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Step 1: get best players Step 2: get it forward Step 3: get promoted

The same people arguing the same points over and over about which of two totally shit managers they'd rather have. How anyone can have a strong preference for either is beyond me

As above, CFS is good for genuinely legit stuff and there's often some nice stuff in sales and clearance for decent prices. If you're specifically looking for "totally legit" shirts then I would (entirely theoretically, because I personally would never dream of purchasing counterfeit goods) recommend looking at the Soccer00 subreddit. They have a big spreadsheet with a list of vendors and also where to look for individual teams and shirts if you're after something specific.

I know what you mean but it would be an unusual arrangement for the club to agree to given how poorly it reflects on them, and the reports from Percy and others have also suggested he genuinely has been left in the dark. For all that Ruud has handled it in a dignified manner, he has also made quite a few comments indicating he'd really rather have some clarity, for his sake and the club's. I don't see who the continued uncertainty benefits. Logic dictates that no news means he'll be gone, because otherwise they would presumably want him to be looking ahead to next season already, but then logic would also dictate not throwing money at shit like Oliver Skipp and Odsonne Edouard when you're perpetually rubbing up against PSR limits, so **** knows what we're actually planning.

The worrying thing is I think one of us was being serious

Yep, they would be even better! I'm glad you share my faith in him.

Provided his confidence isn't permanently in the bin and we're not totally shit, that seems a reasonable expectation. 7 goals 5 assists last time out in about 1000 minutes of game time - 2nd best G+A/90 of anyone in the division (to have played a significant amount of minutes) after Vards. I would be surprised if we are as good as we were, or create as many chances as we did, under Enzo but still he ought to score a reasonable amount. As is demonstrated every year, you don't need to be a particularly outstanding striker to do that in the Championship.

Failing that, see if we can tempt Slot or Emery

I can't remember the last time I saw a game of theirs that didn't end with them just launching it up to Maguire, which is the only time they look even vaguely threatening. Staggeringly bad.

Haha that sounds bleak. I saw something the other day about someone submitting an assignment that they'd outsourced to ChatGPT but they'd left the prompt and response in, thick twat.

Nah not for me Clive, too many inconsistencies/errors in the punctuation and spacing. AI does love an em dash but so do lots of people

That is not true

Yeah go on then. We obviously have no interest at all in being a serious football club anymore so might as well just try and lean right into the absurdity. Dropping into the Championship with a points deduction courtesy of the authorities and then a second, self-imposed one in the shape of Russell Martin is the ideal start

I personally thought the authorities were well out of line when they forced us to spend £20m+ on Oliver Skipp for Steve Cooper, who they also made us appoint

Even aside from his character, Coady was also presumably recruited to be the one at the centre of the back three we settled into when we had the ball under Enzo. I don't think many people would have expected that he would then get what was seemingly the first injury of his career in pre-season, or that Vestergaard would seize the opportunity to come from nowhere and establish himself as a key player. I can't stand him but there was definitely at least some sense behind signing him, if not in the amount of money he's supposedly on.

I sympathise with him to a degree because the squad is clearly not great and the people above him aren't either. From the sounds of it he's still well and truly in the dark about his future a month on from relegation which can't be helpful. Unfortunately, he has given us so little reason to believe he is up to the task, or that if there is to be something like a rebuild he is the person we would want helming it. The way we operate seems to place a disproportionate amount of responsibility on the manager to steer the ship, and a couple of wins against two of the least capable, least arsed teams in the history of the competition is not enough to make me enjoy the thought of him doing so. I find it very difficult to imagine we wouldn't be better off next season with a new face, someone who doesn't have the stench of failure and the memory of those horrific runs of form following them around. I also find it hard to imagine his compensation would amount to so much money that keeping him on and spending it on players instead would markedly improve our chances of going up - I don't think that argument works at all.

He did also create the goal by winning the ball back, carrying it about 40 yards up the pitch and playing Vardy in so shall we maybe leave him be?

I broadly agree and I'm also pretty sick of every game turning into an opportunity to have a dig at the officials, but coming out your box to slap the ball away from a striker who essentially has an open goal comes under cynical foul for me. I think it's pretty extraordinary they've looked at that and concluded it's not a clear goalscoring opportunity apparently on the basis that he's not going in a straight line towards the goal.

His teams are usually quite good at that to be fair

It is about long-term progress as opposed to short-term. The only realistic way I can see of us getting back to, or anywhere close to, where we were is harnessing the potential of the academy and training ground, which means providing a clear pathway to the first team for young players. That doesn't have to mean starting them every game or never signing anyone over the age of 21, but it does mean giving opportunities and squad places to players like Alves, Monga and Evans - players who we can reasonably expect to improve and give us some return on our investment in them. I don't really see why anyone would not want that.

I reckon they'll be invigorated with Joel Ward on the overlap and some big lump of shit target man to play off

I yearn, as ever, for the sweet chevrons of Hummel. Macron do some nice stuff too. I've always had Umbro down as a bit plain but some of their away and third numbers this year have been very jazzy

Danny Ings would probably be quite good if he could stay fit and if he didn't want paying much, which unfortunately are two of the biggest ifs in human history

It's poor in that it's notoriously scrappy and there's usually a clear gap in quality between the rotating cast of Premier League dropouts and the rest, which is what makes getting into the playoffs worth shouting about. Doubly so for a team who have spent hardly anything over the past decade or so and who I would guess are comfortably in the bottom half in terms of wages. Gus Hamer cost more than Bristol City's starting eleven last night and I doubt he's the only Sheff Utd player that's true of. To be clear, I have no particular desire for Manning to come here - I know next to nothing about him and prior to yesterday I doubt I could have picked him out of a lineup. Getting Bristol City to the playoffs is just obviously a good achievement and the sort that will naturally get a manager, especially a young one, linked to better jobs. As far as I can tell it's the second time in their entire history they've made the second tier playoffs, so I would suggest the size of the city doesn't exactly make it a given. If it's not too late for your mam to get her coaching badges sorted then she ought to get cracking because she'll be in demand.

Well yeah that's presumably why