Ric Flair

Jake is back later this week so we will get an episode done soon.

Gonna hit like crack when he's scampering around the pitch again for us looking like he's forgot his coat. Love the bloke.

I've got the benefit of a good work mate who is a prolific ultra marathon runner, did the 100 miler in Snowdonia in May as well. So I will pick his brains as I plot my training, I've found Chat GPT pretty useful so far too as I've done a broad plan. Looking like a few weeks of upwards of 40-45 miles which will be mind mending on hos to fit it in but will keep you posted.

I was wondering how you might be fairing up. What long distance running does to the body and immune system is quite astonishing. I've just finalised my plans for 2026. Ultra marathon (34 miles) in March 2026 having never ran further than 20 miles and then Manchester marathon April 19th 2026. Need a careful training plan, might need to bring my ultra forward (it's just a run in memory of my mum from Welwyn Garden City to Bedford) as otherwise I could annihilate myself.

Brendan up to his old tricks again, it feels like an element of justice to hear a high ranked director of one of his clubs state some of the things we presume happened with us. He'll still get another job in the PL but it is unlikely to be an exciting project that his ego needs, he'll need to change drastically in order to get that opportunity again. Looking back though at our troubles, I don't see another path after 2021/22 that sees us not be absolutely fcuked and whilst 3 years ago I blamed Rodgers almost exclusively for the decline, knowing what we think we know now and seeing the mismanagement from Top and Rudkin, the causation of our deep routed problems run far deeper than the actions of Brendan Rodgers. I've now shifted this to 50/50 between Brendan and his staff (such as Congerton) and the ownership and board/directors (such as Rudkin). Given we sold Fofana and Maddison and still had 3 year losses greater than the maximum allowance, I'm honestly not sure how the club expected an alternative outcome. Tielemans was always walking away for free once we failed to sell him that summer, as was Soyuncu, Perez and others. At £2.5m a PL place or whatever it was, and being exposed to whatever the cost of needing to replace Rodgers at any time would pitch that at requiring CL qualification I think which is staggering. The problems our club got themselves in was believing they could dine at the big boys table and the financial obstacles could be dealt with later down the line but there was never any evidence that was viable. Where was the commercial revenue increases during our successful period for reflect us doubling our wage bill, who was responsible for the wages structure - Brendan boasted his tenure had brought renumeration for his squad to that of a big club but more fool the club if they acted solely on the request of that from their manager. Likewise failing to protect high value assets running down their contracts, and I don't mean by not giving them yet another contract on more money but being proactive at moving players on for a fee. I still think the most destructive issue we had though was Brendan's astonishing contract, that was reported to be £10m a year for 5 years and if reports are true he got paid in full for the remainder of his contract when we did eventually sack him would suggest we had agreed to a reckless potential liability of £50m reducing on the balance sheet by £10m a year that the remainder would be released in full back to the P&L in the year in question. How on earth do you plan financially with something like that around your neck? I cannot believe that is true but if Rodgers and his staff got the reported £20m pay off with around 2 years left of his contract then it computes. Deeply disturbing. What goes around comes around. Celtic should be relieved he's gone.

1 win in 8 games however you cut it is appalling. Whilst it's possible good form will come, the underlying stats the entire time he has been here have concerned me. We don't create enough and we give up a lot of high quality chances to the opposition so over time that'll result in failure which you could suggest we are now seeing hence the relegation form over 8 games.

Hahahaaaa I remember thinking, this is a bit niche dodging cars and barriers 😂😂😂😂

A better comparison is managers currently doing better than Cifuentes who were appointed in the summer as well. But what I'd be keen as well to try and establish is in the past managers who started poorly at a newly relegated club and went on to turn it around.

He could but what evidence is there that he has EVER made changes at board room level that make sense?

Souttar's performance at this level last season is better than anything any of our current defenders are serving up, when he's back fit he'd be the first name on the team sheet at the back. Nelson likewise was excellent at Oxford at this level, they are the future. Not Faes who wants out and not Vestergaard, although I'd much rather him around the place than Faes. Aluko is ready, the bar is so low as well with how bad our left back currently is. Same can be said for up front too. You do realise we've won 1 in 8, are barely scoring and our defence are good for at least one howler a game that leads to a soft goal? The rebuild needs to start. Promotion is not happening, especially not if a points deduction is applied. Do the rebuild now, like he keeps referring to.

Stolarczk Ricardo Nelson Souttar when fit (Okoli until then) Aluko Winks James Fatawu Ramsay Evans/Monga Mavididi I'd try Mavididi centrally with Evans taking up a wide role who can interchange. One thing that Evans is very good at too is physical duels so he will track back and cover his full back. People may be concerned with Aluko and Evans as a pairing but it could be a fluid front three that depending on opponents and how the game is going might need a shift to get the balance of defence and attack right.

I first heard it in pre-season, so within a few weeks of him being here there were players turning up late or not even bothering. If that is true then I suspect it was want away players but whether any remain is not clear. Heard again last week some murmurings but the toxic nature of our club, fans included (mainly people like me) it's not surprising if it is true. Not sure what the answer is other than Top needs to sell up.

As I've said, I wouldn't necessarily have a load of them in the starting line up unless they show they are better choices than their counterparts but I'd have 3-4 of them on the bench and around the matchday squad. Nelson and Aluko should be starting. Page and Monga should be impact subs challenging Mavididi and Ramsay/Reid for the attacking midfield role. Jake Evans right now has to be considered an option when our attack is so toothless. Promotion is not happening, the rebuild we keep hearing being name checked is an absolute myth, build the squad around those academy players and maybe it's a label that can be used.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQR-A9wjSA8/?igsh=MTI0aW9jNXZhdGFoYQ==

Yeah, tail between her legs and snuck off as everyone else joined back up with the runners on Charles St

Well well well the pacer who took my pen will probably never be asked back. Took us the wrong fcukin way for 0.3 km and she pretended she needed to do her laces up and then ran back the other way and home the cooont. 😂😂😂😂 Average pace was 4 min 59 seconds which brought me in at my target but my official time will be over. People were going wild hahahahaaaa I had a pepperami and righted a few wrongs up the business end.

Would you like me to be the cat?

I'd not throw loads in but there were 3-4 that should have been in the 1st team squad and on the bench at the very least. Nelson, Aluko, Page, Monga. Evans form should propel him in to the reckoning as well given the 1st team struggles. Nelson and Aluko should be starting.

It's the deep routed malaise and culture of the place. Whilst this squad has weaknesses, it has enough to challenge top 6 without getting out of 2nd gear but we haven't the desire or wherewithal to do so. Cifuentes biggest mistakes is following the same path previous managers have who think they are finally the ones to get a tune out of serial flops who don't want to be here. If he wants to keep the fans at least tolerating him then he needs to take a hard line but I've already heard the players don't respect him so he's really up against it. He's quite possibly missed his chance to make his mark when he had the nucleus of our best academy players in and around the 1st team squad. If he'd been clear this was the rebuild and would be the priority and anyone outside of that will have to work extremely hard to get a chance then he'd likely have got a bigger % of players with the correct attitude and application that would be fighting for the cause. Instead he's dropped them like a hot cake for the likes of Faes, Reid and Soumare. Hideous.

Really needs a loan in January. That said with our ACMs dropping like flies and Page off to the U17 World Cup, Marti might be forced to have a look at him in the 1st team.

Should have moved him on in the summer, typical of us.

That's class mate, well done!!

This manager, players and ownership have another relegation in them.

It's now gross negligence as to why Ben Nelson isn't even on the bench, likewise Bade Aluko. Disgusting Cifuentes.

This is 2004-2008 years, although I think it'll take far less than 4 years for us to be relegated and the back of Aiyawatt. If you could offer me administration right now and it meant new ownership I'd snap your hand off. It's the only way we get systematic change off the field is if the ownership changes.