Dan

35 I think will about do it - so 7 wins, 6 wins and 3 draws, 5 wins and 6 draws etc...

It's been done in a typically English way - boxticky, half arsed and almost sabotaged. Precisely none of the benefits it was meant to bring have been achieved. I've no real enthusiasm for it anymore.

I just don't get how. They got him for less than he was worth anyway so why we'd need to reimburse them I've no idea. Then again you'd not put it past us.

We've struck almost the worst balance - put a fair bit of money into ageing players but not even ones that'll be enough to keep us up. I could almost tolerate this if we'd gone for getting our house in order and getting a younger squad together. But we didn't.

This is the long and short of it. We'll rarely be hammered but we'll just always be bad enough to lose. Five losses in a row is terrible - I can't believe people are shrugging their shoulders at it.

I'll forgive 4, but like the thinking. I think any less and we're toast. One settler for us is that you just know we'll lose at Spurs - think us and Southampton are the only two sides in the league you can nearly certainly say that of. And that tells you something.

It really is just draining at this point. It's not a club that is doing the best to be the best it can be. How can anybody get enthusiastic about things in this scenario?

A game that encapsulates our season. A not disgraceful loss, but ultimately still a loss, to a side who are pretty out of form themselves and had players missing. So there'll be enough to dress it up as an 'OK' outcome but in reality it's just standard fare of a team getting relegated, which we probably are.

I'm not RVN out but it's hard to really make a case for this - it's been a crap start. If this is the honeymoon period then god help us. I do think he's working with hands tied behind his back by the most inept board in the Premier League - another game today blown on the same useless defence we've had to tolerate all season because of more board inaction. But he isn't helping himself. I think without a decent return from Palace and Fulham the consensus will turn quite heavily against him. A midtable and a bottom half side, both at home. If we can't pick up a minimum of 4 points from those I think we're gone - and I don't think we'll do it either.

It's honestly so bad with him now that I think you have to just put Choudhury there. He can do no worse. His drop off is just mental. He's absolute rubbish now.

I'm intrigued by who pushed for this signing.

I'm a bit unsure about Okoli. I'm nowhere near convinced, but I do actually think of the four we currently have I'd probably start him which isn't really saying much for the others. I really hope this is a permanent transfer if so and we get some money back. Cannot be arsed with another Praet situation where we're just losing money and people pretend it's some sort of good deal.

Correct it was at an away game this season. Interestingly they had showed the footage to someone else before I'd even seen it too. I've only been able to see the clip once and that was during my appeal - as expected you see no concrete evidence that I'd done anything (as none could exist). In your first paragraph - this isn't meant to come across like I'm having a go and sorry if I do, but I really don't think they care at all about if I was guilty or not. I really think I could do all of these things you suggest and they would uphold the ban. Their priority at this point, on me, is keeping me banned - rather than knowing the truth. This is not some mistake on their part. They've made their mind up and they will double down on this as much as they can. They have decided they want me out and I think my contesting of this is probably another reason they want to uphold it. It's personal now because I've not just sat there and taken it, and I've been batting things back at them. I've got nothing on my record that I'm aware of at all. Never had a ban, never even been thrown out of a ground. Wrong place, wrong time and wrong association is my guess.

Yeah like I say they'll be well covered. They decided this a while ago and just wanted an excuse. I'm not the first this has happened to and I probably won't be the last. I appreciate the messages - I don't really think there's much else I can really do in truth other than embarrass them about it. They'll have some way to worm out of this. But the more people that know how this club truly operates in this day and age the better.

I've already appealed, sat there on a teams call where I've had the 'evidence' presented to me. They've even admitted themselves it's done on the balance of probability. They're not interested. Their mind was made up way before this happened in my honest opinion. I'm not the only one.

Yeah at the end of the day I think image is quite important to them - after all I've seen proof in the past that on a good behavioural agreement that they have a section where you have to sign to not slag the club off on socials. True story. Unfortunately this is probably true. None of this was ever designed to be fair. They know what they're doing. Let's see how happy they are to turn people away when they're rotting in the Championship barely scraping 25,000 against Cardiff City.

He benefits from expectations he's managed to lower through his own ineptness. We ought to have at least a signing in for Villa and yet we've been collectively fooled that this is totally unrealistic.

Fell short of very low expectations.

Setting off smoke bombs. I didn't do it - just happened to be in the vicinity. This is enough for a years ban now apparently. They'd never be able to prove it because I didn't actually do it. They're going on "balance of probabilities" - tells you a lot really. They don't need to do this, but feel the need to do so. I can only assume they need the banning numbers up to justify the absurd number of away stewards we seem to have. I'm not buying that we're one of the most troublesome away fanbases in the country like the numbers seem to think we are. Very much a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Cooper did inexplicably promote Ward back to second choice and RVN fell into the trap of sticking with it. Cooper wasn't quite as unlucky as to lose Hermansen to injury - if he was we'd have been on the end of results like Wolves for certain.

I agree but they are basically already down. If he's out of contract and they're losing him for nothing in the summer I can see the sense - although it's absolutely depressing stuff if you're them.

I've been given a year ban for something they admit themselves they can't even prove I did (which I didn't do). Just for some context I had over 700 points - all gone because my face doesn't fit for whatever reason. If they're willing to do it to someone with my sort of loyalty points score I don't really know who they won't go for, to be honest.

Proper white flag stuff from Southampton if they sell him to us.

Erling Haaland

Generally the odds are a good indicator and I've been tracking them this season for likelihood on relegation. This past fortnight really has been terminal. It's flicked between us and Wolves for 17th/18th for weeks but we're now 2/7 to go down - implied 78% probability that we're relegated. Bookies think Ipswich will go too but are likelier to survive than us. Southampton are gone. 1/33 in December (implied probability of 97% they drop ) - one of the worst Premier League sides ever they are. And yet we only beat them because of a huge stroke of luck with the officials.