GrahamC

Wells was scythed down twice by Egan, neither apparently warranted a yellow. They were allowed to take throws & free kicks seemingly from wherever they liked. Geoff Eltringham (the worst ref at our level) finally booked one of their players in the 93rd minute. We need to give Conway a run now, let’s face it he can’t score any fewer, Wells’ general game is decent but he can’t buy a goal at present.

Huge, went from 3rd to first as a result. Game in hand on Wednesday, in a great position after tough back to back away wins.

I had an email today because I haven’t renewed yet. I’m sure there will be plenty of reminders, it isn’t even May yet.

He’s nothing to do with Rovers now & has endured the worst time personally, I think he’d done a decent job there so even though they’ve gone 7 without a win am quite surprised. Agree totally that the stuff chucked at him when he was in charge of the few has no place now.

Can’t win answering that one. If I say no then I’ll incur the wrath of the host again, though apparently he “doesn’t give a **** what I think”. If I say yes, then I’d be endorsing something that I don’t listen to myself. It’s a free country so I’ll just leave you to choose.

In League One, so completely irrelevant. 4 years with a million pound striker & one he paid £600k to never get promoted to a level that Ward, GJ & Cotterill all managed in their first full season isn’t something I would be sticking on my CV. Wilson did an amazing job at Barnsley & a decent one at Sheff Wed but his time with us was the start of a decline that saw him subsequently manage Hartlepool & MK Dons. He achieved absolutely nothing with us.

If you ever listen to this podcast it would be fairly obvious.

Agree with all of that bar the 3 centre backs bit. Vyner is fit & so 2 additions until Atkinson is back with Naismith & Pring both able to play there, is fine. One has to be a bloke currently playing or who has played at this level though, it can’t be 2 that are long term projects.

I’ve prevaricated over this one for weeks but whatever happens in the last 4 games (as it appears he certainly won’t feature tomorrow night) have come down on the side that we should part ways. For what it’s worth (& nothing to do with his concussion) I wouldn’t have retained Baker either, even on reduced terms I felt a player who had featured just 3 times was too much of a gamble, though no one knew what was coming there. I don’t buy though the revisionism about signing Tomas, we sold Webster for £20m that summer & signing him for £8m didn’t seem excessive in comparison & we also were getting a top quality player we knew & wanted to sign. Worth pointing out too that he was absolutely outstanding in the side that made the Euro quarter finals & even this season his performance against Man City showed a fit Kalas is still a class above every other defender we have. However his availability record over the last year is so poor (he’s featured in just 9 squads in the last 50+ league games) that even if we got him to halve his salary, I still cannot be confident it would be good value. Getting Atkinson fit, having Vyner as an always available, far cheaper squad option & bringing in one Championship proven CB & a fourth probably younger one like the Palace kid this summer is the way forward now.

100%. Was thinking earlier of Pearson’s first retained list, Hunt (£1.5m), Baker (£3.5m but later re-signed) Watkins (£1m), Adelakun (£600k), Paterson (£900k), Walsh (up to £1m), Diedhiou (£5.3m) all allowed to leave us for free. Not sure any of those decisions were actually wrong, as none of them have exactly set the world on fire since but symptomatic of the total shit show NP inherited & is finally about to reach the bottom of. Also moved Nagy on later that summer, another £2m down the drain. Second year saw Palmer & O’Dowda go, that’s another £5m, ******* hell.

Don’t understand why people always see the need to lump Dasilva in here. He cost £2m, has already played 140 times for us, has been available far more often than not (apart from the pandemic season when most players seemed to be injured), so he’s hardly a particular example of profligacy. Nagy, Palmer (who admittedly you mentioned) Massengo, Taylor Moore, Engvall, Djuric, Watkins & numerous others also cost millions & we have had far less out of, it must simply be because he also came from Chelsea because overall I think he’s been an ok signing.

What the one who is on the bench every single game for them? Why on earth would they loan him out? This is incredibly unrealistic, if we were to borrow a Prem keeper to compete with Max it would someone’s 3rd or far more likely 4th choice, not a full international one injury or suspension away from starting.

Isn’t it really that we will sign players who we think “potentially” are better than what we have. Last summer we signed Bajic, was he better than Bentley? Clearly not. O’Leary? Maybe we thought so, but it hasn’t panned out that way yet. We signed Wilson, is he better than Tanner? Doesn’t look like it. For me we need a better alternative to Max than Bajic, if he comes back & proves me wrong, fair play, but I don’t think you need to spend very much if anything to get a decent enough keeper to compete with Max.

Serious question, what level do you think that a side in the bottom 5 of the French second division is? I would be amazed if the standard was even League One, with the exception of the top sides.

I’m not sure we do. Bajic has gone back to France pretty sharpish & he won’t be on very high wages. My hunch is that he would prefer to remain in France so either we send him on a season long loan over there or someone takes him off our hands permanently. His wages won’t be a millstone around our necks the way those of Palmer or Kalas have been. As for a new keeper as has already been said what we need is credible competition for Max, that doesn’t have to cost us anything, there a decent keepers out of contract this summer who could provide this, the Reading keeper Southwood who has played every game this season on loan at Cheltenham for one.

I remember the first season after we got relegated from the top flight in 80/81. I saw every away game (home too) & am pretty sure our first win away that season was in the last one, at Cardiff. I was only 17 at the time but think I must have been absolutely mad to keep going to away games. Mind you 2 years later I was going to Halifax midweek & to Hartlepool & Darlington, FFS.

Played really well against Boro too. Definitely in the middle of a real goal drought but had 2 recent assists & certainly making a contribution despite the shortage of goals.

Yep, that’s before the small matter of QPR being 10 points adrift of us, too. We are mathematically safe, there’s also virtually no chance QPR will catch us, either.

Mathematically safe though. Reading are 11 points adrift with a worse difference, to catch us they now need to win all 4, one of which is v Huddersfield. If they do then Huddersfield can’t catch us.

It’s called having a plan & sticking to it. We have veered all over the road over the years, 5 pillars, spend money like it was going out of fashion, be sustainable.. Copy Reading, Swansea, Bournemouth, Brighton. For once we have got a manager with credibility & have stuck to a plan. Next season won’t be easy but if we keep progressing at a time when we’ve cut costs that will do me.

Did you not watch the Boro match? That was only a week ago, he was excellent & “fitted in”. Bizarre.

Think it might have been Taylor Moore’s last game for us, too?

Yep, back on Tuesday.

Last time we played at Watford we were already 4-0 down by now, five down before the hour mark..

Of course they still could, but twice, after Wembley & the Lincoln setbacks they have gone away & won, a good sign. For them today was like us having to go to Rovers & win to stay in contention, I know the idea of us playing those jokers in a league game seems just ridiculous, but you get my drift.