Midfield_General

Yeah that was my understanding too. But that's a bit different to 'he was all set to stay until something happened and he suddenly decided to leave at the last minute'. There had been no indications at all from either side that he was ever considering signing a new deal, we were obviously going down so needed to prepare for the financial impact of relegation which meant making some big sales (from a squad where only Dibling and Fernandes could really be considered 'big'), there was no way we could countenance letting him run his contract down, and Spors did nothing but talk up his sale price from the moment he arrived in February. That seems totally out of whack with suggestions of him being 'set to stay'.

Hadn’t he had a new contract offer on the table for some time before the summer though? If he’d really wanted to stay, surely he would have signed it. (With the caveat that we don’t know what the actual contract offer was of course - maybe it was derisory). I thought it looked like they offered him the contract, and then when it became apparent he wasn’t going to sign it they basically decided that they needed to sell him, which was when they started preparing the ground and trying to proactively ‘set the market’ (eg inflate the starting price in the bidding war they anticipated) with all that nonsense that they put into the press about him being a £100m player. Then when only Everton showed any real interest, and at a much lower price which was diluted further with add-ons etc, the club still pretty much pushed him out of the door at that point because we needed the money. Which we then wasted a big chunk of on players who haven’t been able to get in an already very mediocre team, and paying off yet another failed manager a few months later.

That story about him being ‘tipped to return’ is just some random former Everton scout giving his random opinion to a gossip site that only exists to create ad revenue that he thinks Dibling should go on loan, ‘maybe at somewhere like Southampton’. There’s no suggestion it’s actually likely to happen but it’s been spun into a headline which is meant to make you think it has some credibility. So to answer your question - yes, it’s the absolute definition of clickbait.

Agree. Going into a season where we were expected to be strong enough to challenge amongst the front runners with striking options of Armstrong, Archer, Stewart and Downs = midget, midget, crock and raw untried lower league gamble. Any fan off the street could have looked at that and said we are missing a strong, reliable physical presence who can hold the ball up, win headers and won’t break down after a few games but Spors didn’t see it. Also failing to identify or sort the obvious goalkeeping mess that again every fan could see was a clusterfuck and that’s both ends of the pitch scuppered, and top it off with appointing one of the worst managers we’ve ever had and voila, bang goes promotion. Criminal incompetence IMO.

I remember being very excited as a kid watching Cherednyk make his debut at The Dell, as it still felt quite glamorous to have foreign players at that point, and then feeling what was to become a very familiar sense of disappointment and dread as his first contributions were not one but two foul throw-ins, and it quickly became apparent even to my young eyes that he was absolute fucking dogshit.

Scored the goal that stopped us getting relegated though, surely that must count for something

I thought he was great on Saturday too, but prior to that he hasn't exactly torn it up has he? Regardless of who's fault it is (and for the record, I agree that he's been poorly managed and I think he's a really good player who's just not really shown it for us yet), until he consistently makes a meaningful contribution surely the jury is still out on whether he has worked for us or not as a signing? I don't think anyone would say he's been a smash hit so far in the way that Scienza, and to a lesser degree Jander, have been, for example. And bearing in mind the question is about Spors' performance, how much of that is down to Spors appointing a manager who clearly had no idea how to get the best out of him?

Again, take your point but what we would make on them is peanuts compared to Premier League TV money. Surely Dragan's brief to Spors is to get us back into the Prem, even if only for financial reasons so he can claw back more of what he's spunked so far. Honestly, with his investment sat 17th in the Championship after £60m spent this summer alone, and having just had to sack and pay off his first managerial appointment after less than four months of the season, do you think Dragan will be happy with Spors' work so far?

Take your point but Scienza is 27, cost £8.7m and is still playing in the Championship. Even if he tears it up this season and gets a move at the first time of asking, how much would someone realistically pay for him - £15m, maybe £20m at a stretch? There's probably a reasonable profit to be made on him, but not proper big money. At 23 I could definitely see Jander going for a few quid at the end of the season if we're still shit.

So, now it looks like maybe Juventus aren't quite as interested after all and he might be sticking around for a bit longer, where do you all stand on what Johannes Spors has brought to the table so far? For me: Successes: - Signed Leo Scienza - Signed Caspar Jander - Brought back Romeu (hopefully this works out as well as we all hope it will) Failures: - Grave error of judgement in failing to identify or resolve the glaring goalkeeping issue - Grave error of judgement in thinking Stewart would last the season - Grave error of judgement thinking Downs was sufficient quality - Grave error of judgement appointing Will Still - Gave Jack Stephens a new three year contract Jury still out: - Signing of Fellows - Signing of Azaz - Signing of Quarshie - Signing of Roerslev - Who he gets in as next manager So for me, he's fucked up a lot more than he's got right, and as it stands those decisions look like they are likely to cost us a shot at promotion this season. And of course, the next managerial appointment is absolutely massive. If he gets that wrong as well then he's not up to it as far as I'm concerned. The usual SR suspects seem to take all the flak but he has had his hands all over everything since last February so needs to be equally accountable. What are your thoughts on his performance so far?

They’re both embarrassingly shit. Spors had a chance to fix it in the summer, and even spent the time going into the market to buy a goalkeeper, but rather than trying to upgrade he instead wasted a squad place on Long, who was obviously somehow even worse than both of them. It was a ridiculous decision then, and it’s coming home to roost now as we just rotate between them, watching them both drop clangers every few games because neither is good enough. It was a major fuck up by Spors, to add to his growing collection along with promising to upgrade the spine and then signing Quarshie and Downs, and appointing Still. Three cataclysmic errors which currently look like they are going to cost us any chance we could have had of promotion. He needs to pull something amazing out of the bag with the next managerial appointment, otherwise he's proved conclusively that he's not up to the job as far as I'm concerned.

Surprised Redmond is without a club. He’s a bit limited but only 31 and you’d think he could do a job for someone (but not us).

I suspect SR will sort that at the source for you by simply appointing someone who never wins

And he can fucking stay there

<3

He might not have been quite ready at the time, but it's a bit odd to say he's not a good player when he's currently playing regularly for Spurs who are 5th in the PL. Also been playing for Austria since 2017.

Who was it that Speedie battered? I remember it happened on a trip that Branfoot had organised to build togetherness and team spirit 🤣. Was it Hurlock? If so, then Speedie may have been rubbish but you can’t say he didn’t have some balls (or maybe was just a nutter)

I also thought Hirst was a complete waste of space, but then I looked it up and apparently he scored 9 in 28 premier league games, including 2 against spurs and 2 against Liverpool to give us a win away at Anfield, before injuries got the better of him and he had to retire. Much better than I remember at the time and let’s face it ever since we lost Ings we’d have killed for someone capable of those sorts of numbers.

Harsh on Osvaldo. He was box office and a genuinely good player. Unfortunately just an absolute lunatic. I’d swap him for Kerry Dixon who was meant to be a replacement for Shearer but was washed up when he came to us and only played a handful of games. Paul Moody should be up there as well, as he was basically non-league standard and that idiot Branfoot thought he could compete with Le Tissier for a place in the side.

Please can you put this one in the spreadsheet and create a ticket to review on 31st January

Not if they extend it before that, which you just know they will. We are going to have to deal with the fact that him and Stephens are going to be at the club until they retire. In such a cutthroat industry, I've never seen such inexplicable devotion to two such utterly shit players. It's so fucking weird.

Bazzed it

That wasn't a difficult save for any keeper His anticipation is dogshit, he never moves his feet and he can't get down to his left. He is fucking appalling

Oh for goodness sake. To spend £60m+ and be putting out.... that. It's just absurd. I actually can't be bothered type out everything wrong with that abortion. And despite having a squad the size of Poland we've somehow still managed to have an appalling bench. Let's just say we're a fucking mess of a club and leave it at that. If Brendan Rodgers is genuinely interested in coming to sort out this shit show then fair play to him, and we should be snapping his arm off at the shoulder.

I think Spors actually hired him for Genoa to be fair. So he must rate him and have a relationship with him. I agree that it’s probably a bit soon and a bit too far-fetched, but maybe not entirely out of the question and he’s probably about as good an option as we could realistically hope for. I think he’d be a great hire, personally.