The boy Linacre

Interesting that we made a profit for our 1st 4 Premier League seasons, Vichai passed in Oct 18 and Brendan joined in Feb 19. Our positions then went 9th, 9th, 5th, 5th, 8th, 18th. Its been said before, they shot for the Champions league, problem was player acquisition really from 20/21was generally shocking and we didn't incentivise players for success or lack of failure we paid them to just play. Who would have made those financial choices, Rudkin, Whelan or Top?? They probably also pandered to Brendan's ill thought transfer whims. Because player acquiisition as time went on was repeatedly shocking, the killer summer being 21, Daka, Soumare, Betrand & Vestergaard, doubling down in 22 with Wout, Viktor & Souttar (the last 2 hardly playing). ITS a LONG WAY BACK, sad indeed. And the PSR uncertainty means we won't invest to bring new players in.

Yeah because about 2 weeks BS Marti said watch or listen for some news on JJ, 10 days to the end of the transfer window and we're still waiting........

Not back anytime soon then?? When fit, isn't he a better option than Okoli OR Vestergaard?? Or 5 at the back with Souttar, Vestergaard & Ben?? Got to stop the goals going in somehow?? If the other team doesn't score the worst can be a draw, if the other team scores 22 games in a row, then you're going to lose a lot of games

Great match on this morning Gea vs that youngster Wawrinka, Love the Aussie Open, perfect tonic for WAH.

Anyway when's he at least available as an alternative? Can somebody suggest a month? Feb, March, What? Ridiculous amount of time out, isn't it like 15+ months out??

We all thought Blatter was a total crook, Infantino is another level. The chasing of money on every level in Football, just makes it worse and worse and worse. PLEASE don't mention the beautiful game. Can't we just have some administrators that actually care about the health of the players and the fans.

TBF to Marti and his inimitable "Football Bingo BS" That adaptation to the Championship means the wind and the rain which our current players couldn't manage last night according to their "manager". As well as the fact that the Scandi players who have had a 6 week holiday will be a few months behind that shower on the pitch last night, who Jordan James aside, have been on holiday since early August.

10 losses, 22 games without a clean sheet, thats coaching failure.

Is Top actually just REALLY embarrassed by his enormous ineptitude? The speed at which he has taken us from an FA Cup win to where we are now with a totally disengaged team, a fraud (another one) who calls himself a manager. A DOF that has overseen the most ridiculous recruitment of players that have almost all failed miserably. This is up there in the speed & destruction of a solid club organisation. Tonight was not a good trip to go on.

Of course the players are at fault BUT defending is about organisation and structures. Thats down to the manager TOTALLY.

It’s the 19th surely we should rename this thread 2027, coz a very good chance no incomings in Jan 26 This thread is fantasy or football manager, nothings happening.

Anybody know any free parking locations at all nearby please??

All of this just shows (and it is something we knew anyway but...) they're not interested in representing the people OR their constituency, its just ambition. IF he should just ship as others have done, he should stand for his seat, his voters or Zahawi's didn't vote Reform, they voted Tory, for many more reasons than just them as individuals. No wonder so many of us are totally disengaged and disenfranchised from UK politics and politicians AND time only seems to make them worse. I really only vote for who is least worse, how can that be right but also how sad.

Yep they had the offer of 2 day pink ball match in between the 1st and 2nd test and decided to stick to the "plan", little did they know that was a "losing" plan

I actually really enjoyed the concept, means that you had half a day personally!!! TBH if they hadn't shelled the 5 catches on day 2, guess they couldn't see the pink ball. Though they did drop 18 in the series, so who knows?

Or GK Barry doing he rounds draw, appealing to the yoof doesn't necessarily always work???

We'll see things differently I think, sometimes its always about the context, I went to the last 4 tests. I hope it really works for him. Ollie Pope has played 64 tests for England and has an average of 34.5, nowhere near good enough, he can't be the answer going forward. The 4 tests I saw all showed that the pressure on the middle order is because one of the openers is gone quickly, generally Duckett is gone in the blink of an eye, or Crawley has got 0. So 3 and 4 were openers in reality, you're facing a new ball, the opening bowlers with their tail up. These are test matches NOT T20. There was not one commentator (both sides) out there that didn't not rate him, On Tailenders, Tuffers said he had scored the best 10 he had ever seen He took 20 balls to go from 99 to 100, that shows an ability to deal with pressure (personal - his 1st EVER 1st class ton) and they bought back Starc to him, we still had a chance of a draw or even a win as Broad on Channel 7 said 200+ could be a tough target. We only lost by 5 wickets considering we were 200 behind on the first innings, when Brook & Smith again left 50+ runs in the shed through stupid dismissals. There was plenty up for grabs in this test. He then kicked on to 150+. His 40 was a vital score in the carnage at the MCG. Only Head, Brook & him score 40+ in that test. I would suspect he would take whichever spot was offered, Root and Brook aren't giving up 4 and 5 though, so beggars can't be choosers. Even the Aussies commentators said if he came into the Aussie team it would be at 5 or 6. So for me plenty of extenuating circumstances, he's 22 and technically very accomplished, I'd give him a run. The Oval was his 4th test. The top 3 have had their time and at least 2 should go. Lets see.....OR we bring Pope back????

Thing is, aren’t viewing figures massive these days? Demand for tickets massive. Nothings wrong is it?

What about now??

But we were Olympic champions in 1936

Promise you he wouldn’t drop a beer, fat plonker. Had a good UK summer but been shocking out here, have a lengthy rest.

We left at least 50 runs out there thanks to our mature batters Brook & Smith. BUT we batted 100 overs nearly and it’s really hot on the pitch.

TBF Why would Marti even say that, just manage the club better mate and shut up with the press BS sound bites. If he stays here on loan & scores 15 by season end, a Prem club will snap him up.

Does the bloke still try to sell the lottery tickets and shout “ANYBODY ELSE”, still shout it in the house now……

Yep but we took 20, they didn't