Steve Earle

Oh myth off, Debbie downer!

😅 My seat is virtually opposite the directors box. My current plan is to leave it empty all next season in protest. Unless of course there’s major change…

Two great pods (Northcroft & the GOAT). It’s awful but plainly true that with the current trifecta in charge, only blind luck can save us from yet more misery. I’m just about done with football* anyway, like Jord, but the leadership of our club, two dreadful managers & the least likeable playing squad we’ve ever had has done more than anything to push me there. *I can just about tolerate international football (though there’s too much of that, and the tournaments get more bloated every four years) and lower league footy. Might spend more time on ‘doing the 92’ next season than at the KP…

I’ve not been since January, despite having had a season ticket for over 40 years. I won’t be going to the last two home games either. Fully expect Vardy to miss the Ipswich game, like yesterday’s penalty chance. This ownership/board/management/playing squad has done something I couldn’t have imagined at any point in the last 60 years: they’ve killed my interest in the team.

Fixed that for you. JJ is one of those (cf Ndidi, Vestegaard) who've just been here too long...

The cost of sacking him, just maybe? It’s a lesson our club refuses to learn unfortunately. £4m release clause for Corberan? No way! £10m to sack Cooper & team? Ok then…

Who knows? But I suspect we’ll be lucky & no one will offer us enough of a profit to make it worth selling him this summer…

Stolarczyk New Free Transfer GK Bausor Ricardo Coulibally Nelson Souttar Okoli Coady Thomas Aluko Skipp Braybrooke New CDM Cartwright Fatawu Monga McAteer El Khannouss Alves Mavididi Ayew Evans New ST New ST New ST being the obvious problem. Vardy has to go, so, surely does Daka. Evans might be a decent second or, more likely, third choice striker. I’d expect him and Ayew to cover third striker between them. Whatever budget we have has to be invested here, and a starter in MF

Did Evan play?

JJ is one of those who, though he’d be great at LB in the Championship, has just been here too long. He has to go, for his sake and ours. Ndidi ditto. Vestegaard double ditto.

You’re right that Enzo was initially approached after Rodgers was sacked. But I’m pretty sure I remember reading a piece by a connected journalist (was it Tom Collomosse?) that said Scott Parker was seen as a specialist ‘get-out-of-the-championship’ manager, and was their first choice at the start of the summer?

One omission from that sound analysis is that Maresca too ‘fell into our lap’ after we were turned down by Scott Parker!

It has been ever since Brendan left…

Love this team! And I’ve no idea who Aluko is! But at least there’s no Faes, JJ, Coady, Vestegaard, Kristiansen, Winks, Skipp, Ndidi, Soumare, Ayew, Vardy or De Cordova Reid. Mind, what has Luke Thomas done to upset @Ryy?

Captain next season. And the only established first team player I'd like to see here next season.

I’m not sure you understand how this works? For example, you can’t sell an out-of-contract player, never mind Danny Ward.

The GOAT, no question, and my favourite player of all time too. But he's outstaying his welcome and become part of the problem. He has to go at the end of the season. With love, thanks & best wishes. But go.

Agreed, except the Dyche point! But the biggest problem we have is the Chairman, DoF and CEO, who will lead the process to recruit the next manager. I wouldn't trust them to run a whelk stall. The only big decision they got right in recent years (Enzo) was pure luck, thanks to Scott Parker saying no.

Have you clocked who employs him?

I think Daka made a very strong case tonight for never playing for us again! But I agree that Evans surely won’t be our starting striker next season. We’ll need one if not two strikers. Hopefully Evans will be second or third choice?

Drain the swamp!

100% true. And it’s worse than that @ClaphamFox. Enzo was plan B after our first choice, Scott Parker. Another couple with similar visions, not. Then, when we decided, rightly or wrongly, to get rid of Cooper, our shortlist of two was Potter (for the 3rd time) & Moyes. I mean, in what world would a competent board even consider both? It wouldn’t happen at Brighton or any of thx other clubs mentioned in your post. And you’re forced to wonder if the club even contemplated both Potter and Moyes turning them down. Because plan C was a pure punt, not remotely evidence based.

He’s not good enough for the level we’re temporarily at. He knows that, we know that. But, unlike Coady, Vestegaard & some others, he’s saleable. We can & will get £5-10M for him this summer from some European team, & if we had a competent DOF, we’d snatch their hands off at any bid in that range. Unfortunately, our DOF turned down £4M for Iverson and £10M for, ahem, McAteer…

It’s too late, isn’t it? It might’ve helped 18 months ago or even last summer. But having let the same people make the same mistakes and the club sleep walk to relegation for the second time in three years, an apology would now be seen for what it would be: cynical, insincere & leading to no meaningful change. We’re now in Rudkin goes or Top goes or both go territory. No other way forward that doesn’t see even more toxicity

Mads is the only player we have now who would get in the relegation XI of 2023. That tells you two profoundly awful things: 1 how on earth did 22/23 end in relegation? Top? Rudders? Brendan? The most avoidable relegation ever. 2 how far we’ve fallen under the same incompetents in two years