Guy

There was I thinking Miguel Almiron would be signing the dotted line this window at some point but with two days left (?), highly unlikely!!

I think Lampard was their manager at the time. Well we might have done if Dyche was still at the helm there but they have more fluency under what I've seen from Moyes and I think a draw there is the best we can hope for! I think that World Cup genuinely ****ed our season up in the same way Covid and the re-start did in 2019-20 - more than the much maligned Rodgers ever did - but of course for persistently playing Danny Ward and Amartey in defence that season!

Always a tough place to go but we won here last time out in Nov. 2022 - that 'false dawn' purple patch under Rodgers just before the Qatar/winter world cup of course when we then turned to shit soon after!

Peter Taylor was allowed to stay after 8 losses on the bounce (which I think we'll have after today!) and we know how that ended, albeit early on the following season! - as luckily for him we'd had a decent first half to the season and then beat Spurs ironically to end that horror run to end up 13th! However this is a different scenario altogether really.

As others have said then I think it's too soon to think about sacking RVN - and the only way will be if he walks instead. Meanwhile Dyche is probably having some well earned rest after what happened to him at Everton! I doubt he'll want to go from the frying pan back into the fire so soon as anytime soon to be honest!

Basically another Gerrard or Rooney - end of!

The trouble is we haven't got a Mahrez, Huth, a peak Albrighton or Vardy or an Argentinian duo in Cambiasso and Ulloa to dig us out of our present hole at the mo. - nor indeed Schmeichel in goal as per Great Escape season 10 years ago! We have a 38 year old Vardy instead, Skipp in midfield and two players here for their late pension pay out in BC Reid and Ayew - not to mention a fragile defence with their solid no.1 still missing in action still after x amount of weeks through injury! In short I'd be amazed if we stay up, despite only still somehow being two points from safety after six straight defeats and scoring two goals, mainly due to the poor quality of the teams in and around us too. The context of that may change a little if we win today (highly unlikely) and results go our way - but I guess it remains the hope that kills you!

December 1996, our first season back in the Prem. under O'Neill! A 1-1 draw I think, we thumped them 2-4 at Ewood on the last day of the season (minus the fog!)

The first real victims of this were arguably Sheffield United last season I think. If these ludicrous rules stick then I think many more will follow the Isaac Newton rule of thumb suit!

I daredn't say but if we do finish in the bottom three then we probably ain't coming back in a hurry this time!

Tiatto wasn't here for long though and Hume had more decent games than bad from memory - unlike Daka when he plays!

Indeed, it's no good scoring one wonder goal a season but missing easy chances into treble figures each season. I can't believe he's still here tbh - the Danny Ward equivalent in attack!

Yes, very much Blackburn, Stoke and Sheffield Wed. vibes if we go down this season I fear!

Two more Anfield OGs for Faes if he starts?!

Something about Ruud being manager here (without his own staff), as the equivalent of Nigel Pearson as a manager after his time with us - minus Shakey and Steve Walsh??!

Although I'm sure Danny Ward doesn't just play to let goals in for fun (as many seem to be suggesting!), then all the same for a club that has generally prided itself on having great no.1s (Gordon Banks, Shilton, Wallington, Kasey Keller, Tim Flowers, Kasper Schmeichel and now Hermansen), then the Welsh international has been a real blot on the old copybook as a general signing, with his performances between the sticks, not to mention the amount of time he's been here now!

Did people leave games ridiculously early like they do now in the 60s, 70s and 80s?! A lot less so I think!

Just hoping that the same three who went up last season finish in the same ascending order but that obviously we do so over the dotted line!

Indeed. If it hadn't been there'd have been no comeback for starters!

Only good thing is West Han got stuffed 2-5 at home, our next opponents no less and Ruud's first!

It's surely the new "Steve Kean out!" craze of early 2010s Blackburn vintage!

Trouble is if the international breaks are scrapped a la in the rugby then the Prem Lge may end up wanting absurd season endings like in the Rugby Premiership to decide who out of the top four is going to win the actual league at the end of the season via a play offs lottery - totally crazy. as much as I hate the international breaks like the next man!

and it's only....early October!!

That's what the club pay him handsomely to do!

If Ronaldo still has it at 39 (with more miles on the top level clock), then Vardy at 37 definitely still has!