Topcat

A good question. What we do have is an awful defense, this season and last season. Danny Röhl was a defender in his brief playing career. In the coaching team after he left we have 3 former goal keepers....

The defence let in 65 goals last season. It was clearly an area that had to be improved. Yesterday the 5 starting defenders were the 5 defensive players that had the most Prem appearances last season. Nothing had changed. The Club had not brought in one player able to start the season ahead of our woeful 2018-19 defence. It needed to have brought in or promoted from the youth at least 2 starters better than 2018-19. We let in 3 goals to a team that finished just one point above us. On that basis the Summer 2019 transfer window was a dud.

Bertrand should be substituted for jogging back and letting their second goal in. Time for messages to be sent and drop the lazy sod.

Excellent points.

This shortage of cash, is the best explanation for the behaviour of the Club. Having an owner that has borrowed £200m and has to pay it back in sizable lumps could easily require a net outflow of £20m+ cash a year, possibly much higher. This season's business plan would not have factored in 3 large redundancy payments and clearly not much cash set aside for the January transfer window.

Q: Is Gao worse than Lowe? A: May be becoming as bad. Under Gao we are repeating the Lowe mistake of under investing in a team that is trying to avoid relegation. Save a few million and risk losing hundreds of millions.

If the folk running the Club had any financial nous, they would have seen an opportunity to both:- 1) avoid relegation and the financial meltdown in most of Gao's £200m investment/loan and 2) the opportunity to have lifted the team by a further £10m to £15m in the Merit (league position) revenues. It just needed them to buy a solid reliable inform striker, of which £15m would have been a bargain for Che.

In our Premiership relegation season under the excrable Lowe, we made a £4m+ profit in that January window. History repeating?

Very true.

Looking back to when Hughes was fired, our results have been better than we could have expected with 4 points from Arsenal and Chelsea. Yet the fact that we now sit in the bottom 3 indicates just how dire our position was then. Having taken these points off top6 sides we should have the confidence to beat the relegation rivals and mid table clubs. Interesting that Betfair's odds on our survival, show at least 5 teams with a better chance of relegation than us, even though we are 3rd from bottom. Hopefully the owners have the sense to provide enough funds to RalphH.

A remarkable change. Saved the season.

Two wins in a row, unbelievable (fingers crossed).

Class, fingers crossed that he is over the bad injuries.

A great win. Could have saved the season.

To be fair to the Club they have started to take the right decisions. With the terrible recruitment decisions in recent years they rightfully sacked Les Reed they also rightly judged that we have a failing Academy and had to sack Martin Hunter. Then in past week with the failing first team they sacked Hughes and hired a plausible replacement. But we still have in place Ross Wilson who had a major role in player recruitment and the legacy of £300m squandered on a squad full of bad players. Clearing out that pile of sh*te is going to cost more than £100m to bring in enough better replacements. Maybe 4 or 5 old pros such as Cahil for 6 months is what is required to keep us up? We also need a very good DOF to work through this. The question I have is whether Gao and his people can raise enough money to save their £200m?

Hits nail on the head. Our coaching comes from 2 goalkeepers.....

We have a mid-table squad for League 1.

Gap to safety has now grown to 3 points and that is before we play Arsenal.

Training with national express coach as a driver?

Sadly true. A bit difficult to find a worse shower. Les Reed's lasting gift.

Gallows humour.

Are they in the Championship?

All Hughes has to do is beat ManU and that will guarantee he will still be in place in January. Not much of a challenge.

Also why 1/4 of the summer transfer money was spent on a reserve goalkeeper and nothing spent on buying a striker, just one in on loan with option to buy later. For a team that had a terrrible record scoring goals last season..............

With 5 of the next 9 Prem games against top 6 sides we are almost certain to be in the bottom 3 in January. We need a new manager now so that they can take the lead in what players need to be cleared out (or sent home) and to make the right choices of players to bring in.