when_you're_smiling

To be fair, I think the ‘wouldn’t be that bad’ comments were at least partly because the belief was he would still would want to be elected for a second time, but then nobody would be daft enough to vote for him for a second time. It would have blown people’s minds in 2016 if you told them he’d encourage insurrection in 2020 and then still get voted back in four years later.

This and English cricket has no patience for leg spinners and letting them develop. It takes years to master it and because of how difficult it is, you will give up boundary balls more often than other bowling styles. Ahmed’s not the new Shane Warne…but he’s still younger now than Warne was on his test debut and he was a freak (for want of a better word). There’s plenty to come from Rehan.

Watching this in Croatia. The commentary reminds me of watching the Queen’s funeral. And as I write that he suddenly gets excited ‘Kovacic….Kovacic…..KOVACIC….KOVACIC….oh no’.

I know it’s a long international break, but it’s not that long. And that’s even with Faes in Saudi Arabia!

This bit is interesting in comparison with how everyone talked about Vichai being often around the changing room and always chatting with the players and staff.

It’s been said since about 1995 that ‘there’s too much money in football’ and the ‘bubble will burst’. I was beginning to think it might never happen, but maybe this is the start where it does begin to eat itself. A slow dirge of clubs suing each other.

Given all the stuff that went off before the season, I don’t think it’s been a bad season. We had the shite luck with the overseas signings just weeks before the season started. Some of the bowling attacks we’ve fielded have been worse than some of those we had in the second tier. And yet still only were relegated thanks to a somewhat dodgy points deduction. Yes the T20 was shite. No hiding from that. We’ve had a lot going against us, and that’s even before the financial disparities, but still making our mark. Thanks lads, but let’s build on it and not revert to the dire times of previous.

Punishment. ‘You’re so shit you now have to play kids football’.

It is weird we always seem to have it in for the left back. Even Chilwell and Justin James were being barracked before they left and told they frequently they weren’t good enough. Obviously Fuchs was well loved, but obviously winning the Prem helped with that. Bruno Berner, but he also won a league and would be hated now as he was signed over 35. I do think Thomas is particularly kept in for his crossing into the box. He’s about the only one who even attempts it.

Well done all on the support. It was immense. The small margins were against us at key times today.

I didn’t want him, but was prepared to give him time. I also don’t think our squad is anywhere near as good as people on here think. But if you don’t win that game, then it’s unlikely you’re winning more than you don’t this season, so you aren’t getting promoted. The risk/reward ratio is just ridiculously skewed against you. It needs a complete rethink already, but then we probably all knew that in the summer and it didn’t really happen. Just just a rethink of someone going back to fexking basics would be a start.

If you’d told me we’d win more/the same amount as Surrey this season before the start I would not have believed you.

Still need to get through the new ball. There will be twists and turns.

Gates get shared 50 per cent and they thought they’d finally get a big cheque even if drawn away after just about scrapping past another League One side at home in the last round.

According to the BBC, the players were told of the deduction at lunch yesterday.

Well the ECB head groundsman said ‘the whole pitch was visibly cracked’ and Carlson said ‘the pitch was clearly cracked’, so not sure it could be argued the extra 2mm covered it. You’re right on the clumps, but don’t remember seeing that mentioned as being an issue for the bounce.

What I don’t understand is that the report acknowledges that the uneven bounce (which supposedly got better on the last day when it was presumably at its driest) was because of cracks forming due to the ‘unprecedented’ dryness. Even Glamorgan’s evidence is about how dry it was. But the argument for the points deduction is that Leicestershire left the grass too long - 16mm rather than the up to 14mm the groundsman would have preferred. It says Leics should have foreseen problems with that extra grass, but it doesn’t actually say that contributed to the uneven bounce which is its reasoning for the ‘poor’ rating. At most the ECB groundsman is mentioned as saying longer grass leads to more moisture extraction. At no point though does the report mention how much of an impact the extra 2mm would have made on the dryness. I’m not an expert, but then presumably neither is the person who wrote the report as it doesn’t mention how much of a difference it would make. Ultimately the report absolutely jumps on that discrepancy between the club and groundsman as a reason to hit the club hard, even though it acknowledges the dryness was the ultimate reason for it. I’m sure that dryness is the reasoning behind so many low scoring matches in this block of Champ matches, no matter how long they left the grass.

Remember the last time we would have qualified for the T20 knockouts we were deducted points as well. I’m really annoyed about the suspended points as well. Basically encourages teams to complain about the pitch if they lose as Glamorgan did.

Why is the VAR stuff from the Manchester derby still dominating headlines four days after? It’s not like Man U were totally hard done to given they should have been down to 10 men too.

You might be surprised. Their first cup final for 30 years.

With hindsight an attack of Green/Hull, Mike and a guy on loan looks slightly ludicrous going up against Overton, Ball, Gregory and Pretorious.

Oh yeah I’m sure you’re right, especially under Rodgers. We were fourth for the Wycombe game though, nine off months after O’Neill left. It probably would have gone wrong with Taylor eventually, but it was remarkable how much and how quickly that collapse was. The loss of confidence was bonkers. We literally went from challenging for Europe to barely being able to win a game.

Because of what happened after the Wycombe game. We were about 4th in the Prem mid-March having just beaten Liverpool and Sunderland who were fifth when that happened. After the Wycombe loss we lost something like 14 in a row to end the season, then was relegated dismally for the first time in years in that last season at Filbert Street. It took 15 years to get back to that level of top half in the Prem. With hindsight, you can easily argue that the 4-1 loss against Forest might have triggered the same. In short, the Oxford loss is just another symptom of a collapse, not a catalyst like those other two.

Given the three, four day games in just over two weeks, it was always likely. Also especially difficult for the likes of us with smaller squads. Still…we all enjoyed The Hundred….

I appreciate the detailed reply. But you still need to have an ‘average’ to mark something ‘below average’. Hopefully it’s not just because the losing side moaned about it, because that’s what it feels like.