Wurzel

A) 25 man PL squad rules don't apply to us. We should buy enough players from other clubs (whether they are available or not) to have minimum 3 for every position on the pitch. And all of them already PL quality. B) In addition to A we should also have a ready made squad coming through from the Academy who can fit in seamlessly at any time. C) Irrespective of B we should never sell an Academy product because, like, what's the point D) Irrespective of C we should get rid of any Academy product deemed not quite a world beater and follow A E) We should never pay our own players more than necessary and/or give them a long contract to keep them F) Irrespective of E when we lose a player to another club who offer them larger pay and/or a longer contract it's our fault for not offering better. G) All incoming transfers and players wages should be paid for out of the owners personal funds regardless of any FFP rules and/or whether those funds even exist. H) We must sell anyone deemed a scapegoat irrespective of whether anyone wanys to buy them I) If all or any of A-H are followed, we should have done it earlier.

I said top level players 😂

Speaking generally, not just Ings, but cant imagine any top level player dropping his coomitment/effort players towards the end of a contract. (forcing a move mid-term is a different thing) A) Their own sense of pride and competitiveness that got them to that level should prevent them from even trying B) Imagine the negotiations with prospective future clubs Club " We're interested in signing you but your form has noticeably dropped from a year ago. We can't justify the wages you're asking for" Player " Oh don't worry about that, I've been taking it easy for 6 months, didn't want to jeopardise my future" Club " Ooooh-kaaaay" Marks a huge X in the "attitude/character" box on the checklist.

Probably deemed detrimental to team moral, making the rest of the squad look even worse than they already are

I'm guessing the Hendon you refer to is Henderson, who has taken 58 less penalties than you claim in his career, scored 1 missed 1.

Is that allowed? I've wondered about it in previous shoot outs? We don't get to see a list of takers so wouldn't know if anyone has changed their list mid shoot out before. Is the ref given a list or does he just check that no-one has aready taken one (unless it goes past the 11th). I think if I wa in that situation I'd prefer not to even know what number I was but simply be told I was next (at any stage of the shoot out) and not have time to think about it Confidence wise letting a 19 year old take the penalty that keeps you in it is a lot different than sending him out thereto take the one that wins it. Or would replacing him have destroyed his confidence even more?

Often hear that about us as a club. Sometimes wonder if it's a polite coded message. Much as every teacher knows - but most parents think of as a positive -"lively child" in a school report means "disruptive in class". Is "good family and/or friendly club" really a polite way of saying "lacks ambition"? If it is, I'd still support a club like ours than a win at all cost glory team (although it would be nice to see a few more trophies in the cabinet.)

Damn! Free agent and he's gone to PSG. Another one slipped through our fingers ☹️ Seriously though, unless rules re wages/transfers change, can you ever see us making a signing of that status of player again? Even if someone could be persuaded to give us the benefit of their experience for their twilight years at reduced wages on a free transfer would we even be looking in that sort of direction?

Nice idea but something weird about The Dell outline. Archers and East Stand have disappeared and the Milton roof covers most ot the penalty area. Still a great shirt though

🤩 Now that is smart! Going to be a good seller that one.* *Subject to 2nd keep not being even better

Shit. The club is up for sale and a 5 year old thread about Lowe gets resurrected. That sort of thing can cause heart attacks ! 🤣 To be fair, never understood the Woodward criticism. He was brought in because he knew how to produce winners, not to talk tactics or team selection. Nice to see that approach is now being used succesfully at national level.

My mind keeps going back to a while back and Semmens coment to the effect of being surprised that the takeover - actually investment was the way he phrased it - hadn't already happened. Maybe the club are prepared to let him run down his contact as they are confident we'll have funds to replace him - if indeed he doesn't change his mind - in 12 months time.

Not if Denmark keep a clean sheet and he nods in the winner against England on Wednesday it won't. 🤣

Big savings on wages. Ings, Vestergard, JWP, Hoedt, Lamina, Gunn ...... Gareth Bale is coming home isn't he 😂

Those tactics (which are legitimate apart from feigning injury) would still work, but what it wouldn't do is reduce the playing time remaining.

I'd love to see that for the whole game. Last time I saw the stats average playing time for a game in the PL was 59 minutes. So why not play 30 minutes each way of actual play, with the clock stopping asnd restarting (like in Basketball) with every blow of the referees whistle. It would totally negate time wasting tactics of all kinds at any stage in the match.

Agree and disagree. I think even now he's still at the standard required to be a EPL quality full/wing back and would get in any side below top 6 playing a system that suits him (and will probably be featuring heavily for Leicester). He's maybe substandard by his own standards in that he may appear to be not quite as good as he was acouple of years ago. But I'd put that down to the (lack of) cover he receives from our left midfield in the system we play more than any reduction in fitness and skill. I think in 12 months time we'll be wondering how we ever let him go.

Ironic people are already coming up with songs for him, whilst Bertrand was here all those years and never had one. Maybe Leicester had one all prepared and written into his contract 🤣

It's Wednesday. FF's photos will be on there Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other weekend.

Criminal? As over-reactions go that's got to be pretty high up the list.

If only they'd tried a Baby Shark inspired Angus Gunn chant instead , it might have caught on

I agree with some of the comments above, there are far worse potential owners out there than Gao. As above, he hasn't put a penny in but hasn't taken a penny out, which is really how it should be. And he hasn't interferred in the day to day running of the club. The one thing I don't get is the apparent total failure to cash in on the Chinese market. Ignoring the dodgy non-existent sponsor (wonder if we'll ever hear the true story about that) there doesn't seem to be a queue of Chinese companies trying to get themselves linked with us, and I've not seen any reports of, for instance, increased shirts sales in China. It would have cost Gao millions to get us to the level where results won the pitch would start bringing in extra millions (i.e CL qualification) but I'd have thought it would have been relatively easy - and free - to increase our prescense in China with a bit of Gao inspired publicity/promotion, and with it extra commercial income and/or retail sails. Obviously not to the same income levels CL qualification would bring but it could have been enough to make a difference. I wonder if the average Chinese football fan is even aware that "one of their own" actually owns this EPL club.

Never understand that. Not just this match, you'll often hear players say the same thing after a mediocre team performance. So they (or at least Mings) realised during the game that they needed to up their game. So where was the geeing up of team-mates? Who was encouraging them to step up the pace a bit. Why no complaining to team-mates when you've played a good ball and they diodn't make the expected run, or vice-versa. Who was doing the shouting at fellow defenders for not getting close enough to the opposition. Who was risking a yellow card to put in a few crunching tackles to persuade the opposition they might be better off chickening out of the next 50:50 ball. Captain was Kane but he comes across as the least likely player on the pitch to "have a go". By the look of him he was struggling to talk to himself last night let alone anyone else. Intensity isn't a tactic it's a state of mind, and if Southgate was happy to watch that from the touchlines with minimal substitutions (was it only 2? and did I really hear the comentator say Henderson was warming up at one stage? ) I can only assume he's totally incapable of changing their mindset. Man for man, every one of our players was better than his opposite number on paper (might make Robersson/Shaw an exception) yet he allowed them to let themselves be totally outplayed. If he's going to sheepishly stand by on the touchline and allow "lack of intensity" like that he may as well go now and let someone like Sean Dyche come in and stick a proverbial rocket up thier arses.

He did, which was nonsense. Although quite rightly, he gave no England player a higher score than Adams.

So remind me, is it Kane or Adams looking for a move and being touted as worth £150m ?