egg

Cheers. I'll take that. Stephens RB, Vest and Bednarek in the middle is decent enough. Romeu in the middle with JWP. We've got a chance of result tomorrow.

Fair point re Marcus. It was crass, apologies. I can't agree re Kat though. She sold to the highest/only bidder. Anyone would have done the same and our current plight has nothing to do with her.

Probably because he was the person willing to pay her the most money. it's what I do when I sell an asset, ditto anyone else who's being honest. Your blaming Kat is like me selling someone my house on his promise to look after it, only for it fall into ruin, and the neighbours moaning at me cos it's an eyesore. If you have an issue with Gao moan about him. Next you'll blame Marcus for dying.

Why is our current financial mess Kat's fault? Someone else is driving the ship so if it's sinking, it ain't down to her.

You're correct, but it hasn't worked. Personally I'm all for scrapping the current model but operating a rugby style system for checking key decisions to get the correct one, and for the ref to be mic'd up for full transparency. It works in rugby and could work in football.

Yes it's a daft analogy, but to be fair to Weston, there is an inconsistency from Wright. On one hand he's really upset by it, but he then puts the screen shots into the public domain a year or so later dredging it all back up, only then to forgive the kid, but is then outraged when his forgiveness is factored into the sentence.

Incompetent (I resisted the temptation)

The question posed was around the sentence. The sentence seemed proportionate to me. Wright, like most victims, wanted more but it's not his decision. He'd forgiven the lad by all accounts so I'm not sure what more he expected over and above a permanent stain on his record which has happened anyway by all the media stuff. On the incident itself, it shouldn't have happened. Social media keeps being used by these idiots to use as a platform for racism. Take our boy Jankewitz, he deserved criticism for his actions but the racism is unacceptable. We know that, but how do we stop it happening, and how do we react when it does? Sure track the racists down and deal with them, but is the constant focus and publicity helping or hindering? I honestly don't know but gut feeling is that it's not achieving anything positive. Morgan Freeman had something to say about that, and as a black man from the deep south, he knows a bit more than any white man from Hampshire.

That's sad to hear, but given the idiotic comments from some on here and what's been happening with other black players, I'm not surprised. He is a good player. He was good enough to get a chance and blew it big time. The behaviour of some fans, grown men, is much worse than his mistake. Shameful.

Yep, that's how I read it. The impact on the victim is factored into sentence in our system, but I have no idea about their system and it's not clear from the article whether that was the case and the only reference is Wright's forgiveness. The kids clearly been an idiot, and whether it's on a formal record or not, it's all over the media and he'll be impacted by it for a long time I'd imagine.

My reading is that he was prosecuted and given probation, some training to help him to have better understanding, and had his name all over the media. It seems that Wright's gripe is that the lad doesn't have a permanent stain on his record, although that seems to be a quirk of their legal system - but he was dealt with and punished. It's not clear from that article that Wright's forgiveness made much difference to the sentence, and the main thing that made the difference was the kids remorse. That's understandable and would be the same here. I didn't see the kids posts, but the sentence seems proportionate based on the article.

My guess is that Luiz red will be rescinded and Bednarek's won't be. The explanation will be the distance between the defender and attacker. All bollox of course, neither was a foul.

I was responding to the poster who insinuated that the lad got sent off as part of a bet. You may think that a reasonable thing to say about a young lad. I say it's fucking stupid. What Jankewitz got wrong is obvious. We all saw it. If you're asking me what was going through his mind obviously I can't say but as a sensible person I'd suggest a rush if blood to his head on debut. Nothing sinister, just excitable naivety.

How is it Kat's fault that we had 9 injuries and some idiot deemed it a good idea to loan out our fringe players leaving us with a scratch team and some kids? Gao can't be blamed for that either. Our squad this season was decent but injury and poor decision making scuppered that.

Ha!! Love the irony. That said, there'll be some who get on an actual anti Gao bandwagon. For them. Gao didn't make us have 9 players injured. If we had them available we'd have had a chance of a result yesterday. Gao didn't make the decision to rule out good goals over recent games. Gao didn't assault McTominay after 90 secs and get sent off. Gao didn't award dodgy pens and send off Bednarek. I also doubt that Gao ordered the loan of all our fringe players leaving us exposed. Whoever did that deserves to be pelted. My gut feeling is that Ralph is behind that. We were top a while ago and all was good. Now all the above has happened people suddenly think that stamping their feet will make someone buy the club in the midst of a pandemic.

The decision to bin off Valery and Vokins was mental. Sure, they're not quite up to it, but they're all we had. Assuming the Bednarek card isn't overturned, and nobody is back from injury, I think this is the best we can do. McCarthy; Tchapchet, Stephens Ramsay, Bertrand; Minamino, JWP, Armstrong, Djenepo ; Ings, Adams. You could put Tchapchet and Ramsay the other way around, both are CB's who cover RB. The alternative to a kid at CB is Bertrand with Ferry in at LB. It's what's the lesser of two evils I guess. Crazier things than Redmond at LB have happened too. No idea on the bench.

I hope you lose. No fan should bet on his team to be relegated.

No he shouldn't. Its not his fault, but I fear he will walk.

You'd hope so. Joke of a decision.

Oh fuck off var. That's ridiculous.

What a stupid comment. The kid wanted a chance and got it. He fucked up, simple as that.

Young CB. Never seen him play so no idea whether he has any promise. Just hope we don't have to find out tonight.

Ha!! We have 3 experienced defenders, JWP, Armstrong, Djenepo, our first choice strikers. Its hardly a team of kids. Sure, the bench is threadbare, but the first 11 ain't too bad.

Cheers, a good read.That really was a good bit of business. Shame we didn't get Nico Williams though, he'd have added something.

Interesting and necessary thread. For me the biggest issue has been managerial changes. New managers have come in and had to establish themselves, and its harder to do that with unknown kids. That's led to a lack of opportunity and consequently poor development. Les Reed had high hopes for Sims and I have to say there was hope. That run and pass against Liverpool was the sign of a proper player. Since then he's never had a proper chance or run of games and he's drifted. People underestimate the importance of confidence, and being dropped / not given a chance must be demoralising for young players. I also wander of the managerial changes have impacted in loaning out players. On one hand a manager won't trust a kid, but on the other hand doesn't want to send the kid out as he wants to see him in training or reserve / u21 /u23/games. By the time the manager has decided the kids not in his plans the loan opportunity has gone and the lad has another season / half season without mens football and the development that flows. On the whole though I think we've mismanaged our kids and not helped them or us. After a point these lads have to take what they can get. I'm not convinced that all of the lads listed are playing at their level. On the players on that list, the one who really had something was Seager. He had awful injuries, then dropped down the leagues, then his dad became very ill. He tried his luck again at Havant & Waterlooville a couple of years ago and speaking to their management at the time, the lad still had something but it was never going to be for him. He's making a couple of quid at Hungerford (I think) and hopefully he can scratch a living from the game.