Mr Popodopolous

A couple of comparative landmarks from last year. 2023 *15th March 2023- Prices announced *20th March 2023- Go on Sale to the relevant categories *27th March- General Sale April 25th 2023 was the date that 10k landmark was reported.. 2024 *13th March 2024- Prices announced *18th March 2024- Go on sale to the relevant categories *26th April 2024- General Sale Last year there were 36 days between sale to the relevant categories and 10k being announced. So far we are 29 days and counting between the first day of Sale. Onky searched it briefly but the 12k thing, was it missing a decimal point. Seriously I don't think they are going so well.

Any source for this?

In fairness, I will only partially defend as there has been a prevailing uncertainty over the Regulatory framework for 2-3 Years now. If the 70%, Rule that is finally proposed comes in..it will be a seismic shift for this League. I get the impression there is an air of desperation elsewhere gambling and yeah we needed to baxk NP but one extrapolation I've seen by Kieran Maguire which could be wrong is that the last 3 years average Trsnrer Profit would count towards Income..I think we have been too cautious personally and needed to baxk NP more readily We are currently aligned to both systems and again that could be overkill by us.. Turnover- £x No more than 70% must go on Player Wages, Managerial wages, sackings leading to payoffs, Player Amortisation, Impairment, Agents Fees. It may or may not include Transfer Profits as Income too. As one of the higher non Parachute clubs income wise we should benefit. The club and presumably all clubs are weighing these up.. however despite that we are still run terribly by in particular Jon Lansdown and Tinnion.

Presumably they wanted the Embargo thrown out or suspended and the Hearing put on hold for Interim Relief. They can't be docked points for the PL offence in this League although there is now a rule about passing it between the Leagues for Aligned Rule Disciplinary Issues of the Leagues agree and if timing is correct. The argument about the Embargo feels moot, the bit about unlawfully passing comfiential info between Leagues also feels moot as there is a Rule that permits it..as opposed to providing to the CFRU on a confidential basis. I still think they should go for Leicester again this year owing to Rule 2.10.1 feeding into Rule 2.10.3.

What do we think this bit means? Interim Relief us dismissed so presumably the Embargo remains at present and the Claim is what exactly..

The fact a newly promoted club who have £100-110m extra going into the coffers eg maybe more should be contemplating making a loss let alone a substantial one in the PL shows the model is beyond broken. Would we have to make losses? See Brentford, Brighton albeit they made 3 losses but two were Covid years. There could be something in it of course, SL not wanting to put more cash in post promotion but the wider model is well. I digress, based on relatively recent Accounts of the £100-110m influx we would need to hold back some £20m maybe to make us cash based self reliant. Perhaps £15-20m.

I think SL may have been at the Blackburn game but I'm not certain. He will have seen some decent intent if so as well as the obvious 5-0..but he cannot have failed to notice a half-empty ground too.

Wonder if we will get any repetition of "Is there a fire drill" chanted at early leavers as happened six years ago v Brentford. Opposition fans doing it is de rigeur but our own? That was an interesting turn.

Good to see the Bayern monopoly broken. It would be nice for football, if a suddenly shining manager at a non elite club was to see it through. Villas-Boas eventually regressed but might he have stayed at Porto one more hear and tried to take a strong side to make an impact in the CL. Spalletti took Naopoli to impressive heights last year..resigned. Other good examples too.

Can Bird do something similar, by which I mean okay in both midfield and a back 3 say or..I know bits about him and if he is deeper I wonder.

Not mad keen on signing Twine especially not if the stayed price tag. A couple of favourable bits though..I've checked a few numbers. 1) League- Hull. Adjusted for non Penalty goals, 25 Games- 3 Goals, 3 Assists. That is okay..add in 1 Penalty. 0.24 and 0.28 G/A per game. 2) For us in the 5 since he returned he won 3.2 Fouls per game. Scott was good at that, can assist with building pressure or easing it depending on which half. Otoh he was out for 2 months, 1 Goal, no Assist for us..seems risky. If the price is right consider it, if not then look elsewhere.

One particular passage v Swansea was really noticeable however, first half. Went back to O'Leary from an okay position for us and the crowd reacted.

We're probably 2 or 3 points from 'par' from change of manager to now. 2 wins should maintain the level inherited, xG and results ratio a different issue. I use FBREB as one reference point, I also used to use Experimental 3-6-1 but the website seems to have stopped updating this year.

Thanks, haven't caught up with everything yet but this bit in Bristol Live from pre game did worry. If there has been a more positive update, that is good news.

Not having any fit genuine centrebacks is a bit of a mitigation, in terms of a slightly more cautious protecting aporoach but when we went to a back 4 we improved. (Vyner, Dickie, Atkinson, Naismith).

Yep, plus building from a position of strength. I remember when we had that run under LJ about 4 years ago, in his final year..through January and February, the underlying numbers were definitely worse than this but I was hoping we may tactically and generally build from a position of strength by tweaking the tactics to help underpin the results with more solid performances. To make the results more sustainable.

We'll see, I don't think overperformance in terms of pts vs results can be sustained over time. It isn't about aesthetically pleasing, you can have control of games that isn't pretty and you can have a lot if passing but be destroyed in terms of big chances on the break, it is more that digging out results can only go so far or playing to level X but achieving a Points return of Y, over time .

A problem is that in general (not always but in general) performances and results tend to align. There are exceptions in respect of performances continuing to outstrip results over a season or vice versa but eventually the two meet somewhere in the middle, or regress or progress to the mean.

Next year could be a better go for it year in respect of who goes up, who comes down. FFP position seeing £28.5m pre tax loss drop off the cycle. Anyway I would argue that if we didn't agree to it, Derby may have kept and looked to go to Tribunal in summer to settle fee. Stokes clearly wouldn't be ready right now. I don't especially like it, NP never should've been sacked, he merited a new deal and 2 or 3 players perhaps in the Summer post Scott sale.

Tbh in the case of Bird, Derby were clearly driving a hard bargain and are past their existential financial crisis..buying and loaning back for half a season isn't altogether uncommon. Stokes wouldn't be ready to step up this year, who knows if next year. Aldershot are National League aren't they?

Two weeks I think they said for Vyner? Dickie Idk, anyone any ideas? He was on the bench and remained there v Blackburn, so possibly.

We do hit the (in most years) magic 2 PPG across 7 games from Swansea at Home to Huddersfield at Home so it depends on how we want to measure it. Moreover, in GJ's blocks of 10 we just about hit the level inherited under Manning. 14 from 10, 4 wins ie 40%.

Once more we remain bumping along the middle under Manning. Not a disaster but no great leap forward thusfar. 2 wins in the last year of 3 and we more or less claw back to parity. Absolutely better than the strategic picture going into the Swansea game and even arguably the March International break but it has a ceiling to date.

Vs Leicester we shouldn't in some ways discredit ourselves, we in the first half took a very positive approach, first 20 especially and created chances of our own. I was surprised at how positive we were really in the context of a range of games. They lost at Millwall and Plymouth too on the flipside but those games they were at least in respect of chances etc more dominant. I would argue that vs QPR until their goal we had more of it. McCrorie side netting at 0-0 stands out a bit, post the multi substition we lost our shape and semblance of gameplan, went to shit. Also worth pointing out for balance that the goal QPR scored with was their first Shot on Target. For the obvious flaws under Manning when we score first..our record it isn't bad! Middlesbrough (H) 3-2 W Norwich (H) 1-2 L Sunderland (H) 1-0 W Hull (H) 3-2 W Watford (A) 4-1 W Middlesbrough (A) 2-1 W Southampton (H) 3-1 W Ipswich (A) 2-3 L Swansea (H) 1-0 W Leicester (H) 1-0 W Plymouth (A) 1-0 W Blackburn (H) 5-0 W P12W10D0L2F27A12PTS30GD+15 Had we scored first say v QPR and perhaps Cardiff we would have stood a reasonable chance of winning probably. Otoh we have clawed back a mere 4 points from losing positions. (Drawn 3 games 0-0). Otoh 3 penalties in 2 League games is remarkable and 6 in 28 League games since change of manager is also crazy (especially for us)!

1.1.4 a), b) The Guidance explains it as well as the Shares point.