GrahamC

Watford, they could even be blander than Reading. Only disappointment with Reading being relegated is it was our closest game, Cardiff aside. They are though absolutely delusional about their place in the scheme of things, remember their gates dropping under 10000 fairly recently when results were poor. No loss, third tier club in a dated stadium.

Lee Hendrie got one out of three right then. Very wrong with us though, the *****.

Got to say this seems a really odd choice. Conway, Scott & Bell were all eligible, weren’t they?

All 5 of them started at Shrewsbury. For a side who had absolutely nothing to play for I struggle to understand the logic behind all of them starting in end of season games like this, but clearly (in his own mind anyway) Barton is some sort of football genius. Cotts was very keen to point out (twice) afterwards that his budget was little more than half of Barton’s, the implication clearly being that as he’s finished above him in the league & taken 4 points from 6 that’s not bad for a “rugby team” who “hump it & chase it”. You get the impression these two really don’t like each other, don’t you?

Being widely reported today that their wage bill for this season was just £6m, wow. Fair play to them for getting promoted despite that. Says the average wage bill in the Championship is £32m, which seems a bit high to me post pandemic.

Sam Frost uncritically reports all this shit as well. He is undoubtedly the most biased & sycophantic reporter the Post has ever employed (last night’s HT Tweet was a real gem) “Rovers the better side despite the score line, should have had a couple of penalties, I can see them winning this one”. He’s moving on at season’s end, that’s either because he’s been hired by Kim Jong-Un or he’s finally breaking free of the Merseyside crime syndicate.

Absolutely nauseating. The fact that they’re Welsh & the BBC has to find something for the disproportionate number of journalists they have to report on is definitely a factor, but the blanket coverage is farcical. Plenty of Championship sides doing very well like Coventry & Luton are getting a small fraction of the airtime they are. Shame that the number of Welsh sides in the league has returned to 4, be far happier myself if it was zero & they played in their own little league.

I would still expect our summer recruitment to address this, so us signing Joe Bryan (or not) won’t be a factor. Atkinson said last week that his ACL injury was a “7 to 9 month” one, so realistically he’s not going to be back until November. We therefore already know this, so adding Jake O’Brien & either bringing in another CB as well or offering Kalas reduced terms, plus of course having the ever available Vyner to call upon is how we address this, not by playing our best LB out of position for months.

Bizarre part of that article is the contention in it that Pring could play CB is in any way a factor. Can’t see that at all.

Steve Evans will be there next season to remind them of their cheating, too. To be fair to Evans he won’t stop calling that day out & they absolutely hate it.

Started the game with 5 players who are on loan, that’s what you call long term planning. 1 point above Burton Albion, 4 behind Fleetwood Town, the bloke’s a genius. Best 2 results he got this season were in court.

If they lose tonight it will be 2 points gained from the last 18 available, level on points with Cheltenham Town. Don’t expect The Post or Radio Bristol to mention either of these facts.

Used to watch him “accidentally” stand on the foot of an opponent when he faced up for the first throw in when coming on as sub, knew all the tricks.

Wilbs doesn’t take any shit, he’s a properly hard bloke.

You’re entitled to your opinion but Naismith usually has a better availability record than this season, he started 45 for Luton the year before. Williams has actually been in the match day squad 35 times this season with a game to go, 36/46 isn’t too shabby at all. James started 32 last season, this season he’s started…32, great for planning, we can expect to need someone to fill in for him 14 times. He’s our best midfielder. King will certainly reduce his game time but as someone who didn’t expect him to feature 25 times as he’s done & be available for all 46 I’m not writing him off. Pearson talks about not collecting players & as Massengo really hasn’t been part of the squad much this season I don’t see us effectively replacing Scott with 3 players. My recollection of Hartley’s one season was he struggled to play Saturday then midweek, I actually thought peak Korey Smith was better than him, myself & Matty James is at least his equal..

We need 2 if Scott goes. If we assume he & HNM are leaving that still means we have James, Williams, Naismith, King, plus Weimann, Mehmeti & Benarous who can all play the 10, two more seems enough to me. I see a lot of people say we need a defensive midfielder, James is certainly one, Naismith too when he plays there & no one appears to think that’s what Williams is, well he’s minimal goal threat & hardly box to box, he’s a defensive midfielder for me & as he is into the last year of his contract next season is huge for him.

Trialists, from memory the first one (despite the name) was a midfielder from Finland, second one a Greek centre back. Obviously didn’t sign either but can’t recall if this was their only game or GJ gave them any other chances before moving on.

Atkinson said in his interview last week when he signed his new deal that his injury was a “7 to 9 month one” which means he’s not going to be back much before November at the very earliest. Agree with lots of the rest, the decision on whether we keep Kalas or not will determine whether we bring in 1 CB or 2, McCrorie seems highly likely to arrive but no one really knows if we see him as a RB, RM, CB or DM, the answer to which will become clearer based on our other signings. Aside from up front (where we won’t be signing Ashley bloody Barnes), you could make a good case for adding someone in every area, but I doubt we will.

I reckon we’re about a fortnight away from the retained list; Dasilva, Taylor Moore, Owura Edwards, Owers & Buse all probably released. HNM leaving for compensation because he’ll turn down whatever we offer. Then during the summer Scott & Wilson will go, I expect & possibly Bajic, Idehen & Sam Pearson of those under contract. Incoming probably the 3 mentioned by the OP, after that it will be interesting to see what happens with Kalas, I had him down to leave last week but after his inclusion on the subs bench v Burnley & Pearson’s comments I’m not so sure. If Kalas stays then a midfielder & possibly a keeper in if Bajic moves on. Don’t expect anywhere near as many in as some on here & the expenditure will be dwarfed by the incoming fees too.

Personally I think his biggest flaw was taking us virtually to the bottom of league one, getting hammered by Peterborough, defending like a cubs team at Coventry & scraping draws at home to the likes of Colchester, Shrewsbury & Leyton Orient & basing your entire game plan around the brilliant but mercurial JET. He did make some good signings but was singularly unable to get them to win points in the third tier & despite having Baldock & JET (who I loved) up top, I think we could easily have got relegated again if he had stayed. It didn’t matter that he had no personality, we were dire under him.

Derrick Williams too.

100%, plus for the first time in a while a bench with cover in every area of the pitch with Kalas available. Like you I don’t think he does sentimentality, so be interesting to see who is involved at QPR, can’t see a value in involving those who are off this summer in a dead rubber, I expect Mehmeti to be the 18, therefore.

This is getting really tiresome. In the first half when I thought we were too passive, he twice came closest to scoring, once when Peacock-Farrell arsed around with the ball & he robbed him, second time when he had a snapshot which went just wide. Some in here are ******* obsessed, he could find the cure for cancer & they’d still moan. I actually thought Bell was decent yesterday, won a surprising amount in the air (our goal came from this) & I’m not seeing much between him & Memehti at present. To me Sykes has far more of a cause to complain about not starting games than he does.

I actually don’t think we’ll have considerable transfer funds, even if Scott goes. My guess is a maximum of 5 in & a small percentage of the money we would receive. What we will have though is greater sums than so far under Pearson, where it is worth pointing out his total expenditure on fees is around what LJ spent on Kasey Palmer alone. I’m no FFP expert but also believe that the Semenyo sale was partially because we were so close to breaching it that we couldn’t take the risk. Whether by necessity or design our recruitment under him has been far more efficient, Sykes for nothing, Tanner £300k & the one big money signing prior to January (Atkinson) looks far shrewder than many we spent similar on previously. Those that haven’t worked out, Simpson obviously, Wilson arguably certainly don’t come into the Engvall, Adelakun category.

Long Ashton? Absolutely no excuse.