Jobyfox

Hmmm… actually it’s still no unfortunately. The last time we did the double over Southampton, in the Premier League, was 24 years ago

With the exception of last season, of course, when they were bottom for most of the season, but still managed to beat us …. twice.

People always raise Vardy as an example, but rarely is that a useful reference point. That’s simply because Jamie is the exception that breaks almost any rule. I’d like to sign SS if he was available for £5-6m as he might just be useful at Premier League level. We’re not in a position, however, to take too many risks in the transfer market and I would be very nervous about investing upwards of £10m in a 29 year old, Championship, forward. If someone else stumps up £15m and he’s a success I’d think that’s fair play. I just don’t think LCFC are that club who can risk that sort of money at the moment

That’s it for me. We have six teams and, maybe, a couple of wannabes like Villa and Newcastle. The rest are just also rans. There is something to be said that the established clubs, who have settled PL squads, have an advantage over promoted clubs. There is, however, a risk that established clubs could be trying to sustain an unrealistically high wage profile if they don’t get their recruitment right. That’s basically what happened to us as we were lumbered with high wage, low quality, players that we couldn’t shift.

Matty James has been released by Bristol City

I speak to loads of people who say that their kids support Manchester City and that just wouldn’t had been a thing when I was at school. It’s a generational shift. Man Utd and Liverpool may well still predominate, but it’s an emerging picture. That’s really the exact point I was trying to make. People still rejoice when Man City win the title at the expense of others (eg Liverpool), but at some point they will become as irritating as the clubs they replaced.

I think perhaps you might mean the opposite? Awful?

Spurs starting the game with still a very outside chance of Champions League and Burnley needing to win for survival?

Live coverage of the Premier League deciding on Leicester’s points deduction…

I often have this debate (largely with myself) whether, on balance, Man City have been good for English football. The same, to a lesser extent, with Chelsea. People forget that the Premier League was the European Super League of its day. It was designed to lock the smaller clubs out or “… put them to sleep” as one Chairman notably stated. What those Chairman didn’t anticipate is the succession of billionaire owners pouring money into the game. Those upstarts broke up the status quo, but where would we have been without them? Probably a succession of titles from Manchester United and the sort of dominance that Bayern or Celtic enjoy in their respective leagues. The problem now is that these clubs have started to get at least as irritating as the ones they replaced. Despite the fact that people still cheer when Man City beat Liverpool or Man Utd to the title every season kids in cities from Leicester down to London are now wearing Man City shirts. They’ve now become the behemoth that they replaced.

That’s just one of those bullshit cliches people trot out when trying to be optimistic following catastrophic failure. Good opportunity to “reset”, but a fair certainty of losing millions and also risking years of sporting oblivion. Far better to reset and rebuild, whilst maintaining PL status

Immensely frustrating as you can’t help thinking that he should be better than he is. At his best he’s clinical and effective. At his worst he’s annoyingly lethargic and absent. On balance and given our current financial plight, we just can’t afford to keep a player like Iheanacho around. It’s sad to see him go, but absolutely the right decision. He is, however, one of those where you can’t help thinking that it should have been even better.

We really have become a whingy, whiny, fan base haven’t we? It’s like we’re just dying for our next fix of negativity and something to moan about. I’m sure that next season will give us plenty of opportunity to moan when the points deductions are decided, we struggle to sign players and we’re losing most weeks. Personally I’d keep the powder dry until then. Whether we have a trophy parade, who’s on the trophy parade, what somebody says in an off the cuff interview and whether Rudkin actually smiles are a few things I’m refusing to get excited about.

Ironic that the most embarrassing 😳 thing is your post

Personally I agree that he should have played more. Not started games, but used as a substitute in those tight games that we lost. The lack of a Plan B was a glaring weakness of Enzo’s style. Albrighton offers something different and would have been very useful in the last ten minutes of those games we chased unsuccessfully

Looking forward to the play offs now. Great games to watch when you have nothing to do with them

I know we’ve gone up as Champions and ultimately that’s all that matters, but it feels a bit disappointing not to get to 100 points from where we were. We fell over the line and it all just feels a bit more “meh!” than it really should do. It’s done and now we move on. The challenge of the Premier League will be a big one given our PSR/FFP position. Let’s embrace it.

Damp Squib

Down with this!!

It would be quite funny if Ipswich lost, but Leeds lost anyway

Bad news!! Just heard that KDH is out for the season

Hmmm…. shooting practice from Daka? He’ll be getting advice from Martyn Waghorn next at this rate

Given our perilous financial situation failure to achieve promotion could have had disastrous consequences. We could easily have got stuck in the Championship. Leeds and Southampton fans can only hope that they might still join us. The short term future of the club might still be along a rocky road, but last season was the time to bemoan the circumstances that have got us to where we are. Now is the time to celebrate the players who have made that first step back. They deserve our appreciation and I hope, for them, the trophy parade is a memorable event.

We “nearly bottled a 17 point lead” Ah… but the point is … we didn’t!!!!