HarvSFC

Strangely, there are only three players I'd be disappointed to lose this summer, Harwood-Bellis, Downes and Walker-Peters and they feel like an inevitability if we don't get promoted anyway, so double misery potentially this summer. Think everyone else in the squad is replaceable with a good scouting team, even with A. Armstrong's strong numbers. The good scouting team, is of course as always the worrying thing.

Indeed, it's a token gesture from them to make them appear as though they care about the fans, when there isn't a single professional football club in 2024 that does. Hence they charge their own fans £47 to watch Championship football. They said £15, or £47. From one extreme to the other. Leeds would make up the shortfall from the £15 pricing because they have a bigger stadium and would grant us a bigger allocation than what we could offer Leeds. You'd imagine we made a counter offer and asked them to meet in the middle at £30, which they would have then declined, going to their £47 tickets, but announced how it was horrible Southampton who stopped the reciprocal pricing. They were too loud in pleading their innocence, when the only information from Southampton has come from Alfie House and it looks like it was only their terms, or no terms.

The nostalgic kits are done, red and white stripes now, please.

One day we'll play well across a full 90, that day was not today. Really good in the first half, untouchable at times, but dismal and complacent in the second half, giving Coventry something to cling to with their goal. Could understand the poor second halves under Hasenhuttl, the players had used all their energy in the first halves under him, but with these tactics everyone kept saying the opposition would eventually tire from us keeping the ball, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Feared another Middlesbrough at the end. Onto the positives, Aribo was really good, especially in the first half. Coventry couldn't get the ball off him in the first half and couldn't understand why the Coventry player wasn't booked for a deliberate pull back after Aribo beat him all ends up, but the ref did seem to favour Coventry this evening. Glad the player who initiated the contact with Bazunu in the second half went off injured, karma. Scrappy goals to score, but we'll take them. Even with the autos pretty much out of our sights now we still need to keep winning so that we can go into the play offs with momentum and a good feeling. Coventry aren't a bad team either, beaten Leicester and Leeds in the last few months and are chasing down a play off spot in 7th, so could have easily slipped up to a team that wants it tonight, good professionalism. Major negative, Sekou Mara. What a waste of a sub, one of the worst performances I've seen.

We're closer to sixth than we are third.

This is what Russell Martin says word for word to his coaching team... But, it's about Jack Stephens.

Shields was wank. Has made two good signings at both clubs worked for amongst a load of shite in Lavia and Palmer and both he knew from City. Wilcox? Said all the right things in the media, but was Martin the best managerial appointment we could have made in the summer? Why did all of our transfer budget for the season go on a crocked striker from Sunderland and youngster from City, neither of which have contributed anything to the first team this season? Certainly question marks over him as well. Lets now hope it's third time lucky and lets hope we don't try the Rasmus Ankersen experiment again. Arsehole made us wait while he left Manchester City amicably while wanting to shoot off as soon as United comes calling. Twerks for the Manchester clubs.

He doesn't save anything that's not routinely right at him. Anything that's struck well, or hit with a bit of swerve and it goes in the net. Anything he has to dive for and it goes in the net. It's so poor. Like playing with an outfield player in goal for the entire season, well two seasons now.

Smallbone's on 4 goals, Aribo's on 3 goals. The key being Smallbone's played 2489 minutes this season, while Aribo's played 925 minutes. Aribo's also been used this season as a sub to help us see the game out, so driving forward hasn't been his primary role for much of the season. And I thought Aribo was crap up until December. But, Smallbone's just there. If only we had a Schneiderlin/Hammond/Cork next to Downes.

Brief overview of the shit he had to work with here: Took over the club in 19th place and with one win in our first 15 Premier League matches. His first game in charge was a 1-0 defeat to Cardiff, so it soon became one win in 16. He then beat Arsenal in his second match. Wasn't allowed any signings in January, we got weaker by loaning out Gabbiadini, but he wasn't really a Hasenhuttl player. Kept that squad up in 16th. We had just 9 points in December when he took over, we finished the season on 39 with the same group of players. The next summer, we were obliged to sign Ings and then Hasenhuttl was only given two more permanent signings. Che Adams from Birmingham and Moussa Djenepo from Standard Liege. So, the same squad that barely stayed up the season before with only Djenepo, who fizzled out after a bright start and a hot and cold Adams to help keep our Premier League status. We finished 11th with 52 points. We did get KWP in on loan at the end of the January window and the impactful Jacob Maddox. But, we did have to sell Targett to get Adams and Gallagher, Clasie and Austin made up the Djenepo fee. So, another summer comes around in 2020-21, how many permanent signings will Hasenhuttl get to bring in this window, after a couple of years in charge? 2. KWP permanently, which was key and Salisu, who didn't make his debut until February, the following year. So, he got to start the season without any strengthening to the squad, it got weaker again with the departure of Hojbjerg and Reed, who we replaced with Diallo in October, while Walcott came in on loan in October and Minamino in February. Understandably, the team dropped to 15th, but still stayed up comfortably with 43 points and made an FA Cup semi-final. Well into year three now, and we see Ings, our top scorer of the last few years sold for £30m to Villa and Vestergaard, who became king of the diagonal balls that season sold to Leicester for £15m. We bargain shopped their immediate replacements in A. Armstrong for £15m from Blackburn and Lyanco for £6m from Torino. We spent the remaining cash on Perraud, Simeu, Livramento and Small. Again, shopping around for bargains. Fortunately, Livramento turned out well and we stumbled across Broja on loan. We stayed 15th with 40 points. JWP was our top scorer with 10 in the league and Adams was second with 7, so we didn't really replace Ings. Now, the final summer, and finally some investment and some signings, but it wasn't the right investment, nor signings. Hasenhuttl loses his backroom staff and has the likes of Selles forced upon him by Sports Republic. Then we made 9 signings in the summer, but of those 9, only Lavia was of any Premier League standard and that didn't really enhance the squad, as we lost Romeu. So, the same struggling squad, just got a bit more bloated and that's when it looked like Hasenhuttl had finally given up, as even with the finances now coming, the team was still getting worse and he didn't have much say in the players being brought in, so was understandably frustrated when those players turned out to be crap. Essentially, Hasenhuttl was the one positive we had at the club for a number of years. He kept us up despite Gao, despite Semmens, despite Reed, despite Wilson, despite Krueger and despite all the crap he had to work with on the pitch. It was a shame it ended the way it did and he did look like a man who had lost the passion, which was a key part of his character and management. However, we now wish him well, it was a good ride.

Funny if it is true. Would seem Austin's a good judge of player.

Mike Dean played a big part in the United 9-0. But, yeah, Leicester were just relentless against us. So many games fizzle out after an early onslaught, like last night, taking Saka off at half time and then bringing on the rest of the squad players throughout the second half (Cedric). But, we just didn't have any answer for Leicester that night. Ayoze Perez became prime Messi. It was embarrassing.

Watched Lyon vs Lens tonight. A few ex-Saints. Lyon lost 3-0 with Caleta-Car and Maitland-Niles making up half of their back four. Maitland-Niles received a straight red at 2-0 and Kevin Danso scored the third for Lens.

Then you all get to go on holiday, see you in three weeks.