marseille to Lille or Seville to Bilbao. Plenty of other national leagues and fans cope with those kinds of distances. Even only a little further than Plymouth to Carlisle. The question was asked how to integrate the Scottish clubs into the English league system. What I posted would be my suggestion. There would be issues, but it's a hypothetical question.

Saves on production costs, transport costs, storage costs. Allows the company - for better or for worse - to combine the "cards" with a game. If that stays as a simple fame then that's fine for me. I play fantasy football using the draft method, there's one copy of each player in the game I play with my mates. That's fun, it adds a dimension to the game, we enjoy it. But we don't trade players for money, and we don't spend money on it. it's harmless, it's a pastime. There's nothing fundamentally insidious or evil about NFTs, crypto or blockchain. There is sometimes something fundamentally insidious about the people using and marketing them. Agree, I recently had a client who say they are going to use blockchain and crypto to revolutionise...dog walking. This is clearly bollocks, and is actually aimed at them monetising dog walking. Is nothing sacred anymore? But I do see applications for blockchain in document storage, replication, and verification. Things like project bibles, the Land Registry, even Companies House, could be made secure using blockchain, and then copies of documents could be verifiable via NFTs. That is unsexy, and wouldn't be linked to a proprietary cryptocurrency, and so wouldn't artificially inflate someone's crypto holdings. There is also a very legitimate question to be asked which is - do we need to bother? I can understand if your answer to that is "no". Totally agree with this. To be clear, I absolutely do not endorse or encourage Sorare. I posted this as an interesting and very relevant story that may very soon impact our own club. I don't want our club to sign up to Sorare as I don't think there's any point. I don't think it will drive fan engagement, I don't think the revenue is going to benefit the club much - although I don't know exactly how much the club gets from this. You mentioned money laundering. Yeh there's a huge risk of that, and I suspect it is not one that the clubs have considered here. The fact that only Norwich issued any kind of investment disclaimer tells us that Sorare don't require that element of the press release, and that's shitty of them.

When Is ay POTD I mean any ticket not bought as a season ticket, so yeh online sales as well.

Yeh, and that's where I heard about it. I then looked it up further, including reading all 5 indentikit press releases. I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole tbh, but I'm not as against it as @IAmNick might be. As I say, if the card games move online and if NFTs are used to code those, that's not an issue for me. But it needs to be sold as a simple game rather than an unregulated investment market. NFT and Blockchain tech does have useful applications, but not as investments. Yes you own only a license to use a link stored on a server, but that is little different to Spotify, iTunes, or Steam. I've bought video games for years on Steam, I don't get a CD, but I don't call that a scam. A shame maybe, but I know what I'm buying there and that's fine. Same applies here imo. I do take issue with the trading side of it, and the fact that some "cards" are unique (or at least unique until the company decide to mint more of them). Look at Football Index for an example of how these companies go bust dramatically and quickly.

Sorare, a French company that has created an online digital trading card game (and marketplace) has just announced that it has brought 5 Championship clubs on board. Watford, Burnley, Coventry, Norwich and our weekend opponents Millwall have all recently joined the platform. Sorare will clearly be looking to sign up the whole of the Championship, and that obviously includes our own fine club. In doing so they allow Sorare to create digital trading cards of their players. These cards are then bought and sold online, at reactive prices, using either cold hard cash (or credit), or Etheruem cryptocurrency. The purchaser can then use those cards to compete in fantasy football style competitions on Sorare's platform. Crucially it is also possible to trade cards between players, in doing so offering the potential to make a profit if you bought a card low and sell it high. The cards are NFTs which means that Sorare can control how many of each card is produced, and so can manufacture rarity and manipulate their market. Therefore some cards cost £10, others are trading at north of £2,000, and some are trading at truly mind-boggling levels of hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds. A nice way to get rich quick you might say...but there's literally only one Haaland card on the system, and if you want to buy it then it's current owner is asking £580,000. A very small number of people will make a lucky packet, the vast majority will probably lose money, or at least spend money in order to take part in the games. In many ways this is not so different o the old physical Panini and Merlin stickers I used to collect. Those companies also manufactured rarity, they produced special shiny cards, and limited production of the biggest players in order to drive you to by more packets of stickers as you tried to complete your collection. Indeed, a secondary trading market emerged in school playgrounds as well, in which cash was sometimes traded for cards, and cards were regularly swapped. Crucially however, Merlin and Panini did not control that market, did not take a cut of that market, and did not use that market to bolster the value of their Ethereum holdings. Merlin and Panini also did not encourage users to compete - and also offer a method of paying to win by buying better players - with the stickers. You collected stickers as a small pass time, spending pocket money and then chatting to your mates about it. You can also apply to be an "affiliate" where you promote the platform and get 10% of the revenue generated by people you introduce. So that's like the The five Championship clubs to join up have all released identikit press release promising that "By combining a free-to-play fantasy game with digital collectibles - underpinned by non-fungible technology to create digital scarcity for each card - Sorare brings fans closer to the game they love. Sports collectibles have long helped fans celebrate their love of football and with Sorare. [INSERT CLUB NAME] fans can now experience a new world of online fandom where they can own and manage cards of their favourite players and hone their passion for the game." Only Norwich have included a disclaimer stating that fans should "Please note that the value of Sorare’s digital player cards are forms of non-fungible tokens and that their value is variable and can go down as well as up." Sorare talks a big game about "fan engagement" and offering clubs a revenue stream, but I fail to see where the true fan engagement is? You don't have to be a fan of Watford to buy the Ismaila Sarr card, and once it's bought there's no further reason for you to look at Watford. Ultimately I don't have a massive issue with this idea. People have money and they might want to spend it, that's broadly fine. What gets me is the implication that this is a sensible investment, and the promotion of it by the clubs involved. It's really little more than a pay-to-play gambling scheme dressed up as "fan engagement". I suspect City will sign up for it soon enough, and I just hope if we do then we properly explain it to our fans and make it clear that it is a game, not a financial investment plan.