Mr Popodopolous

Benitez when sacked a year ago pretty much had a better record. Not vastly superior but 19 from 19 vs 15 from 19 a year on which is now 15 from 20 of course. Had the benefit of Richarlison but also had less to spend, probably.

Gykores. Anyway yeah Leeds 4 forwards (fitness permitting), not sure they'd look to add a 5th in January.

Semenyo? I think they're a bit strongly stocked for strikers now Leeds- Bamford (if he can stay fit), Rodrigo, Gnonto and Rutter. One or two of these can also play wider.

Yeah that's interesting but makes sense. Angry sweary chants can be disregarded to some extent. We don't really hear that one so much either.

In terms of getting on the backs of the opposition and especially officials we do need to do so more IMO. Tunnel behind a goal maybe one step, "S*** referee" lacks the anger of some of the older chants and fizzles our fairly quickly. "The referee's a ******" or "The referee, is full of ****" the latter to the tune of When the Saints go Marching in is more apt. Yes they are a bit sweary but we need to find ways to influence the officials a bit. That's two for a start...

They could well be coming down into an FFP mess if they do. £50-60m fall in revenue, £22m fall in loss limit...plus whatever their losses were in 2021-22 and 2022-23 would eat into the allowance to next season.

Way they've been run the last few years, they very much deserve relegation.

Probably got worse post redevelopment too. The sustained anger towards the officials just dissipates almost as quickly as it arrives- crowd dynamics changing as the game becomes more commercial, moving the tunnel towards a more passive part of the ground probably is nicer to enter and exit via the Lansdown than a tunnel by the home end. Load of factors, some specific and some general. Football crowds seem more passive in general than 20 years ago IMO let alone the examples of before. In fact it's probably become more pronounced as a factor every few years since 1992, will vary club by club of course.

Will expand on my point a bit. 1) Using past precedent the sliding scale can give a guide. 2) Projections in March can tell whether over, compliant or under. 3) Problem I guess is, whether a club may rectify by end of May/end of June- they are bound to have something to tell the League in March. 4) Future Financial Information and or motoring requirements can be a gamechanger. 5) E.g. in T-2 for a club, an aggregate adjusted loss projected within 2 years of £49.1m...that's a £10.1m overspend and an 8 point deduction iirc. Possibly up a bit or down a bit based on conduct and the trajectory of losses. 6) It is therefore incumbent on the club to get their ducks in a row by T+2 when the Projections go in- any kind of suspended deduction to kick in by T+2 if financials still remain over. It's not perfect but there is an appeal system and surely it is largely the clubs fault if they fall foul in March. It would throw a League table into disarray of course.

Thanks. Yep thought so. Annoyed about the rejected penalty claim on Wells but it seems to be par for the course for us.

Once again, does the market swing back in our favour? A few Stoke fans on Twitter say £20m for Souttar, also seen £18m mentioned. *Souttar is 24 but his contract runs until 2025. *Semenyo is 23 but his contract runs until 2024. *Souttar- CB, Semenyo- FW. Conventional wisdom is that the latter more expensive. *Souttar made more of an impression at the WC than Semenyo- this is the post WC window which would ordinarily be in the summer. How does the market move now in in a comparison between the two. PS- one report says Souttar at £25m?? Stoke and their valuation.

Watched it back, the highlights few observations. We were really quite decent Saturday, Brereton-Diaz, what a miss by him! Goal by Bell, yeah correct decision especially with pictures and lines etc but hiw tight in real time! When Kaminiski saved from Wells and we were about to recycle but a foul/infringement was called, what was it for exactly. Watched a couple of times and couldn't see much wrong.

Burnley definitely won't be paying £15m for a striker at this level even though they surely have a lot of headroom and look odds on for promotion. Similarly priced out for Gykores when they were linked with him.

Seemed to happen with Juventus? Either way I take thst point but if a club gambles and gets up, even if a deduction follows them up at worst it's £100m of TV money, plus 2 years of Parachute Payments- £80-90m? Plus an extra £22m in FFP headroom. The League I thought have the theoretical right to hand down a deduction for an in-season breach based on Projections, Future info etc?

That is welcome and surprising- they have been quite difficult (reportedly anyway) in the past?

I would be interested to know, given some of my past concerns which I hope were misplaced, would the SGSA and to a greater extent SAG be on board? The former have often seemed more enlightened than the SAG in this city or would this still be subject to further haggling/approval from SAG in particular.

Which one? Both very much begun outside the box granted. Don't think either was a penalty for a start. Both either are or aren't.

A tale of two penalties. Others can put the clips back together again but that Sunderland account deleted it for some reason. Now personally I don't think ours was and the same with Sunderland's, but if one is both are. The one that tbh was maybe maybe maybe not v Watford in November. No penalty. Set against Sunderland's today. Fry was the last man so the straight red makes sense but the penalty calls are remarkably similar. One was given...

If we want to delve into th3 deeper stats... Our 2nd last penalty was awarded on 23rd January 2021 at Millwall in the FA Cup during Covid. 1 in 729 days and counting. If it is League only? The 2nd last League one was awarded on 31st October 2020 at home to Norwich during Covid. 1 in the League in 813 days and counting.

Not City or Championship related but Man City got one today. Once again, compare and contrast. Dunno if it was VAR assisted however.

I remember that well. That was the plan. Derby did drive a horse and cart through what I would argue more was a case of how they were upheld. Not being docked points for the act of refusal to submit is a weak point without doubt, pretty sure they refused to submit in 2021 and definitely to CH for a good 2 or 3 years. Plus the League had to prove the accounts were incorrect after the previous executive didn't bother to particularly bother with challenging the amortisation etc. That took some nailing down! I'd like to see a process whereby if a club are set to breach then the deduction is applied there and then, and then the club can appeal- if it goes to an LAP then that can be sorted by the summer probably. Perhaps the reasonable opinion of the League should be the basis for sanctioning followed by appeal to LAP. The Stoke situation will be one to watch, possibly Reading too given the suspended deduction linked to a few conditions. The Juventus sanctions approach I do like. The problem there is that if that applies to Stoke (nothing in the public domain that suggests it does) then maybe it applies to a clutch of clubs and depending on what is and isn't accepted, maybe our arguments about the post Covid market will also be open to challenge!

Interesting suggestion via Nixon today. Reading looking to move on Ejaria in January. Possibly could be linked their wage bill and or Business plan- remember an automatic 6 point deduction could kick in instantly if they fall foul of any of the conditions. https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/reading-prepared-to-sanction-25-year-olds-departure/ The conditions in full although falling foul of said condition(s) wouldn't preclude further disciplinary action for the breach itself if required. Could be one to watch.

Just found a clip of Sunderland penalty v Middlesbrough today. Compare and contrast to some of the ones we've had turned down- compared to some of our rejected claims this looks quite soft. In fact it's fairly soft in its own right, contact doesn't automatically equal foul but compare and contrast to a few of ours.

Parachute Payments would also end in their current form the year we go up! Can just see it now- at the same time as VAR being withdrawn. Guaranteed.

Fully their choice, although. Well I seem to recall a few years back there was a BCFCS82 account or similar. A second one too maybe? I take your point, it is one forum and obviously official line will say the right things and intend the right things, but a wider dialogue given the Birmingham game could be useful.