lcfc_forever

He did add it was nothing against the club or the club against him. So it wasn’t them directly. Seems it was relegation and closing on 200 goals that were key. But relegation was of course a result of Rudkin and Top’s mismanagement.

Two of our best attacking halves came under King - the second half vs Charlton where we battered them but then Ayew's penalty miss took all the momentum out and the first half vs. Southampton. I think you can rightfully criticise for his game management and organising the defence, but he was let down by some sheer stupidity as well like the red cards and Thomas's challenge for Southampton's 2nd goal.

LOL, you give the club far too much credit for being that Machiavellian. Moronic is a more apt description.

I think @ramadaone said that’s what the club has done already after Nyoni left similarly.

Well worth a read of his post-retirement interview: https://www.fourfourtwo.com/person/player/kasper-schmeichel-interview-sometimes-the-body-makes-the-decisions-that-the-heart-cant-read-its-definitely-not-how-i-wanted-it-my-careers-finished Doesn't look like he's done his badges yet but he's open to coaching/becoming a DoF. The club has an open goal here to get him part of the set up in some way and start putting standards in place, but given how they've handled things, you expect they won't take advantage. Morgan similarly wanted a role but the club let it pass, probably to protect the untouchable Rudkin.

He also referenced long throws in his interviews so welcome Dave Challinor! 😂

Maybe Rudkin has secretly got a Liverpool gig explaining the inaction as looks like they're getting as bad as us in managing players running down their contract!

This is the kind of mentality that gets us to Trump, they’re all as bad as each other so let’s elect someone who indulges my prejudices. Of course there is sharp practice in business but what you’re seeing with certain countries and their leadership is a whole different level. You have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise it’s just nihilism. Anyway, what we can agree on is our ownership are rubbish and hopefully there is some truth in the rumour.

Sorry, just can’t find this acceptable - our owners are largely inept but they’ve not done anything like this:

Rather that the Saudis - would stop supporting the club if we got taken over for sports washing.

UEFA are going to be under huge pressure to try to address PL dominance of their competitions. Their move to increase CL league places has backfired broadly as PL clubs are too strong for their other competitions as the likes of Brentford and Brighton have as much budgets as the biggest clubs in Italy and Spain. Funny the top European sides wanted it to help more established sides qualify!

Fully agree, I think we're saying the same thing. My point is the big clubs can have a disastrous season and be OK but PSR magnified our disaster and began a spiral that Top, Rudkin etc. were ill equipped to handle.

Don't get me wrong, we've been mismanaged for many seasons but the relegation of 22-23 is the one bad season I'm referring as we've spiralled since then as PSR then got out of control because the club was running a top 8 budget. Those clubs you've mentioned have not experienced relegation. As Whelan said, the effects of that have been felt for some time.

The rules stink. Top and Rudkin are fully to blame for our decline but the likes of Man U and Chelsea can run up years of massive financial losses and underachievement yet still face no punishment and bring in the likes of Xabi Alonso to coach them. The system is rigged, and means those clubs that fly too close to the sun and have one bad season get punished massively.

So won't be Dick Schreuder - must admit a bit of me was hoping he wouldn't get CL if it was a genuine link but we should back the underdog, what an achievement to get NEC to the Champions League. Saw Albert Riera has been let go from Eintracht Frankfurt, he would be incredible for the press conferences alone!

Interesting, thanks for clarifying.

Didn't realise Brexit was a major factor in this as well. You can see why Brentford have binned off their youth development.

I don't think Ben Marshall is going to be an unbiased commentator given the way things worked out for him.

Read Nick De Marco has been hired by Middlesbrough, shows how seriously they're making their case.

Annoyed as well but I think they took their time given the importance of the decision. I think it is a foul because of the pull on Raya’s shirt at the same time as well.

A few red flags with Rowett, one of which is his lack of playing time for younger players. You could argue the pressure situation meant it wasn't the right environment for the youngsters but a few posters have commented he has a record of leaning on 'experienced players'. We'll be relying on the youngsters so don't have confidence he'll manage them properly.

I can see that, maybe a completely fresh XI could be the way to go. But point remains we need to get those two positions right - goalkeeper and striker. It's no coincidence our worst seasons have come when we've had poor players in either one or the other, if not both.

Priority positions have to be goalkeeper and striker, we need at least two good options for both those positions. Jakub showed enough in the PL and this season until he picked up his injury to show there is a good goalkeeper there but he needs strong competition. The lack of a decent striker cost us hugely in the final third of the season.

The club have been in touch with Maguire as well as I think as he mentions the club has learnt is lessons and now have them in contracts.

Maguire didn’t mention this, sure he would have if that’s the case. Will defer to @Terraloon and @ClaphamFox as they seem to have the most balanced view on this.