fazzyfox

Always loved Chaventry City, wonderful place, wonderful people, a lovely homely club

I heard there will be a sheet of paper on each seat with either a number, decimal point or blank space on, at kick off we lift them up creating a giant spreadsheet

Starts off looking fairly promising then goes down hill quickly - how appropriate for us

“Welcome to the first home game of the 24/25 season, .number 1 Dasaany Ward, a big welcome for debutant number 9 Ashley f*****g Barnes…….

He did and that’s how he truly claims the clubs future is secure, but the ffp rules focus on allowed losses , your expenditure against your income, writing off the debts may have reduced outgoing interest payments but other than that doesn’t help the rule breaking of being above the threshold over the rolling 3 year period.

Whilst giving out bonkers wages is the unforgivable cause we have to realise that on the player trading side of things this is real life not a PC / Console game. We turned down a derisory bid from Newcastle for Madison and Vestergaard rejected a move to Fulham, an Italian club kept trying to move the goalposts to sign Praet, maybe a bid for Iverson who was still developing, other than that we would have been happy to move on fringe players and failures but bids for Perez, Amartey, Mendy, Choudhury, Soumare, Praet (low bid from Atalanta?), Ward last Summer / this winter etc (and the time it took to shift Slimani), were not forthcoming, not surprisingly when you look at the players potential wage demands to match what we pay and the fees wanted / needed in relation to the bidding clubs size / budget. Teams above us didn’t need them, teams beneath us couldn’t afford them, the teams we were competing with around 7th or 8th such as the likes of West Ham, maybe Everton a couple of years back, Villa and more recently Brighton had their own investment and scouting strategies leaving the foreign market, leagues with less money around as the only likely destinations. I’m not saying not being able to sell fringe players for good fees was our biggest problem or a hugely significant hindrance to our model but before saying we “should have sold them and not let their contracts run down” define “let”, the dye was cast when we paid them too much, once you’ve done that you can’t find a buyer or force them out unless you pay off their contract early, you may have got 20 million for Soumare on Football Manager once but this is real life.

Their number 7 looked lively at times but other than that it was just a testimonial-like lump in Ashley Barnes alongside Art Garfunkel, offering very little, with to be fair, very little service.

I have a sneaky feeling that either Ipswich or Southampton or maybe both, will be dropping points today.

You could see confidence grow, more first time balls in the final third, less panicky around their box and some great intensity of pressing.

What is this strange sensation I’m feeling, I vaguely recall it from yonder days of distant past…..I’m actually smiling 😊

YESSSSS, I can almost relax now…..almost

There’s something in that, like it was always his destiny to play here in the same way Arsene Wenger managed Arsenal, Wolfgang Wolf managed Wolfsburg, De-Wolf played for Wolverhampton and Kuntz played for Germany.

Keep going Fatty, you’ve got your man on toast

They’ll get a rollicking at half time for producing such an exciting moment outside of the established model of play, how dare they!

Gerrin there !

Sargent a major threat

I know that the train route via Ely which they would have used was showing no service today, (was expecting a Sunday service at least), meaning I couldn’t come from Cambridge, alternative was in to London then up or coaches, mine would have got in with too little time to spare, really p***** off.

Did he become a father or is it some kind of fetish thing?

A day for Postman Patson to deliver, we need all our CF's to be more ruthless even if they are feeding off scraps at times. He had a good run a few months ago, just wonder whether his confidence has gone flat and momentum has gone. Surely there's goals when you've got him, Nacho and Vardy available, it's an obscene option at this level, just wish we looked for early goals and look to add more if and when we do go ahead, the whole approach needs to be more ruthless.

Cor, what a Teese, I Wood Bunk'er in the rough but I have a fairway to go before I'm lifting her cups

No sign of Hermansen or Stolarczyk at the players arrival, talk of a training ground virus situation, that new Loof Lirpa strain. Ward present and set to start

Arsenal team news - Jesus returns today

Referencing the deaths of Larry Lloyd and Trevor Francis to stir the emotions and try to galvanise the club for a final push out of trouble, “We’re all in it together, all part of the same thing” kind of message. Funny thing though, I was there in Nottingham the day after their play off win and they had a big shindig in the town hall square. I nearly let my mask slip when they announced Jack Colback as “The Ginger Pirlo” and I laughed like a Hyena! The owner gave a speech basically saying what happened in the past in the Clough era was very special, a fairy tale, but fans need to forget all that and focus on the present day and future. Debatably reasonable attitude but come the first need for a rallying cry and his club put it back out there. It’s completely natural to reflect on Lloyd this week however it’s framed and whatever the owners philosophy is, quite why they turned it into a “Where’s Wally” Collage (centre, in suit blazer and T-Shirt) I’m not so sure.