CloudFox

How are we only 4 points off 3rd...? Only just clocked that this morning. This league is just plain weird right now.

Some very solid points made of late in this thread. I am still not Martí in, until I can a) see a true tactical plan that I actually like and b) he maintains our recent levels of performance. But I'm (maybe foolishly) starting to hope again. Not for promotion, maybe not even for the play offs given the impending points deduction, but a team we can be proud of. Credit where it's due, the Skipp-JJ combo seems to be working well, and Bobby has pleasantly surprised me since his return. Great to see Nelson being given a chance to develop too, and feels like has more than justified his inclusion since given the opportunity. Keeping Winks and Faes out of the team is also a good sign. Objectively they should be two of our better/most valuable players, but—as a number of fans suggested—it does seem to have made a significant impact dropping them, which I am relieved to see at last! I hear what you are saying too @Claudio Fannieri—as much as I'm still not Martí In, I do now wonder whether a new manager would come everyone a blank slate again, undoing what's been done with Winks and to a lesser extent Faes. Sidenote: Someone said something about things being said/things coming to a head after the Sheff Utd game. Presumably Cifuentes and Rudkin...? I missed that, so if anyone could enlighten me please, I'd appreciate it.

For now. I don't think it's insurmountable for some of those in and around them though. This league is utterly crazy when it comes to form—at least this season, anyway.

Hahaha what the actual **** 😂

Bit harsh, we probably can't speak to his intelligence.

No decent small flowing bodies of water this evening. How annoying.

I've not been able to watch it today. Sounds like we're doing pretty well! Anyone who is there, what's changed today??

I guess my point is that playing in the Premier League does not make you Premier League quality. I'm not sure the players agree.

In the context of the rest of the interview, it makes sense and it's good to hear fight and determination from him. He's probably the only player in the squad who has a ton of credit in the bank because his actions on the pitch back up saying this kind of thing. It does make me uncomfortable the reference to Premier League quality though. We don't have that, aside from JJ himself, and perhaps Fatawu. Nobody can now look at that squad after 2 relegations in 3 years and say that it's Premier League quality. And if in the dressing room they think they are...oh dear.

I honestly don't think I care about "who" any more. I just want to see a high press. With the players we have, it's such a no-brainer. Baffling that we seem allergic to it. Frustrating that Cifuentes seemed to suggest he preferred a high press, and has failed to implement one.

Yup! That wasn't a typo, sadly.

He needs to go. It won't happen until post- the next international break though. Struggling to accept it right now, but I really think once the points deduction hits we'll be fighting a relegation battle for the rest of the season. Sickening.

I think we know what's going to happen then, eh? Sigh. What a shitshow of a cycle of we've got ourselves in.

I'd really like this to be the case, but Top and Rudkin hardly have priors for being proactive. I genuinely wouldn't expect them to take any action until March, even if we're in the relegation zone before then. I reckon it'll be this same stumbling along, poor performances and shit results, with a points deduction pushing us into the relegation zone. We'll battle around there until March, when Marti will be sacked and we'll have King as interim until the summer. Then in August we'll hire a new manager. Just like this season. Edit: The only way I see us hiring someone new sooner is if we get a Technical Director with some balls in soon, who takes this all by the scruff of the neck.

That's me done for the night. This team isn't worth wasting energy on any more.

Oh boy. Here we go.

I love the idea, but I think it's too early. Sammy needs game time. Being a bit part player for us this season wouldn't help him. He is almost definitely not going to be ahead of Winks and JJ. Unfortunately not even Skipp. And that's okay—his time will come. A League One loan would be ideal.

First stop: Send Carranza back, loan Joël Piroe. I'm quite liking what Harry Amass is up to at Wednesday as a LB option...but taking from Wednesday feels a bit like stealing candy from a baby 😬. Anyone got any LB suggestions? I'm a little concerned by Ramsey's injury...so we may need to get another CAM in too. Those three have to be the focus areas. And if we can ship out the likes of Soumaré and Skipp, all the better. I'd say the same of Faes, but...he does have some value at this level.

I really would like us to support Fuchs, so if we do choose to bring Sammy back you'd hope we could loan out others to Newport instead. Cartwright doesn't seem to be getting as much game time at Falkirk, so could move him to Newport and Sammy to an L1 team? Although if it's season long, I'd imagine Sammy might have to stay at Newport.

The ref kept asking the lino?

Southampton scoring 4 goals in 7-8 minutes was not on my bingo card today. Blimey.

Joël Piroe? 19 Goals, 7 assists last season, and was consistent years before that. Just 270 minutes and 0 goal contributions this year. We were apparently interested before Leeds got him.

George Friend. He left that position at the end of March this year. Suggestions were that last year he came to see us regarding loans etc, but that seems to have been nonsense...so maybe there's no smoke without fire!

Look, I want to withhold judgment if this is the start of more communication, but his main point is that he wants to be closer...while sat in Thailand having flown the media team out to him to conduct the interview. I get it, he now runs King Power too, where he's needed. But would surely have been cheaper to just fly himself over for a quick 'round trip, and the optics of him sat in Seagrave would have been far better. I don't like that he mentioned that "we can't win every game". Yeah, no shit Sherlock, even the most short sighted fan doesn't expect that. It's the state of our decline and lack of competitiveness that has pissed everyone off. Our expectation as a fan base has never been to win every game. I appreciate that he said it "may be his fault", but he kept repeating that, which doesn't exactly scream accountability either. You're a leader: Own it. Crazy that by his own admission he hasn't spoken to the Fan Advisory Board since King Power first bought the club. I thought at least a couple of conversations would have happened in the wake of our title win even... Sorry, bit of a moan there. Just hope this is the start of more comms and transparency rather than a flash in the pan.

Cross to Carranza, as I'm genuinely not sure anyone has yet . Tackle Ayew as he'd either go down easy and win us a foul, or offer very little in the way of fight to win the ball off him. Celebrate with Daka, as he actually has a fun celebration.