Dan

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.

If Tielemans wasn't willing to sign they should've sold.

I wonder what the actual cut off price point would be that would stop us selling out. Would we sell out at £55? £70?

Not until we've got rid

All this for what's very likely to be an utterly miserable day as well.

Kind of glad I've had my mind made up for me here. £45 is a scandal.

I'm still not really confident tbh

I read this tweet earlier and I think it's completely true. I think there are very much two angles you can view the game from. https://x.com/louorns/status/1999972325329166811?s=20

I always think of Chalobah and Di Maria.

They've wasted absolutely loads of money. Gets a bit overlooked because of how well they did to get to the Premier League but they're a proper Michael Carroll club. Don't have a clue what to do with money.

Sunderland have already beaten our points tally ffs.

West Ham or Leeds isn't a terrible consolation either way. Forest are safe for certain. My worry is they get so far clear of safety that they can have a proper run at the Europa League - have no trust whatsoever in European teams at that level after allowing that pair of shite into last years final.

It's a shame individual quality will bail them out because Tottenham are one of the worst teams in this division. They're complete shite.

Winks shouldn't play another minute. Soumare shouldn't either but Winks the higher priority to bin so if Soumare gets the odd 15/20 minutes then unfortunately so be it.