LCFCJohn

I always appreciated Puel for what he did in terms of building the club and the squad even when many were losing their minds about him so I get this. He also is good with youth players, he brought Barnes through and Fofana and Saliba at St Etienne come to mind. He lowered the age of our squad overall I think as well.

To be fair, it looks about right to me. An uncompetitive league with no jeopardy, as a result of the PSR nonsense creating such imbalance has put people off watching as surprise surprise, people watch English football for the culture of the competitiveness and ups and downs. Almost like it’s not just about the big teams and big name players. And the point about multiple to packages causing illegal streaming also very fair.

Seems weird Norwich would think he is available…. 24m ago19:48 Norwich have Stolarczyk bid rejected Latest by Sky Sports News' Dharmesh Sheth and Elliot Cook: Norwich are understood to have had a bid rejected by Leicester City for Jakub Stolarczyk. The Polish goalkeeper is a player Norwich like and one they have been tracking for a while. He is understood to be one of a number of options they are looking at for a new No.1.

Ah you’re thinking of the dugout in 23/24, not this year

They do seem to have a thing for older players. I mean you can’t criticise 3 promotions in a row but if they are making decisions like this, I could see their progression coming to an abrupt stop!

Well yeah, as I said, either they have information or are a lonely keyboard warrior with no actual life to live. Either way, not worth getting wound up about.

If that’s the case though, those people lead a pretty sad life right. To make up stuff on a forum. So either they have had genuine information that was shared with the best intentions. Or they are an individual with nothing better to do with their life and I sympathise with that. Either way, not worth getting wound up about and going to the effort of digging out old posts in my option anyway.

Far too much given he was signed after relegation. What were we thinking! As I say, a profit on all players would be ideal. However, given how many have walked for free, just getting wages off a year early or a small profit in some cases, is probably necessary for certain players to allow us to move to on.

No we can’t. But getting wages down is the important thing. In certain cases, breaking even and getting wages off is fine. The alternative is they leave for free anyway and we have paid that years wages so what’s better?

He probably should have taken it. Good player and not necessarily on the decline, but that car accident will have taken its toll so if he expects someone to commit for multiple years he’s quite delusional!

Aiyawatt is the cause of the decline. Rudkin is just the most painful and notable symptom.

Agreed. Someone said on here yesterday that we are unable to spend our way out of it but I disagree that is what we need. We need to reduce our costs. We can spend plenty, we just don’t spend it wisely. Even if we had taken it seriously when we were relegated two years ago, none of the following would be here now; Vestergaard Coady Skipp Winks Ndidi Ayew BDR Obviously Ward and Vardy going as well. That’d be much of the cost reduced. You’d have a year left of Soumare and Daka from the 2021 spend. You’d have Faes and the January 2023 spend of VK and Souttar. I think Souttar will be a useful player for us and the other 4 with the length on their contracts will attract interest. So like you, I struggle with sympathy for the club in the sense of where we are now, how much we have fallen and that it is still hanging over us in 2025! Also agree that if we could spend as much as we wanted this would put the whole clubs future at risk as although we know PSR and FFP are to protect the big clubs, the official line being to protect clubs from going to the wall would apply to us under Aiyawatt in terms of an owner who would be incompetent enough to bankrupt us if left to his own devices.

Yeah I agree with that. I am just saying that the lack of any risk of relegation made the table look a bit odd. The points totals for 17th were higher than for a while and nobody else had that risk. They were obviously poor in the league, we took 4 points off them! But it’s hardly like they were a 17th that narrowly avoided relegation! People saying if only we had won a few more games like it was even close.

I also think people are reading too much into Spurs finishing 17th. They were focusing on the cup and CL qualification that way and it worked for them. There were no jeopardy in the league at the bottom end. Nobody else other than us, Southampton and Ipswich were ever in a serious conversation as to being relegated. There was therefore no pressure on any other side in the league so it doesn’t really mean anything for Spurs. Had they needed to I feel they would have picked up more results.

As long as the fee covers what is left to pay on him which is about £2.5 mill plus his wages off the books. That will do.

Going to Norwich. Missed the boat due to how bloated we are in that position and the fact our owner and DoF haven’t started thinking about next season yet.

Would have liked Darling but he appears to be joining Manning at Norwich.

Funny how people see things differently. Thomas looked a completely different player in trying circumstances when he came into the side. He should be one of, if next the, best left back in the league this coming season. It’s one of the lowest priorities for me. That and wingers. Striker and central midfielders are much more pressing. Even a centre back if we can shift some.

We didn’t renew Winks and Coady. We went out and spent big transfer fees on both (for the Championship), more than both were were and slapped them on big wages, again more than should be the case in the Championship. I don’t get what you are referring to by reducing the value of players on the books. The way out of PSR trouble would be to bring in players with resale value and scope to improve, whilst reducing the wage bill. None of the names I highlighted improve us in the here and now, bring down the wage bill or provide a route forward via resale value. What possible positive is there to these decisions?

Again, I agree. PSR is a joke and stops us and clubs like us competing at the top. But it doesn’t legislate for where we have ended up and is a convenient excuse for those running the club and those defending them.

I agree. I have said before, it’s not a case of blaming one or the other. PSR is a joke but also not to blame for the depths we have gone to to fall apart.

It’s true what he says about the PL wanting to destroy clubs like ours. But, we have had plenty of opportunities to change course, even if it set us back in the short term. We have chosen to carry on down this path. That part can’t be blamed on the authorities.

People love to dramatise. Yes he has been crap for us but shocking revelation here, sometimes it doesn’t work for a player at a certain club and then does at a new club. Who’d have thought it! So those saving we will be stuck with him, his book value is less than £5mill. He had a good loan at Sevilla and was well thought of at Lille. There will be takers in Europe for that fee and yes, they will probably get a player who works out for them. Wages is more then issue.

At the end of the day, both Arsenal and Tottenham will start the new season on zero points, and in the same European competition. Spurs have a trophy to show for it and a new manager which will give them a boost. In fact given Arsenal start the season top, the only way literally is down as they ain’t winning it!

Awful night at a venue that had no business hosting football. So far from the pitch and it was a really foggy night. Could barely see a thing!