ALC Fox

Good deal all round. Should finish in the CL spots and has clearly had a good season. Yeah, Serie A isn't quite as strong as the PL but to be part of a side that will finish top 4 is a serious achievement. He joined us when we were a basket case - and suffered as a result - but Bologna are very, very far from that. He doesn't suit Enzoball unfortunately, but he's clearly a good player and if we can at least get our money back we can draw a line under it and move on. No hard feelings towards him at all. He often looked like the only one who cared at times last season.

Imagine running the literal length of Africa then some bozo turns up and makes you go out for a run not long after

He's still got the movement and he'll have more chance to run in behind next season. 100% yes. The man's a freak of nature, our best ever player and loyal to a fault when he could've gone to the Big 6 after the PL title win or Saudi last year.

What a goal that was

If Leeds lose tonight, Alves and Braybrooke need to get first-team minutes in the final two games of the season.

Wouldn't mind them riffing on the traditional. A remake of the white with black and sky blue sash would be lovely. Or even having a white sash on the home kit. Maybe even redoing the navy and jade but with a diagonal split a la Monaco's home kits instead of the vertical split. Or all white with burgundy accents in a nod to the FA Cup winning kit. Or white and burgundy stripes, or white with burgundy pinstripes. Basically anything that looks like a bit of thought has gone into it rather than just something random.

Thought he had a good chance of having a future here but if we can get a little money for him, it all helps. I imagine he's still under contract here. Remember when Jeff Schlupp had a trial at Man Utd when we were in the Championship? Even if his contract is up in the summer, is he still young enough for us to get a little compensation?

Piper 100%

We need him and A.N. Other. Whether that's Akgun or not I don't know. I was hoping he'd take his chance as one of the #8s when we needed bodies in that area but he hasn't really excelled in either position. If promoted, we'll need a similar profile winger as backup/competition with Fatawu and another one on the left to push Mavididi. McAteer and Wanya probably won't be seen as those players, and could help bring in a little bit of cash to help get towards that FFP/PRS line.

He took Forest from a relegation side to promotion. Also, then losing loads of players and bringing in loads more was probably a harder job than people think. He had resources, yes, but trying to get 20-30 new players to gel, figure out what your best team is, and keeping them happy while also working for a maniac was never going to be easy. I wouldn't mind Cooper here at all should we require a new manager. His work there, at Swansea and within the England youth set-up is encouraging in my opinion and he should get a decent PL job really, e.g. if Gary O'Neil were to jump ship at Wolves.

'Fluked' last-minute wins? The games are 90+ minutes, not 89 minutes. I'm sure those Bergwijn goals the other year were a fluke then? That we didn't defend horrendously and the momentum with Spurs didn't mean a thing? Always playing second will have been annoying, sure. But some teams thrive on chasing rather than being chased. If the manager and squad can't adapt to that situation then they didn't deserve to win anything

Nice to see Alves and Braybrooke starting. And great to see Popov get a goal and Thomas still making a mark despite the previously injured players coming back in. There's some promise in this academy if we adopt the Man City approach. They're massively benefitting from Pep being there for so long now, and having the set-up tailored to his style of football. We can follow a similar pattern - but we know that as our position in the pyramid is more changeable, so managers and coaches come and go more often. So while taking Man City as inspiration is a given, I'd also be looking at Swansea during their rise to the Premier League under Roberto Martinez, Rodgers, Brian Laudrup (and latterly as they've tried to get back to that model with Graham Potter, Steve Cooper and Russell Martin but had those managers poached). Basically, the point I'm making is that a coherent system should be producing the kind of players that will either be first-team ready or valuable assets to sell on.

All the teams near the top have had bad spells. Even when we were working things out, we were winning matches but you can't go through a 46-game season and not have a blip. And having a blip in this season, unfortunately, means that three other excellent teams will challenge you. All the others (with Southampton now dropping off slightly) have come through and are charging again. We need to do the same. If we can't, we don't deserve to win the league in this extraordinary season. Even during this bad spell, we've been creating chances AND we beat a Premier League team and gave another one a decent game. We can come through this playing the Enzo way. It isn't all doom and gloom. It's more nervy than we'd have hoped, but hopefully the fire is lit in the players now and we can kick on and finish the job.

I do agree, we've broken the rules, and the owners and those involved with running the club are to blame. What's strange, though, is that paying people handsomely; rewarding players, agents, management; and actually being able to afford to do it (in the simplest terms of the owners actually having the money to do so) is mainly what has caused the club to break the rules. Yeah, businesses consistently losing money isn't sustainable in the real world, but businesses often have money ploughed into them to keep them afloat or to help them invest. Football is weird and crazy and I don't know which side of the fence I fall. Clubs need to be protected for the fans and the normal people whose livelihoods depend on it, but why shouldn't owners (who can afford it) be allowed to invest? It's such a mess.

Massive win and dominant performance against a decent side. Intensity was there and we finally took some chances. I thought Doyle made a massive difference. Gave Fatawu loads of time and space to attack following the switch and linked up well with Mavididi and KDH too. Mavididi's goal was 🔥

Love Fatawu and he's having a much improved game but I do think he needs to sometimes just take an early shot with his laces or the outside of the boot instead of cutting inside where the traffic is. Obviously that's his strength but a bit of variation would be welcome and keep the opposition guessing a bit.

Probably our strongest side on paper. We need more from Doyle really, contributing towards the attack, passing forward and making crosses from deep. I can't help thinking that we need some impetus from a player really desperate to make a mark, such as Wanya, Alves or even another of the young lads (Silko Thomas, Amani Richards, Chris Popov, etc.). As much as we're capable of creating chances, at the moment we need the ball to go in the net through sheer force of will.

Should be two-year cycles. If needs be rotate one of them each year. If it's going to be three kits then three-year cycles with one of them changing each season. Give fans, parents, etc. a chance to keep up and have loads of fans all wearing the latest shirt in the stadium.

I always do

Win our game in hand and we're still top. But we need a turnaround fast. In fact, Ipswich should be our inspiration. They had a downturn quite recently and it looked like they couldn't buy a win. It looked like they were going to fall away. But they turned it around and now find themselves top of the pile without compromising on their style of play. We can do the same.

Fvck the PL, fvck the EFL, fvck UEFA, fvck FIFA, fvck PGMOL, fvck the Super League, fvck the Big Six and fvck VAR. Whatever happens, whatever state our club is in, we will always be here. Everything is temporary. Everything is transient. If we're in the doldrums for years, we'll rise again. Our city, our history and our fanbase won't allow us to be in the sh!t for too long. It could take a couple of years to steer the ship into calmer waters. It could take a decade. But we'll be back sticking it to the big boys again because that's who we are. KTF

Seems especially harsh if you manage to get within the £35m per year average but one year screws you for multiple 'periods'.

One thing I've yet to grasp conclusively about this is are there set three-year periods or are the three-year periods rolling year-to-year? For example, if there is a period including 21/22, 22/23 and 23/24, would the the next period be: (a) 24/25, 25/26, 26/27 (b) 22/23, 23/24, 24/25

We probably wouldn't have needed to chase Sensi with him as backup to Winks. I think he'd take to the Prem like a duck to water in Enzo's system as well. Let's hope he's able to rediscover the form that made him so promising before the injury.

Happy birthday @fuchsntf!