Holmes_and_Watson

Brought in on what the club could reinvest of the Ings money, in the last half Gao season. He wasn't coming in as an upgrade, just as what we could afford and the hope his form at Blackburn the season before would continue. Which it didn't and we relied on others to keep us up in his first season. In his second, no one kept us up. When he struggled to score, you could see it knock him and he was often not in the side. He saw himself as a central player, although we often didn't play to accommodate that. Back in the Championship he thrived again. Sure, he's not our target man. But he's more than just being out wide. I think his ability to score from narrow angles after cut backs, really got our season going. That, his determination and work rate lifted the side. We were better with him being mobile, with better players to link up with. He got loads of assists for us too. SR are noted for failures to bring in strikers, chopping and changing systems with each manager, and reducing the quality of the squad. AA has come through all of those four years. While a first 11 may not seem to have a place for him, he's our top scorer for a reason. There was more to him than just goalscoring. It's a shame to see him go. He'd have been well down my list of players I'd like to see leave. As noted, we've probably just handed a good Championship scorer to a rival for next season. As for him, it's a new challenge away from our basket case club. But possibly joining another one, especially if they go down.

His ability to clone himself, will be very handy at corners. Jury is out, based on opinion, on whether even 5 will score from open play. 🙂

Nope. And certainly not for Starmer and his inner circle. Intelligence raised concerns, as part of vetting. No idea what the foreign office found. Passed along to cabinet office, who did sod all in any depth, before passing it along. Meanwhile, you've got Morgan McSweeney pushing whole heartedly to give his pal the job. Starmer, perhaps trying for some reflected Blairism, or just a puppet for others goes along with it. Mandelson's dealings were known, to enough of an extent to establish risk. They ask him a sum total of 3 questions. And let him take the job. Even Trump didn't want him to have the job, knowing about the depth of the Epstein links. Both Starmer and McSweeney were reluctant to punt Mandelson out of his ambassador's role, despite them claiming to have taken "decisive action." I remember one labour MP being truly disgusted about Starmer and his decisions. She pointed out that MP's had lost the whip for standing against policies enforced from above (probably u-turned on by now), while they allowed Mandelson to get in and wanted him to stay. Right up until, like so many politicians, they were dragged into it being untenable. We'll see if Starmer holds himself to the same standards, as he did Johnson, who promoted someone against reason. The allegations of what Mandelson was doing while in office are damning, and are going to run and run. Even the SNP, who try and block any police enquiry going, have asked for a police investigation.

Muffled by trapped deal sheets again.

You see that space? That's right. You can't, because Larin is filling it. That's class that is.

That was earlier than I thought it would be. I was thinking it would be 11pm. That has lowered my Whelm rating even more.

Another high ceiling on Football Manager player departs.

Name spellings come and go. It's a cyle-clical thing. 🙂

I was on a forum reading "more importantly can people remember where they were when we signed this 30 yr old goal scoring machine from Canada....................." 🙂

And then bringing along some of his relegated defenders. There was no way Telfer and Williams were ever going to do anything for us. 🙂

Who? 🙂

It will be Spors using the SR data. The worst of two worlds. 🙂

That was the more mobile version of Aribo. He was played in a lot of positions, helping support shortcomings in the squad. Not least being an emergency forward. The standard of opposition was lower. But played out towards the right of midfield, he had room to control and run with the ball. We saw some glimpses of it, when he was under Martin, and I think right after he joined. Martin had words, and it had an effect. Obviously, we knew better than to play him anywhere he'd been better at while at Rangers.

Very fluffy, apart from the confirmation around Molina's interview. "We're going to have no luck this year, I've understood that for a while now. I've never experienced anything like this, we never get that little bit of luck that comes our way." Stéphane Moulin, VAFC coach Luck has had nothing to do with abject recruitment, tactics, cohesion or standard of play. VA are exactly where they are purely on merit. They've done nothing to deserve a higher position in the standings. Exactly as they deserved where they ended up last season. Jean Louchet sighed with helplessness. "We could replay this match ten times, we wouldn't lose it," raged the northern goalkeeper. VA will find away to lose a lot more than he thinks. Clumsy penalties, poor clearances, underpowered back passes, and intercepted chested balls back to the keeper are only some of the recent highlights. They were better against Orleans. But they've been very poor on a number of other occasions. "there's a lot of backstabbing going on internally, and the atmosphere, certainly not helped by the team's results, is particularly toxic between the various factions within the club." A blame game compounded by having a raft of people involved shirking responsibility. If only the team could turn the resources into results, so they could continue to get well remunerated for little apparent competence.

Consider holding off until you see a lot of recruitment going the same way. Don't base your opinion on Juan player. 🙂