Finnegan

**** me I knew things were bad but I didn't realise Michael Gove was the new Technical Director.

"A player is doing really well, should we move him to a different position" Marti, is that you?

How much did you pay for Halifax? Tickets were 140 when we looked. ****ing mental surge pricing, Ticketmaster bastards. We ended up doing Cardiff instead for half the price. Still nuts, even for an anniversary show. Were great at Download this year though, Rise Against not so much. Jim Adkins voice still phenomenal, Tim McIlrath sounded dreadful. Not sure if just a one off or if age has really caught up to him. Third or fourth time I've seen them and always fine before but this was the first time in maybe a decade.

I'm a pretty big cynic and I have to admit even I have a hard time thinking we'll give Antonio any significant contract. I doubt he's got hundreds of offers and I doubt we have the money to actually be reckless and irresponsible even if Rudkin would, which I accept he might.

So a massive upgrade on our Julian then.

There's categorically no chance of this. It might "only" be 5m euros but that's a **** load we don't actually need to spend. Even if we convinced him to sign, which we won't until he knows what league we'll be in, we could kick the fee for this down the road to next season and spend that money this January if we had it. Which we don't. Similarly unlikely. Why would Stuttgart bother when they can take their time. He's doing OK there, well enough to warrant a permanent move. But not so well they have to risk Bayern coming and offering us 50m in the summer if they don't act now. The absolute best we get is a loan with someone paying about half (if we're lucky) of his wages. Nobody is going to be so desperate for him they pay a fee when he's out of contract in the summer. We have an abysmal track record in this position. There's about a 99% chance he stinks the place out til July being paid full and not playing another minute. Antonio looks about done. Probably means Carranza is gone but, again, we have some harrowing previous. You'd like to think if we've learned from any mistake it's French Eddie but we were pretty desperate going for Carranza to begin with so who knows.

Now you're getting it. In all seriousness, though, I'm working under the assumption we're scraping the very bottom of the very last barrel. I don't see us spending a penny in January and given how desperate Antonio will probably be to prove himself at a club that has our profile, I really doubt he'll be commanding much fee. I reckon even bringing in some promising youngster from a Prem academy for a few months probably comes with more administrative cost than this likely will.

I'm reliably informed that Antonio has both a door and a window.

Something something fitter than Ayew something something

He's 35. He's not exactly going to be sprinting laps of the King Power in record time anyway. People are acting like he's in a wheelchair. We've had him training here for a week or two. If he couldn't mix it with professional athletes we wouldn't be considering it would we.

If its a contract to the end of the season then I really have no major problem with it. It'll have very little impact financially, people thinking he'll be on Prem money are being silly. Even we aren't that stupid, yes really. Even with one leg he's better than Ayew, Daka and Carranza.

"His intelligence bringing other people in to play" is probably his biggest weakness and what I hate the most about him. This might be a funny thing to say for someone so obsessed with data but I can actually forgive low numbers if there's still some metrics by which someone shines. I loved Shinji. Didn't score, didn't assist, was an absolute statistical aberration by most metrics but we don't win the league without him. He created so much space for Vardy and he was also an absolutely vital pivot that connected up a lot of our play on halfway. A lot of our progression up the pitch was balls fired at Shinji and him turning and laying it off to someone more gifted in the final third. I'd love Ayew to contribute this way but he's the most head-down player we have. He plays like a 12 year old on the playground that thinks he's the best on the team. Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble down blind alleys, get tackled and lose the ball. If he's lucky, win a foul then waste the free kick.

My first thought was "christ that's amazing" My second thought was "how many more times is he going to try that this year" Absolutely love Abdul, he's pure cinema. But there's 0% chance this won't go to his skull a bit bless him haha. He's got a touch of the Knockys, think that's why I love him so much.

Sure, that's been true 21 times so far this season. Hell, it's been true for Norwich 21 times so far this season. Hasn't done much to inform the outcome.

We just won comfortably so the next match has to be an abject disappointment.

It's absolutely embarrassing how weak our squad is mentally. Boys, you conceded one freak goal, you're still two up with fifteen minutes left and these have been crap all game and now they're resorting to McAteer. They've only scored because we had a brain fart. Just chill. If they get anything from this game it'll 100% be because of panic and nothing else.

Of all teams we probably most owed Ipswich this. The amount of spawny points they've had off us in the last couple of years in games in which we've been much better than them.

Skipp

A little bit I guess but I don't think he gets anywhere near the same amount of stick.

In fairness, I think he's looked solid at this level all season. I didn't hate the signing when he came in as much as Ayew and I think he's the far more dynamic of the two. All season he's gotten a mostly decent reception in here tbf. He doesn't get memed on the same way some of the rest do.

Wonder goal, the Ipswich commentators not impressed

Bobby

Listening to the optimism on the Ipswich commentary makes me sick.

God I'll miss JJ when we're in League One and he signs for Cov to be closer to Lutterworth.