honeybradger

Winks will probably got to Wrexham, get binned off early on like Coady, play some testimonial matches for the likes of Son and Kane then go into management and become the next Russel Martin and/or Maresca's assistant. Don't think he will have much of a playing career left after this year.

Will he be on a contract like players and managers or is he treated like a permanent employee? If he's a permanent employee we can just let him go without paying him out like you would need to do with a contract. The reason you have contracts is so that the person isn't snatched up by other clubs but there's no risk of that with Rudkin.

The thing about rot is that it starts long before it becomes visible. Most of these examples are when it became visible. There were two levels of rot that started: 1. When Rudkin was appointed football director and when Pearson was sacked later that season. Rudkin was always an incompetent, purely administrative director of football that initially performed ok because he didn't get in the way of the competent people around him. Pearson was the one who originally put that competency in place and without him there was no one to maintain it. 2. When Rodgers was apponted and dismantled the remaining competency within the club. Rodgers brought in Congerton which led to rubbish signings and got rid of David Rennie which led to a pile up of injuries. Most of the club's best scouts left during the Rodgers era as well. As other's mentioned he also set the "we shouldn't even be here mentality". When that surrounding competency was dismantled from around Rudkin and the remainders of the Premier League winning squad moved on there was no one left to set standards anymore and it all fell apart.

As bad as this season has been, for me I have never felt lower about the club than the days we signed Ayew and Skipp. For Cooper's involvement in that alone I will always consider him to be worse than RVN, Cifuentes etc.

Evans on the bench. Bit strange considering he scored last game and that was over a week ago so he will be rested.

That always happens. Even this season you have fans saying the youngsters failed to deliver this season so why should we build around them in league one. As if any of them had been played regularly enough to fail. Only Ben Nelson has had enough minutes to be judged on and we're no better defensively with Vestergaard and Lascelles.

Grimsby fans were raving about Braybrooke the other day. At this rate we might need to be concerned that a championship or SPL club will send us an offer we can't turn down in the summer and snap him up.

"Why is everyone so mad? League one is number one league, no?" - Top

It's actually depressing to consider the reality that there's a good chance he won't be here next season. One of the few players we have that have value, and it's a lot less than it should be because we dumped him back in the U21s for no reason.

Southampton are run poorly but we are in a completely different league in that regard. They have been slowly dropping down the football pyramid and will likely to continue to do so, whilst we are lurching downwards, making them look relatively well off in comparison. In reality they are going the same way as the likes of West Brom and Norwich, so not great but from where we are it looks like daisies and sunshine.

It's pretty standard to get time off work to go to a funeral.

Monga has 3 goal contributions in 800 minutes. Mavididi has 3 goal contributions in 2500 minutes. No reason that Mavididi should be favoured over Monga aside from perceived seniority.

Why would the pressure on Blackburn be immense? They are 4 points above the relegation zone with 4 games to go. Oxford will struggle to rack up 4 points alone in those 4 games, let alone 4 more than blackburn. They will be safe on the final day. Blackburn are all but guaranteed as safe, the only teams in a relegation battle are Oxford, Portsmouth and West Brom. We're a pretty safe lock in for league one next season at this point.

Was hoping Faes might convince Monaco to get him permanently after a decent run of games. If he keeps this up he will still be here next season.

Every new manager we bring in is labelled our "worst manager ever". 12 months ago RVN was considered our worst ever, now he looks like a footballing genius for getting any wins in the PL with this team. I wont judge any manager unless the club has given them a full season to weed out the underperformers. Currently we are just in an endless loop of giving the same old suspects clean slates and things not getting better (which a majority of our fanbase supported last summer by the way). We need to go through that process of the manager coming to terms that the majority of our starting XI need to be sidelined, otherwise it just feels like groundhog day where manager comes in -> picks established players -> established players underperform -> manager sidelines established players -> manager sacked -> new manager brings underperformers back into the picture.

How bad is Winks defensively by the way. I get he's got to mark two men but he's just so out of sorts. Just looks like a national league player for that goal.

at least aluko is back on the bench. our squad is way too bloated.

There's also the point that our play style back then benefited older signings. Nowadays we play a slow, open,technical style of football which would have left Morgan, Hugh and Fuchs (technically gifted but no longer had the legs for constant overlapping) caught out. Technical experienced defenders will not want to join us. That team also made up for slower legs at the back with a midfield and attack of some of the most athletic players in football. Kante, Drinkwater, Albrighton, Vardy, Okazaki all could run marathons without breaking a sweat. Now we have one of the most unathletic teams in the league. We need to focus on ability and athleticism in the transfer market first and worry about experience later. We're a team that's overloaded with prem experience and yet we can't beat one of the worst championship teams ever, goes to show how much experience is worth if the players aren't good enough. The answer is very little.

Hutchinson Evans Alves Monga Braybrooke Page Thomas Nelson Gray Aluko Stolarczyk The senior players can't survive another relegation surely?

That awful summer of 2016 happened under Vichai's watch, so did the dismantling of Pearson's backroom staff, so did the Adrien Silva debacle with Rudkin getting out unscathed, he also appointed Rudkin in the first place. Before the title win we had the aimless spending in the Championship. Vichai was not as good as is made out, had his passing not happened I am certain we would have gone a similar way.

Wow, what is a striker doing making that turn in midfield. Ridiculous, in a good way. Unlike Ayew who drops into midfield but falls over/doesn't make it into the box.

As someone who was very pro youngsters getting a chance at the start of the season you have to factor in the fact that a number of our fans are quick to get on the back of our youngsters. In an ideal world would it be better for Evans to be ahead of Ayew and Daka? I would say yes. In the real world if he was starting for the majority of this season he would be getting the blame for our woes up front. There just isn't any leeway for a player to develop their game here. Look at Monga for example. Therefore it's probably best that he learns his trade elsewhere and gets a chance with us when he's fully ready.

Surely relegation to league one is a career ender for most of them. Who will pay their £30-50k wages when the average wage of the teams around us is around £5-10k.

Going to be a quality player. Just got to hope it will be with us.

Last time we played them they looked incredibly poor but now they're 12 points ahead of us. Can't see this going well.