Saint Mikey

We've won two already. FFS. The entitlement of fans these days! In my day, you were grateful for defeats week after week. You just got on with it, kept your head down, and didn’t complain. No fancy expectations, just the privilege of watching your team get battered every Saturday afternoon. Winning? That was for clubs with ambition - not for us! We took pride in our noble mediocrity, clinging to the hope that one day, we might get world-class catering or, if we really dreamed big - our very own radio station. Now? People expect a team that wins! Unbelievable.

There's no doubt that our whole recruitment process, whether that's scouting, or offering players the right money to sign - has not been fit for purpose for a (predominantly) PL club. However, you make a good point that our development of said players has also been poor. Whether that's down to the manager's style and keep swapping as alluded above, or it's just poor coaching I don't know. As an example, we signed a number of players that you thought 'ok, bit raw but there may be a player there in time'. Sulemana is one now, but Djenepo showed some initial promise. These players seem to go backwards, Djenepo was a worse player when he left than when he arrived! If you look at Brighton and similar players who look a little rough around the edges, Bissouma, Baliba being two that jump out - they actually manage to progress them. As we'll always be in the business of mostly buying players that aren't out and out PL quality to begin with, we also have to get better at developing the players we do bring in.

A bad one, but didn't get relegated. Summer 23 was pretty gash too. Bazunu as 1st choice, Larios, Mara etc. When was the last window we actually had more hits than misses?

Looks like he has good feet and a decent strike. Whether he can be as effective against Prem level defenders, I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Henderson will have a colossal tax bill if he returns to the UK too soon after his Saudi earnings (think he was on £800k+ a week there). That's why he ended up at Ajax. Not sure how long he has to wait, but it's a few years I think.

That was like Lampard against Germany. So far over the line.

That's a blast from the past. I bumped into him once in a kebab joint in Bedford Place late on a Sat. Nice chap. Probably helped we'd won away that day, but can't remember against who.

I don't disagree, but at the point when we bought them - Redmond, Adams and Long would walk into our team now. That's how poor our 1st XI and squad is.

He also had a decent game against Leeds at home when we blew them away in the first half. I was hoping to see more of that for the rest of the Championship season but he was pretty poor throughout. Appreciate he had some disruption with injury and Russball didn't suit his style, but we really are clutching at straws if we think he's going to contribute much.

3 games? 1st team selection and 20 mins into the 1st game I reckon...

I've previously thought that Potter would be unrealistic, but it depends if he wants to get back into management and the PL. The only jobs realistically available at any point soon are: 1. Newcastle. Unlikely Howe is going to get the chop mid-season and you'd fancy them to want a higher profile manager. 2. West Ham. The board do tend to back managers, so Lopetegui has probably got til the end of the season as they won't get relegated. 3. Wolves. Most likely IMO if O'Neill doesn't get them properly clear. There's enough in the squad for any manager to fancy keeping them up. 4. Everton. Potentially, if Dyche gets the chop but the squad there isn't great and they're banking on the takeover to cure all ills. Still a better prospect than us. 5. Palace. See Steve Cooper, would be onto a hiding to nothing with his Brighton connections. Squad has enough though. 6. Us. He's got a sure fire relegation on his CV if he takes the job and then it's a rebuild in the Champ, so he'd need to be bought into the longish term. I'd say it's unlikely for any other job in the PL to be available this season. So, whilst I still think it's unlikely. It's not like he's got an array of options, so it may come down to timing. Of course, he could go abroad or, end up like Alan Curbishley - turning down jobs until people forget that he's a manager and then stop getting offers.

Fuck me. Is this what football has become? The worst result of the season is beating your bitter city rivals, in a game when you're the underdog, in the FA Cup Final? I know football is about progress and Utd don't want to be where they are, but it's also about moments. That win will stay in the mind longer of those fans than having an improved season and finishing 3rd or 4th in the league.

Mark Viduka wasn't that far back, but was still a while ago TBF. I can't think of any newer examples.

This is how ALL transfers work, unless you've handed in a transfer request. You negotiate what's left on your contract with your current club (probably including loyalty bonuses), then negotiate a new wage and signing on bonus with the new club. It's how some players make an absolute fortune and move clubs a lot. This is very well described in the Secret Footballer series of books. He makes the point that players like Robbie Keane, Craig Bellamy and others made a lot of money this way.

Is he actually available on a free? Transfermarkt have his contract ending, but Forest paid c.£15m for him last year? They paid that transfer fee and only gave him a one year deal? 18 months if you include the previous loan. Seems odd. Also, I heard some of the Forest players are on mental money, and he's likely to be one given he came from Newcastle. Do think he'd be a better option than both Che or Stewart though.

Where's the best place to find and read retained lists? Appreciate that clubs release them at different times.

Didn't Justin Robertson go to prison for drink driving? Think he may have killed someone? Think it happened before he was playing for us, but sentenced while he was on loan. He played about 3 games and scored one (very) good goal when we were in the Champ, I think.

They did. They offered him a playing contract. De Zerbi wanted him to stay. He turned it down to be closer to his family, so he says - we may be offering more money or more coaching opportunities.

It is a business though, and it should be looking to maximise its revenue within reason. The club owes nothing to fans or season ticket holders. If you bought a ticket you got to see a game, if you bought a season ticket you had the opportunity to see 23. The CoL isn't the club's concern. Should the Mayflower, Take That or Taylor Swift give reduced tickets because of the CoL?

I've done in depth analysis on our rivals fixtures lists and looked back at 5 years worth of Championship data. Taking into account trend analysis, I've come to the conclusion that the two teams with the most points and/or better goal difference after 46 games will be automatically promoted.

Save Chip! Don't let Sarah win...

Exactly. There's always so much guesswork with these figures. Probably taken from Champ Man and/or Transfrmarkt who are both guessing.

Like Francis Lee?

When they identified 700 odd people who were apparently falsifying accounts and on the take, did no-one say 'hang on a minute, could it be the system that's wrong?'.

Ungrateful.