trousers

Just in case anyone on this Olympics thread is interested in the Olympics.... Excellent gold in the bouncing event earlier

At least you know where you are with Hypo. She always sticks by her guns

Don't think Russ is going to have many clean sheets this season

Anyone know what the biggest losing margin is in the opening games of a top flight season? If we're going to get trounced then we might as well do it in style... 😂

Fair point, although "keeping it quiet" is a fairly big giveaway that something isn't right.... Damned if we do, damned if we don't, I guess...

Yeah. Seems fairly obvious that we're not being given the full and/or true story at the moment (which is obviously the club's prerogative)

Source?

What's happened to the uber-positive version of gio1saints from last season...?

Difficult one.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imane_Khelif "Khelif is not transgender, but has a disorder of sex development (DSD), which causes some females to have XY chromosomes and blood testosterone levels typical of a male"

"Tall Paul"

I can't imagine for one minute that the club would underplay injuries to certain players.... no-sir-eee

Stewart must have had yet another set-back then as Russ said last week that he expected him to be back in training this week....

This is what Russ said about Bella-Kotchap and Ross Stewart just over a week ago, before the Spain trip: "It's a decision we've made, Armel will probably have to miss four or five days of training, he'll be back to training by Thursday (25th July) but we have a game on Wednesday. "Thursday is a recovery day and then we play on Saturday which he isn't quite ready for so for him to be out here for one day of training would have been pointless. "When we go back, he'll be ready, he'll be involved to train, and the same with Ross, so I said to him we need to manage his minutes, we need to manage his load." https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24472060.martin-bella-kotchap-stewart-not-travelled/ So, given they arrived back from Spain 4 days ago, unless there's been a set-back that we haven't been told about, then both players should be back in normal training by now.... Edit: Stewart isn't at the open training session today by all accounts, so I guess that means the club are being economical with the truth and/or slow in providing fans with an updated position....

There seems to be a bit of a concensus that most of our squad's natural level is "very good championship players"... so, IMO, I wouldn't expect to see a mass exodus if we get relegated again this season

Pretty much echos my thoughts. To my mind, it wouldn't be the end of the world if this season is all about stabalising the club's finances, which could result in a temporary yo-yo situation for the next couple of seasons. But, as you say, we should put us in a stronger position in the mid-to-long term

Does seem a tad contradictory to me but I'm sure the players will be in tip top condition once the season starts.

Indeed FWIW, I'm actually looking forward to this season and hope that Russ and the team do really well. Being optimistic/hopeful and pointing out our deficiencies aren't mutually exclusive stances... I was very positive about the Diaz signing, for example....

You couldn't be more wrong... Admittedly, I had a bit of a negativity blip during our poor run in last season, and all I've done today is echo Russ's own concerns about last night's performance but, hey ho, if that's your perspective on me then fair enough.

...

So why was Russ very disappointed with the way they played if it "doesn't really matter"...? Can't have it both ways. It either mattered or it didn't....

That doesn't tally with Russ's post match comments though. Why would he criticise the lack of energy shown by the players if they were phyically incapable of matching his expectations...?

Surely there can't be anyone who's not a tad concerned that we're 2 weeks away from the start of a new premier league season with a first choice keeper who, despite being at the club for 8 years, "needs more time" to come up to speed...? My natural instinct is to try and find the positives in any given scenario but I'm struggling with this one...