Red from afar

Been any gold robberies recently

Only if his intelligence increases at the same rate as everyone around him, but effectively yes. It's a measure against people of the same age.

He specifically said it was Tins who'd said it.

Imagine if LM had Nige to fall back on for some advice from a senior role if players came in and started causing some trouble.....who has he got to go to now? On another note, for all the back and forth between Nige vs LM, if the board had just signed a couple of extra players in the summer, there's a good chance we'd be in the playoff places now, regardless who your preference is.

Of the teams 5th-14th, there's no one to be scared of. The board need to think carefully about the plan for squad additions in Jan, as this has to be the best chance of a playoff place in years.

@Jerseybean Going beyond the call of duty posting this on Christmas day, real dedication. Hope you've had a great day.

I always fear I'm going to get pilloried for saying it, but I don't think Pring is a particularly good LB. I like him a lot as a wing back and I think it helps his defending as he seems a lot more comfortable when up to speed, coming back from further up the field. One-on-one from a standing start, he seems a little flat footed against a winger with good acceleration and quick feet.

With this team we look so much more dangerous when we're moving it quickly, attacking down the flanks at speed and pressing high. All our good spells in the last two games have come from this. The slow passing game just invites pressure on us.

Another way to look at it, approx 1 in 7 are incorrect. To me it seems quite high when you look at the criteria, but that's just my subjective opinion. What the article doesn't say is what is are the long term goals of the scheme other than to 'enhance performance'? What will be deemed a success?

Out of interest, does the club have any non-executive directors? Surely their guidance should have advised against the current structure as it doesn't seem to conform to best business practice.

There's plenty of those around at the moment

They tried to broaden its appeal and ended up not being good at anything. It stopped being a proper sports quiz, it wasn't especially entertaining, the team captains were a hockey player and an average rugby international who were largely unknown outside their sports and had a host that had nothing to do with sport. Who was their target audience? There's loads of people who love sport and quizzes, they should have concentrated on doing that well.

I mentioned in another post, it's not necessarily a problem hiring an 'inexperienced' coach, but you need to have a solid, experienced structure above them to give them guidance and support when they need it. Where does Manning go, who can he speak to? No-one has the relevant experience or ability. Pearson was in effect a coach/technical director and could drive the culture.

He wasn't even watching when the ball went out of play for what should have been the throw in, just staring across the offside line.

I went today with a group of friends who aren't City fans ( Don't live down south any more). From a neutrals point of view, they thought City were far better than Hudders and deserved to win, but just lacked a bit of composure in the first half when we were on top and committed too many people to the corner when we lost goal on the counter attack. Thought it might help to have a neutrals point of view.

Yes they do, for about 3 days over June/July.

At least it won't be as cold as last season....albeit incredibly windy.

I'm not sure anyone will be playing free flowing football on Saturday looking at the weather forecast......

I don't believe JL is a bad person, I also believe he has the clubs best interests at heart. I also think that unless you're an exceptionally talented person (Very few people fall in this bracket), you require specific experience to hold certain positions. Even if you fill positions around you with talented people to delegate important roles, you need the experience and nouse to know who to listen to. That's where I believe the issue is. Genenuinely knowledgeable and competent people have been getting overruled/undermined by people who don't have the same ability or knowledge required because they are trusted, part of the establishment, comfortable to work with. If you want to make the top, hire people who have worked there and understand what is required and be prepared to listen to tough advice. If it's going wrong and you need to make a change, it should become obvious and you can act. If you hire people with less experience/ knowledge, but more than you have, and they are telling you things are being done incorrectly, then be careful. Raise their/your concerns with other more experienced people. Less experienced people can work within this framework (e.g LM) as talent has to be given a chance, but they need that experience above them to guide them/be able to impart valid advice when asked for. I worry that is not the case here.

He must have done some cracking work on the helpdesk.

Not a lot

Looking at the table, top 4 will probably stay top 4, West Brom I think will stay in the playoff places. Of the other teams, I don't think there's a stand out candidate for 6th place.

We had a young ref that used to officiate some my school matches in the 90s. An odd fellow, but anyone who back chatted got booked immediately, if they complained he booked them again and sent them off. If they swore at him they were sent straight off. We very quickly learnt not to do it and gladly took advantage of other teams rapidly getting reduced to 9 men.

Doncaster and Barnsley are both South Yorkshire.

Well, the United Kingdom is an independant sovereign state, so technically it was correct the first time. .