Finnegan

I'm not emotional, it's just objectively wrong. Leverkusen aren't a "mid sized regional club", they've been a consistent top 6 force in the Bundesliga and a regular presence in European competition for a couple of decades. They've frequently had squads padded out with some exceptional international players, particularly German ones, and produce some fantastic local talent through their own ranks. They've been comparable to like, idk, Tottenham over the last decade in Germany. They're also playing in a league that has far, far less money in it overall and closing the gap from the bottom to the top is a lot more frequent, hence how clubs like Stuttgart can recover from recent yoyo club status to putting together an extremely solid squad to make a genuine attack on the top four this year. Stories like this are a lot more common in the Bundesliga. Everybody gets fixated on Bayern winning every year and doesn't really pay attention to what's happening in the rest of German football where finances and the status of clubs is in much, much bigger flux than in England. I mean you mention Schalke and Hamburg but neither are even in the top flight now and Schalke are closer to 3 Liga than they are the Bundesliga. Monchengladbach are 13th in the top flight. With the obvious exception of Dortmund, none of the clubs you just named have been as competitive in Germany as Leverkusen for a few years now. And none of this is to take away from what Xabi Alonso has done this year. It is still absolutely incredible, for context even Bayern have never had an unbeaten season. It will be a phenomenal achievement, especially if they win the Europa League too (the Pokal is a bit of a joke, they've only played one Bundesliga team in the whole run. Even the final is against a 2 Bundesliga side that are sitting 14th having won 10 league games all year.) They've done it all whilst being great to watch, too. But still, suggesting it's a bigger achievement than our title win is just daft. It just isn't and the fact it isn't is further testament to how insane it is that we actually won the Premier League in our second season up with a squad that almost just got relegated and had their beloved manager forced out under controversial circumstances. Let's be honest, I don't even believe you believe it, I just suspect you're on the windup. I'd normally be ashamed to have bitten but I'm procrastinating hard right now and love a good chat about German football.

Leverkusen spent more money on established Champions League player, Granit Xhaka, than we did on the whole 15/16 squad. That's without looking at the fact they have a squad full of German, Czech, Brazilian, Nigerian, Spanish, Dutch, Argentine and Croatian internationals. Try again.

Narh. We know Sensi was a flawed signing. He's a very lightweight, seriously injury prone player in his late twenties that has been inconsistent with his impact in a slower, less physical league. We never wanted him because Enzo thought he was the future, we wanted him because Enzo was so short on mezzala options he was having to play a young, tiny loan winger in midfield. He wanted reinforcements then and there. Like the article says, I'm sure if we genuinely aren't interested in Sensi anymore it probably is because we're after a better caliber of signing there.

Patson Daka who, with 0.03 less than world class talent Jamie Vardy, had the second most G+A/90 of any player in the Championship with more than 1000 minutes with 0.99? FiRiNg BlAnKs.

For the 5848474748th time, it doesn't matter where the money comes from, the footballing side of the business at Man City is exemplary and anyone refusing to learn lessons from it purely because the business and money side may or may not be corrupt is brain dead. Txiki Begiristain is a genius, they have phenomenal staff and they negotiate very well, targeting round pegs for round holes and never almost never being pushed in to over paying. You'd have to be beyond thick to laugh at the suggestion that they are well run. Look at what United and Chelsea have done with comparable spends.

Like or loathe Man City, Enzo has just come from probably the best run football club in the world with one of the best DOF - Head Coach double acts that has ever been. If we can't and don't take suggestions from him on where we're weak and where we're strong behind the scenes and instead just let him go then it was pointless him coming in the first place. He's been very complimentary about a lot of things he. Love the facilities, has spoken highly of Glover, like most of the squad he's been given. The relationship doesn't have to fall apart but if it does because of persistent blind loyalty to Rudkin we really do have mqesiv problems.

Taking a dive so that Venkys pay well over market value to sponsor the canteen next year. Smart.

Narh. Not the right time. The first team deserve a chance to get 100 points and celebrate in front of the crowd and guys like Albrighton and Iheanacho should have a chance to say goodbye.

Why? He's got years left here. His career is just starting. Iheanacho deserves the chance to have a moment and say goodbye.

I mean quite possibly just a rumour started by someone googling Thai companies to put on the front of the shirt tbf as a guess. There's no official news source anywhere saying we have a new sponsor let alone the Thai state petroleum company.

I apologise for moaning about us being sponsored by a glorified betting company. Could we maybe take money from something somewhat more ethical than a fossil fuel company paying of a military junta, please? Maybe like a Sierra Leonean diamond mine or an Amazon based logging firm? **** me, modern football. Ah well, still another day I'm thankful we're not owned by an absolutist monarchy at ****ing least. Imagine trying to be smug about any other club's circumstances when you're sticking your head up the arse of a middle eastern dictatorship and pretending it smells of freedom.

I used to work with someone that met him on holiday and was at the same hotel. They said he was really lovely and pretty much made out they were best pals by the end of the week. Given how annoying I know this person can be and Kingy didn't tell them to bollocks, I've always assumed he has the patience of a saint.

Absolute cult hero.

I dont know why people are memeing on these tbh. The home looks pretty standard and if that's real I guarantee it looks better actually in person. Could end up being one of our nicer kits since 19/20. White away looks pretty generic and inoffensive. Actually kinda has a goalkeeper vibe to it. Granted the other one looks like a bag of charcoal but tbh if it turns out that's a goalkeeper kit, we all saw way worse in the 90s. Don't think there's anything that shocking here and it's probably not a real leak anyway.

We're a significantly better side than Blackburn. If Enzo picks our strongest possible side and sends them out with the attitude that we want to get 100 points but also to go and enjoy the atmosphere and the occasion then I can see us putting 3 or 4 on them tbh.

Our social media following absolutely dwarfs theirs. They undoubtedly have more actual fans, it's a much bigger city and a much bigger catchment area up here. But they have nowhere near, even vaguely, the same level of national - let alone international - attention that we have. It's just pure copium on their part. When we were relegated the whole country was shocked at how much of a drama it was that Leicester went down. When Leeds went down too the reaction was "well yeah that makes sense, and?"

Kieffer Kieffer Moore!

There isn't a chance the board and the owner would choose Enzo over Rudkin. If that happened we'd be out of a manager quickly. Like it or not, the fans are going to just have to live with Rudkin for the foreseeable future. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't trust the board to get the recruitment of a replacement right anyway. I don't think they fully understand the value of the role, otherwise we wouldn't have had one for so long with no real experience or philosophy.

The club is facing a points deduction and we have absolutely no idea what the financial future of the club is. It could be anything from the worst is already behind us, we eat a small points deduction but otherwise spend as normal and prepare for the Prem or it could be asset strip, sell everything of value, sign what loans we can, accept relegation and just try and bank the Prem & parachute money to rebuild in a few years. Literally none of us know and clearly, to an extent, that's including the players and manager at the moment. He's obviously going to be a bit cautious. I'm sure when the planning committee all come together to discuss the budget for next year and how we move forward, if they tell him we're going to be competitive next year and keep building then he'll be the manager for a while yet. But clearly when he turned up at one of the biggest clubs outside the Big Six in England and they immediately signed two England internationals for their second division campaign, he probably wasn't expecting to be blindsided by the financial mess that's appeared since. I just don't think there's much drama there or much point speculating at the moment, especially what he said in like his third language in an interview in which he was clearly struggling to hear the questions.

r/Championship is the most hilariously bitter place on social media right now It's been a fairly funny sub all season because they do that through-gritted-teeth thing where they pretend everyone is friendly and it's all banter but there's so much jealous needle in there, especially given its 70% Leeds and Sunderland fans, it's ****ing hilarious. Right now every post is either snide comments about us having more money and better players or just saying we'll be back next year anyway because obviously we're getting a 100 point deduction and we're crap really. So much copium. I've never seen so much.

Fairly standard Leeds social media behaviour

They're almost as desperate as the Cov loons Jesus christ.

At the risk of being boring and not reading the room, Blackburn are one of the most dangerous sides in the bottom half and they need a win to be sure. If we want 100 points (and we should) we should play our strongest side. Plus, the core players that have won it for us deserve the chance to sign off in style in front of a home crowd. Only special treatment I'd be handing out would be Albrighton and Iheanacho off the bench for a chance to say goodbye and have a clap. Space them out at least 10 minutes apart ideally so they can both have a good reception separately. Wouldn't start either of them.

Look at them all saying goodbye

Sorry I didn't mean succeeding, just attempting. Who knows. It'll depend on what he wants vs what we can afford. I'm sure the club would happily give him another year but I imagine it'd have to be at a reduced rate. If some foreign club want to give him a holiday and a pay day he might be convinced to go.