orangecity23

This is free on Epic Games Store on PC this week, you have until Thursday to claim it.

Enid Blyton books sure have changed from what they used to be...

As soon as we actually won the league, the so called "neutral" fans, and a lot of the media, have been very keen to see us go back to obscurity. Our country is all about enjoying plucky losers, not winners. As soon as we won, the "narrative" shifts to waiting to see us fail. Put us back in our place. We saw the response when we sacked Ranieri, the rest of the country wanted us to sit there and get relegated without doing anything. In fact, that would have made the story of us winning the league even better for them.

The Premier League only have themselves to blame, 3 clubs get relegated every season, so it was always the case that this instance would arise at some point. If they and the EFL can't sort themselves out to write consistent, cohesive regulations that handle the movement of clubs between the 2 systems then thats just tough shit for them. Of course, if they hadn't fecked around so long before punishing Everton for their first PSR offence, then they would have gone down instead of us anyway. Then they could have quite happily punished us last season and we would've had to take it.

If Everton and Forest have a problem, then it should be with the PL, not with us. Their punishment was a points deduction, and it occurred in a season we weren't even in the Prem. They weren't relegated, so the impact of the points deduction was they finished a few places lower in the Prem than they would have otherwise? At best, you could argue their damages is a few million in prize money and not a lot else. The last time we were in the Prem they both finished above us anyway.

I have this situation on the way home from work every day, and I always use the right hand lane on the exit now - because there is always someone coming approaching from the left lane of the bottom left entrance who will come off at the same exit as me(ie they are going straight on), they definitely will not be giving way to traffic from the right when they join the roundabout at a squilluon miles an hour and try to undertake you as you are about to take the exit - so I find it easier to exit in the right of the two lanes then check mirrors carefully after exiting to ensure an absence of speeding clown approaching before safely moving into the left lane after the roundabout.

This tactic of "keeping it tight" by starting defensively cannot keep happening, because as it stands we pose zero attacking threat at all in the first half of games so far. All we've done is given ourselves a handicap which requires us to score multiple goals while chasing a game. Trying to keep it tight against villa meant we needed to score 3 goals in 20 minutes to win. I wouldn't be opposed to it if we had set up in a solid block which carried a counter attack threat but there isn't one. Abdul is the only pacy player starting and he is often pinned back at right back. We are getting penned in to our own half where we give up chances because it's hard to have the space to get any possession going. Having Mavididi back in would give us pace on both flanks, plus add one of the number 10s to give us a chance of retaining the ball and progressing it down the centre (it could even be Ayew at 10 if Cooper is determined to get his experience in there and his hold up play could be useful) and we could be a lot more solid at the back by having a threat in the other direction, as the opposition will have to back off a bit to not leave themselves open to a counter attack.

It was a simple misunderstanding. Cooper handed him a note that said "Go in for hard tackles, but make sure to play the ball", but he read it too quickly and thought it said "make sure to play with the balls".

Hopefully it's not like car insurance, where they ignore what you paid and only pay out the "book value" - we would be lucky to get enough for a bag of crisps if they paid ward's market worth

Horrible news. Seemed like such a nice guy, 39 is no age at all. Still remember his debut vs Man City in the cup, and how he bagged that goal to immediately win us all over. RIP.

Exactly. I was glad to see us give them a taste of their own medicine for a change. Too many times under Rodgers, we would just sit there with a bemused look on our faces while McgInn basically reffed the game himself with his antics.

Villa fans online seem to be very upset about us being "dirty" or "diving" - yet they all seem to love John McGinn, Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez. Aren't they aware their entire team is full of shithouses, and they play shithouse cheating tactics all the time? Or is it only upsetting when someone else does it back to them for a change?

You can really see how he managed to have such an appalling away record at Forest. He clearly has no confidence in his ability to set up a team to attack, score goals or keep posession. This mindset of trying to keep things tight is throwing the game away every week. If we posed some threat from the start, there a chance we coud take a lead and defend it, to counter attack against opponents chasing the game. Having Mavididi starting would also have an effect of preventing opposition fullbacks coming forward as much. as they have to keep an eye out for pace on the counter. We've had 4 competitve games now, 3 at home, and not one of them has had us have a go in the first half. Even against Tranmere, we started 3 defensive midfielders. If you have no appetite to attack when you are against a League 2 team at home, then you will never do it.

So Palace have an interest in Iversen, we just sent them 5 million for Ayew and are back in trying to loan Edouard from them, and we still couldn't sort out a deal to get him there? How can we be that bad at negotiating, it boggles the mind.

Rudkin applying the Major Major office visitation policy from Catch-22.

I enjoyed the post game analysis video, thought it was very helpful. I missed the game entirely, so being able to get an in depth idea to how things played out was interesting, especially as the highlights and analysis on Match of the Day etc tend to be so minimal, and most of the pro media stuff tends to spend the bulk of its time slurping the big 6 and ignoring everything else.

Wanya Marcal needs a loan too, you'd think there would have been some interest, he got a few games spotlight last season, scored a goal vs Cardiff and played well against Bournemouth in the cup. Surely there must be someone at Championship or League 1 level who coud do with a winger like that on loan. Signed a new contract last season too, so since he seems nowhere near the first team, needs to be out and playing some games to avoid stagnation.

When Rudkin phones them up for the next bid, he should kick off the call with a classic "Suprise, we are back, Mathfackers"

RIP Sven, sad to see a true gentleman of the game gone.

Only 1 CD in Steve's collection:

We have no strikers fit, too many centre backs - sod it, stick Wout up front. He's already matched 3 of Jordan Ayew's Premier League seasons for goalscoring.

So if that's a two year deal at 5 + 3 million add ons - does that mean 2.5 million of amortisation this year, but (potentially) 5.5 million on next years budget? Ouch. Thats the equivalent of a 22 million quid signing on a 4 year deal. Anyway, nothing we can do about it now. Hope he does well for us, at least its a versatile player for the bench if nothing else.

Spend all day on deadline day on a dud, then it falls through at 11pm leaving us without even the dud.

You can feel it coming, can't you? 33 million on Skipp and Ayew committed, "hopeful of getting 2" more attacking players. Next week it becomes "hopeful of 2 more, might need some departures". Deadline day "Hoping for a loan, as soon as a couple go out on loan". Then run out of time, whoops, never mind, at least we've got Ayew in. that'll sort us out until January, surely we'll sell Soumare then, the last 4 times we tried didn't work but we've got a good feeling this time.

That's the beauty of signing Ayew. Doesn't score any goals, so no chance of putting anyone off