Jobyfox

It would still have been a struggle, but the game that killed our season was the Wolves game. If we’d won that we’d still be out of the relegation zone with a six goal swing in goal difference against Wolves. It wasn’t a “must win” in the strictest definition, but felt like it was a game we really couldn’t afford to lose. To lose such a pivotal game as badly as we did really did make relegation look inevitable. It all feels like our chances of staying in the PL are only mathematical or technical now. Nothing on or off the pitch (in terms of our performances or signings) suggests it’s possible

Well after tonight’s results … … there’s a chance… …. it could just happen…. …. with a few signings… ….. and a bit of luck …. we might… … we just might… not finish bottom!

Blimey! That happened for me when we signed Jordan Ayew

It’s all about opinions isn’t it? I doubt I’m going to change the opinion of someone who rated him and they won’t change mine. That’s football sometimes. It’s just some players are rated and I struggle to see the evidence. James was one of those players where people would often use the line (like above): “… well if you can’t see it…”. As if you needed a superior football knowledge to appreciate the nuances of his performance. A lot of people used the same sort of lines about Dennis Praet until a general consensus developed that, no, he was in fact bang average. I liked James and appreciate his efforts in the Championship. I just think that was his ceiling and would have been proven right if injury hadn’t curtailed his career. Players are often overrated when they are absent from a team. That’s might view. I respect the opinions of some others, but still think they’re wrong! 😀

Matty James was a good Championship player, but also very overrated by a significant amount of our fan base. When you dig for evidence most people will say: “…. he kept Drinkwater out of the team when we got promoted…”. If you delve a little deeper you will see that he did, indeed, play more games than Drinkwater that season. The vast majority of those games we were not competitively in. The most effective being the last ten games, during which James got injured and didn’t play in half of them. This suggests that he wasn’t a critical player in our team and the next season would also be testament to that. Matty James should be remembered well as a player who played a part in getting us back to the Premier League, but there is no evidence, before or after injury, to suggest he was ever PL standard

Think we should move on to other Targetts

This aged well …

25th August 2025

We might sign players from lower in the pyramid and hope they can step up, but there is always a significant risk that they won't. There is, however, a risk with any transfer strategy. Personally I'd have much more sympathy with this approach, if it goes wrong, than some of the other, more recent, strategies. We've signed ageing players from Premier League clubs who were only ever mediocre at their absolute peaks. We knew their ceilings when we signed them and the benefit was only ever likely to be short term (i.e. get rid of them when we were established in the prem or be stuck with them in the Championship). With this approach there is at least at chance that we could progress with them in the PL but, if not, we've got proven Championship performers.

It misses the point really. Fulham are currently doing ok precisely because they’ve got rid of players like BDCR. We went in for players who’d only ever reached the level of mediocrity at their peak. Edouard, Ayew, BDCR and, to some extent Skipp (for the money we paid) were dreadful signings really. The reason I’m not confident in this window (and by definition staying up) is because there is too much to fix. January is a hard time to recruit players anyway, but you might have a chance if you got half way there in the summer. We’re trying to fix the problems in our squad at the same time as rectifying an abomination of a transfer window in the summer. Not good - but getting rid of OE might be a start

Ward 3/10??? He’s played one and a half PL games and conceded 6 goals? What do you have to do for a 2? Sit in the middle of the goal naked, with plastic straws stuck in your ears, whilst making no attempt to save a shot?

This thread keeps getting bumped up and then I open it with a sense of crushing disappointment when I realise that it’s not because he’s buggered off back to Crystal Palace

That’s got me thinking about past players with a “funny running gait” Ian Marshall comes to mind.

Nobody should get excited either way about this. This was always a game we were nailed on to get nothing from. The killer game was Wolves!

Yes. That’s the critical thing for me. Ward is emblematic of our fall from grace. He was a big part of our relegation and is a representation of all the mistakes that got us to that point (i.e. filling the squad with incompetent players, on very high wages, that we can’t shift). Him playing again in the Premier League is a bit like sending someone with PTSD back to a war zone for both him and the fans. If RvN wasn’t aware of this history then he is now. Ward shouldn’t be near a PL squad when there are other options. Even if it’s arguable whether those other options are superior

Hmmm ….

I do agree. It’s just if there was ever an instance where I could understand the frustration - it would be now

He should never have been in a squad again after our relegation. The only place he should have been is on the transfer list. I hate us booing or jeering our own players, but this guy shouldn’t be on the pitch. It defies belief that he’s still starting games for us in the Premier League. I don’t like it, but this might be the only outlet for people to make this clear. He should never start again. For his sake as much as anything else

Yes I know, but this is the “positives to take away” thread

Incredibly we’re still not in the relegation zone

I’d normally criticise people for leaving early but, if you didn’t leave early today, what on earth were you doing? (Actually, there could be an argument made for leaving when Ward was named in the starting eleven)

There’s only one Danny Ward

I feel that, come the end of the season, the only thing I’ll be grateful for is that we didn’t beat Derby’s points record

I think this game was the true barometer of where we’re likely to finish. As you say - we’re going down!

You can excuse Stolarczyk to some extent as he was injured until last week, but Iversen should have been ahead of Ward. Ward should never have represented us again after our last relegation. For his sake as well as ours.