Dan

Shouldn't ban people for **** all then should you Their crowds this season have made me piss.

For all I've hammered him though, could totally imagine he left and was steady for another team in this league. I mean Faes and Edouard are doing alright in Ligue 1. We're the common denominator.

I've had my hand forced on renewing or not which is sort of good for me because I had a very high number of points and that would've created a bit of a dilemma, but I do think at this point I'd have had to just bite the bullet and not renew because like I say, I don't think it will be that hard to get back involved again. They're practically giving them away for some of the run in. I've never felt as low about the club as I do now. I think even for the points I did have I'd probably have had to give it up after the last couple of years. I definitely didn't feel like this in 2008 but then again I wasn't paying for my own at that point. I'd likely have renewed. I didn't feel that back then for all the club wasn't in a good place that it was actively antagonising the fans. Just read the Sheffield Wednesday away thread. I just cannot give that lot any money. Any new grounds in League One I'd just home end it. Not normally been a problem.

In came 11 signings for the top tier. Where I think I'm quite good is ability to find undervalued players, both in fees and wages, but in Serbia this is genuinely tricky to gain an upper hand because virtually nobody has any money and yet, pound for pound, the players aren't actually that terrible. It's a weak league, but the equivalent you would get in England for what you pay in Serbia is a fraction of the player. The good news is we had an OK wage budget, well, relatively. It wasn't the smallest in the league which did surprise me. We start the season with quite a hard set of fixtures being sent to cup winners and European chasing Spartak Subotica on the opening day before home games with Vojvodina and Radnicki 1923, all expected to finish in the top 5. We lose all three games 2-0. Not quite what you want ahead of the first trip to Zvezda, but remarkably we do pull a 2-2 draw out of the bag and contain them quite well despite giving away a dumb penalty. We get our first ever win at this level, beating Zeleznicar Pancevo 2-0 at home. This is followed with losses at Radnicki Nis (them and Radnicki 1923 are surely linked in some way, but I can't see it) and 3-0 at Napredak Krusevac, leaving us bottom but one, failing to score in 5 of our 7 games. This is on top of losing our last 3 games in the 2nd tier, and while I consider myself pretty decent at the game, this really seemed like the time I'd probably go down, considering we need to finish 10th out of 14 to avoid it. We follow it up with a last second win over IMT and a surprisingly comfortable win away at surprise package Radnik Sudurlica, but the scurge of the save, Macva Sabac, steal a point from 2-0 and a man down to blow things right up again before another two losses, the first in the last second to Javor-Matis and the other to Partizan at home from 2-0 up. The good news is plenty of other teams look pretty bad as well so we're not out of it. Pick of the signings is striker Milan Mirosavljev. Took a punt on him after winning the golden boot in the second tier with FAP and he's getting plenty.

I think this is why a lot of people do renew, but it won't be hard in future.

The season ticket prices generally have been quite reasonable, albeit a freeze from the Premier League to League One (potentially) is daft. It's the match day prices that deserve more criticism.

Even when they sign the right profile they somehow manage to see literally zero benefit. The most incompetent people in football.

I don't even think we started that well really. The results were alright, but I kept saying it during the time, we will not keep this up playing like that. Sheff Weds - won but we scraped it in the most presentable opening day you could have Preston - totally outplayed and lost Charlton - totally outplayed and won Birmingham - steady defensive display but wasn't hugely convincing either Oxford - really odd game, second best at 11 v 11 but ended up coming back to draw at 11 v 10 and looked better after the red Coventry - still possibly our best 90 of the season but drew WBA - crap performance and lucky to draw This left us about 4th but we were not playing well. Granted I think we have gotten worse since it.

Quite mad that because of their league restructure where 4 went down - both TSC and Cukaricki got relegated. Even madder is that 6 go down from 16 in the 2nd tier and if either have a poor season they could end up dropping to the third tier Vozdovac got out of it. We won the league but my god did we fall over the line. Lost our last three games. The top tier is going to be very tricky - they're gradually knocking the league down from 16 teams to 12, but in two stages, and this year there are 14 teams - with 4 of the 14 going down. As a surprise league winner of the second tier, this makes it a very tough year to survive. It's like 15th in the Premier League getting relegated. But the wage bill isn't totally out of kilter with the bottom half sides and I've brought in a legion of Serbian free agents. The rules are restrictive, but I kinda like having an almost entirely domestic side (there is one Bosnian).

People really need to stop giving LCFC money. They actively hate their own fans. It's because Pol Top and the regime don't like those critical and want to spite the fans.

We'll go if we only manage 1 win from those. Three brilliant fixtures. But you may be right.

Our record at home to struggling teams has been an absolute joke this season. Lost to Blackburn, Charlton, Oxford. Drew with Portsmouth. These games should be bread and butter and they're the main reason we're in this mess.

People fall for it every time as well. Just the 7 starts out of a possible 36 so far. My prediction of 20 might've been optimistic.

Going to end up being West Ham isn't it - the worst possible outcome, because this season.

Those Man City draws against Forest and West Ham feel costly because you could really see Arsenal imploding after today, but 9 points just feels too many, particularly when this isn't that great a Man City. Arsenal offered nothing, absolutely nothing and especially after going 2 down. Utterly garbage performance. They'll probably win the league but footballs in a bleak place if they win the Champions League. I'll be surprised if they make the final.

Absolute serial losers

And people genuinely wonder why some moan. We've been a genuinely rubbish team for two years flat now.

His 2023 is doing far too much lifting - by the time of 2026 you have to concede that the first half of the season under Maresca was the exception, rather than the rule. He's been absolutely pitiful this season. Just completely nosedived as a player.

No chance.

3/4 although the one wrong is spectacular. WBA absolutely dominated Bristol City - puts our win into a bit of context and as I thought, they will get out of this comfortably.

That game hasn't changed anything I thought before it - he's shit, and he can't be relied on, but at least he'll actually get chances unlike Ayew. The problem now is I fear both of the following: his head totally goes like it often does after a bad miss, and we end up with Ayew back. Utterly damaging outcome today.

Read what I replied to.

I think he probably would've done too, but he didn't, and it feels quite similar where I think you see a gradual improvement, but not enough of one to get us over the line. The next two in particular need to be six points. Absolutely no excuses. Two brilliant fixtures. And yet despite some of the improvement, I still don't think we deliver it. Which in fairness I put on the players as much as him.

He's had 7 games, we've got 7 points. We've played 39 games, and have 39 points. With the points deduction he's actually on a PPG pretty similar to Cifuentes. I do think there's been improvement on the road but it does feel a bit Dean Smith.

If you took this game on an individual basis, or if it happened six months ago, you would be encouraged by that. You would expect results to follow. The problem is games are running out and we've proven we'll melt down in about 40% of our games. We desperately need wins - you can't afford to deliver that and draw. It's not dissimilar to the Stoke game a month ago. We should've won that as well. Didn't, and are now 22nd - and would be 3 clear of that if we'd won those two, despite the meltdowns against Norwich and QPR. This team just feel destined to drop. We either totally implode or don't hammer home the advantage.