Jobyfox

Who are your 3? Of the current bottom six I would expect Wolves and Crystal Palace to finish above us. I expect the teams currently above us to finish above us. That leaves Southampton, Ipswich and Everton. For me it’s much of a muchness when you compare us against them. I’d be confident if it was more definitive

You play the game in their half and they can't score. I know the reality is much more difficult than that, but bringing on purely defensive players won't achieve that. It's games like this that will define our season. We need to get everything right and a good manager might make the correct calls to give us that extra 10%. At the moment I feel we'll be like Luton last season. A plucky underdog, but ultimately without the quality to stay up.

What? No I think Brighton will ultimately find that their current ascendancy is not sustainable and they will fall back into the pack. That’s what the PSR rules are designed to do to teams like Brighton

The whole issue is that the rules are in place to eliminate that “glorious uncertainty” for a favoured few. There is no jeopardy for six clubs in England and a few on the continent. There is also no route through for an ambitious club to ever breakthrough and consistency compete.

Personally I blame the club for a cumulation of many poor decisions around: managerial appointments, player recruitment, unaccountable executives, poor communication with fans and lack of sound financial governance. What I don’t care about so much is falling foul of rules that are arbitrary, poorly written, inconsistently applied and that give an unfair competitive advantage to a small number of clubs and have led so many fans feeling completely disenfranchised from the game. - We’ve not been well run over the last few seasons. - The rules are sh1t, unfair and should be burned Personally I believe that both statements are true

Let’s pretend for one moment that the rules are designed to stop teams achieving a competitive advantage rather than to protect the cartel. Under this criteria changing the rules for relegated clubs seems unnecessary. Leicester have been punished! In trying to stay within the rules they made no signings prior to the season they were relegated. This directly led to the most extreme sanction of all - relegation. Pursuing LCFC after the event just seems unnecessarily vindictive. It’s like applying a rule of double jeopardy whereas Forest and Everton only had a single sanction. They (and we) would certainly have chosen points deductions over relegation. The issue of compliance in the EFL should then be considered a separate issue, but we certainly lost Barnes, Tielemans and Maddison whilst trying to comply with their spending rules. There is no need for further punishment or new rules to cover this eventuality for relegated clubs in the future. Relegation, combined with loss of revenue and compliance with the new rules is deterrent enough. * All the above, of course, assumes that the rules were fit for purpose, which they clearly aren’t, and should be thrown in the bin. New rules in a regulated environment should be an absolute priority, although it’s a forlorn hope that this will create a level playing field for all

This, for me, is closer to the correct solution. If the rules really are in place to protect against clubs spending unsustainably and getting into financial difficulty. It would assume, however, that the rules aren’t really there to ensure that the status quo is maintained and to ensure a competitive advantage for the biggest clubs. I can imagine already the squealing that the greedy six would do if this was implemented. I could imagine a team (like Newcastle) would happily pay and threaten the cartel immediately

Can you imagine if we actually get away with this? 1. Went into administration - rules were subsequently changed to stop clubs doing this without a points deduction 2. Got promoted, but overspent - EFL couldn’t touch us in a different league so we paid a fine instead 3. We avoid an EFL investigation again and a transfer embargo by getting promoted - talk of changing the rules to ensure rules apply in EFL and EPL 4. Possible PSR get out of free card on a technicality … … I’m loving it!

If you swap Vestergaard for Faes then you can almost make a perfect rectangle

Who is that then?

I wish we could do that - table football style

It’s about balance. I don’t want to start with a side that gives us zero chance of creativity from midfield. That doesn’t mean go “gung ho”. It might just mean picking two defensive midfielders instead of three

We got the same amount of points as they did

Difference between moving the ball with quality and huff and puff. We haven’t got any creativity on the pitch and we desperately needed that t before Villa got the second.

If it was a transfer window of a few years ago it would be a 3 or 4/10. Given our financial predicament it’s probably a 7/10. It might have been more, but we clearly couldn’t land our first choice targets. I doubt we’ve got enough quality to stay up with a points deduction, but that’s not a criticism of this transfer window. It’s more an indictment of the financial mismanagement that preceded it.

You mean apart from: Elliot Anderson, Nikola Milenkovic, Ramon Sosa, Jota Silva, Marko Stamenic, Carlos Miguel, Eric da Silva Moreira, James Ward-Prowse and Morato

It’s a good list and the hope would be that one or two of those come back ready to challenge for places in the team and save us some money. Particularly if we’re back in the Championship. The two that disappoint me a bit are Braybrooke and Wanya. SB looks one of the closest to first team action so I’d rather have seen him at a top Championship club. Not sure what to think of the WM-M loan. Given that he’s already 21 years old you’d have to say that this loan implies he’s unlikely to make it with us

I actually think my comments have been reasonably measured. I said I understood the signing and that it was a pragmatic one. It’s also fairly low risk on a loan. I’m well aware that it may well have been the best we could do given our predicament But whatever appreciation I have of our financial situation or desire to “get behind the club” doesn’t change the fact that I believe we’ve got ourselves a very average player. Unfortunately understanding our reality doesn’t change that belief

No. It's more like saying I'd rather eat one dog shit than 25 million dog shits and the risk that I'd be stuck for a few years on the same diet

Yes - I understand the signing - and I'd definitely rather have this deal than one where we pay £25-30M for Nketiah. But my expectations of him remain fairly low

Palace fans couldn't wait to get rid. That's what concerns me the most. A pragmatic signing, however, given our lack of options up front

Just been on the Palace forum and they’re fairly scathing about Edouard. They were actually much more complimentary about Ayew. I suppose we did need back up to Vardy and he only needs to be better than Daka to improve the squad. If that’s the low bar we’re setting then it doesn’t feel like the worst punt on a loan.

Most of the links I can find are with Ipswich at the moment. So us signing him is hardly …. …… Odsonne

It’s where we are I suppose. Picking up Palace rejects and developing Brighton prospects. Depressingly realistic

No Muhammed actually