TheReds

At least we have Dion Dublin to listen to though. Insightful stuff I must say..

I'd rather wear River Island than any of that kit.

Wasn't Lowe appointed pre season? Therefore a few days could quite easily have been possible and not announced, as the players and staff could have all been on leave? Closer to home surely we didn't decide Holden was our man on the actual day he was appointed? I'd say that decision was made more than a few days before appointing him.

Agree, don't see how he can win with the fans unless he keeps them up there constantly overachieving. I don't blame him for taking it as he will probably get given some time, but just don't see it ending well as the fans will just compare him to what Jones has achieved.

Whilst claiming if it was 14k capacity that would have easily been sold out too.

Someone's started on the wine gums early today

How many out of the other 91 clubs owners are making it pay from their football clubs alone please? I mean SL must be the only one, or one of a few that has their football club running at a loss going by your posts.

Oi, we'll have none of that nonsense in here....

Yeah, Twitter was a lovely hate and racist free place a few weeks ago. Hopefully Musk runs in into the ground and it's gone for good.

The amount of people on that thread is a miniscule amount of our fanbase, it's like the people who think Twitter is the view of the Country or the whole World because of a few outraged people. The well below par record has to be taken in context though with the overall job he had to do. How many players, that I would guess the majority would agree were inferior (inexperienced academy players) versus what we already had on the bench or left out the squad completely (high earners and experienced), were playing and starting games in the last couple of seasons? How many players made debuts at a young age, from our academy? Should they be putting in monster performances consistently? Do you think when we were safe and different formations and players were being chopped and changed should yield instant or even positive results? What about basically telling players if they don't want to be here then you won't be playing and find yourself another club - whilst replacing these players with freebies or inexperience? How many points should NP have gained during these games. If none of that was done previously where do you think we would be now? NP could have had a better overall record (win/points), but it was necessary to do what he has done for the longterm. Would you prefer he was now trying to get in the likes of Pring, Conway, Benarous along with the ones who were given chances, deemed to not be good enough and let go? We would probably be worse off than Huddersfield imo.

Hasn't Swindon been promoted in December before....... I am sure there are others!!

And there was me thinking you have blamed our manager on occasions. Still at least we know he won't be in for any criticism from you now after clarifying that...

We do have an experienced head in the dugout. Why would you think we would or should be further forward than 3 years ago, when that same experienced head had to get rid of how many players exactly on ridiculous wages, cut the wage bill massively, and then try to bring in players on far inferior wages, who were mainly free transfers and lower leagues, or from our own academy? I just cannot understand why anyone would think we should be further in front than where we are at the moment, with the amount of shite Pearson has had to try and sort out throughout the whole club, adding in all the constraints he has had. I honestly think if any other managers would have came in when he did, the majority of them would have walked within the first 6 months as we were in such a state. Pearson is having to basically build something with hardly anything, and still try and compete in the Championship. We have seen glimpses of brilliant football and a fair few horror shows, probably what should be expected with what we have imo.

So we've sold the family silver, and we got no cash to strengthen, yet you really expect it us to be in a more forward position than we were 3 years ago? Why is that exactly?

You do seem to like to pick and choose who and what you respond to. There are multiple valid points on here that you just don't seem to want to address them? When you say "the majority" how or where are you getting this information from?? Anyone can see how we changed the way we play with him in the side, has he cost us goals, without a doubt, have we gained (and more importantly) will we gain more points when he is playing in the future longterm - without a doubt in my opinion. There is a trade off with players like him who will take risks, but when the risks pay off we are on the front foot, it's risk v reward. Or would you prefer the keeper to just lump it up top and hope? Atkinson as well comes out with the ball at times is very decent, and has had some blinding performances along with scoring a few important goals. A brilliant purchase imo. James - overall a good player, he doesn't play like it's his last payday so I have no problem with that, should we never sign anyone around his age? Was he brought in to play 40+ League games per season, or was it partly his attitude to help others and to instil the right mentality in others? Tanner looks decent and when he is back he looks like a great buy for 300k. We simply don't have millions to spend to "improve us" instantly, and that is down to letting the likes of MA and LJ go absolutely mental with a near blank chequebook costing us massively. Do tell us how many players they bought and how much they spent on fees and wages just for some clarification I really wonder where the club would be now if NP didn't come in, a man who has previous form at Leicester for changing the whole club around from top to bottom. We are in a massive transition period, it's not like a new manager came in with money to burn. Let's say NP has enough or we sack him tomorrow, who would you have come in?

I hope you aren't saying LJ/MA were a bit loose on the spending front - whatever would give you that idea.

You mentioned favs for relegation at the start, 2 from your 3 were not favs from the start, so I am unsure why you have mentioned them in the first place. It's not NP that took players off the wage bill? Please explain. You mention SL has got it here with previous manager choices, and NP has to work under a tighter remit, yet you are saying that it is Pearsons fault where we are. You know what he inherited, yet are simply looking at the table and you seem to be looking at it per game/result. If you cannot see the difference between now and when Holden left (some of the worst football I have ever seen consistently), and the make up of the club then I am unsure where this conversation is going. Of course there are ifs and buts, you keep mentioning the fact we are 3 points off relegation, would you be moaning if we were top half with just 3 points more - that we have thoroughly deserved? How many games have we had poor decisions go our way where we have gained points from, just name a few. There are multiple games this season that decisions have gone against us, so the bigger picture has to be seen. Why would I add Massengo on my crazy money list, when he won't go for crazy money? I am guessing he cannot get in the side because he doesn't want to be here and sign a new contract, therefore why play a player who wants out? It is also a short list as we do not have any other players that will go for crazy money - which isn't really backing up your argument of we should be doing a lot better. Why can't you see Rotherham going down seeing as they have 1 less point than us in the last 10 games? Hull are in a right mess, Wigan struggling, Huddersfield could already be gone, Reading could easily slide down the table, in fact the League is so tight I wouldn't be surprised whoever went down really. I never said any of the favs I mentioned would go down, it's a long season of 46 games, you mentioned favs and I was simply pointing out you were wrong as they weren't the favs at the start. I don't think we will go down as there are enough signs that we can be very good on our day, we are just inconsistent and need to sort out the poor goals we are conceding. We still could go down though, but half the League is probably in that bracket though.

There were 3 teams shorter prices than us to go down at the start of the season. Rotherham, Birmingham and Reading, unsure why you would think one of the favs for promotion (WBA) would be relegation favs. All ifs and buts, but if we would have beat Sheff United the other night when we really should have, and we would be sat in the top half, would you be so worried and negative? Anyone can question NP, anyone can back him. There are some very valid "countless" reasons as well. How much money has NP taken off the wage bill in your opinion with all the players he HAD to get rid of and how much money has he spent in transfers? How many youngsters has he given game time to and brought through? How much money did LJ get given to spend on "clubs in the bag", and how do you think that has affected what NP could have done over the last 2 years if he had the same sort of freedom, rather than the complete opposite. Maybe if he was shopping for players at the higher end with more money to spend, rather than trying to find and improve cheaper lower league players or youngsters coming through the ranks here? We may well be in trouble and could possibly go down as nothing is a certainty. But I think the positivity is at least at times we look a huge threat, we have shown we can compete against teams nearer the top, and at times we have played some fantastic stuff creating plenty of chances and scoring goals. Nobody will disagree that we concede soft goals and we are massively inconsistent, but there are plenty of positive signs there that we can be very good on our day. We need more consistency and Naismith is a huge miss currently, even though he has been at fault for a few goals. I do think this season we will be fine, if we get past FFP and sell Scott/Semenyo for crazy money and NP gets given a fair chunk of that I really think the future is looking good.

As much as I agree with you, that's how it is played now, players "win" penalties or free kicks by cheating and it is accepted for such behaviour. We would be doing exactly the same at 1-0 up in injury time, if we weren't many would be moaning. Until some sort of stop clock is brought in this time wasting and shithousery will carry on.

I agree to the majority of that, but I know people who are not violent at all even when drinking alcohol, but when they are on that they are definitely more likely to either start a row through their paranoia of someone looking at them (a random bloke glancing around at something else but makes eye contact), or when in a group they definitely get braver and feel invincible. Government think it's all "Football Factory" at every game I expect.

Seems pretty pointless, especially if it means in the Stadium. Horse racing is rife with it, pubs generally do nothing about it, no doubt the likes of Glastonbury will be full of the stuff and the list goes on and on. People who take drugs won't care about it.

I think you are right as their goal was early in the second half, and I am 99% sure it was quite late in the game

I stand corrected if that was the case.

It is fine lines though, and whinging about refs or not I don't think anyone is stating that we aren't conceding poor goals and not taken our chances. Surely you have to see the bigger picture, but how many games this season can you honestly say we have had bad decisions go in our favour, where we have gained points from? Off the top of my head: Hull - ref cost us a minimum point with ridiculous decisions, and could argue all 3, Wigan - ref cost us by not giving them a red, 1 up at the time in blistering heat. Ref cost us 2 points Sheff U - goal offside, they should have got a red at 0-0, minimum cost us 1 point and could have been 3 (still needed to convert any chances though) Plenty of penalty decisions (couple on Atkinson in one game wasn't there)? I would say we should easily have 6+ more points than where we are, simply on bad decisions by the officials, possibly more. Add in the momentum/psychology and staying unbeaten longer etc you could argue it could be more. I'd like to say it all evens itself out, but I am not seeing any evidence to support that. With decent officiating we could easily be in the top 6 in this League - albeit with a defence that does concede soft goals.

When did he say this? I have listened to the interview on the City youtube channel and he doesn't say anything like how you have put it, unless it was a Sky interview?