Sly

Happy birthday @fuchsntf!!

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeyvpJRR/ Interesting watch explaining the AJ fight and the tactics he adopted. Simple but effective really.

We need to right the wrongs from the home game. Let’s move into another gear and win this.

What’s the status with Ricardo then?

Our daughter set her alarm for yesterday and was really annoyed the servers were down all day They’re finally online but she’s currently in a 70 minutes queue to get in. The tough life of a pre-teen wanting to play Fortnite!

I actually don’t think Cannon is that good either.

FM Regens?

I can only assume they thought another one of our forwards was going. However surely you only push that though once the other has gone!

The same could be said about half the Premier League though. Football wages are arguably out of control. We shot for the Sky and missed when attempting to break into the top 4. Villa, Newcastle, Forest, Everton are all going to struggle. How many more are playing beyond the means?

Tielemans contract expired. I can only imagine as well, that we don’t have to pay yearly bonuses etc to Barnes / Maddison and that would have maybe saved some money. Both have also spent longer injured this season, than they have on the field. Ultimately, I’m guessing teams knew our financial challenges, so played hard ball. We also don’t know, how many other teams were interested. I’m still surprised we signed Cannon, as it wasn’t exactly a key position for us.

You might be correct.

If we are in such a financial mess, we will potentially go into next season in the Premier League with a worse squad than we have now. As long as we are covering ourselves as we are not likely to go bankrupt, then the entire FFP system is a joke.

I never really understand the hate Rudkin gets. Yes he holds a role where we assume he oversees player recruitment, team strategy, club philosophy, contract negotiations, youth development, sporting infrastructure etc However surely this doesn’t lie at the door of one person? Is it not a collective board responsibility and his overall performance could be hampered by the others? The Finance Director is the one controlling the purse strings? If he tells you you’ve got £5,000,000 to spend, you work to that? The HR Director overviewing contracts, bonuses, performance related stuff etc. For all we know, he could have been begging to sack Rodger’s and HR / Finance wouldn’t sign it off. Then a CEO that should keep them all in check? We’ve done well in reality compared to other clubs with player (youth) development and transfers. Some don’t like this type of football, however it’s pragmatic and provides a more calculated approach to winning / losing, rather than the basket ball match type football that is end to end. I’ve no idea if he’s the right or wrong person, as we don’t know the inner workings of the club.

Football in this country needs to sort itself out. However whilst the Premier Lesgue exists, it’s essentially the Super League with the amount of money it has compared to even the other top leagues in Europe. They will never put a salary cap on players, as we would simply see the top players moving abroad where wages are unrestricted. Mbappe isn’t coming to Man City is he’s capped at £135k per week, where in Madrid he’s on £2,000,0000 per week! FFP or whatever we want to call it is basically a joke. If Jeff Besoz and Elon Musk were to buy us tomorrow and wanted to pump billions into our playing squad, they can’t ….. the stupid rules don’t allow them to. However other clubs can spend millions due to how they’ve grown historically. The smaller clubs outside of the top 6 stand very little chance of catching up. The simple answer is secured bank accounts, where operating costs for your season are set aside prior to each season. I’m guessing many clubs don’t have £300m to put aside though.

West Ham were the last non top flight team to win the FA Cup in 1980. They also finish 7th in Division 1 that season. Leicester won Division 1 that year, pipping Sunderland, Birmingham and Chelsea to the title. The following season, West Ham amassed a record points total, reached the League cup final (losing on a replay). Lost to Wrexham in the 2nd round of the FA Cup whilst defending it, then lost in the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup. Not bad for a Division 1 side but weird and true.

Winning the FA Cup, then not getting promoted from the Championship would be so Leicester. We need to make this a one season stay in this league, so promotion is vital for us longer term.

Fotmob had Hermansen as MotM

We battered Leeds for 80 minutes? Hardly pathetic? We will beat Hull.

Points total over the duration of the season. 10 games left!

Crazy to think Ipswich only finished 2nd to Plymouth last season really.

They can’t defend really, so they attack.

Ipswich are relentless in attack, however they’ll concede for fun against better teams. Leeds battered them twice for a reason. They are great to Watch though

Just a casual 8 minutes added time.