Dan

I've no idea why a single person still gives them any benefit of the doubt. They should be assumed to have done wrong until proven otherwise with their appalling track record.

Predictable slop.

But I was told....

I don't know if this is a bug but in the Europa League qualifiers I signed two players after the Apollon tie and I've not been able to register either for the Aberdeen/APOEL ones. I really hope I can change this for the league phase (not being presumptuous here but we will be in the Conference League if we lose). I can't use Sanders against APOEL either as he's been deregistered after moving to Juventus, but is obviously back here on loan. I don't know if this is one of those silly UEFA rules or if it's a bug. I'm hoping the former.

Oh and Sanders turned down Inter, much to my irritation, but Juventus have come in and for some reason offered £4.6mil (release clause is £4.4mil) and offered the loan back. Completely in our interest to sell him because he's out of contract in a year and he won't extend, which is fair enough as he's just miles too good to play for a provincial Greek team. It's basically fixed our finances, given me a bit more money to find the next one of him and even saved on his wages for the year too. The Greek league is funny in August - for the second year running we haven't even kicked off while some teams have played 3 games. Childish.

Definitely noticed a difference in the way my games are going post update. For the better in all honesty because it actually had started feeling a bit easy, we were regularly hitting 20+ shots and racking up 2.00+ xg against nearly anybody. A slight quirk I've noticed is the OPPDA stat, the numbers are totally out of kilter with reality. So opposition passes per defensive action, basically a way of reading how well you're pressing. The average number for this is something like 15 (I've looked at the Premier League, La Liga and the Championship) yet these are quite often hitting silly numbers. I knocked out Aberdeen having been quite lucky to draw away then somehow battered them 4-0 at home, but I've just played APOEL in the last qualifier and at half time of the game their OOPDA number was 99 which is absolutely ridiculous, San Marino would put up better numbers. The quite funny quirk is we bloody lost 1-0, but we were so dominant that I'm not even particularly worried and think we'll likely slaughter them at home. It's been an issue for years on FM that 'greyed out' leagues teams are substantially easier than they are meant to be and Cyprus, not being on the game, means this is the case for them even though I've set it so that teams in continental comps do have their real players. APOEL's team on paper is probably a little better than ours, there is no way we should be able to dominate them that easily. It wasn't dissimilar against Limassol. Isn't that a load of fun for us, being a Greek team in Europe for the first time ever and two of our bloody opposition so far are from Cyprus.

I've got a feeling Ipswich or Southampton take a chance.

It's not Sheffield Wednesday but it's a massive red flag. When we're losing money at this rate and they're willing to pull this at a days notice then why will they not pull some of the shit Chansiri did down the line when they're properly broke?

Maybe not yet, but it's getting there isn't it?

The first real step into the Chansiri territory.

I'd agree with that. It should never, ever have been able to get to actual relegation. I really think because we're not a traditional big hitter it goes under the radar to most quite how bad a relegation that actually was.

Consider it cracked. The first year up Europe glitch is back in style. We had an astonishing season and what's even more mad is we lost our opening four games as well. I could tell from the performances we looked steady though and it wasn't a surprise when the results did pick up but the sheer level of it caught me a bit by surprise. We beat Levadeiakos 7-0, OFI Crete 0-5, Aris 5-3 and many more, sneaking a top 4 spot and at least a European place on the final day with a draw against Olympiakos. We took it a step further in the Championship group, playing our part in a mental last day. We scabbed a 0-1 victory at Olympiakos to deny them the title and hand it to PAOK on the final day which was funny. We picked up 4 wins and a draw from these games, which again is madness. I have a steady team but it's performing well above expectation. We're largely being carried by three players in attack. Veteran Nigerian striker Chinedu Geoffrey, Italian playmaker Giovannini and the real joker of the pack is 18 year old Nando Sanders, a completely ridiculous signing we got from Vitesse a year ago. We're not in a good place financially and we're going to have to sell him - Inter have come and taken him off us for a release clause of £4.4mil but they've offered him back on loan, with no wage commitments which is great. It's hard to judge if I've just come up with a really neat system or if I've got a better squad than I realise. Have just knocked out Apollon Limassol in the Europa League 2nd qualifying round 4-1 on aggregate. We'll play Aberdeen in the next round. We could do with the money from a league phase so we just need to win one of our two remaining qualifying rounds to get one. This is Nanders. It's complete nonsense that he'd sign for a newly promoted Greek side but I did make him my highest earner. Like I say, it's hard to know if I've just divulged a really effective tactic or if I'm being carried by a couple of star players. The Apollon game made me wonder the latter as he came on and turned it, but we have something about us for sure. Had a very decent intake defender as well which is especially handy in Europe. The game is still largely broken, albeit a fix in the last week or so has definitely improved things somewhat. I am spotting the annoyances in the ME though. Wing play seems even more overpowered than ever.

That mistake isn't on the manager - players have to take some sort of responsibility for their performances and that particular pass, one that you do see quite often nowadays, is madness and players should think better than to make it. It's a very specific passage of play as well. I still don't think it's prudent to drop him. I'm not saying he's a Premier League level goalkeeper but he's not bad either. I just don't really see the point in changing to Begovic - it's pretty short-term stuff for what isn't a guaranteed gain. It's reverting back to the sort of thinking that's kept Faes in the team this season over Nelson. We have bigger issues in our side. Would be silly to throw money at this one. But it's the sort of thing we would go and do.

How does Russell Martin manage Rangers and not even be the worst Old Firm manager of the first half of the season? There's just no words to describe how unlikely it is.

I'd do this too, look at Derby, Middlesbrough etc... similar grounds but restructured their grounds to supplement atmosphere and no surprise, both grounds are noisier than ours. I thought it was noticeable at Cardiff's game last night how young their fans looked on average behind the goal. Noticed similar when I went to Hull a couple of years ago.

Southampton get a lot of shit but their issue was the recruitment dipped. Recruitment of players and managers dictates 90% of how well you'll actually do as a club. If Southampton's recruitment dips then... yes, they are going to get worse. I thought our whole model, if it was a model, of selling one a summer was pretty much spot on. You can track our downturn pretty much from the summer that we did both not sell anybody and buy what turned out in the long run to be a load of garbage.

Yeah the entire thing doesn't work. Can call it hindsight but I'm personally not in the crowd of thinking selling players is some grave crime, quite the opposite if anything. I'd sell Fatawu in January if the offer was right.

Keep it up. Echo the sentiments of others on here. I really did think he was in danger of going the way of Jack Rodwell.

It's preferable to get promoted than not but I can't say I'd shed many tears if we didn't. I think our best chance of not beating Derby's record would be if Wolves got there first.

I believed you up until that point.

I can't see it with a deduction, without it I think we'd have an outside chance. I remain to be fully convinced though because if we went and lost in a poor performance at QPR on Saturday nobody would be truly surprised. I think I can only really believe it until we start putting in consistently decent performances, particularly given we're playing catchup. I will have to concede I got Preston completely wrong this season, They've surprised me a lot. Still not totally sold they finish in the top six though.

That's an interesting comparison and it is sort of true. They had the chance to sell him in the summer but chose not to because Glasner would've lost his shit. The difference is though I don't think Glasner would tank them to a point where they literally do get relegated, nor do I think Palace would just sit there and allow it to happen.

There's gambling and there's Leicester City banking on making the Champions League. Despite getting very close in the previous two years that is irresponsible. Even today I think it wouldn't be prudent for say Tottenham or Manchester United to bank it on qualifying for the Champions League even with five places. In-fact I'd say the only three clubs who really can do this are Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool. Chelsea can probably get away with it and work around it if they miss out so add them in too. The whole thing around that season doesn't compute. We budget to make the Champions League, abandon a model that had seen us rise to having a chance in the first place and then when we get nowhere near.... nothing changes.

I'd have been having these conversations way before a year - probably the summer of 2021 if he wasn't committing. We'd have also been able to sell him for loads if the clubs you were mentioning were interested, especially given what he'd just done in the FA Cup final. It happens but it happens to us totally disproportionately to other clubs and it's a sign of the incompetence. That was the summer we also didn't sell anybody and unsurprisingly our entire 'model' went to pot. If Leicester City were relying on making the Champions League then that is frankly utterly irresponsible, and also given we didn't get anywhere even close to it in 2021/22, where were the repercussions? We just plodded on and the rest is history.

Fully what I expect to happen.