CanadaSaint

I think your ciggy break caused that. The Good Luck thing is not just restricted to goals for. Time for another?

Premature intoxication.

Dave's dead right about the dressing room really gelling and what that can do to a team. All the more reason not to bow to the "Sign someone - anyone FFS" pressure.

Why on earth do you feel the need to make comments like that about people who were following this club long before we ever reached the top flight? I've often found that people who keep trying to convince others that they're hard usually aren't. Most normal people outgrew that stuff years ago (if they ever believed in it at all), realizing that it doesn't achieve anything and just makes the perpetrators look stupid. And all the infantile prattling on here from the self-appointed 'toughies' will only serve to guarantee another stupid confrontation.

Nice to see. If we'd got him when we were trying we might still be in the Premier now.

I agree with you as well, and there's something of a very similar ilk that bugged the hell out of me. Last time we were back I went to watch some little kids playing, Tyro or something like that, and exactly the same thing was coming from the parents. It takes a lot of courage to "play the right way" these days, with so much at stake and with parents behaving like that. For all his understated manner and appearance, and for all his tired clichés, Adkins is a really intelligent guy with very high principles and really, really big balls.

Easy for me to say from such a distance but I think things like this will pale into insignificance (if they weren't there already) when we reach the Premiership. Cortese has always said that we would be anchored to financial reality (sustainability), and that likelihood only increased with Markus's passing. If some people are p*ssed off now about ticket taxes and parking charges and booking fees and increasing season ticket prices they'll go nuts when they see what's down the road. I said some time back that some great fans won't be able to afford to actively support the Club if we get where we're aiming to go.

And that's exactly what he set out to achieve because I remember him saying it. IIRC he took some heat on here for motivating our opponents with comments like that. It's a joy to watch at times but we must guard against the Arsenal syndrome - all style and no trophies. I actually thought that even the mighty Barca fell into that exact trap when they were so on-top yesterday.

It's rather ironic that, on the one thread he could legitimately dominate, he takes a while to arrive and then goes missing. Mind you, he does hate any "look back with hindsight at what you said" threads - even fun ones. With good reason. So here's another cracker from half time on Saturday:

I don't even want to say what it was exactly, but it involved Wigley, younger players and success. :blush: I think I was wrong about four times in the one sentence.

Sad, isn't it? On the one hand I'm dying to get there again, but on the other hand I'm dreading it. Still, if those 'Club principles' are in place, and if NA and NC stick to them, I think we can buck the trend.

Fair comment, but what I was trying to say is that I think there are "standards" at the club now. Both Adkins and Cortese seem like very principled people, and they have a vision for how the Club should function in all its forms. If you don't fit into that and the 'rules' that go along with it, you're probably out or on the way out. Or, in the case of some near-signings, you don't get in. With no evidence at all, I still have a hunch that we walked away from at least one near-signing because he raised concerns in some kind of "interview" situation. And if this is how the Club works now, I'm delighted to see it. I certainly don't know that Barney has fallen afoul of this - I just wonder.

It's like a spreading disease caused by too much money, too much adulation, too much ego and nowhere near enough common sense. I don't think Ranger should be treated any more harshly by the courts than "Joe Public" would be, but he shouldn't be treated any more leniently, either, as footballers often are. And the same goes for any other player in a similar situation. Even one of ours. Given the Club's treatment of Puncheon, I still can't help but wonder how much of Barney's continuing absence really is injury-related.

For the first time in God knows how long I feel comfortable that we have a manager whose changes will make things better.

Attaboy!

I thought he said it came down their inside-left channel.

That kind of booking has been coming - far too much crap going on at set pieces. Probably a league directive.

Ee-aye-ee-aye-ee-aye-o Back to the top of the league we go

I'm looking forward to a corner with Fonte and Hooiveld up there. They're both serious threats in the air.

Perhaps it was a Freudian slip.

In signing a left-footed player it seems clear that Adkins was looking not just for a central defender but for a complement to Fonte - and probably more of a "stay at home" defender so Fonte can keep pushing forward when the opportunity presents itself. Given that they've had time to work on things, I'd be really surprised if Hooiveld doesn't start.

I am not offended by posters with an opinion I don't like. How many times do I have to say that for it to register with you? That's yet another example of the style you don't want to change. When you get into flare-ups, which is so very often, you have a nasty habit of misrepresenting what others said in a desperate attempt to make yourself look better. Your "not a true fan" hysteria fits into the same category (read the Walsall thread to see how you concocted that lie, as I futilely challenged you to do several times before). And here's another part of your "style". All of that is usually accompanied with the pitiful wail that posters like you are being hounded because you say things that others don't like. Try this one for size: THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT YOU It's about any and all of the posters who are over the top with their negative comments. The Walsall thread was such a good example. Yes, the cap fits very snugly on your head and on the head of some others who have been on here wailing about the thread topic. It really says everything about you that you arrogantly refuse to accept the point being made and then accuse others of arrogance.

I liked that post a lot as well but let's not lose the point. My intent was not to suppress negativity because some is certainly justified. I certainly don't think Adkins or (especially) Cortese are fault free, although I applaud them both on the bigger picture level, and I also blow hot and cold on individual players. Perhaps most important, my intent certainly wasn't to suppress input or to tell people "not to air their views". This isn't about being right or wrong. God, I (reluctantly) supported SISU. The intent was to highlight the unjustified and sometimes downright nasty over the top posts that annoy and alienate people. Even allowing for the anger and frustration of a bad loss, there are IMO no good excuses for some of the stuff posted on here. I'm sorry if reasonable people think the thread is out of order but if it causes posters to think a bit more before they hit "submit" it has achieved its goal. It has, for the most part, been a good discussion.

The intention was to trigger a discussion on a dimension of this forum that has alienated a lot of people and p*ssed off a lot more. I fully accept that people will be negative when we lose and positive when we win - I'm exactly that way myself. My wife gives me space on loss days and hasn't used the "It's only a game" line in fifteen years. However, the kind of hysterical, over-the-top negativity we see in post-loss discussions, but also in things like transfer window and new signing threads, goes way beyond the pale and doesn't make this a better forum. Far from it. I'd love to see a bit more balance, and if the controversial link to the Walsall post-game thread helps that to happen, fantastic. For me, the post of the thread so far was this one: Right there is the point of the thread. I hope it's heeded.

Thanks for the advice but I don't believe in putting people on ignore, and I'm really chilled. I believe in offering my opinion and trying to support it with some kind of rationale, and I do enjoy opposing views as long as they are reasonably stated and have something to support them. I've learned a lot here. My support for the opinion that excessive negativity is a problem on this forum is that Walsall thread, although there are certainly others, so I've offered an opinion and supported it. Maybe you should take your own advice and put me on ignore.