Davefevs

No idea why you’ve put a piccy up of one of my fave bands up, but thanks. Re Tommy’s contract, fantastic news. Remember those two goals on debut for Bath, near identical…first time I’d seen anything of him. Like @Lanterne Rougei agree he has a bit of edge. Hopefully the 5 subs will get him more game time thus season.

My outside view looking in is that he wasn’t a troublemaker per se, but just didn’t work hard enough to improve the things that Nige and the staff wanted. That’s not just off the ball stuff (which most people jump on), but his decision making on it. Sometimes playing the Hollywood pass isn’t the best option. It’s alright saying he always plays forward, but if your pass success rate is one of the worst in the Championship, then you need to address it. That’s where I think Nige was getting at. Those stats are pretty bad for what should be the bread and butter off his game, compared to his Championship peers His creative passing has a better success rate compared to his peers, but they are still below average. I don’t feel the stats lie here at all. This is pretty much how I view his game. Sometimes it is the easy option to play the killer pass and lose it, than keep hold of it under pressure and get fouled. That is where Scott and Massengo’s game is so much more mature. They care for the ball more (debate, discuss?) and would rather get a whack and a free-kick than turn over possession. And before people moan that Han-Noah only makes 5 yard sideways passes, he really doesn’t. Yes he makes a fair few, but he breaks the lines with passes too. I did some analysis earlier this week, and it showed how much better Tyreeq’s passing stats were in Lg1. Some of that is down to Ipswich’s style, but a lot will be because it’s far easier in the centre of a Lg1 midfield than the Champ. The intelligence of forwards and midfielders in blocking passing lanes and pressing is miles superior to in Lg1. Tyreeq should do well at Wednesday. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can be Mr Hockey Assist for Barry Bannan. FWIW, here is what Nige actually said:

I’ve seen no info re this being available to watch online either.

In one way a real shame, as Tyreeq has some ability, but he couldn’t harness that with the other stuff needed. He could well be a star in Lg1 and we might say he’s one that got away. But you have to make a stand for the collective good, and Nige did that. Congrats for moving him on Mr Gould. And @billywedlockif you are right in thinking that it’s scuppered MA’s plan, even better. Good luck Tyreeq, I mean that, but also good work from City too.

Oh dear….Secretary gonna be getting a roasting!

Jasper Carrott - Birmingham City

Sorry, no, not hindsight from me one iota. I was on the case 4 or so seasons ago….and others were too, some not right back then. I kept asking what are we gonna do when we no longer have any players to sell or the transfer market gravy train stops (I was thinking more a tv deal collapse than covid per se). What are we gonna do when we’ve sweated the Ashton Gate asset, but wages and other costs keep climbing? You don’t think my dislike of our CEO’s running of City was a recent thing do you? My first spreadsheets on each club started from the accounts published for each club relating to 16/17, after someone asked me whether we could get to the PL with the “sustainable model”. Our spending relative to our income was out of control, so yes, I did say (many times) “hang on a minute….” ???

Released a record with Rovers too…never liked him.

Undoubtedly

Michael Jackson - Fulham ???

The problem is measuring improvement. Some posters “winked” themselves into a frenzy over year on year league position improvement, but failed to see the bigger picture of financial doom through paying over the odds in fees and wages. That’s not a dig at LJ, it’s just a more rounded view that looking at league position alone. And look where it ended…a downward spiral, with no investment. That needed a huge turnaround. Contract length doesn’t dictate the time in takes to turn a club around. But when you have to get rid of 10-12 players for zilch because they were OOC, and you can’t really replace them, that takes a period of time going backwards, then stabilising to then go forward. I’d say we are starting the upwards trend now, but it won’t be fast, because we are trying to keep hold of the likes of Alex and Antoine. We could cash in, completely sort FFP and put ourselves back into a situation of chasing players for over the odds sums, and have a couple of relatively better seasons, only to be back to square one in three years time. This summer we’ve finally look like we’ve recruited to a plan. A CB, a wingback and an attacking midfielder to fit a game plan. But this has been done on a strict budget, hence the free transfers, players on low / moderate wages at their previous clubs, who we can sell a lovely training ground with a bit better wage than they were on. We’ve done some succession planning with the French keeper too. A potentially fantastic pick-up as many clubs might’ve looked elsewhere because they didn’t invest time looking at the finer details of work permit rules. We are getting our act together. We are embarking on another 2016/17 to 2017/18 period I reckon…but will end this season on a surer business and football plan than we ended the previous attempt. That strategy was wrong. In fairness to LJ he kept results going, even though performances were quite a bit worse for a long period. I find it a struggle reading stuff talking about improvement without reference to the improvement we made from end of 20/21 to end of 21/22. Yes, Nige was in charge for the last 3 months of 20/21, but look where we were then, look where we are now. So what is improvement? Not every club misspent like we did!

That was Ninja Warrior!

Said to my dad that it reminded me of Bobby Charlton’s goal v Portugal in WC66 S-F.

Here’s a photo of last night. Can only assume it was Harry Leeson???

DM me.

Because Eardun thought it was a good idea too. ???

I didn’t read it very carefully did I.

Very sensible from our supporter.

Three of us from Harry’s scouting group “invited ourselves” ??? Totally, we can only hope. Really hoping that Joe Williams actually doing a pre-season (his first one in 3) will have a big impact on his availability. But also having Alex Scott as another true CM option is another reason to be hopeful.

Certainly feels more like a Nige squad 3 windows in (3rd window still open). Tanner, Wilson, Klose, Naismith, Atkinson, Pring, Scott, James, Sykes, King, Idehen, Benarous either signed or given their chance. Hes getting there.

I was a talker…I can’t get my head around how you can get to this level and be quiet.

Earlier this week it was said might be ok for yesterday, but likely Bournemouth. We shall see.

I was at the HPC yesterday….it was so noticeable how noisy Naismith, James and Williams are (along with Bents). They pass on tonnes of information to their teammates. One of them wasn’t here last season, and the other two started just 6 times together in CM (w4 d1 l1). Reasons to be hopeful. In the second match it was noticeably quieter, Klose the big talker, and cajoler. Very little from anyone else.

The correct answer is: it doesn’t matter because there are plenty of offers to drive him there ourselves ???