LCFCJohn

Funny that, when played in his actual strongest position. When he is, forget the off the field problems and the fact his wage is too high, but as a combative central midfielder, he is good at that level. When played in a full back or inverted position that is not natural, it’s no wonder he doesn’t look as good.

No, this is essentially what we have been doing all along under KP and unless you end up with a Pearson or Puel (who for his faults in coaching was a good manager of building a squad and recruitment), it doesn’t work. We have ended up with a mismatch of players and no clear direction as we keep lumbering from style to another. The clubs doing well currently do have a club level strategy and managers brought in fit this. It doesn’t mean you bring players in against your managers wishes as such, but if the direction of the club is set, the players you are bringing in should be aligned with the manager you have.

All of what you have said, but also, on the Enzo leaving but and the fact Vestergaard had his deal renewed early in the summer, where was he really going to go? We could have waited, he’d have been sweating on getting a new club. Once Enzo left we could have then pulled the plug completely or if he did sign a new deal, it could have been shorter length on lower wages. It was just sheer laziness to not go out and find an alternative.

I’d like to think Nelson could be one of those centre backs. I’d be happy if it was also Souttar but I don’t think he’ll be fit. I don’t know how Nelson and Okoli would work together. We would seriously need to shift the likes of Faes and Coady if we want to invest in that area as we have a lot of numbers already.

1 clean sheet in the league (back on 5th October). Scored in 3 of our last 13 league games. Kind of tells the story as to why we are where we are…

These are going or in danger Fewest points per game (converted to 3 points) - 0.64 in 1977/78 (0.63 so far this season) Can’t see us increasing this. Fewest wins - 5 in 77/78 and 01/02 (4 so far this season) Will we win more than 1 more? Most defeats - 25 in 77/78 in a 42 game season (18 so far this season, which at the current rate would result in losing 28 games in a 42 game season) We will actually exceed this in 4 less games than the 42 games season.

The minutes have been good. The fees for Chilwell, Barnes and KDH also. I think you can appreciate that whilst identifying that there are a couple of areas that could be improved. 1. Other, lower key sales to keep things ticking over. Man City make a fortune doing this. We are obviously dealing at a much different level and if we are selling down the pyramid based on them not making the grade here, we are not talking large fees as such. Hirst may be a good example, although he’d probably be good enough for us next season. Cannon as well although from a PSR point it wasn’t as good as we owed a fair bit but purely in terms of the fee. 2. Loans. We seem slow at this and even this was the case with KDH. Perhaps even Barnes and Chilwell could have been slightly earlier although that might be picky. A lot of the loans we do send out don’t succeed since the over 3 either. There’s factor such as injury on loan (Nelson) or injury putting back going out and getting first team experience (Alves) so those factors need noting. So it’s not about chucking them in too young. But improving the second points might increase the first team appearances from academy graduate but them starting a bit younger and help PSR but putting others in the shop windows and making tidy bits of profit, even if small individually.

Hmm, it was more a lot of points clear of 3rd than 2nd I guess. I’m just looking, we had a 17 point lead over Leeds after 25 games and actually 12 points clear of 2nd now I look, after 32 games. It looks like we weren’t actually off the top after a full game week (which I thought we were but must have been when we played after). But that 12 point lead over 2nd and 3rd (who were on the same points) did get frittered away to the point we were essentially caught up. Even so, we are kings of chucking away leads ok

The problem is, the ‘experience‘ we are buying is pointless as they are not good leaders and do not set a good example to young players. What’s the point in Vestergaard, Ayew, Skipp etc. When Pearson brought experience, it was the likes of Phillips and Cambiasso. Completely broken culture.

You’re asking on the wrong forum, did you see us last season? Not to mentioned the leads we blew in 2020 and 2021!

I’d rather Leeds come up to be honest, our record against them is poor. And against Burnley to be fair. From our point of view, we are probably better Sheff Utd staying down as we do well against them.

It’s not so much about him (or Nyoni or whoever is next) leaving, but the system needs to compensate the developing club fairly. Man City will be bringing him in at an age where he will class as home grown to flip in a few years and pocket the profit, don’t be naive enough to think they are actually bringing him in for a future in the first team. It’s how they keep on top of PsR.

Forest seem to have had the same starting 11 all season. They are doing well not to get any injuries. That said, that was us years back and we had similar fortune in 2015/16. Funny how when a team is doing well, players are fit and ready to go.

Maresca tried a bit but still not enough for me. I realise that he has factors like Alves having had his untimely injury and he wasn’t really back enough to be a viable option. I think he could have used Nelson more but he stuck rigidly to his Vestergaard/Faes love in. Fitness and injury pending, for me, Nelson and Alves have to be pivotal to the side next season, they just have to be. They are the two that are most established. I see them as first 11. I thought Braybrooke as well but his loan was just a complete waste of time and he didn’t even get to go out again which I think he could have done based on Cover going to Fleetwood after being at Port Vale. Then you really are talking the proper kids, Monga (if still here), Evans etc. You have to sensible with them but they need regular minutes off the bench with a view to being integrated as starters as we go through the season if they are good enough.

Growing up and going to school as close to Derby whilst being in Leicestershire as you can get (Castle Donington), I knew loads of Derby fans and a lot of my teammates in junior football supported them. To be fair, they are quite a likeable club for me. Not at all offensive, their fans are loyal to them but not arrogant like Forest. They aren’t toxic and bitter like Cov fans. I always want us to be top of the lot as we had been for a long time until recently, but as long as that is the case, I wish Derby well.

Kicking the can down the road. They will have nowhere to hide next season when they can’t find all the local day trippers wanting to watch Preston, Swansea and Portsmouth (no disrespect to those clubs, just plucked 3 from midtable who will be in the league next year). It will catch up with them, the empty seats.

Awful. It’s harrowing as a parent to think you can send your child to a dance class, school or football training and for them to never make it home. A worse nightmare.

It’s the money. How many academy players make Man City‘s first team? Only a couple. They flip them for PSR profit, hence signing them young to be classed as ‘home grown’. His end result probably won’t be much different (assuming we pull our finger with our own progression route). Put it this way, he could be playing Championship football at 16 next season. But his bank balance will be fatter there.

Dress up costumes? I’d be pretty concerned if my 2 year old was performing medical treatment on me But shops like Smyths have a variety of kids dress up but if you can’t find what you want, you gravitate online. And if you go round a large shopping centre and a number of supermarkets, you’d expect to find a plain red t-shirt for a 2 year old right? Or is that an entitled expectation I have?

The problem is, high street stores and local businesses need to step up. We try and buy stuff locally where we can but sometimes you have to give in. We were putting two dress up word book week costumes together for our daughter for nursery. For one, we just needed literally a plan red, long sleeved t-shirt for a 2 year old and the other a white doctors coat, again 2 year old. Not completely out there and bizarre things. We went in numerous shops both in the Meadowhall centre near us and the local retail park (so like Smyths toys looking for the doctors coat), as well as a couple Of supermarkets thinking they would have plain red t-shirts. We could not find either and had to order them online, in which Amazon would get them to us the quickest. Maybe there was alternatives, like online click and collect from one of the supermarkets but sometimes you just try and do the right thing and put money directly into local stores, get fed up, go home and ‘Amazon’ it as much as you don’t want to.

I’m not saying I want Parker here but he has already got two promotions from the Championship with Fulham and Bournemouth so I think you are doing him a disservice here. He may have not proven he can yet cut it at Premier League level but he is clearly good at what he does. He also relatively young at 44 In management terms. Very different to Vestergaard who always has been and will continue to be, a busted flush.

And the fact Newcastle and Villa finished top 4 in the years since, and the likes of Forest this season (though they show signs of dropping off), goes to show that even the 5th place finishes were not the achievement many made them out to be. The likes of Spurs, Man U and Chelsea on and off have been underperforming for years and any team and manager with anything about them would have seen that job through.

I agree it wasn’t addressing the glaring weakness in the starting 11. I do think Daka was signed to be Vardy’s successor although given we were moving away from that sort of system it was perhaps odd. I guess I am just being picky, in a way that there is so much that we can put at the clubs door where we as fans, would have been putting our head in our hands at the time, such as Skipp and Ayew (the latter just because although he has offered a bit, he doesn’t seem the leader you’d expect from a senior player). So I guess I’m just applying some balance on a couple of cases where the fan base were buzzing. But you would also expect the club to do more due diligence on things like leadership qualities and mentality than we as fans do.

Not aimed at you, just the latest post mentioning Daka and Soumare as terrible signings. If you look at the threads from when their signings were announced, this place was buzzing. Everyone was falling over themselves at how good these signings were. They haven’t worked out at we would have liked, and I am a huge critic of the club, but I think there are plenty of signings we knew wouldn’t crap but these ones you can’t really criticise the club on. The wages yes, as this is what has made it difficult to move them on.

I suppose this could narrow the gap a bit, letting Championship clubs be better prepared when they go up. Presumably the motive for the Premier League refusing to change it is to try and maintain the status quo….