Xen

11 years. He's a geordie but not really into his football, but I have got him a shirt and he does follow along and look out for our results, so I'll take that as a win He's happy for me to traipse up and down the country on trains every other weekend for it, and I'm not going to argue with that

Yeah, just north of the city centre in a place called Middleton. Feels like we've settled up here now and can start to call it home Only major downsides are distance from families (his in the NE, mine in Leicester still) and its a pain to get back down for the Leicester games. But both of those are just about manageable (although it felt a right a slog getting down to games last season and seeing those results... )

For a pay-monthly sim that does everything you need (unlimited calls/texts, limited browsing) you're probably best going for one of the online brands rather than a high-street retailer. SMARTY uses the 3 network, and has a £6/month sim with 5GB of data, rolling 1month contract. Giffgaff used O2 and also has a £6/month 1-month rolling contract, although that's only 2GB of data.

After 9+ years of renting flats, including a move up north to Manchester, we've just had an offer accepted for our first home Nice 3 bed semi, boarded loft that's an unofficial 4th bed/future office, standard low-maintenance garden, off-road parking and on a street where apparently there's been very few sales in the last 20 years, so a good sign that people like living there. Now all the fun begins with solicitors and all that. No chain on our side, and our vendor is supposedly a cash buyer with a no-chain property already lined up, so fingers crossed things should go fairly smoothly... Trying to hold my excitement a little as I know there's still a lot more hurdles to navigate, but glad to finally look like we're getting somewhere

Figured this isn't really a 'crazy stat' as much as just an 'opposition watch' so probably fits better in this thread than over there: Figured I'd do another update as Ipswich dropping points today (and one fewer game remaining) has made a good difference to what might be required. Notably, even if we were to drop to Hull's PPG, every side would have to improve on their current PPG in order to catch us, and only Southampton would even come close at their current PPG. Plus if we maintain our current form until the end of the season, automatic promotion is mathematically guaranteed (you'd hope so, with 110 points! But prior to today, Ipswich and Southampton could have both theoretically caught us even at that total). Note for making comparisons; as I'm updating this I'm keeping it in league order, so rows/columns might shuffle about slightly and I'm only showing the current top 6 at the time.

I'd imagine it's more likely that the crowd calling for Rudkins head are the exact opposite of the crowd that are unhappy with Enzo.

I wouldn't be so sure that they will have little to play for. With 17 games left there's only 8 points between 5th and 14th, those last few playoff spots are going to be hotly contested and any of those sides is capable of going on a run of form (similar to how Preston started, for instance).

Quick table with our upcoming fixtures highlighted as home/away. A big chunk of mid-table away fixtures there, but its all quite tightly packed so they all still have a chance of a playoff place as it stands. On track for four(!!) teams finishing above 90 points if they maintain season-to-date form, which is mental. And by the same token, we've theoretically done enough to already secure a playoff place. And as an added extra, the points and minimum form required for us to hit various milestones:

Oops, that was meant to say WBA's form, so the row above! Ipswich needing 2.08ppg (currently 2.11) and Southampton needing 2.13 (current 2.07). We also only have 17 games remaining, not 19, so the required form for 1.61ppg is W9 - D1 - L7. Good spot. Corrected both above.

Update on this after a few more games (that haven't quite gone how we'd have hoped). On the left is our form and projected final points, if we matched each of the top 6's performance so far (a reasonable expectation, you'd think!). Then, what PPG each of those teams would need for the remainder of the season in order to surpass us. Nice to see that even if we were to drop off massively to WBA's season-form for our remaining 17 games (W9, D1, L7), we'd still make automatics if the others kept up their current pace.

Y'know what gets boring real quick? Watching your team put in zero effort and get turned over every other week, like we have for the past couple seasons. Under Maresca we do have periods of games which are boring, but crucially its (usually) boring because we are controlling the ball, rather than because we're chasing shadows. And those periods are what allow us to wear other teams down (physically and mentally) and have those passages of play which cut opposition apart. There are very few games this season which have been 'boring' for the whole of the 90 minutes. With better players, we'd be able to execute our plan even more effectively and start having more of those moments of intensity - similar to how Man City play. But right now we're in the Championship and whilst our squad is inarguably better than this level, we're still patching up gaps with players who aren't on par with where we eventually want to be. That's not a problem, and it's something we'll improve upon over time with investment (particularly when/if we secure promotion), but for now we need to take some of the rough with the smooth and get over ourselves as a fanbase. Someone like Vestergaard might execute that decisive forward pass 30% of the time rather than 50% of the time that a top PL CB might, but if that 20% in between he's playing safe by playing back to Mads and - crucially - not putting us under unnecessary threat, then that's what we should expect at Championship level. If we were dropping points every week because of this style then sure, complain, but fact is we're still on pace for the greatest Championship points tally ever and we need to get behind Enzo before he walks away and we end up with a Rodgers Mk II.

Pretty much my stance. If it bursts the bubble, fails spectacularly and we get a reset where we can rebuild a better structure from the ground up, then a few years of pain might be worth it. Not dissimilar to the effect relegation seems to have had on us. However, with the amount of money being thrown about they'll make it work (for them, not fans), so i've got little faith of that actually happening. So would much rather not run the risk and just say no to any super league concept.

Fatawu is a no-brainer. You're not wrong on Doyle, but he's still only 20 and learning his trade. Given that most of his appearances for us were in a side which was still very new to this system with everyone struggling at times, I'm optimistic he'll start to look a lot more comfortable in this system as many others have done. Besides, we'll need some consistency going into next season and I'm not convinced we'll be seeing much of Coady or Vestergaard in the prem which leaves us quite light at the back. If there are better options available then great, but otherwise Doyle certainly wouldn't be a bad pickup in the summer.

Once put a flatbread in the oven in my student house. Everyone else had already moved out, so just me. Went back upstairs to my room and promptly forgot all about it for the next 4 hours... Cue one slightly overdone flatbread (wouldn't have looked out of place in Pompeii), a very smoky kitchen and me desperately trying to air out the house so we'd get our deposit back when I handed the keys in a couple days later Plenty more like that in the years since...

Put together a couple of projected tables (current top 6) based on PPGs of the season so far, and what might be required given realistic form swings. First table is what would be required for our rivals if we dropped to their form. For instance, if we have results similar to Leeds so far (1.85 PPG) we'll finish on 101 points and Leeds would need a PPG of 2.65 to catch that. Obviously, if we dropped to Sunderland's form then it'd also make it easier for the others to catch us than what I've listed as well, but it gets messy with all the combos of (LCFC@x's form VS y's form required). Second table is the flip of that projection: If one of our rivals suddenly hits the same form we've shown so far this season (a nice round 2.5 PPG), what would LCFC require in order to stay ahead of them (with at least 2 having to do so for us not to get automatic). Again using Leeds as the example, they'd end on 98pts so we'd need to earn 1.65 PPG to match that.

Maswanhise, Marcal and Nelson on the bench. Lovely stuff, wonder if Alves/Braybrooke arent far behind. And just the 1 sub keeper too.

As much as a cup run is great, in 5 years time no one is gonna remember us getting to the quarter finals, and realistically we ain't gonna win it. Focus on the league, go up in style and break the points record and that'll stand for years. That said, I think it'd be more beneficial for us to get past Millwall and go out to a top prem side in the next round. Losing to championship opposition - even with a rotated squad - probably hits our momentum and encourages other teams in our remaining league games.

Get in! All the time in the world, and a lovely finish.

Yesssssss

They finished 6th when they got promoted from League 2 in 17/18 Prior to that, their most recent top-6 finish in any league was 1969. In that time, 3 relegations, 2 league cup semi finals and 1 FA cup win. Oh, and they won the football league trophy too in 16/17. We've had a more eventful 5 year period (so not even including the title) than their last 50.

It's a 3-way choice between Winks, KDH and Vestergaard (!!) I reckon. All 3 make us tick, and have been pretty consistent and reliable all season. KDH probably gets it as he's got more output than the other two, and there'll be an element of confirmation bias as he was already being touted as Championship POTS before a ball was even kicked.

Would have loved to see Engelbert Humperdinck on the bench over ward. Think of the chants...

Yeah, if anyone has a decent stream if appreciate a link

Anyone else still can't see it on the nowtv app?

Thanks for asking. So far, so good. I knew I needed to leave my old place, but coming here has made me realise just how much I needed that. Team is lovely, the work seems more engaging, I feel like there's a better work-life split and I'll be able to keep in control of my workload better. Genuinely felt a weight lift off my shoulders after my last handover meeting. Still going through all the various bits of training and haven't got stuck into any actual work myself, yet, just shadowing really, but I'm a lot more optimistic of this going forwards. I've had more moments where I've felt happy/content in the last 2 weeks than I have in months prior to that. Not 100% plain sailing and I still have plenty of stuff I need to figure out more generally, outside of work, but I feel like step one has got me going in the right direction again.