ian__marshall

Don't know why but think I might actually go tonight unless I have a last minute change of heart. That said if we end up 2 down by half time I'll head home. Can't believe I'm saying that but this is where at with the club at the moment.

This thread has been fun today. Pretty much 'hot' all day. We've had Rowett, Skubala, Gerard, Martin, and now Smith all nailed on at some point, yet despite a gazillion posts none of us have a clue. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings

Sure one of the podcasts said if Gerard takes a job in the UK this financial year he's going to get stung with a huge tax bill. Not sure how true it is, but I'm hoping it's correct as I don't want him anywhere near our club, would be a complete disaster.

Not saying it does, just don't think giving a job of this magnitude given where we sit in the table to someone who has only had 33 games behind them, nearly all of which are at a lower level, would not be a wise idea. We need someone who has experience in these types of situations if we hope to survive. The pressure on whoever comes in will be massive.

Really hope it's not Skubala. The position we find ourselves in is no position for taking a gamble on an unproven manager who's had half a decent season managing 1st team football in the league below. That said, it likely will be him simply because Rudkin will love the fact he was a former P.E. teacher.

Reckon it's Top. He did say the other week that he would have helped if he could play. That was obviously not an option, but he can manage (allegedly...)

Completed

Faes - Rain Man (Based on Hilda's rant 😂) Ayew - Fall King - Man Down Jannick - Speed Luke Thomas - Mission Impossible

If Kingy is in charge and it looks highly likely he will be, can we not just go with 442 for this game. Literally any player who's ever kicked a ball knows how to play in this system, it's almost hardwired into a footballer. I understand why you wouldn't play the system against Man City as Pep would overload the midfield and tear you a new one, but this is the Championship and system football has no place in this league. We might also offer something upfront for once. I'm just at the point now where we need to stop repeating ourselves and try something different. Take things back to basics, make us hard to beat, and start creating some actual chances to score a goal or two.

Don't know who's more deluded, Top for thinking Rudkin does a good job, or the PL for thinking we warranted a 20 point deduction. On that basis alone, their golden child Man City should be looking at around 2300 points deducted if it's effectively 20 points per 3 charges. Somehow can't see that happening 🤔

In the grand scheme of things I think we should take it. No point appealing. Suck it and move on.

Could be worse I suppose. Could be 1 point reduction every time Daka scores a goal.

Not sure why it's taking so long, but reading the Man City forum prior to Mukasa signing, some of their lot seemed convinced that they wouldn't have loaned him to us without assurances over how he'd be utilised, so you'd have thought the board had a couple of names that were presumably shared with Man City for them to sign off on the deal.

Apologies for the delayed reply, been very busy since my last post and haven't had a chance to respond. As mentioned previously, I'm not saying there isn't inherent risk to the workforce, however this in my view is down to individual agility. To answer your first point, I don't assume anything, and certainly not that the environment would remain constant. Everything evolves, it's the foundations upon which humanity has grown. Yes, I agree that there is scope for replication, but ask yourself where the value in that sits. Why go to such lengths if the solution already exists. Whilst I don't disagree that there will be people out there who will copy everything and create their own versions, by the same measure there are plenty who'd choose to put their time to more productive use and use others products/services. Furthermore, competition is there to be embraced. It is healthy, and drives us to achieve better things and enhance efficiency. With regards to your second point, I disagree on the degree to which it will impact employment levels. This reminds very much of the Miner situation back in 80s. There will inevitably be people unwilling to adapt to the changes ahead and undoubtedly these people will get left behind and most probably face severe poverty, however those that reskill will thrive. There is unlikely to be a shortage of jobs for many decades. As AI grows, we know demands for energy grow, meaning there will be enormous opportunities in both Green Energy technological development, along with infrastructure deployment to feed the data centres. Furthermore, as AI systems become more sophisticated, demand for chips increases and with that industries associated with identifying and mining precious metals/refinement increases. There was an article only a few weeks ago about a British company (SpaceForge) that are looking to manufacture semiconductors in Space due to increases in efficiency, which if successful will undoubtedly establish a new industry for the UK. The next logical step is Quantum Computing, which will create further jobs in R&D, increase demand for Physicists, Data Scientists, Production Workers, etc. Downstream we then have Quantum Networks, and all of the associated industries in research, production, infrastructure deployment, and Space. Alongside this there will be huge needs for regulatory guardrails which will create new roles in legislative governance. These are just some examples, there will be many many other opportunities that arise as a result as the technology develops. As I said above, i'm not saying there won't be people that experience unemployment as a result of AI, of course there will. However, I genuinely believe that the opportunities that the technology offer far outweigh the potential negatives, especially when you consider the potential to empower people of all backgrounds by removing the social constructs that have historically held people back and created a closed shop for a select few.

Have we actually been found to be in breach of 23/24 by either league though? I thought this was the point argued by Demarco, that due to the way the rules were written and the transfer of our PL shares transferring too early it meant we were outside of the jurisdiction of both leagues, I.e. Outside of the PL jurisdiction for 22/23, but not in the EFL long enough to apply their rules. My understanding of the amendment in April was that it was a bilateral agreement between the leagues that therefore opened the door to the PL to pursue the 22/23 breach. I might be talking absolute nonsense, and from what I've read from your posts you are infinitely more clued up on this topic than I am, but this is just my recollection from April when this rule change applied. Again I might be wrong, but I vaguely recall that this rule change is what allowed the case to be reviewed by the IC as up until that point the PL were all out of options. Would explain why the following month the case was then referred to the IC. Happy to be proven wrong, just this was my interpretation of events.

Is that true? If so, wow.

I may have misunderstood so not 100% certain on this, but I'm pretty sure that in the amendments to the rules that were published back in April which allowed the PL to pursue us in collaboration with the EFL, they included a clause stating that all charges bought against an offending club must be settled in the same season the charge is raised. To the best of my knowledge this has to be settled one way or another this season otherwise I can see us having strong grounds to claim the charge wasn't concluded in a timely manner and is therefore null and void. The rationale was that to defer the punishment tangibly impacts other clubs in terms of merit awards, potential relegation, etc. Ironically, the fact that the overarching changes were brought to retrospectively punish us is a nonsense. I would argue if these can apply to us then they should retrospectively apply to Everton, who, had the charges been applied during the season we went down would have been relegated, and likely would have seen both ourselves and other relegated sides be awarded higher merit payments. I've been looking everywhere for this document but weirdly can't find it on the PL website now which is very frustrating.

It's hard not to get carried away with yourself when you idolise and aspire to be an entrepreneurial genius like Ian Beale.

This is our Zlatan moment from the Sunderland documentary. Just shows how out of touch the decision makers are. Comical!!! Who's next Carlo Ancelotti?!?

Isn't this thread named 'Realistic Managerial Replacements'?!?

F*&k me, some loser has just clapped the team off at half time. Wow!!!

We're so easy to play against. Stop whatever form of attack we might possibly be able to muster, and stick the ball in our box and we crumble. There's just nothing from this group. It's awful!

Had to be Dykes didn't it!?! Unbelievable.

It's an interesting debate, but to counter the highlighted concerns over the potential for unemployment (not to be understated), on the flip side, the technology has the power to level up the average joe who has historically been locked out of prosperity by a system that requires both wealth and status to acquire the necessary skills to prosper and build wealth. This barrier has now been completely removed by a rather inexpensive technology and literally anyone of any intellect now has a level playing field where the only barrier is ones own imagination. Try to think of it as a Lego set where you can create pretty much anything, with the only constraint being what your mind can conceive. That has to be good for humanity surely. How many people on this planet wake up daily with a truly groundbreaking idea that could massively help change the lives of millions of people and help to preserve our planet, yet feel they have neither the skills, expertise, nor financial resources to bring that idea to life? AI moves the dial significantly, and empowers everybody to unlock their potential. Take health care as an example. Even those fortunate enough to have been blessed with both high intellect and good educational backgrounds such as those involved in R&D of medical treatments, can hugely accelerate the pace at which development takes place. We're talking game changing developments such as new medicines, enhanced understanding of biological structures/systems functions, new diagnostic tools all of which ordinarily would have had a 20+ year development/learning cycle pre-AI, now being achieveable in a matter of years (researchers are even suggesting this could soon be months very soon). The result is better treatment with improved outcomes, increases in health system operational efficiency, lower costs associated with complications, reduction in life threatening conditions, etc. I understand the concerns and potential issues AI poses, but the other side of the argument is a very exciting one where our species can hugely enhance our capabilities and achieve unprecedented outcomes. Ultimately, like any tool, it all comes down to how it is deployed. Do we as humans use it for betterment, destruction, or pointless purposes. The decisions we make in terms of our use of this technology is in our hands and will ultimately define our future.

Thanks for sharing, I find your posts on this topic very insightful. Out of interest what makes you think we are likely to be OK for 24/25? Genuinely keen to understand from someone who understands the situation better than myself, as there's obviously been a lot of talk suggesting that we may still be stuck in this loop of continuous breaches for some time yet.