Number 6

This is true. I think there are some bookies who have them third favourites to be fair. It should be an interesting autos battle this year I think.

And yet Plymouth who won the league ahead of Ipswich...

He usually seems pretty sensible but some odd predictions in there I think (us 8th, Birmingham 2nd) but more than that the reasoning is a little strange too - mentioned the word embargo when talking about us even though there isn't one in place and we're a good chunk of the way through the summer window. Could maybe be thinking of a January one but that's a much lower impact window on the season and if we were able to get in maybe a couple of additions in the summer one, I don't think we're be needed a January window anyway to have a nice balanced squad. Might be being harsh as I guess we'll be one of the teams with a big variance of predictions due to potential deductions. But I think we're a 90-95pt team, and large parts of this league are really not very good. If the deduction is <6 then I'd hope we'd be eying up 2nd.

If you back our lawyers to bring that points deduction down then this is ridiculous value I think.

Some fair comments here I think. Ipswich are a really interesting one for me. They absolutely rode the wave in their last Champ season but now that has dissipated it will be interesting to see how they fare. Bought some good players last summer for this level but have lost Morsey and Delap.

It always slightly niggles at me when somebody who I think could go on to be great is sold, but this just makes sense. Should mean we can have some freedom for small psr losses on some sales, and to fill in the couple of gaps that the squad does have. Think he could be good there but the gamble is that he didn't look as good following his injury, and West Ham also looked fairly poor under Potter. There one of the teams I could see struggle if they start badly.

Always seems like a composed finisher.

Given the little time together I'm liking the glimpses of what we're seeing. Aggressive pressing. Doesn't look like we'll be willing to drop back and wait. Proactive. Agressive. Hunting in packs. Love it. Occasionally pinging the long diagonals, can see our wide players getting a bit more freedom and joy. Early days but good signs.

I'm quite excited about getting to see Monga get more game time. Think he could have a huge impact on our season.

Have big sympathy with the Palace fans but absolutely none for Parish. Don't know how he is viewed so differently to someone like Ashley as an owner. Happy to sit at the top table and take the scraps from the big 7 with little ambition outside of that, he said as much when the super league stuff was going on.

Cifuentes would have been my second preferred realistic choice after Rohl. I think Rohl has a higher ceiling but Cifuentes did a good job at QPR and is a much better option than Wilder/O'Neil.

I had admittedly been distancing myself from football matters since the end of last season, but then my friend messaged last night asking what I thought about Wilder. So dipped back into the forum to see the shit show of names being touted now. My only hope is that an out of work manager maybe would have been sorted by now. Hopefully they are backups or pawns being used in our attempt to get Rohl over the line.

Doing the basics right applies to any manager we bring in. Be nice to have someone who has more than just the basics too.

There's a reason the dinosaur only gets to do his gaffer's day once a year, the game has moved on from the Dyche type manager in the upper leagues.

I think he'd have us in the promotion conversation but it would be painful to watch and would limit us in terms of longer term progression. Anti.

Stopped clock and all that!

Ah my bad. Thought it seen 3rd somewhere but I stand corrected. In that case, even less need for panic stations just yet.

Agreed. Were not helping ourselves and are now past the date when Enzo was appointed in our last Champ outing. I think we are ok as long as we get someone in for mid-June to align with transfer activity, but we are falling further behind every day.

Luton are definitely the exception and not the path most follow. That said, I think keeping Ruud in post is probably the managerial option that makes it most likely given the funk about the place.

Particularly true at clubs like us who don't have a strong long term DoF structure in place.

Whoops! 😂

Agreed. I had posted before that I wouldn't be surprised to see him start the Champ season but admittedly I thought that might be due to lack of solid interest. Be interesting to see where his mindset is at.

Going to be a lot of teams with new managers too at the start of the season. Southampton, West Brom, Norwich, Watford, Hull, Cardiff, Bristol, probably us, potentially Sheff Weds. Definitely feels like there's more uncertainty around who will be good and who will be bad.

Which probably just means we're unlikely to get a big PSR win from his sale, rather than the sale not happen.

Tbf Enzo has to perform his job while having Balagué's tongue wedged in his arsehole all day, so fair play for that.