LCFCJohn

I’m sure this will be the case but it will also be very short sighted and typical of this regime, and no doubt leave us in a worse position when we are in the Championship next season, potentially with an embargo.

Not sure Forest need to win. We will not be close to Everton come the end of the season and they will be well clear so to be honest, I have stopped looking at their results. Just Ipswich and Wolves really.

What’s happened to him? He seemed to be getting close before. If we go down and possibly have an embargo or have to cut back anyway, do we have many who would be likely to be worth bringing through in the Championship, straight into the side without loans?

A transfer embargo is pretty pointless in these situations and actually will force teams to break the financial rules rather than comply. I have said before but the way to get teams in line is for outgoings to be replaced by cheaper signings on lower wages. If the EFL really wanted teams to be sustainable and it isn’t just about punishing, surely they’d encourage this and even oversee teams business and ratify them…

Sounds good. Do you think both could step up well to the Championship? These and the likes of Barry are ones I’d like us to be looking at. I would hope our own Brandon Cover might also step up. This is how we stabilise ourselves for next season and the future. Not be chucking £20mill on rubbish like we have done before.

Yeah I think it should be imminent, or a couple of weeks to assess fitness and coming back from injury but yeah any time now.

@Ric Flair, was it yourself who was talking up Leaburn at Charlton? I have seen him having scored a couple recently but not aware of how he is going on. Any ideas?

You will pull away now. Clearly a change in manager did the trick and the quality in the squad is there. Everton and Palace are picking up points regularly (even if it is from draws) so it is clear after this week that it will be the 3 promoted sides that drop again just due to the gulf in quality. Hopefully that isn’t the case next season whoever comes up as three years in a row will really reflect poorly on the competitiveness of the league.

With the likelihood that we will get a transfer embargo from the EFL, I’d like to see us bring in players who will be with us for a campaign in the Championship, I.e not short term signings who will want to f*** off at the end of the season and also who will be able to be kept financially in terms of wages. If we chase short term and go down anyway, we will be even more in the shit. Time for the club to be smarter and actually plan ahead which is unlikely anyway. Players like Louis Barry. If Villa will sell, young and nailing it in League 1 and seems to be able to step up a level each time.

I’d imagine if we escaped punishment for our relegation year based on being outside of the EPL jurisdiction, we would have to fall under EFL so maybe a historical punishment for 22/23? Others probably know better.

I might get proven wrong but this seems very dramatic. In terms of players, of course many of them will still be here. I think only Ward and Iverson are out of contract. Where are the rest of them supposedly going? Even relegated sides don’t lose their entire squad. A few assets gets taken (see Barnes and Maddison), some leave on frees (as I say that is minimal for the coming summer). Otherwise it’s whether we can shift unwanted players (we are terrible at this) or that newly promoted sides take a punt on someone who is lower Premier quality. I can see goalkeepers being where we are gutted with the two out of contract and Hermansen the most likely asset to go. As such, keeping Stolarcryk will be key. People talking about relegation to league one. What kind of deduction do people really think we will get? Won’t be like 50 points. Even something like 20 points (still an extreme estimate) wouldn’t automatically put us down if we are decent on the pitch. Best we can do is get a hungry manager who is capable of building a squad of young and hungry players, utilise the players we have coming through. Probably a hard ask with Top and Rudkin but with a competent club should be able to ride the punishment without going into the abyss.

We should be giving JS a new contract regardless, and now to be honest as it appears he is back fine from injury. It only runs to 2026.

Correct there are so many variables. However, this season is so bloody miserable and the writing is on the wall so personally I find thinking about new season and the future more positive as it shows we still have a lot going for us.

I think we still could have a good squad for the level. Goalkeepers Stolarcryk - needs a new deal as it runs out on 2026 Assuming Hermansen goes for PSR reasons (and because he is too good to play in the Championship again), and we do the right things and don’t offer Ward or Iverson new contracts! We could need a new keeper to challenge JS. Third keeper from the academy. Cover/new rb - he has been doing well at PV so wonder if he will step up. Can b play RWB as well. Unsure what will become of Ricardo as he has a year left until 2026. I am unsure we need 3 right backs but also can we rely on a young Brandon Cover coming through and an injury prone Ricardo. Could be too much to put on Cover so still thbom we need a new RB. Nelson - hopefully returns well from injury but was doing really well. Okoli - should be good at that level. Vestergard - still has 2 years left so can’t see him moving on. Doesn’t seem to be a bad egg as such but hopefully wages will reduce with relegation. Coady - same as Vestergard. New CB - get Faes out the club and replace. Souttar - we done need 6 CB’s so the new CB might depend on whether Souttar stays at Sheffield United if they go up or goes elsewhere. Or if we could shift Vestergard or Coady as Souttar could replace on of them. I suppose we will be sitting on 6 CB’s come the summer and if you want new blood, we need to shift two, Faes plus one of the above 3. LB is unknown. I’d be happy with Kristiansen plus a new. Looks like Thomas still has a year but is clearly done here despite the fact I have really wanted him to succeed. Probably a new CB but keep Thomas as back up if VK goes or if VK stays, bring in competition and lose Thomas. Skipp - probably won’t be able to shift him after a year but can probably be a strong player at Championship level despite being indifferent this season. Depends if he is a ‘good egg’ and hard working etc. Any kind of attitude, thinking he’s better than he is etc I’d try to move him on. Also unsure of wages here. Winks - contract up in 2026 so not sure what happens here but purely from a playing point of view he’d be good to keep. Soumare/Ndidi/Choudhury are all unknowns. You’d probably part ways with all if you could as part of a clean slate and bringing new faces in. Unsure how likely it is but at the same time, if their heads were in the right place, they can all offer something. You don’t want to keep all 3, maybe one or two. ATTACKING MIDS Bilal - it wouldn’t surprise me if we had offers for him. Hopefully we can keep as he’d be excellent but might be a PSR casualty. Alves - will he ever play? WINGERS/WIDE FORWARDS Fatawu - hopefully the injury means we keep him. Mavididi - hadn’t really proved himself this season so assuming he doesn’t get other offers, we know he can do it in style at that level. STRIKERS Vardy - got to try and keep him. Cannon Unsure what will happen with Vardy and Daka. I like Daka but it might be best if we could part ways with him going into his last year of wages wise it is more financially viable to replace. Release out of contract WARD!! Iverson Sell and get away from the squad (at all costs). Faes Justin Sell but less urgent than above (or selling is unlikely so realistically we probably keep some of all of these) Daka Soumare Vestergard and/or Coady Ayew - unlikely to go but one year left and could offer something as a squad player/experience if he is the right character. BDR - Same as above with Ayew but 2 years left. Braybrooke - based on getting no minutes for a long time now isn’t going to make it so we should get him gone for the sake of him having a career all. Thats just a run down of what we have now but it’s really difficult without concept of who might go and the likelihood. You could put loads in the ‘bin’ list but realistically, many probably won’t so it’s looking who can still offer at that level and keeping those who at least could show the right personality for the fight.

Weird that he was being monitored and touch and go for Wolves and Liverpool (?) but now is categorically ruled out of Man City a few days ahead (I suppose it is a short turn around rather than one weekend to the next). Possibly the injury has worsened. Or we are happy with JS being back. I don’t buy the January transfer stuff but it is weird how he seems to be getting further away from a return.

There we go. Was good whilst it lasted but they will go on to win comfortably now.

This just seems paranoid. He went off at half time at Newcastle. Hardly going to take your keeper off at half time for a January transfer. Unless Chelsea called at half time? He is injured. Probably Newcastle came too soon. Today is a write off anyway. No point rushing him back.

Some comments about us ‘getting away with murder all game’ and the ‘ref evening it up because it’s Liverpool’. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they are talking about the 3-3 Game in 2021. Was that not the game where that little scamp Tyler Morton maliciously broke Ricardo’s led and escaped punishment?

Took a 4 points penalty on FPL to bring Salah in for this (exceeded my transfers I had built up by one). Also got VVD and Diaz so expecting high scores there. Certainly not worth bothering about on Boxing Day though.

Sheffield United had 21 games left after 17 played last season. Aston Villa had 21 to play after 17 in 2015/16. Derby the same in whenever it was, 2006/07. Sunderland the same on the couple of occasions they have stunk out this division. Its just numbers counting down to the inevitable. For one, I’d rather see some strategic, sensible forward planning for the club to be stronger in future. This is a consistent view of mine also. I have been particularly interested in those out on loan and how they are doing as my view since we were promoted is that it would be a one season stop (though for a while we were expecting a points deduction so I’m sure this was a large reason why). The points deduction is not there now but there is zero, absolutely zero chance there are 3 worse sides come seasons end. Wolves were our hope and they just absolutely smashed us without us laying a glove on them in our own back yard.

I think it’s clear he has poor judgement. I’d be inclined to say not to bother bringing any staff in for him and not to give him any input in any January signings as he pretty much certainly won’t be here beyond the end of the season. For once maybe we just sensibly look to long term stability rather that lurch from one **** up to another, putting the club at risk financially whilst doing so.

Plan for the Championship. Young, hungry players with something to prove.

Didn’t expect anything from him when he was appointed, started questioning this after a couple of positive results but this is worse than anything Cooper served up.

Mathematically it’s never as early as it is in reality. Mathematically down by early May. Effectively down after this though given the ramifications.

Every bit as bad as Cooper but it’s still only been 4 games and you can’t be going through 3 managers in a season so may as well just stick until the end of the season. We are going down regardless based on this.