orangecity23

Hey, it's another one of those "outlier" performances happening again. Starting to feel like the wins are the outliers, club continue to be confident they are doing everything right and have never made a single bad decision at any point in the last 10 years, carry on regardless.

Commentator: "He's Ready for the next battle" THE KING OF IRON FIST TOURNAMENT, ENTER THE TEKKEN

"Come and get your daft red cards, they're on offer till December, Heavy duty daft red cards, for first time offenders"

Since he's been out for so long, and given Russell was calling Cullen "Cully" in the post match interview last week, I now picture him in my mind as the robot from the film Chappie. Makes the signing more amusing. Russell: You fit to play this weekend, mate? Chappie: CHAPPIE IS HURT. CHAPPIE IS DYING. YOU MAKE CHAPPIE RUN, YOU ARE A BAD MAN. WHY IS CHAPPIE HERE? WHY YOU BRING CHAPPIE HERE TO SUFFER?

Was it an outlier when Russel's Southampton shipped 4 goals at home to us, 5 goals at the KP to us, and managed to blow a 2-0 lead at home to the absolutely honking Steve Cooper team? Seems to keep happening to him multiple times across many years now. Probably a fluke though, nothing to do with tactics or style of play though.

Is Oxford that much of an outlier when we conceded 3 (+2 disallowed) in the following game? Suggests more deep seated defensive issues.

One factor that gets a bit overlooked in our downfall alongside the stupid spending, is that arguably even worse is the attempts made to "save money" and comply, resulting in some of the most stupid decision making possible. The idea that we should sell Kasper to "save money on his wages" and replace him with Danny Ward, or that we "couldn't afford to sack Rodgers" in the first relegation - incredibly shortsighted. The amount "saved" pales in comparison to the lost TV revenue. Especially given the fact that Everton and Forest got deductions the following season anyway, so if we had stayed up and got a deduction, we wouldn't have been the only team in that boat, and might have had a shout at staying up then. Fortunately, we had learnt our lesson last season, so our leadership wouldn't do anything stupid like not even bother to sign a striker, even a free transfer like McBurnie or Bamford, in an attempt to save costs on the wage bill, and attempt to go an entire season with no proper striker, only for the club to get itself relegated again, thus cancelling out any savings on 1 strikers wages by losing a massive slice of TV revenue. Oh, wait...

End of an era with Jake going, hope he has a great time embarking on his new adventure! Sure the pod is in good hands with the rest of the lads, long live the pod. Great stuff from @Anonymous F.O.X. with the ending as well, (plus thanks for the latest track as well!) a fitting musical tribute to one of Jake's best stories on the pod, the cabbie story was a classic.

An uncertain defence - Frantic Donkeys (Arctic monkeys) Well, Russell might wear pure white Reeboks But he ain't no Nigel Pearson Just cos he's got tracky bottoms tucked in socks But all of that's what the point is not The point's that there ain't no defence around here And there's the learning that he won't learn Joseph has no cover when his winger is slow Wes Burns Alex McCarthy should not be trying to do Cryuff turns And that's why there ain't no defence around here Don't you know, oh' it's a funny thing you know It's the tactics Russell likes They'll go wrong again tonight He'll never listen Because his mind is made up And course it's all okay, it's the only way to play 'Cause over there, there's lots of space Both full backs have inverted, so no one's in their place And it don't take a lot of pace To score from counter attacks around here Don't get me wrong, though, it never stops The urge to play 1-2's in our own six yard box There'll be moaning from the Kop When we lose it, and just look like a bunch of dickheads Don't you know, oh' it's a funny thing you know It's the tactics Russell likes They'll go wrong again tonight He'll never listen Because his mind is made up It's because of inexperience he'll say, it's not his style of play But will he resign? No Oh no He won't get employed again when he goes Not anywhere, not anywhere So he won't go Oh no no Well, over here, there's a club in decline What can I say? It's gone on for a long long time But some folk still think it will all be just fine If we clap a bit and don't get angry while we play Play in the same way Still play in the same way Oh no, oh no no

Hopefully there are several dates on that concert tour, and not just London as the only UK stop. I went to the Symphony of the Goddess tour when it was in Brum many years back, and that was a superb show, and they have only added even more great music to the series since then.

I was watching that BBC1 documentary with Hamza about Birds of prey yesterday afternoon, and they had a bit about Birds nesting in a site where the bird poo hardens and forms a rocky layer, and because they had been there for so long, analysing the rocky structure showed they were nesting on over 1000 years of solidified bird dung. I thought, "wow, that is the biggest pile of shit I've seen since Saturday afternoon"

It's quite remarkable how Top and Rudkin have managed to be so unaware of Martin's flaws, when he has displayed them in every single job he's had, with no sign of changing or "learning" from his mistakes, for his entire managerial career. Even if they managed to be so completely out of touch with the wider football world where they never take a blind bit of notice of what is going on, at least one of them had to be sat there, in the KP, watching Enzo's Leicester team completely disassemble Brussel's Southampton by easily taking advantage of their blatant weak spots on the counter attack, yet here we are, years later, and the weakness is still as glaring then as it was back then. How does Martin still not twig that his managerial style massively exposes his defence, for a former centre back he seems to have zero idea of what a solid defensive block is.

Burns, Chaplin and Cullen all signed up for at least 3 years? Swamp status: refilled.

If his loan goes well, maybe we can sign him permanently, might cost a few squid though.