Sly

Okoli needs to play every game left. He’s showed more passion in one game, that most of the squad have all season.

How has Onana saved that. It’s a truly awful shot

Gooooooool! Mark Goldbridge is well happy

Why is Reid shooting from there?

Okoli has done okay.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/itvx/id446079916 It’s on the ITV X player.

Good play by Okoli

ITV?

Not a lot in it really,

Needs dragging for *****.

Any fear in Soumare passing to a blue shirt

I’ve wondered if he’ll stay for this game, then do one.

4-1 win incoming ….

This isn’t unpopular with me

If I could have one player from our history at their peak currently to play for us now, I’d choose Kante as I think he’s our best ever player.

The bottom line is, they need to be used in games like FA Cup, League Cup etc. It was bizarre that no one got used against QPR.

I guess it depends on how it’s built up. Reading between the lines it looks like how you quantify the training time.

Pearson always had the players on side, we were always in games and rarely looked out of touch with the opposition. Huth made a massive difference and we’ve got to remember, that 12 months later, we were champions of England. The current squad I think would struggle to win the Championship. It’s worse than the team that came up, as it’s been ravaged by injuries, brain farts and poor form for most of the season.

I think if we’d have kept Perez and Albrighton and even pulled in Dean Smith earlier, we would have survived. Perez and Albrighton were work horses as players and whilst some people were not a fan of Perez, he always tried. Without the pre conception of him now, most would snap his hand off looking at his stats for the past two seasons. The Smith / Shakespeare / Terry setup was like watching paint dry but was basically a more tactically drilled version of Coopers. I even think they’d do a job with the lot we have now.

Lots of teams fall off. We were basically spending above our means to compete. That was how Vichai operated us as like shrewd business people, who took calculated risks. With Aiywatt, we’ve done the opposite. We’ve almost gone the other way. Not signing anyone to try and stay in the league, and risking the PSR battle later is a different approach to what Vichai took. As for clubs with a major fall from grace. Deportivo La Coruna and Parma - just “wow” from what they were. Blackburn Rovers - not dissimilar to us. Schalke - more of a basket case than us. Maybe Aberdeen post Fergie? Still the only Scottish club with two European trophies. Manchester United. It’s unthinkable if you saw them under the Ferguson years to what they are now. And the big one for me, IFK Gotëborg. Purely because having initially supported Barcelona, I was taken to the Semi Final of the European Cup at the Nou Camp. Gotëborg were 3-0 up from the first leg. Barca won 3-0 and went on to win the game on penalties. I only have vague memories of the match but even so! Like at the Gotëborg fall off post then and it’s steep!

In fairness, I’m in my 40s and I’ve had less space playing with people my age on a 6 a side pitch. I’m hoping this isn’t the usual standard they’re playing at!

The world is changing and moving games for season ticket holders is a major inconvenience. Not everyone can, or even wants to attend a game on a Saturday night at 20:00, especially if you are taking younger children etc. I personally still think they need to scrap the 15:00 kick off moving games for TV black out. Watching your local team play at 15:00 on a Saturday, is a completely different experience to watching Leicester at 15:00 on a Saturday. Less travel time, smaller crowds, closer interaction etc At some point, a major football league will be picked up by Netflix, rather than a Sky and that’ll change the landscape again. Netflix has a far larger reach and people will start to use that for their weekly football fix. I keep saying it, the younger generation have a shorter attention span, so unless games have goals and are exciting, the sports will be the death of itself. VAR is anti entertainment at times.

Cooper

No harm in playing him by the way, I personally just don’t think he’ll stand out. The question remains, can he hold his own at such a young age. If he can, that’s exceptional. For those asking. He can sign a contract with another club in the UK when he’s 16, with his parents consent. This is essentially what Nyoni did when he joined Liverpool. With us no longer being in the EU, unless his parents get a job in Paris, Madrid, Milan etc, for non footballing reasons, he can’t join join a foreign club. If he goes anywhere, it will be to an academy like Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. We are then obviously entitled compensation if he moves clubs. That won’t be in the millions like people suggest and isn’t impacted massively by if they’ve played or not. We stand to get less if he goes abroad. https://playerstatus.thefa.com/support/solutions/articles/80001137042-compensation-fee-tribunal A player generally must be at least 16 years old to play in the Premier League. This rule is set by the Football Association (FA) and the Premier League to ensure the physical and mental readiness of young players. Ethan Nwaneri, who made his debut for Arsenal at 15 years and 181 days in September 2022. That was an exception, and he was granted special permission due to his talent and “readiness”.