GrahamC

8 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

@GrahamC you are confused at this but 6 weeks ago you didn’t mind who we kept out of Williams and James. Now you only want to keep Williams if we don’t keep James.  Recency bias 

If we could afford his wages I’d always have kept James, that’s nonsense.

First thing to say is none of us know what these two are actually on.

Williams was Holden’s big (pre pandemic) signing & James was definitely Pearson’s statement of intent one.

Next we didn’t lose £22m last year by paying everyone £7k a week..

That having been said, if James does really want to stay (I know he’s said so, but lots of stories his family live elsewhere) & we can offer a sum he’s happy with, I’d keep him on a two year deal.

I’d only retain Williams however if we don’t keep James.

In his case maybe he gets a better offer from elsewhere anyway & if that’s what happens then so be it.

49 minutes ago, ChippenhamRed said:

You might not have liked the design of the previous home shirt. But the quality, fit, finish and colours of the Hummel shirts were a world apart from the utter crap Oneil are producing for us - and we’re still being charged the same price.

The sooner we bin off this market stall standard crap the better. We look so amateur.

Fair enough.

I haven’t worn a football shirt in probably 25 years now.

I just think the white sleeves (which I appreciate we wore in the 50s) just isn’t what you would associate with us now.

Whoever makes the shirt it has to be predominantly red.

Personally I’d prefer a white away one with the third kit for when we play Stoke, Sunderland, Sheff U, Southampton as purple & lime.

11 hours ago, Kid in the Riot said:

It's not an "argument". It's a fact. Man City are paying their lawyers to stall the progress of the cases brought against them. 

Throughout the whole process Man City have sought to discredit the proceedings, hide information, and threaten journalists and the courts.

They've behaved appallingly, and not like other clubs who have mostly cooperated with the Premier League. 

They are banking on stalling the process for long enough so that they can win as much as possible before sanctions hit. 

They are also hoping for political intervention given their owners lead a country that is a UK ally. 

I’m really not sure that’s true in the case of Chelsea.

The Abramovich era definitely hasn’t been properly investigated yet.

He was basically Putin’s money launderer, every trophy they won in his time is tainted.

£15m? Ok then..

Paragraphs, mate, paragraphs…

6 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Doncaster United as well, allegedly.

You do know it’s cruel to mock the afflicted?

Those as the Bountyhunter gag memorably went, the afflicted mock the gas..

1 minute ago, Curr Avon said:

Horrible season, horrible kit.

2 minutes ago, frenchred said:

Who plays in red and white hoops?

It's a shit kit, that reflects who designed it

Doncaster Rovers, struggling to name anyone else though..

Just now, Davefevs said:

I like Rosenior for the way his teams set-up, but he’s another whinger.

Yep, also no way can anyone say he’s done as well as Cifuentes, Robins or Wagner.

Ryan Lowe has had far fewer resources too..

I say you’re right.

Either some sort of version of the top flight one or the shirt that we wore when we beat Leeds in the FA cup would be ideal.

That having been said, I quite like our current one, far better than that Arsenal/ Rotherham abomination that preceded it.

19 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

The EFL have announced the nominees for their awards:

Manager - Farke, McKenna, Rosenior

Player - Dewsbury-Hall, Summerville, Szmodics

Young Player - Archie Gray, Jordan James, Jon Rowe

Marlon Pack nominated for the player award in L1.

https://www.efl.com/news/2024/april/03/efl-awards-2024--shortlists-revealed/

Rosenior is genuinely laughable.

Aren’t even going to make the playoffs despite spending fortunes (especially wages) on it.

Wouldn’t have him in my top six.

Archie Gray surely wins the young player? Can’t stand Jordan James for 2 reasons, he dived to get Rob Dickie sent off at our place & pretends to be Welsh to play for them, he’s from Hereford, FFS.

15 minutes ago, cellist said:

Yeboah bullying them a bit. "Tenacious". Maybe the men's football is helping

Or maybe he’s always like that?

6 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

FWIW I voted for Dickie and if he doesn’t win it I’ll eat my hat, your hat and Stoney Garnetts hat.

It did get me thinking though as to who could warrant it. My rough order of performance this season would be below - it absolutely highlights that we have issues at the top end, although some of that is whether those up front are getting the service. I could only really make a case for one of the first five getting it and after that the order would be very fluid.

Have missed out those who haven’t played much (Twine, Medube, JKL etc)

Dickie

O’Leary

Knight

James

Sykes

Vyner

Pring

Tanner

Williams

Bell

Conway

TGH

Mehmeti

King

Roberts

Wells

McCrorie

Cornick

 

Fair, though having scored the winner v Leicester & being involved in the goal yesterday, Mehmeti might well climb that list by season’s end.

Wells might only have 4 league goals too but the 3 away from home (equaliser at Hull, what should have been a late winner at Cov & only goal yesterday) were all important ones..

Went for Conway’s goal right in front of 8000 away fans at West Ham as my champagne moment.

6 minutes ago, Maltshoveller said:

Nether would 99.9% of our fans

and if DeZerbi had come to us instead of B&HA when he was an unknown

those fans would have been slagging the club off for not getting a "name"

That’s not really my point.

We are run by people with a very narrow view.

Brentford were at our level when they appointed Thomas Frank, not a chance in a million we would go down that road. Likewise Huddersfield with David Wagner.

It really doesn’t matter if you’re a “name” or not, results determine whether people take to you.

Our most successful manager since Alan Dicks definitely was not a “name”.

1 minute ago, chinapig said:

Not really. Bloom doesn't interfere in the football operation but appoints the best available people to key roles and trusts their expertise.

Hence their brilliant player recruitment means they buy low and sell high but have the next gem already in the house. Which leads to success on and off the pitch.

Steve does pretty much the opposite.

100%.

Tinnion wouldn’t have had a clue who De Zerbi was, Brighton are so far ahead of us in every respect it is ridiculous.
 

28 minutes ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

I`ve got a feeling one might have been Warnock too.

Warnock was sacked by Cardiff after we beat them under LJ.

4 minutes ago, Malago said:

SL take note.  You have to speculate to accumulate.

You have to speculate wisely to accumulate.

We’ve speculated in the past & it has been shambolic.

8 hours ago, FNQ said:

Well we have actually… Antoine’s sale would pretty much cover it, let alone Alex’s .. We’ll probably sell Tommy for a decent fee too which would in effect result in pretty much a straight swap if we really wanted to sign a player like Whitaker. It’s not the money, the owner’s loaded, it’s the mindset.

If you really think we are going to be the most attractive club in for Whittaker, prepare to be disappointed.

Lazio were linked in January & he’s far more likely to join a club with parachute payments than a mid table Championship one.

I think Twine will be our main target this summer & won’t be at all surprised to see him here in August.

Burnley will have parachute payments & if last summer is anything to go by, will bring in a raft of signings (like HNM) with absolutely no coherent plan.

20 minutes ago, BCFCGav said:

I’d find him a start or two in our last 6 games I think. We know Twine’s quality, we don’t know Mebude’s. I feel for the lad and would like to see him given a shot. 

Why would we do that?

He’s not our player & it was blindingly obvious from the QPR game he’s a million miles away from the required standard. 

He’s only on the bench now because we don’t have anyone else & we are trying to minimise the embarrassment of signing him.

The person who mentioned Mehmeti has to be having a laugh. Even at his most inconsistent we are talking about a player who had a season at this level with Wycombe & had scored the winner at Stoke last season.

This lad has made 3 appearances in Belgian football & played 44 minutes for us.

There’s a good reason he’s not getting off the bench, he isn’t good enough.

Certainly not uninterested or disinterested today.

Important winning goal & looked very lively when he came on.

140th League goal of his career.

Good professional win.

Argyle struggled whenever Whittaker didn’t have the ball & must be looking over their shoulder now.

Clear penalty for the push on Sykes, good job it didn’t matter.

Makes such a difference when you can make a triple sub & bring on the likes of Sykes, Williams & Wells.

Far stronger bench will often produce a better result.

20 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Man City's demise can't come quick enough. 

Assuming they're guilty of even a fraction of the financial doping charges they're accused of, then when the verdict eventually comes, it will be one of the biggest scandals in European football for many years.

And they'll be a big fat asterisk next to Pep and their achievements over the past 10 years. 

Chelsea?

Not sure there’s a cigarette paper between them.

Their money effectively came from Putin.

6 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Yeh it needs a miraculous set of results to see them safe. 

Never realistically going to happen.

(Likely) confirmed relegation on 1st April is impressive in a horrible kind of way.

Richardson their manager has been very honest in saying they’ve effectively been down for weeks.

Lost 10 of their last 11 with a couple of recent 5-0 hammerings, only point was a 0-0 v Huddersfield.

36 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

One thing to look for today is that I think - if I've got my maths correct - it's mathematically possible for Rotherham to be relegated today.

Their maximum points total right now is 41. If they draw today it's only 39. If they lose then it's 38.

Three teams above them already have 39, including the team in 21st, and none of them are playing each other today.

Rotherham have one game left against one of those three teams - Birmingham.

So, if either of Sheff Wed or Huddersfield beat or equal Rotherham's result today, then Rotherham are down.

I think.

Yep- plus Huddersfield & Birmingham still have to play each other.

They might be crap but they can’t both lose that one.

Rotherham’s abysmal minus 50 goal difference is effectively worth another point to the rest too.

39 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

The easiest games at this stage of the season are likely to be against teams with nothing to play for.  Three of our games are against teams needing points to avoid the drop who will be fighting for their lives.

Have you included Rotherham?

They definitely have nothing to play for, effectively been relegated for weeks.