Staffs Fox

Whilst I generally dont give a **** what fans of other clubs think, I do get annoyed when some rival fans look at our current financial situation and say ‘we’re now paying for those years of success’. That’s got nothing to do with it! We won the league on a shoestring budget and then the FA Cup team was built on shrewd signings and selling well. Sell Maguire, buy Soyuncu and Fofana, sell Chilwell buy Castange etc. Our current situation is down to the years that immediately followed the success with awful transfer business and the fact the clowns behind the scenes didn’t consolidate our great position by making us better commercially. So in summary, I think we’re viewed as entitled fans who had their 15 minutes of fame and now back where they belong because they spent their way to success. Which is bollocks but there we are

The manager has been in the job a week, we’ve got a bloated squad full of overpaid wasters and there’s still 6 weeks left of the transfer window. We just need to calm down. Let’s allow the new manager time to assess what he has, hopefully we can bin off a couple of the high earners in the meantime and see what we look like at the start of September. Aside from a centre forward (and I even think Mavididi and Ayew could do a decent job at this level) I think our squad looks ok. Is it currently as well rounded as the last time we went into the Championship? No. But look at the below and tell me that side doesn’t finish near the top. Hermansen Ricardo. Okoli. Nelson. Thomas Winks. Skipp Fatawu. BEK. Monga Mavididi Yes Mads and BEK likely to leave but until that day we need to operate as if they’re part of the squad. The above doesn’t include Faes, Vestergaard, Coady, Ndidi, Soumare, Ayew, BDR, Chowdhury, Justin, Daka……. That is how bloody bloated we’ve allowed our squad to become. No wonder we’re not signing anyone until we can clear some out

After 1 ticket for this if possible. DM me if so. Thanks

Yeah I can’t see to many signings without any outgoing and who would want to sign anyone from us after last season?? Our squad is still bloated in my opinion for the Championship. GK Hermansen Stolarczyk FB Justin Kristiansen Ricardo Thomas Coulibaly CB Faes Coady Vestergaard Okoli Nelson CM Ndidi Skipp Winks Soumare Chowdhury Golding AM BEK McAteer Fatawu BDR Mavididi Monga CF Daka Ayew Most of the above have performed woefully for us but you can’t deny that is stacked for the Championship. It’s no wonder we haven’t signed anyone when you have that squad with 50% or more you’d like to shift. That said, you can make a fairly good Championship XI plus subs out of that lot I know there’s a month to go so a lot will likely change but this wins the championship Hermansen Ricardo*. Okoli. Nelson Thomas Ndidi. Winks Fatawu. BEK. Monga Mavididi *when fit, Justin when he’s not. That does leave the deadwood out of the team still on high wages (Coady, Faes, Vestergaard, Soumare, Ayew etc) but I’d rather not go into next season with them in the first XI given their showing last season

I just do not understand this England squad. These games are a great time to try new ideas with them being a qualifier against Andorra and a friendly. Instead we still have Kyle Walker, Jordan Henderson and a recalled Ivan Toney. Are these people going to play a key part in the World Cup next year? I hope not. Yet the likes of Branthwaite, Livramento and Wharton who could easily be starting next summer yet are nowhere to be seen.

He certainly wasn’t what was needed this season but if he’s still here, he’ll be great in the Championship, with him Mavididi, Fatawu and a new number 9 we should be ok in that part of the pitch. I wish I could say the same about the other parts though

I think there’s definite truth in nostalgia playing a part in our perception of things. For example I was born in 1986 so my earliest footballing memories are just as the Premier League era started, therefore I think of clubs like Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn and Middlesbrough as top flight teams whereas because I’ve been used to seeing Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth slogging it out in the lower divisions for most my life, I can’t get used to them being in the Premier League no matter how long they stay. If someone said to me, list a table of how the Premier League should look based on history, it’d probably like identical to 96-97😂 Same with the World Cup, my favourite is 98 (although I have great memories of 2006)

Yeah to have the title and relegation sorted with a month to spare to not a good look for the PL however that shouldn’t take anything away from Liverpool’s title win. They’re on course for 90 points which is a great achievement worthy of winning any league. The main problem is obviously down the bottom. If a team can get established in the PL (Bournemouth, Fulham, Brentford etc) the money they get widens the gap beyond all reasonable competition and since PSR has reared its ugly head it’s just made matters 10x worse. Gone are the days of 6/7 sides realistically in danger of relegation. In the recent past you had sides like Burnley, Norwich, Swansea, West Brom in the Premier League who all operated on shoestring budgets but managed to stay up some seasons so the promoted had a bit of realistic competition. Now look who are 16th and 17th, West Ham and Spurs! One could argue they’re just underperforming but another way of looking at it is that just shows how strong the leagues has gotten but the quality is more spread around. West Ham have Jarrod Bowen, Kudus, Pacqueta, spent £40m+ on Kilman. Spurs spent £60m on Solanke, have a squad where practically every player cost £40m+ and this is meant to be our nearest competition?! Our record signing, wouldnt break the top 5 of either of those clubs and was from 6 years ago! In fact only 3 of our top 10 record signings still play for us and only one is a regular (BEK). He cost £19m! That doesn’t get you a back up goalkeeper these days and this is who the likes of us, Southampton, Sheffield United are meant to go toe to toe with. Don’t get me wrong it’s self sabotage to an extent because we should never have gotten relegated in 2023 with that squad but it doesn’t discount how impossible it is to be competitive in this league

Carragher hit the nail on the head. This isn’t a Ruud or current crop of players who are to blame, this is board level and goes back years. For a club to go from European Football to relegation in 2 years is inexcusable

This isn’t sour grapes or wishful thinking but I genuinely do believe Forest finish 6th this season and do what we did in 2020 and 2021. Newcastle look formidable, Man City will find a way to get enough points. Then I think now Villa are out of Europe they can put their foot down and catch the 3 points up to Forest. That said, the next two games for Villa are huge. Chelsea are Chelsea and **** knows what they’re doing

2 years ago Tamworth were playing Coalville, Barwell and others in the Southern Central Premier Division now they’re 3 points outside the playoffs in the National League for potential promotion to League Two. Regardless of what happens between now and the end of the season that’s a remarkable effort

It’s not actually watching Leicester but about 7 years ago I went to watch Hertha Berlin vs Dortmund in Berlin in January and the game got moved to Friday night and it was by far the coldest I’ve ever been in my life! I couldn’t wait for the game to finish. I think it was around -8

It’s really difficult to say without knowing all the stuff that goes on in the background. I remember when we won the FA Cup, Top was on the pitch with Rodgers and Ian Wright was saying how amazing it is to have such amazing owners and he’s jealous (I think he was referring to Arsenal and Kronke). On the surface he was right. We’d won our second major trophy in 5 years. Built a really good side based on great recruitment and looked a club on the up. However what was happening on the pitch was clearly papering over what was happening off it. Despite regular top half finishes, European campaigns and selling key players at a premium our finances were ****ed. Our clubs commercial deals and revenue was dwarfed by our competitors, even those not from the so called Big 6. Our disastrous 21/22 transfer window where we signed Daka, Soumare, Vestergaard and Bertrand whilst not selling anyone can be pointed at but a club should be allowed to have one poor window without having to fall apart, however due to the rot which had set in behind the scenes we were not allowed this luxury. Alarms bells starting ringing, the following summer when we didn’t sign Lookman and only signed Faes as an emergency after we got an offer for Fofana we couldn’t refuse. I get they probably didn’t think a team consisting of Tielemans, Maddison, Barnes, Vardy, Castagne, Evans, Soyuncu etc should be relegated and we’d just build again the following summer but therein lies the problem, half of those listed were out of contract the following summer and were preparing to down tools and the other half couldn’t carry them. That said, the single biggest mistake was selling Kasper and thinking Ward could take his place. If Kasper was in goal we’d have had at least another 5/6 points and would have stayed up. I’d bet my mortgage on it. Despite these glaring on field mistakes, it’s the off field mismanagement which has lead to us having one of the worst Premier League teams in history. What makes matters worse is it’s been happening since 2018 and it’s the being done by the same people who are in charge now. It’s shameful that the only accountability seems to be the Managers when when people above hide away

I don’t think Javier Zanetti could make it so they got the next best thing😁

Said that exact same thing to a couple of my Villa supporting mates. He’s absolutely brilliant when things are going well but when the going gets tough he goes missing. He was exactly what we didn’t need in that relegation season. It didn’t help that his contract was running out so he knew he was off anyway but his performances were abysmal and he should have been taken out of the team but we kept clinging to the hope he’d recapture some sort of form. I fully expect his form to drop at some point soon as the minutes catch up with him

It’s certainly not inevitable, we’re 2 points from safety with 13 games to play however it is looking very likely. We cannot downplay how massive this Friday’s game is. Brentford are a very good team but currently are bottom half and are much better at home. We absolutely need to get something. If (and it’s a big if) we manage a win, we’ll be out of the relegation zone going into the weekend fixtures. Don’t get me wrong, I look at Wolves team and they have a lot more quality but you just never know. I thought we were doomed in 14/15 and look what happened

Absolutely the same for me. I usually never watch MOTD when we lose but I did this weekend out of morbid curiosity I think. What has happened to this club over the past 3 years has numbed me and I just don’t feel the same as I once did. Why should we as fans care when clearly the Board and most the players do not.

As others have said I just don’t know why we’ve not even tried 3-5-2. It’s well known Coady and Vestergaard are much better in a back three and I think it compliments Justin and Kristianson as well. Personally I’d go with the below, let’s face it it can’t be worse than it is currently! Mads Okoli. Coady. Vestergaard Justin. Kristiansen Soumare. Winks El-Khannouss. Bounanotte Vardy

They’ve not even announced the March TV fixtures yet, so we might be waiting a while!

As much as I’m frustrated and frankly completely done with this season. This mess is not on RVN. He hasn’t helped himself with some team selections and subs but **** me, what a squad he’s inherited! The problem we’re in lies squarely with the Board and Owners. We’ve sold big players for big money, been an established PL team with European football and yet we’re now feeding off scraps Ipswich wouldn’t even touch, scared to spend money refilling coffee machine at the training ground for fear of FFP! It’s a joke what has happened in the past 4 years, yet no one above appears to be being made accountable

Loads by me left very early yesterday and by the time the 2nd went in the vast majority were heading for the exits. Each to their own and all that but my opinion is every now and again it’s ok to leave early (you’ve got somewhere you need to be or we’re 4-0 down with 10 mins to go etc) but if you’re doing it every week regardless , then you really need to plan better. Yesterday me and the Mrs were going to leave about the 88th minute when it went 2-0 so we could try and get the 4.20 train but when Vardy scored that plan went out the window and we ended up getting the 5.20. Some people don’t have that flexibility but like I say maybe they need to come up with alternative arrangements if they need to leave early regardless of scoreline

Sort of yeah. Tamworth v Burton had Extended Highlights in the last round which surprised me a little as I thought that’d be a certain tv pick given there’s only 15 miles or so between the towns. That said, it would mean Tamworth would be picked for rounds 1, 2 and 3 had that happened! They show about 20 mins of the game. The program was about 6pm Sunday for the last round

The guaranteed TV fixtures are Arsenal v Man United Tamworth v Spurs and sadly Man City v Salford just for a media love in. As others have said if Chelsea v Morecambe or Liverpool v Accrington are picked it’s just a farce because they’ll be walkovers

Was at the Lamb yesterday (Tamworth’s home ground) and it was a great way to start the weekend. Thought it’d be good to get some positive football action in before the Foxes inevitably piss me off later😂

I’m normally a glass half full guy and will support the club and any player who comes in but this is not a good deal at all by any metric you can measure it. Not a player we need, too high a fee and no resale value. Where does he fit in this team?! We need an out an out number 9. Perhaps that will happen too but it doesn’t detract from the fact a club in our financial position should be spending any money at all on this