Badger

Red card for taking to the field with his hair in a bun, top knot or whatever it’s called.

It’s often said that we’d be better off with a couple of £30-40m starters than several £15m prospects who we hope to ‘grow’ and I agree with it to a point. But there are still players available within ‘our’ preferred price bracket (to compliment the ‘starter’ signings, not instead of). How much did Bournemouth pay for the Hungarian LB, or Semenyo (rather than Sulemana) , and Huijsen, all now linked with £50m bids ? Bowen cost West Ham c£20m. You mention Bottman. Lille signed him for less than we paid for Salisu the same summer ffs. Criminal waste. The players are out there but time after time we regularly make poor selections and recruitment, irrespective of the price.

One thing that appears to have gone unnoticed is how he played the ball out after his little transgression of the rules. Presumably thinking he’d got away with his arm control of the ball he then played it back into a key danger area. That for me was as ‘knobheaded’ as trying to control the ball with his arm.

If he can get down quickly to his left then perhaps there’s a GK in the making.

By a ‘banker’ I assume you mean a ‘nailed on’ or guaranteed success. That’s an easy claim to make in hindsight, and possibly unfair on our recruitment team at the time given our finances. Villa signed Watkins as I recall on the wish of Dean Smith who’d managed him at Brentford, so they certainly had a better insight into the player, but their records were quite similar. 2020. Watkins (age 24)joined Villa, his record at Brentford was 45 goals in 132 matches 2021 Armstrong (age 24) joined Saints. Blackburn record 41 in 130 From Wikipedia. Not dissimilar track records, although Villa clearly thought he had the potential to justify £28m. At the time most pundits thought they’d overpaid for him. Not sure how we’d have felt taking a punt on an untried player for that money. Had we signed Watkins no telling how his career might have developed (or regressed). Rather than Ralph, Jones, Selles he’s been coached by Smith, Gerrard (okay not great there) and now Emery. Had he come to us he might now be at Stoke .

This trend pre-dates the current owners. Elyonoussi, Hoedt, Carillo, Diallo, etc stand out in our long list of failures. Nothing new.

I recall we had similar debates about Yoshida being a mistake a game player when he first arrived. I don’t think he made the glaring errors that Sugawara has made but was playing in a more confident team with better players. I’m not writing Sugawara off yet, may be okay -going forward anyway - next season but on showing this season it doesn’t bode well

Yes, you’re correct of course, he was a LB, or at least meant to be. I’ll withdraw him from the RB discussion then, and will bring him out again when we have a Larios themed ‘midget left backs’ thread

I’ll raise you a ‘Lee Todd’. (or was he a left back ?)

I read somewhere, it might even have been an interview with AA, that Ralph wasn't keen on signing him, but sign him we did.

It’s not more noise though, it’s more of an echo. One outlet runs the ‘story’, and several others just repeat it.

Appears the Glazers are still the focus of their anger. Wonder when it will turn on Ratcliffe. He can't be popular there either.

Have been rumours of a takeover there for some time.

Perhaps too obvious for us… I’m half expecting Leicester to go for Rohl when they get shot of RVN. Apart from Alan Ball joining Lawrie when he was DoF, when have we ever gone for an obvious and outstanding candidate? Just remember most people thought Redknapp then at Bournemouth was the obvious candidate when Nicholl got the push. We ended up with Branfoot. Perhaps Spors will be the difference this time.

Good video. Not sure I’m convinced about the Sulemana contribution last season you mention, and Edozie probably squandered more chances than he scored. One player who stands out there is KWP. Bit worrying that we won’t have his extra quality next season. It’ll be difficult to replace him.

Is that the new banner for the Northam ?

Both clubs kept faith in inadequate managers for too long.

I thought todays was worse than Schumacher as the GK had his foot at head height. My recollection of Schumacher was that he lead with his hands. Agree that VAR shouldn’t have been needed

Time may prove you correct, although I doubt it. Martin has yet to be part of a title winning (Bundesliga) or cup winning management team, nor a World Cup squad for one of the larger national team squads. It seems he’s already got a bit of catching up to do, would you agree ?

To a point, but don’t see how better communication would ‘sugarcoat’ or make the clusterfuck appointments and decision making more palatable. (Not to mention results).

An interesting insight and thought out post. The indication that Kraft has been removed/marginalised or whatever is encouraging, and I’d be onboard with the renewed Dragan lead era next season, involving Spores and new manager. But Dragan will be judged on the results, and (to a degree) the people he puts in post. Rightly or wrongly, Rasmus has lost credibility with the fanbase as he (as Mr Football) has to some degree been seen as the face of SR. Any comments made at the time of your visit regarding Kraft ?

This would be an important step in my book. Happy to have Spors for recruitment and other areas of the back room works, would be pleased by the appointment of a good coach from Europe (Rohl for example), so by no means is it a Little Englander stance, but I’d like to see someone as you describe a proven UK Director who understands the club, supporters etc. If you go back, when Liebherr and Cortese arrived they had Andy Oldknow for local knowledge and understanding of the game here. Admittedly replaced early on. I think NC appointed Les Reed around this time. And despite how he was perceived later on with us, I suspect his early contribution was vital.

Bit like a knee jerk appoint Selles for the rest of the season Wonder who is making the decisions.

Fair point. You’re probably right in football terms. But I’m damn sure he and those he’s brought in from his other businesses would be over it if we were haemorrhaging cash. My point is that I can’t see him giving a CEO an open cheque book without being held accountable.

No one throw any uncooked chicken at him ?