LCFCJohn

I was just interested to get a feel for our wider league performance over the decades based on a post from @Pliskinyesterday. Essentially we have been in the Champions League (or equivalent) once after the title win. The same amount of times (once) that we have been in League 1. Statistically exactly the same so anyone saying we should accept relegation to L1 but thinking we could qualify for the CL again is entitled is talking nonsense as both have happened once. We shouldn’t expect either. Both are freak events that we shouldn’t expect (CL) or accept (L1). I had a look at how close we had been for both. I.e if we’d never come close to the top spots in the top tier but continually avoided relegation to the 3rd tier by the skin of our teeth I’d think the once in each stat was a bit misleading. This is a quick look through our league finishes and this side of WW1 as it is a bit messy before that. There have also been changes to the amount of teams in a league so might not be entirely accurate but evidences enough what I was looking at. Top flight top 5 finishes - so close shaves with the CL or would have if it’d had been a thing back when! 2016 - 1st 2020 and 2021 - 5th x 2 1963 - 4th 1927 and 1928 - 2nd and 3rd So 6 x top 5 finishes in the top tier. We have had a further 14 seasons in 6th-10th place so current top half PL. Bottom 5 positions in tier 2 - to balance with the above top fight top 5 finishes. 2008 - 22nd of 24 1991 - 22nd of 24 - survived due to league restructure 1949 and 1986 - 19th of 22 So 4 bottom 5 second tier finishes to our 6 top 5 top flight ones. To compare with the 14 top half (6th-10th) finishes, I noticed 3 seasons plus the run from 2005-2007 finishing in the bottom 6-10 of the second tier. So 6 of these to 14 equivalently placed finishes in the top flight. So basically, L1 and CL equally unlikely. But we have been historically more likely to finish in the higher positions in the top flight than the lower positions in the second tier. Hopefully that can debunk the myth and propaganda peddled by KP that we should accept what we are seeing now and it definitely isn’t ’where we have always been’!

I think we are kidding ourselves if we think we are securing James permanently…. He has far better options than us let’s be honest.

I’m seeing Sheffield Wednesdays fans are highlighting that this 15 point penalty for the creditor repayment nonsense is discretionary, yet the EFL are pushing to enforce it. If so, the EFL (as we already know) are completely unfit for purpose and need investigating by the football regulator for basically trying to force clubs out of business. It needs seriously highlighting and I’m pleased Wednesday fans are doing this. They have had enough punishment and Chansiri, who the EFL welcomed with open arms, does not deserve a penny. Absolutely disgrace.

I like that point about the Champions League once. This is actually factually correct. We have been in both the Champions League and League 1 exactly once. Even if you look at how many times we have been in the upper end of the PL to the bottom few in the Championship, the numbers probably look very similar. We shouldn’t accept relegation to L1 any more than we should expect to qualify for the CL precisely because both are very unrealistic for us.

And then even players who aren’t bad eggs we have signed I would say have been not particularly strong mentally in terms of digging in and keeping their heads up in difficult times. I’m thinking players like Fatawu, Mavididi, Hermansen from Maresca’s time and going back before, the likes of Maddison. Jordan James is the one but it’s a shame we only have him for one season. That is the type of character we want. We desperately need more like him. He’s a Pearson player. We miss the characters like Kasper, Wes, Huth, Fuchs.

I’d never say we shouldn’t be in this league or anything as historically that is not the case for us. However, in the last 100 years, we have had 13 seasons lower than the top half of the 2nd tier (12 in the bottom half and of course the 1 in the 3rd tier). 13% is a minority so it is not entitled to have expectations that are higher than sitting in the relegation zone in this league. Remember 5 of those 13 seasons were consecutive from 2004-2009 so it only leaves 8 in 95 years which is less than 8.5%. Our average position is something like 22nd so in today’s terms 2nd in this league and our record 2nd tier titles matches this. We are historically bad in the history of the club right now. So yes back the team and get them over the line based on the job at hand given where we currently are. But let’s not glorify it. This season is a complete embarrassment being where we are with the highest wage bill by a huge distance as well.

This is what happens when the EFL f*** over a club (Wednesday) and cause it to essentially be a 23 team league but with the games against the 24th still counting. It will push the totals elsewhere up.

I mean they were worse overpays agreed. Skipp still an overpay. The question is whether you can quickly move a player on at any point without taking a financial loss. We’ve had many many signings over the last however many years where that is not the case and they end up on loan and ultimately leave on frees. Currently you’d struggle to get a taker for Skipp who’d cover what we still owe so it was still an overpay.

Why don’t the EFL pay Chansiri his £15 million if they’re that bothered! It’s their fault for letting people like him own clubs in the first place so god forbid they take any responsibility. Oh no let’s just continue to punish the clubs and fans further whilst pretending they actually care about the clubs rather than the reality which is they don’t give a f*** if a historic club like Sheffield Wednesday go under!

I personally think they will complete f*** up the next appointment and we will see a situation similar to Sheffield United this season where we get someone who has us rooted to the bottom of the league. They had a better foundation than we will going into next season and acted quickly (we wouldn’t have) and they got the appointment bringing Wilder back right (we would screw that up too). So yeah basically we are in trouble next season!

KPFC is not an insulting term but one to describe those who put KP ahead of the club. It’s an accurate descriptive term. As has been said above this, it’s tame compared to the abuse received towards those who are vocal against the running of the club. As also mentioned, the former have physically assaulted the latter in the stands. Supporters are entitled to peacefully protest and vocalise dissatisfaction at the running of the club but it seems that a number of supporters can’t handle this and resort to physical and verbal abuse including on social media to those peacefully making a point.

Probably comes from the fact there is no sound argument for them holding such strong views. It is always lazy cliches like be careful what you wish for, accusing people wanting change of only being around since 2016 (absolute BS) and physically and verbally attacking those sharing the opposite view.

Basically it’s a case of ‘you don’t speak for me as I don’t agree with your view but I speak for everyone else with mine’. So little self awareness and irony.

That little? Contract until 2028 is it? Or 2029? Signed in 2023 winter so yeah, I guess he’s 3 years through now so could be getting on for that. Hopefully one of the first out anyway.

I’m messing to be fair, thought the emoji would have let that on….. I’m as pleased as I can be given the circumstances. I hate what the club has become and want serious change from ownership downwards. That won’t happen overnight and I certainly don’t want us to drop to League 1. So in the short term, I am pleased the embarrassing clean sheet record and 2 months without win are off our back and we might be looking more positive for the remainder of what has been a completely miserable season. Perhaps relieved is a better word than pleased. As for Skipp, we massively overpaid of course. But it is about building a team and not a collection of individuals so I have a lot more time for him than many of our other players.

Nobody wanted to see the player go. The only arguments in favour were when it became a case of the player downing tools to force a move, at which point people became in favour of moving him on with the best possible price for the benefit of the club (which clearly our glorious leadership failed miserably at). Your implication is that people of this view haven’t got a clue. I’d argue it is the case these people do have a clue as they understand that building a successful side is about more than putting individuals (in some cases who do not want to be at the club) together and expecting them to do well. If a player downs tools and is going to be a negative influence, they should be moved on. I’d argue that Jordan James is a much better player for us (key bit for us) than BEK. If we could have turned a profit that allowed us to us that profit to sign James up permanently that would have been great business. But again, those managing our transfers are clueless so that won’t happen.

The absolutely meltdown from the KP loyalists on the Foxes Trust FB post about the unite for change protest and the results of their survey 🍿

Anyone/anything you’re happy about today?

The problem may be what happen with Kristiansen. I doubt we can carry 3 senior left backs so ideally we’d get rid of VK as Thomas is the better of the 2. It’s one of them, the best way to improve your squad is to sign someone better to bump the current starter down to squad member. Over the years, we have signed too many players as back up options and our starting 11 and squad has become stale and deteriorated as a result. But I can only see us signing a new starting left back and having Thomas as back up (therefore improving the squad) if VK can be binned.

Squad rotation is fine. I thought Rowetthad messed up with the selection of Reid and Ayew but fortunately it worked, even though Ayew was a waste of space still. But it was just the point that commenting that Daka is not prolific whilst the conversation is about him being dropped after a good game and a goal last time out is part of the problem. He’s not exactly been overplayed this season so not sure leaving him out last night was necessary. Honestly he probably would be able to play 2 90’s a week as he at least had fitness and energy that a lot of them lack. His confidence has clearly been destroyed for quite some time now to the point where even though we have seen him for 4 and a half years now, do we actually know how good/bad/awful he really is?

Yep, and needs a big close season in terms of getting his fitness levels up and ensuring he is physically up to it. I’m thinking like Chilwell do that summer when he came back from looking like a little boy scared to take a throw in away at Millwall to the player Chelsea paid £50mill for.

By the way, imagine the pelters Stolarcryk would have got if he’d conceded that goal Fatawu scored last night. Just goes to show all keepers will have those moments. It’d be good if we can get behind him now he is back in the side and showing some more confidence.

Well we gift wrapped 6 points to Sheffield United and they returned the favour with a late equaliser for West Brom at the weekend so I’m not holding my breathe!

I 100% support the protest action. However, it is imperative that the support in the ground is huge. Those who have stayed away that have season tickets and want to protest, go in the ground and show who the supporters who really back the team are and which side of the ownership argument the true fans are on. I just hope that we win the game, both for the obvious reason of 3 points and further momentum to stay up, but to shut up the KPFC lot. If we have a bad performance/result, you just know that they’ll start forming an argument based on the 3 homes games since Rowett joined with the positive result not coinciding with a pre-match protest….

It was more of a complete performance than I can recall this season. Great to get the clean sheet monkey off the backs. As others have said, it is hard to know how much that was us and how much Bristol City were just poor/right time to play them. However, whilst our league position has been fair based on performances, quality wise you’d still expect us to be far ahead of many sides in this league. Rowett has sorted the work ethic and attitude a lot. The rest is confidence and even just dispatching a poor opposition with ease and the clean sheet should do wonders for the confidence. If we can follow it up against QPR, we could be in for a strong end to the season.