Guy

That's pretty damning for Daka though with a 12 year age gap!

He was when he was here on loan though, maybe it was because Pearson didn't play him to his main strengths at that time in the Championship, I don't know but he suddenly came good at SSpurs and for England thereafter for sure.

I think this will probably be his last season if we stay up (unlikely) and penultimate season if we go down.

Indeed. I think with the likes of Faes, Ndidi, Vestergaard, possibly Justin - is that they were seemingly rewarded with those silly, long contracts as a reward on the back of the Championship winning success last season possibly but it was suicidal to give unproven players like Skipp (hardly a world beater!) a five year contract - presumbaly done in order to get the likes of him to join in the first place. Ditto Ayew and BDCR re the lesser ones they were given but still three years long!

His shooting ability and final execution was definitely on a par with Daka's at present! We paid stupid money for both on Rodgers' watch too!

Also at that age some are "fearless" of course and so are less likely to make elementary mistakes because of it! Players like Rooney and Norman Whiteside of old were only 16 and 17 when they made their senior debuts and they pretty much hit the ground running at that age! Whiteside even played for Northern Ireland in the 1982 World Cup at 17 of course!!

Including yesterday's farce (clearly offside re Maguire), then even so that's now 8 defeats from 9 with only a somewhat flukey win versus a very abject Spurs to crow about! I dare say we'd have gone on to lose yesterday in extra time with the way the game was going and the way it had swung besides. Whether it was Cooper still here or RvN as now then we definitely deserve to go down with this team on present evidence and will be fulfilling that dubious honour if we don't get at least one win from the next three games and hope others around us continue to slip up. I too will be surprised if Ruud stays the course for the remainder of the season at this rate but it will ultimately be his decision if he stays or walks.

Yes, rather strange re the above mentioned Albrighton's exclusion for the first half of that season, considering he and Ulloa were considered relative 'marquee' signings as such that close season, even if one was a free and the other an £8 million signing, seen to be overpriced that summer by most but boy, was Leonardo vital all that GE season really and Albrighton more so in the title winning season!

Not forgetting Mahrez in that team too of course! Yes, despite our not strengthenig there are still chinks of light at the end of the dark tunnel this season but only four teams are truly in the mix now to the end of the season and Wolves look by far the strongest and most convincing to stay up from the four - and rather like us arguably in 2014/15, shouldn't really be anywhere near the bottom three!.

Agreed, we also had a much better squad - and the team was transformed once Pearson set us up to be less defensive and more attacking after the goalless debacle v Hull at the start of March. All helped the entire team firing on all cylinders again (reminiscent of the 5-3 over Man. Utd early on that season) ) and by Vardy finding a freer role and as he'd got his scoring boots on. All good omens for the following season of course!! A different, more gloomy feel altogether to this one sadly, as you say.

Just had a memory pop up on my Facebook - titled 10 years ago. It showed the league table as it was with us in 20th (bottom) - with 17 points (as of now in 18th!). QPR were next up with 19 and then Hull with 20 points. IIRC we'd still only racked up 22 points by the start of April and were still occupying bottom position by the time we played West Ham at home re the Andy King game! - that after running Spurs close in that 4-3 thriller beforehand. On a broader point then I'm not saying history will repeat this season a decade later as I feel this Cooper-RvN team is a long way short of that Pearson team but it is still do-able.

That was nothing compared to Adebayor's goal scoring celebration v Arsenal for Man. City that time!

Every time I tune in to see Wales on the box Ward seems to be in goal, lol!

He's still Wales's no.1 isn't he?Maybe that's good enough for him, along with the £40K a week he picks up here! The life of Riley really!

Blimey, we really didn't sign anybody of note did we??! Chilwell was the last bit of business before the close of the window and off to Palace he went!

Probably the Championship sadly....barring a miracle.

Covid breaking our momentum for that season too, as regards the re-start part of 2019-2020. We were good before then but became inconsistent after the emphatic Liverpool 0-4 home defeat on Boxing Day. Before that then we weren't all that either really, it's just that Southampton were dreadful on that record equalling 0-9 night, as was the weather!

Shades of Mike Ashley at Newcastle of old perhaps - just worse!

The most disgraceful relegation in the club's history, given the team we had happened two years ago sadly! That said if we accrue less points in this (33 or less), then this one is well up there too!

Only crumb of comfort after "that" was that Saints beat Ipswich and that we're (somehow) not in the bottom three!

I said the same about Ange at Spurs last weekend but....

With Mads back in contention now it seems and with Jakub as assumed back up again now (and possibly our FAC keeper if Mads stays the course), then with Iversen as the other reserve then that is effectively the only position in which we don't need to strengthen in thsi window! As you say though then it's good that Ward has dropped out of any contention of match day inclusion now!!

Yes, as nice though the first FA Cup win was (after a fashion re the empty stadia for most of the competition of course), then missing out on the Champions League on the ifnal day of the season two seasons on the bounce for whatever reasons has definitely set us back a long time. I wouldn't have thought there'd have been that struggle with funds and PSR issues for Rodgers in what would become the relegation season had his teams not bottled it twice to finish 5th and therefore miss out on two Euroean jackpots that would have gone a long way to avoiding any such finanicial difficulties arising for us in 2022-23!

Let's face it, it's a much better dilemma to have than Jakub v Ward!

Yes, looking at the finer detail then you're somewhat 'on the money' also with your two Rodgers takes in different seasons in a different way. Re the Covid pt.1 affected season then for me the Liverpool 0-4 at home on Boxing Day 2019 was the more significant turning point (despite some good performances to follow that like the 4-0 v Villa you mentioned), eventually leading to the infamous bottling of 4th to finish 5th from a seemingly impossible position to actually blow it like we did! Perhaps shades of last season under Maresca too with our 17 point lead at the top soon being whittled down by Leeds and ipswich! At least when recent history repeated a year later to also bottle 4th to finish 5th on the final day in 2021 we'd won the FA Cup but even that was a tad false in a way as regards the games being played out in empty stadia for the most part which I'd say had a massive bearing on players performances for all teams! Just my take I can't argue with the nature of B.Rodgers end to his tenure here though, it was definitely more about self preservation for him and his reputation after he wasn't allowed the funds to strenghten - albeit he might have ended up buying more deadwood like he did Perez, Daka etc! Whether he deliberately 'sabotaged' matters in that infamous last relegation season by playing Ward and Amartey most games and making bizarre subs in that opening day Brentford game we were comfortable in, I don't know. Lest we forget we did have that autumnal purple patch though (5 league wins from 8), including the 4-0 v Forest and 0-4 win at Wolves. However maybe our good October-November run of the pre winter Qatar World Cup period would have ended against Newcastle regrardless had that game been played in early December (not on Boxing Day)......as hard as though I'd find it to believe that we could play as we did in that game at home against the Toon on Boxing Day had we not had the continuity of our then November momentum disturbed by that weirdly timed world event! All ifs and buts I guess. Hence my original parallel "disruption" comparison to Covid if you like!