Dan

That WBA game could be hilarious.

Fed up of pretending we have to respect people like Brock's opinion - he's a complete idiot and everything he says is shit.

I never listen to it as I've said elsewhere because I find it largely pointless listening to highly filtered content but I did think Piper came across pretty well at the BSLB live shows. I wasn't sure about him but think I've come to rate him in the long run and particularly if this is true. I'm sure if my memory serves that he said something at that show about how the club are funny with him now - probably because he didn't tow the line. Which is very on brand. I wish more and more did it and more just retaliated by exposing how ****ing ridiculous they are.

It is ridiculous to be honest - he's a 25 year old with the experience of a 20 year old. More fantastic planning from sabotage FC.

A fair point. Suppose you only have to look at what's happened to Hermansen at West Ham, who looks as good as finished there already. When do you actually bring him back in if you do drop him? What is Begovic is bad and lets us down too? What if he's good, then is he finished for a 38 year old? I'd possibly keep him out for the next three and then start him again at Cheltenham, a game we 'should' win. I'm saying this as someone who has mostly defended him as well. He's in horrendous form, the last month has been Ward-esque.

If it's pissing money away on dog shit then we'll find the money. It's always when it's money we actually need to spend that we somehow never have it.

Done three games of interest this month. Turkey; This didn't go to plan, but there wasn't really any way around it. The problem you have in Turkey is the tickets for the games go on sale just days before the game takes place so you have to commit to a trip before you go out there. You have to take a leap of faith. Ours fell flat on its arse as the Fenerbahce - Galatasaray tickets sold out before it even fell down to our bracket. I wouldn't mind having a second crack down the line and Istanbul is a city big and interesting enough to justify going back to, but if I did it over again I would probably try and get a membership at the club of the home team. Find it interesting how pricey the tickets are as well, I think you've got to be very well off by Turkish standards to get to these games, substantially lower wages than over here and this game was priced probably even higher on average than a big Premier League game. It's pretty brutal. We did get to Fatih Karagumruk v Besiktas the day before, played at the Ataturk Stadium, the ground where Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005 and Manchester City won it in 2023. It's a strange ground, a bit of a white elephant, and Karagumruk having to play there is ridiculous really - they're based 40 minutes away from that ground and they're obviously nowhere near big enough to play there either, but rules of the league mean they basically have to. Crowd was 1,500 in a 75k stadium. The biggest surprise to me was the small away end from Besiktas too - I had this silly idea they would take thousands but it was virtually none. Besiktas won comfortably, Ndidi played, Cengiz Under missed a penalty The atmosphere, in fairness, for how bad it 'should' be with those numbers and size of the ground, wasn't bad. They were trying. It's a shame Turkey is such a pain in the arse logistically for getting to games because I'd imagine it's sensational for the big games. I think I will try and get out to some of the bigger clubs one time. Maybe an idea is if they're all at home one week in Europe a day apart or something. The last couple of days I went to a couple of games - Linfield v Glentoran yesterday, Hibs v Hearts today. Flew out to Belfast at 6am on boxing day (I have a screw loose), walked around some pretty rogue areas of Belfast in the morning then went to the ground. This was the biggest crowd in Northern Ireland in years according to google (10,500). Linfield really are Rangers-lite, loads of the same songs. Got given a free scarf pre-match. Pyro display at the start was great and did build my hopes up that the atmosphere would be good but I thought it was a bit of a damp squib in the home end in all honesty. You had a group down the front going for it but there wasn't a tonne of buy in, in truth. Glentoran's end was not dissimilar, they must've had about 3k there themselves. Was a pretty good away end. Linfield were really, really bad. They went in as favourites and wouldn't have scored if they were still playing. A proper disappointment for them in the derby, the stats according to flash scores were 3 shots each Glentoran won 0-1. Fully deserved the win for me. I went into that game with a higher opinion of the level of that league than I think I should've done. I had a bit of a look through the squads, their careers etc... and concluded Linfield are probably the level of a team like Boreham Wood. It probably shouldn't be a surprise though, it's a tiny country. It was a decent experience albeit ****ing freezing. Todays game was fantastic. I've had really good change out of trips to Scotland, doing Rangers v Fenerbahce in March and then that. I secretly sort of wanted Hearts to win because I want them to win the league, but not too upset they didn't. Hibs 3-0 up just after half time but nearly threw it all away in the last 15 minutes. Similar to Linfield you had a group similar to UFS at the front of both lower tiers. Gave it everything but I was again a little disappointed by the lack of buy in from elsewhere. I really like Easter Road, it's a cracking ground with good acoustics. Scottish fans are a bit like northern English on steroids - incredible numbers punching the air when a decision doesn't go their way. Fantastic shouts from people around me throughout as well. I thought Hearts' end was actually really bad for their numbers. Reminded me of times when Leicester have taken big ends to places and barely mustered a song after the 1st minute. Didn't help that they went behind straight away but even still. It's hard to explain, it was a good atmosphere, but it was more in terms of crowd reactions rather than songs, if that makes sense. Hibs win meant I got a sunshine on leith. Unsure how to post videos but it didn't disappoint. Bloke next to me told me to stay for it, you wait and see how good this is. Oh I know, don't you worry. Really good game though. It's all come a bit soon for Hearts, looks pretty obvious to me after this that Celtic will win the league this year. Hearts will probably finish 3rd in all honesty, but I've no doubt they'll get better and better under Bloom, only have to look at what he's done in Belgium. Went to Edinburgh City v Spartans for a half as well afterwards - 10 minutes walk away. Actually a pretty fun game but we had a flight to catch so had to dash. Edinburgh struck me as really nice but I had so little time there that I couldn't really see anything. Landed last night absolutely shattered and had to leave fairly early today. I'll likely go back, maybe even for the return fixture at Tynecastle one time. But yeah good month for trips. Germany for the umpteenth time is my next one at the end of January - looking at a triple header of Bochum v Schalke, Dortmund v Heidenheim and Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn. Outside bet we manage to sneak Koln v Wolfsburg in too if we get there early enough on the Friday. Would like to do Cremonese this season but want to tie it in with something else, possibly one of Switzerland, Slovenia or Croatia, if it works.

It's why I just cannot understand how Rudkin is so bad. He has been involved at the club during some of the highs and hasn't managed to grasp what makes things click. How is that even possible?

This is exactly how I feel. These loans against future earnings that we aren't going to be getting are a huge issue and we'll be left in a situation where we have to basically asset strip. Our entire MO seems to be budgeting for the best case scenario - which is ridiculous anyway but relies on you getting it right every time which is basically impossible. It's beyond negligence and when it goes wrong you're just playing catch up, which we now are. It's been going on for years. The 2021/22 season where we have budgeted to finish in the Champions League places despite managing that once ever. That isn't ambitious, that's just dumb. What an absolute mess. I think it goes well under the radar in the general discourse. There have been less on the face problems than under Chansiri but I think the floor is actually substantially lower. I think our final route out of this, the least bad case scenario, is somehow getting promoted this season and then basically banking the money, which means a season in the Premier League even worse than last, one where I think we'd be more likely than not to break Derby's record providing Wolves don't get there first (which is actually quite likely now imo), and then getting our house in order upon being in the Championship in 2027/28. Don't forget - this is what I consider the best case scenario. What the ****ing hell is the worst? This next five years will be the worst in our history. I'm pretty sure of it now.

Google AI says under 22k that seems mad low.

He'd see right through those ****ing clowns above him. Therefore its a yes from me.

He's been dealt a terrible hand but I've seen none, literally zero signs that you'd want him if circumstances were right.

A useless win to spread some more toxic positivity or Derby getting their first ever win at this ground. Vile. Maybe a draw is needed.

I think it can get Portsmouth bad.

We have to really start embarrassing the rat I think. Wonder if bringing Cambodia flags will do the trick.

Add in that the same people are entirely bulletproof and add in that a sizeable number of our fans turn a blind eye to it. It's unbearable. There's literally nothing good about it.

This is it. It's uniquely bad. It's not even good when we win.

We are on the road to our worst ever position. I've no doubt about that at all. So yes I'd say so. There's not a single positive following us under this ownership. This is a unique freak of a situation.

People should not find positives until we have change.

Derby's first ever win at this ground if they have anything about them.

I find it astounding how little I miss the actual games. Like to the point of genuine eye opener.

Will never buy a season ticket again under this owner. That's a promise.

Needs taking out for a few games tbh. In terrible form.

The son of Jordan James if he's any good.

Every single effort from anyone attending our games should be to force these oxygen thieves out of the club. Forget everything else. Make it hard for them.