Midfield_General

KWP, Ramsdale, Dibling and Fernandes would be the only ones I'd be even slightly sorry to see go, and at this point I don't even care that much about them. Never felt less connected to the squad of players or the club in general. Fuck 'em all. Think it might time to hibernate until the summer, then maybe I'll wake up and it will all have been an unpleasant dream.

Sports Republic literally have no idea of the concept of a strategy, do they? Each manager they hire has a completely different style to the last. They buy shit players to support that style, then when it doesn't work they sack the manager, bring in someone who plays a completely different way, need different players for that style, rinse and repeat. For a club like ours where using what money we have is paramount, it's so inefficient as to be suicidal. Dragan should be cleaning house right now of all the jokers who have advised him so badly and wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of his money. He's clearly not a stupid man, so surely he must be able to see that?

To be fair, they largely did that because a lot of the squad that got them promoted were loans who had to go back to their parent clubs, so they didn't have a lot of choice. What they didn't do though was replace them with cheap, sub-standard squad fillers. They had no choice but to replace them, but they spent PL money on the replacements and look at them now.

And we were 5-0 down to them, by half-time, at home. You have to laugh really

I look at that Leicester side and think are we really that much worse than them that they can go and give a very average Spurs side a game, and at least have a go at staying up, whereas we're just a hopeless laughing stock who expect to lose every single game? Our squad is crap but is it that much worse?

Leicester I think will go, as they don't have a lot of quality and made a poor appointment in Van Nistelrooy. Then I think it might depend how stable Wolves are. Given the manager's public criticism of Cunha, the player obviously wants out so they'll either have to let him go, or they'll have to block it and keep an unhappy player which would be likely to create other issues. Plus of course there's the wonderful influence, reliability and commitment of club captain Mario 'Roll Your Sleeves Up' Lemina, who's already been dropped because once again he hasn't got the bollocks for a fight and wants to run away. Overall it doesn't sound like a very happy ship. Ipswich are limited, but at least seem to be in the fight together and have strong team spirit under a good manager. I think a unified Ipswich fighting it out against a Wolves either without Cunha or with him and Lemina sulking and disuniting them in the background could be a close-run thing.

Was she the one throwing it?

Moyes predictably steering Everton to safety, so who's coming down with us? Looks like 2 from 3 now - Leicester, Ipswich and Wolves. I think it will be Leicester and Wolves, personally. I like McKenna and I actually hope he keeps Ipswich up just so it's not as dull as the three promoted teams going straight back down.

Try this one, working for me: https://www.eplsite.club/stream16.html

Leave him alone, it’s not his fault

To this day, those were the maddest 'tactics' I think I can remember seeing someone actually set out to do deliberately. Then came the Bournemouth game, where he somehow managed to top it. How some people still defended him after witnessing those two shit shows I will never know.

This was taken eight years ago. He's gone from looking like a young De Niro to a retired bin man in under a decade. Football is clearly a tougher business than it looks. Give him another season at Saints and he'll be looking like Uncle Albert before he hits 50.

Fair play to him. He's got a reputation for speaking his mind (as per that amazing video where he's about to spark out his DOF) and he probably thinks that in the situation he's inherited he's got absolutely nothing to lose by calling out the mess he's now seeing. I like him more and more.

I do think those are fairly important measures when the player in question is an attacking forward who cost £22m, yes. Guess I’d best stick to Fantasy Football with crazy high expectations like that.

Typo - corrected. Look, I hope you’re right, I’m pleased he’s showing signs of improvement and I really hope that Juric can turn him into the player we all wanted to see when he signed. I personally just need to see more of an all-round game from him, and more meaningful contributions like actual assists and goals, before I join in the high-fiving about what a great player he is and how his underperformance until now has been everybody else’s fault. Maybe this manager and a run in the team will do that. Let’s hope so.

Where did I say it did?

‘Was previously Sporting Director of 777’ - as in those chancers who tried to buy Everton and then strung them along for a year until it turned out they were bankrupt and were then wound up shortly after? https://www.sportspro.com/news/777-partners-high-court-winding-up-order/#:~:text=777 Partners%2C the US-based,up by the High Court.

Mate, come on. ‘Might not reach the heights again’ of zero goals and zero assists in a 3-1 defeat against a team 15th in the table? He’s a premier league footballer who beat his man several times and on one occasion got a shot away that was reasonably comfortably saved. Phew, mark that one down in the history books, glad I witnessed that history being made. He was much better last night and I really hope that after 2 years, a £22m fee and all those wages Juric can get something out of him, and he kicks on and finally makes some sort of meaningful contribution for us, but let’s keep it in perspective eh.

Did much better by his own previously very low standards. Looked like he was trying at least. But zero end product unfortunately. He’s still young so if he works hard maybe he can add that to his game. But at the moment he’s a £22m sprinter.

Probably going to piss the player off as well. Going from flying high, getting bigged up for his performances every week in a promotion-chasing side with a feelgood factor where the fans and media love him, to getting tonked every week in a terrible side where he'll almost certainly start getting flak straightaway if he doesn't immediately look like the new Roy Keane. And/or not playing regularly. It's not going to make any difference to our season, which is over already thanks to the shocking recruitment and that idiot with his vanity project, so it's a poor decision. Can only assume that Juric has said he wants him back, which he is completely within his rights to do, but personally I think we should have left him where he is, let him enjoy a great season and then reassessed in the summer.

Ah, good old Mario, always there to be relied upon in a relegation scrap, and repaying Wolves faith in him after they made him club captain at the start of the season. What a guy. Midfielder Mario Lemina wants to leave Wolves, says head coach Vitor Pereira. The 31-year-old missed Saturday's FA Cup win over Bristol City but Pereira said on Tuesday, in his pre-match press conference before the Premier League game against Newcastle, that Lemina was fit and available. However, speaking after the match at St James' Park, which Wolves lost 3-0, Pereira said Gabon international Lemina came to see him after the press conference and expressed a desire to leave. "I can't bring a player who tells me he is not in the mental condition to help the team. He wants to leave," said Pereira. "I don't know what happened before me, but with this energy and this mentality, I don't need him. I prefer to play with another player." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ckgxnkwdxnxo

True, but if they don't go up this year they're down to their last year of parachute money, which in year three is only 20% of the overall amount allocated. So they'll have less money to spend, which you'd think would mean they would lose some more quality and make them weaker than this year. Plus my brother in law is a Leeds fan, so from a personal perspective I would just enjoy it immensely.

Cannon? Balls.

If Leeds choke yet again it would be absolutely hilarious