sydney_saint

Would be typical Redmond to now score a goal to boost his awful stats with the game already won

Bookies wouldn't take those odds. They would be broke in 10 minutes.

I don't know why some people downplay JWP assists from set pieces. I get removing goals from penalties when looking at goal tallies. But to have so many assists and goals from set pieces is a real weapon for us. Even our goal against palace was a set piece move, even if jwp didn't get the assist.

When was that? Looking through RB history since Ralph joined. He was injured when Ralph came in, having missed the two previous matches with injury before Ralph had even come in. I guess maybe then, but also hard to know as it was probably just a genuine injury. Bertrand had previously pulled out of an England squad with a back injury so probably more likely he had been playing most of the season with a problem. Since then Bertrand has pretty much played every game for Ralph until the last few games.

Yep, last thing I want is Kante playing for us. Can barely cover 12km at the moment. Would drive him out of St Mary's myself if he had the audacity to try and sign here.

In all honesty, with the exception of maybe west Ham, Leeds, and Burnley, it is a gripe that most fans have with their team. City fans were having a go at their team when they lost to Leeds, Leicester fans groan and feel the same when they are chasing, wolves fans certainly do, Brighton have long standing gripes that they don't throw the kitchen sink at the end, Spurs fans say they are too narrow and don't get the ball in the box when they need a result. Personally I would rather teams go hell for leather, but I don't think we are that unique in the way we play at end whilst chasing. We do have a real issue with quality at key moments.

Honestly, it is pretty daft speculation unless you have something a bit more tangible to back it up. Bertrand always strikes me as someone pretty softly spoken and quite introverted actually. He may have put his hand up for the captaincy as no one else did and he felt a responsibility as a senior player to do, and did so for the sake of the team. If that were the case, then it demonstrates a good attitude that he was willing to put himself in a position of discomfort for the sake of the side. Both options are equally valid as they have no evidence either way. What I will say say is that in his interviews he always comes across as humble and willing to give credit to the side, other players, and deflect praise from himself. He has also played nearly every game in seven seasons where he has not been injured

I could be wrong, but wasn't it the complete opposite? Didn't he slam down Hughes when Ralph arrived? I remember him posting something like, and I am paraphrasing 'That's how football is meant to be played, clear plan and tactics'

I hope no one goes near our badge. So many modern badges are these shitty, dull and uninspiring circular badges. Ours was designed by a fan, and it shows. It's junk. But I say that from a place of love. I assume when they were designing it, they drafted in several ideas that represent the club. Rather than honing in on one of them, thought fuck it and threw it all in. New Forest, Halo's, Solent, Scarf etc. In it all goes. It's a fantastic mess. I can only think of a small handful of clubs in the top 4 divisions that have gone with a new badge and it looks decent. I quite like Derby's, and I quite like Lincoln's. Other than that, they are mainly bland, 'simplistic' badges that stand for little. I'm surprised they haven't tried to redesign it, but so glad they haven't

Feel a little sad that his time is coming to an end with us. There have been some unsavory comments about him (even one disgraceful comment about him as a cancer) but the reality is he has always come across as a really humble guy who has given us a number of years of service. I was listening to an interview with him and Ings a few weeks ago, and whilst those sort if interviews players are usually giving banter, and a bit braggy, it was noticeable how much credit he was giving his team mates. Not once did he come across as egotistical. Not only a long service (in this day and age) but also has given us the best years of his career. At one stage he was one of the best left in the league, and certainly the best English left back. He should have been in the 2018 World Cup squad, and frankly it was his association with us that held him back, which has always been the fucked up way of choosing England squads. He's also locked down the left back position for nearly seven seasons so that we don't have to worry about it, with only recently some doubt about it. That's pretty remarkable which meant we could focus on strengthening other areas of the pitch, which of course have largely fucked up.

I will also happily let you buy me a pint. I'm very generous like that. Same goes for anyone on here. Or anyone in the world actually!

That red card actually got me angry. That's how bad a decision it was, as normally don't mind West Ham getting dicked over.

Basically all the owners right now

I don't know much about this world so someone correct me. But could they issue a tonne more shares of the club, distributed to fans, to dilute the existing holders to 49%

I'm exactly the same. But if there is one thing I have learned about football the last few years is that they always want more. Take Bale. He's on something ridiculously dumb like 600k a week. Plus of course things like sponsorship deals. I have no concept on how you can spend that money. Yet he was happy to throw his entire meaningful career away to go to China for 1m a week. At that much money, do you even notice going from 600 to a mil? Same for numerous other footballers. Then there will be people defending them saying 'they have to sort out their families future'. Like fuck if you can't do it as 50k a week then you are an absolute plonk. I'm sure a handful will do the right thing and defect. But most will hungrily take up these whopping salaries. There will then be a daily tv show with 'casual' interviews with these footballers showing just how fun and normal they really are, and plastics around the world will lap it up.

Exactly this. Football has been a microcosm of society for a long time, and it is playing out again. In a year where many people have struggled, either financial, mentally or physically, the wealthiest on the planet profited. And likewise when many football clubs are really struggling, particularly those with strong links and meaning to their local communities, it is the richest who do a cash grab to punish all below them. To hoard more money. Money that will never be enough. We've recently seen one of the biggest companies who are owned by the richest man in the world resort to posting fake accounts to stop their workers asking for a tiny bit more. The tiniest of fraction of what their owner is worth. To be able to work with dignity. And yet even that is too much for them. The idea that the money will be re-distributed with the ESL is pure fantasy and simply will not happen. And just like the real world, there will be very little negatives for those responsible. There is talk about the little clubs standing up, or the EPL making a stand, or UEFA and FIFA. But that's not real life. Real life see's very few people punished for doing big wrong things. See the 08 Financial Crisis, see Grenfell, see Football Index (I'm sure a few on here have lost money there). For all the indignation, what will happen is that companies and politicians (on both sides) will try and get on the gravy train themselves. They will huff and puff in public, but privately will be already working out how this benefit them I do hope non league and lower league teams win from this. The big 6 have enough plastics that will support them whatever. But hopefully a decent amount of their fans split to support local clubs with meaning to them

As expected, FIFA will follow the cash.

Off they fuck.

I'm a big fan of Ralph. But he's really testing me. Bednarek needed dropping months ago..For his sake as much as ours. And the least said about Redmond the better. He has such a blind spot with him. Che isn't perfect, but his output is twice as much as Redmond.

I was watching a video with ings and Bertrand yesterday. I found it interesting to the question 'who is the teachers pet' they quickly and unanimously said Redmond. Once you know that, then it explains oh so much

'Big game' Redmond having yet another massive game.... We've certainly played worse than this this season. But it won't be anywhere near enough to win today without a big step up. Right now Leicester look like they will eventually score over a stupid mistake (Redmond and diallo I'm looking at you) and that will be that. Time to bring on Che. Those Leicester defenders are totally dominating our forwards But overall okay PROVIDING we step up second half

'Cancerous' Bertrand beating himself up after missing a difficult snap chance. What an awful man. Clearly doesn't care..

Would love to know how no Leicester players have got booked

Hoping for a big performance from Redmond today. Seen many of here justifying that he is a 'big game' player. We are not going to get a bigger game than a semi final this season (unless we make the final of course) so fully expecting to see a big match from him. Happy to see Djenepo start. Not just for his trickery but also for his tenacity and willingness to put his balls on the line. Okay he can't defend for shit, and he's not the sort of player you expect that sort of behaviour from. But he really does put it all on the line and hopefully that raise everyone's levels.

Honesty not bothered. I assume there will be a transition period which will give us time to cut our cloth with the reduced money. The gap between the big boys and ourselves is already so vast that them getting richer probably won't impact us all that much. There are only so many places in their squads, so them breaking away won't suddenly mean them signing football legends like Che Adams and Vestegaard off us. Already they can tap up and sign whoever they want from us with no problems. We will still have roughly the same pool of players to choose from albeit a handful of European clubs like Valencia might be able to outcompete us to a few more signings if our income is severely reduced (but then theirs's probably will be as well). It would also give us more opportunities to qualify the champions league, and even though that too will be slashed, it would still be a decent bit more money. And most importantly, it gives us a chance to actually win things.