ClaphamFox

West Brom will finish below us. The problem is, I’m not sure Oxford will.

West Brom fans seem to regard this as a major blow….

He's a Leicester lad and a lifelong supporter who has apparently been one of the few voices of sanity at the club in recent years. Maybe he genuinely believes he can turn the club around and restore some pride? Your 'line his pockets' comment seems a bit unfair.

Wait—so Collomose reckons that, despite some reports to the contrary, we will be PSR compliant for 24/25?

I knew Kevin Davies growing up. He lived around the corner and was mates with my younger brother. Nice kid. As he grew up in my hood and I was friends with his older brother, I wish him all the very best and feel inclined to give him a chance to show what he can do. I appreciate others may feel differently.

It's not entirely unreasonable. Rowett has gone into crisis clubs several times before and delivered instant results by focusing on the basics and improving the mentality. And to be fair, there were signs in the Stoke and Middlesbrough games that he might repeat the trick with us. The Norwich game has punctured everybody's confidence, for understandable reasons. All the progress made in the previous two games seemed to completely evaporate. Was it simply because Norwich were a much better side than Stoke or Middlesbrough, or because our team becomes paralysed by fear when playing at home? Let's hope it's the former because after the Ipswich game, six of our remaining 10 games will be at home. Usually that would be considered an advantage, but if our team hates playing at the KP it might work against us. The home game against Bristol a week today will tell us a lot about our survival prospects.

Maybe their game with Hull tonight will be an ill-tempered clog-fest with loads of injuries and red cards? Actually come to think of it, that still won't stop us from losing on Saturday...

So to extend the analogy, we've spent loads of money on a very fine and expensive bucket but we've allowed the water in it to become stagnant and filthy?

Norwich are the best side in the Championship in 2026—we probably won’t face another side as good as them. Ipswich next week will also be difficult but the remaining 10 are all very winnable—or at least they should be. The problem is, our players don’t look up to it. I was a bit more optimistic after the Stoke and Middlesbrough games but yesterday shocked me. Rowett looked shocked too. I suspect he’s starting to realise just how deep the rot is.

We were shocking but: 1) Norwich have been the best side in the Championship in 2026. We won’t face another team as good as them over the remaining 11 games. 2) It looks like might just end the day without losing ground of any of our main rivals. (I tend to clutch at straws to preserve my sanity).

Read the whole exchange. Brock is a piece of work 😂

Well he did help us back to the PL under Enzo in 2023/24—he was brilliant that season. So I think 'complete failure' is overstating it. Yes, he looked weak and unmotivated under Cooper, RVN and Cifuentes, but so did the rest of the squad. There is clearly a massive cultural issue at Seagrave that has weighed heavily on squad morale and performances for several years now. You could certainly argue that as a senior pro Winks should have tried harder to set a good example, but he wasn't responsible for the problems we've faced—those were down to the shitshow at the top of the club. He's clearly not going to be here next season, so you don't need to worry about that. But your suggestion that if he did stay we would 'certainly go down' is an emotional statement, not a rational one. I get that Winks has become the focal point for a lot of people's frustrations over the past two seasons, but I'm surprised by the extent to which some folk seem to completely lose their heads over him. Winks is a just symptom—he's not a cause.

Harry Winks had a major problem with the same managers that the fans had a problem with. He saw through them just like we did. He's basically one of us

All current PL clubs. We’re not a PL club currently.

The loss reported is for the 2024/25 season, but they apparently did not breach PSR for that period so presumably they're safe from a points deduction.

We have a different manager now.

The deadline for EFL clubs to submit their previous season's accounts to the EFL is 1 March. Where clubs have been charged by the EFL after this point, they have invariably been hit with deductions the following season. However I'm mindful that our case might be different if the PL has already started an investigation for 24/25 as we were a PL club then.

Rowett said Lascelles might be fit 🤞

It wouldn’t be another six. If we’re punished for 2022-25, they’ll have to take account of the fact that we’ve already been punished for 2021-24, so we’ll only be sanctioned for the additional year’s breach

When I speculated earlier that our appeal against the six-point deduction may be because we're trying to drag things out for long enough to ensure that any further deductions from the EFL are pushed into next season, I didn't really give it much credence. Now I'm not so sure...

Or adapt Duck Sauce's 'Barbara Streisand' and just insert 'Gary Rowett' instead. Simple and fun.

Unless our new technical director is a big fan and tries to persuade him to stay on

It really, really isn't. Whether we stay up this season is entirely within our own hands—it is not dependent on what West Brom do. We're one point behind them with a much better squad. Before kick off last night we had 13 games left and last night's game was easily the most difficult of them all on paper—yet we gained a comfortable point and it could have been more. Where we are at the end of the season will depend on what we do over the remaining 12 games, not on one difficult away trip against a team with one of the best home records in the division. We will get more points than West Brom over the rest of the season and will finish above them. We'll also very likely finish above a couple of other teams currently above us.