cityfanlee23

I just mean we should be in contact with his agent at the very least, poor choice of wording I didn't mean literally negotiating at the table. I think at Arsenal he was on about £2m, he got a big payrise to Forest because he was overseeing 3 clubs at the same time, but that clearly hasn't worked immediately so not sure he would be commanding wages that exceed what a decent technical director would be earning at other clubs. My guess is he would be back to the original level unless it's a saudi deal or something. If we could get a proper TD through the doors on 30-40k per week with a proven record and it meant not being able to spend £2-3m on a player, i'd probably take that deal. If we could sell Winks/Faes and have multiple big earners leaving that could leave us in a position to bring someone in.

Agreed, we should still be at the table though, football is a funny game sometimes. Leeds fans would probably have said Bielsa would never go to them. I do think you're right though.

Edu reportedly under pressure already at Forest. Bit of a hit and miss transfer summer for them, but I would imagine there would have been a few players that were already scouted by forest before he arrived in July that he did a deal on but probably didn't pick. But overall the profile of signings seemed fine, felt they overpaid for Hutchinson and Ndoye though. But overall the job he did at Arsenal was very good, and if he gets sacked by Forest he will probably have bigger opportunities than us almost immediately, but we should be at the negotiating table regardless.

Fulham are a perfect example of a team of players who work hard despite not being "fashionable", an example of a manager getting the most out of the squad that he has. Currently 3 points off of Champions League despite not having any real superstars that are likely to be snapped up by giants, players like Wilson, Castagne, Diop, Jiminez and Cairney showing you don't need the best players in the league, you just need a good tactical system that gets the most out of each individual (and of course individuals who actually care, which we lack)

Fulham are exciting to watch at the moment, playing with confidence despite being weaker on paper, could easily sit back in a deep block but they are playing their way out. Refreshing to watch from the sideways ball we've been subjected to for most of the last 8 years.

Stranger things was a weird one for me, There were many times I wasn't too bothered about the show but did watch it whenever new episodes came out, it was such a long period of time for 5 seasons that it only took up a tiny portion of my life during that time where I'd binge watch the episodes then "move on" until the next series. Personally felt series 5 was a bit weaker than previous and there were lots of plot lines I found myself picking holes in and being frustrated by, but for some reason now that it's ended, I feel a little bit empty, I'm not sure whether it's my nostalgia for being a kid in the 90s that made the show resonate with me (despite being set in the 80s), but plenty of scenes really made me miss my childhood and the family i've lost on the way, the scene where they put the D&D folders away for the last time and the new generation came rushing down the stairs hit me, there was a time we all played out with our friends as kids for the last time and didn't even know it. Stranger things ended on a high in terms of global popularity which is rare for most shows, most continue on and peter out when the numbers decline, I think ST left enough of a story untold that something could return in future even if it's just a one off movie (although i'm not convinced myself that a story could be put together that is good enough for a return) All in all it was a weird feeling, I just didn't feel overly attached to any of the characters for the best part of a decade, now that it's over it all feels a little empty, I can't imagine how it felt for the actors who went from children to adults with the show in their lives, for me it's probably the fact that during the course of the show so much has changed and i've lost so many pillars of my childhood, I probably just feel nostalgia for the important people I still had in my life when the show started. I think the show was rounded off quite nicely if I choose not to pick away at any flaws, and I'm satisfied with it, I probably need to go back and watch it from episode 1 over the course of a couple of months though so I can watch it again without such dramatic breaks between the seasons.

He will get a move to any of the promoted clubs, or even better Palace/Brentford. And this is the real tragedy of keeping MC. I've said since we were 4th in the league he wasn't good enough, it was obvious he was getting lucky, but of course everyone clouds their own judgement with this fantasy idea that "when it clicks we will be great", 9/10 the click never comes in football. A rebuild is about building a foundation. JJ is the sort of player that builds us a foundation for a decade, he's the Mahrez/Kingy/Vardy/Albrighton/Morgan type of player that we needed, a consistent source of effort and standards. And we are going to blow the opportunity to actually keep him because we have an incompetent ownership, and a happy clap fanbase.

Give it to Mowbray until the end of the season. Every single day with Marti is another day closer to collapse.

RVN is a significantly better manager.

This is going to be a Soumare situation isn’t it.

@HighPeakFox Not sure if the post bugged, but I can't see the post you quoted me in, and can't see the post you quoted from either, so not sure what it was about, but don't think i'm ignoring you.

One thing I don’t miss about Enzo being here is the ego his football seemed to bring out in some fans, the idea that if you didn’t enjoy it, you simply lacked the intellect to understand it, and that with a bit more intelligence you’d inevitably come around. Sad to see that attitude still lingering among parts of his fanbase.

All of them are good enough to be fighting closer to the top than they are. Villa are performing at a far higher level relative to their squad.

Their squad is absolutely good enough to be doing better than they are doing. Reece James, Estevao, Palmer, Fernandez, Garnacho, Caicedo, Cucurella, Fofana, Pedro Neto, Jamie Gittens, Sanchez are all good enough to be fighting at this end of the table. I'm not suggesting they should be top, but they are 15 points off of top. Drew against: Bournemouth 2x Newcastle Brentford Palace Qarabag Lost against: Villa Atalanta Leeds Sunderland Brighton United who have been awful... Nobody is expecting them to be top of the league, but they should not be dropping most of these points in many of these games, he's not getting the most out of what he's got.

You are assuming that if Abramovic was there, Maresca would be successful. That is complete assumption. I’m one of the fans that openly said he would be more successful relatively at Chelsea than he would ever have been with us because of the quality of player at his disposal and the amount he would have needed to spend here to make it work. I know Chelsea are a mess, but to take all blame away from Maresca and place it solely on the board seems a bit disingenuous, he’s not getting the most out of the players at his disposal, as usual he is stubborn and refuses to deviate from his way. His style has evolved somewhat from when he left us, but it’s no coincidence that a huge portion of the fans are utterly bored of his tactical system and are constantly talking about his stubbornness and unwillingness to adapt when it isn’t working. It’s the exact same thing our fans were sick of towards the end of the season when we blew a 17 point lead and almost dropped out of the top 2 before a late run.

Your entire opinion is just as much an assumption as mine is.

Because I don’t rate Maresca anywhere near as highly as other fans do?

Huge difference between having Leicester in the Championship and Chelsea though. Cooper was good enough at Forest. Maresca is very much part of the problem at Chelsea, but the ownership/board are obviously making the job harder

And a manager who isn’t good enough.

On current form yes, but if we got an interim who could sort the mess out 10 points is still within reach. If we can string 5-6 good games together you suddenly find players back in form with confidence. Under Marti we have as much chance as a snowball in hell though.

Completely get your point here. It’s a double edged sword, staying in the champ for another season would mean shifting out the big earners and being forced to spend on more sustainable wages, but given the record of the club recently, I’d be more worried it would result in us spending another decade down here. With the prem money if we somehow scuffed the playoffs, I’d rather have that 150m extra come into the club and then get relegated again. Knowing this lot though we’d extend everyone’s contract and sign more guff on 80k a week though. There can be benefits to both approaches but personally I’d hope it would pay off if we got promoted even if it meant coming down, if we can get relegated in a similar way to Ipswich where they have a much more sustainable club now and players that they can afford to keep then I’d take it.

Players catching my eye at the moment that could do with game time or could be cheap: Josh Acheampong - CB - Chelsea, would be an ambitious loan, as he's surprisingly played 4 games in the champions league, but struggling for game time in the prem and we may be able to convince Enzo that consistent minutes would help develop him further, unused sub for 2 months in the league. Tawfik Bentayeb - ST - Troyes, 9 goals 1 assist in 12 appearances, 8 of those in the league with a goal every 88 mins and has played striker, right wing and attacking mid in those games, 23 years old and looks like a natural finisher in the making, would be £2-3m i'd guess. Jeremy Arevalo - ST - Racing Santander, 8 goals in 18, goal every 109 minutes. Rumoured to be monitored by much bigger clubs than us so would possibly be a fight, but we can offer him immediate minutes and a pathway to the premier league. 6"1, strong player who drifts into channels, makes runs into the box and is surprisingly good defensively too.

We are 4 points off of the playoffs because of how inconsistent this division is, next season will be MUCH harder imo. If we expect to get a 6 point deduction after any appeals, that currently leaves us 10 points off playoffs with half of the season still left to play, plenty of teams have made up those gaps in the past. Despite our best efforts to destroy ourselves, this season is still salvageable, imo that is still doable if we bring in an interim. We absolutely NEED loans in January.

We are in desperation territory. Now isn’t the time to find the “right man” to come in, that’s a summer project. Right now what this club needs is a firefighter with some common sense who can come in, tell the board how it is, and do the basics. I genuinely now want Neil Warnock until the end of the season. I’ve always liked him as a character but now I genuinely want him to come into the club and try to sort this lot out and stop us being in a relegation fight.

Also just to note, completely agree with others that promotion is a slim chance with the deduction, especially if we can't get it down to say 6 points with appeal. If we got the deduction right now and we ended up 10 points from playoffs, it's still achieveable though, providing we bring in an interim who can galvanise the club. I genuinely think Warnock could get us top 6 if we were 10 points from playoffs tomorrow. Under Marti however I don't think we have a snowballs chance in hell.