S-Clarke

El-Crappio.

Winning the league is a good achievement and all, but it needs to be put into perspective in relation to the standard of the league. It's similar to when Leicester won it, which was amazing, but the only reason they won it was because all the top clubs that year were new levels of horrific, we even finished a point off of Champions league football! This season is incredibly similar in terms of how the top sides have underperformed, probably even more so. There has simply not been a title race, one of the worst PL seasons for quality in my lifetime tbh.

The timing feels awful and I'm not entirely sure it's imminent, but stuff like this doesn't come out unless there has been some chatter/bits made known in financial circles - Jordan is certainly in those circles. It makes you wonder if Dragon has bene told exactly how much it's going to cost to fix what Ramus entirely destroyed, so much so that he knows he wouldn't be able to put up the $$$ required, thus putting us up for sale to someone who can. Let's see what happens, but it's awful timing in respect of managerial appointments/transfers. It really does feel more and more like next season is going to be purely about treading water to me.

Just in case you didn't get it -

I didn't remember him too much yesterday, but he wasn't terrible. The bar is very, very, very, very low though. I'd like to say he needs a big pre-season to get fit, but the chances of him staying fit throughout are likely slim to none. People seem to be incorrectly assuming he's a star Championship forward who tore it up for Sunderland though, but that's not really the case. His real impact came in L1 when they came up, he only played 13 (albeit fruitful) games in the Championship for them, so in my eyes he's not what I'd class as a proven Championship striker by any means. The club certainly need to go all out and buy a proper striker in the summer.

If he becomes our first choice again next season, this will sadly confirm to me that as a club we have absolutely no idea what we are doing. He has been a pet project since day 1, just because he can play with the football. There are other fundamental attributes to goalkeepers Whenever I've watched him I've always seen an outfield player in goal, he has all the attributes of an outfield player but absolutely none of the attributes required to be a competent goalkeeper. His loan to Standard was an opportunity, but he has been doing exactly the same over there. Letting in pretty much any shot on target. If he's number 1 then Spors and whoever the new manager is are equally as clueless as all who went before. This position is a key decision that will show where we're heading.

There's no problem with people having opinions, but don't make up bollocks to enhance your opinion. When Rohl was appointed as Wednesday manager, 11 games into the season, Wednesday were rooted on 2 or 3 points and 8-10 points adrift of safety. They looked like us this season. They finished the season on 53 points, places and points breathing space from the bottom 3. In the main he could only work with what he had that season, which was a L1 level team, but he managed to scratch every ounce he could from them. He's even had them comfortable in mid-table this season, even in the playoff chatter for a bit, even though they're still pretty much the same 11. They'll fall through the trap door if he leaves IMO. He's done some miracle stuff there in light of everything.

There's a lot of blind faith in this Spors guy, someone I'd gauge 90% of us hadn't ever heard of at the start of the season. I think a lot of the faith comes from the fact he's 'new' and may have new ideas, but what has gone before is still totally relevant and it's silly to suggest otherwise. SR have been an absolute disaster for this club and city, they lurch from one bad decision to the next. There is yet to be any credible evidence that Spors is the messiah, but it's not going to be an overnight or cheap fix that's for sure. I think we've gone past the 'jury is out' now, they are categorially our worst ever owners and it's going to take some serious comeback for that view to change. My personal view is that we'll need shot of them before anything improves long-term. We'll see what happens in the summer, but going by our previous summers, I'm not expecting great decision after great decision.

They often bring through good players, either through their own scouting or development. Their attackers are often their prize area, Tony, Mackail-Smith, McLean, Gayle, Asombologa. I think they're a lot weaker this year than they have been for many years though, their sales have caught up with them a bit and their backline has suffered. They sold their best player last year (their LB, Burrows) to Sheffield United in the summer. But there are much worse places to look for players than Peterborough, as we see with our own Edwards.

Imagine the scenes, going into the final game at Everton's ground, sat on 10 points. Need a win to beat Derby's record. We lose 10-0. And thus secure a new record loss, record negative goal difference and a record low points total. Never, ever to be beaten. Open top bus parade events right there! Pub quiz material there for generations. We'll probably bottle it at the final hurdle though

Wembley was a great day, although in isolation it was just a day - what came after has been a shitfest. My best memories of supporting this club are through the Adkins > Poch > Koeman eras, just an amazing 5-6 years of moving through the leagues with a core of players who grew and stayed with the club on the journey. That'll never happen again due to the finance and our model nowadays, so I'm pleased I got to experience those years when I did.

Standard Stephens, and standard Bednarek on both of those conceded efforts. No doubt that Stephens cares and he's committed, but his lack of quality will always be his undoing at a higher level. That's never going to change and it's why we need to shift him if we can. Bednarek is Bednarek, just plain shit and always will be as a PL player.

But he's the key reason we were underprepared, that's what I was getting at and so many others have. He had too much of a say over transfers in the summer, obviously aided by a wider committee - but he was the only football voice around the table really. He thought we needed Nathan Wood and Ryan Fraser for starters. We correctly pursued Downes, but there was a lot of naivety - or blind faith - in thinking he could do the same role in the PL. Martin has openly admitted that he was shocked by the pace and power of the league, that's a shocking admission that he pretty much went blind during the summer transfer window, wedded to the daft belief that our passing for passing sake would do us good in a higher level - without better players to go with it. There was no pragmatism around his approach, it was his way or no way - and he didn't identify the right players to play his way at a higher level, so our lack of prep this season is heavily on him.

The big one is still there, up for grabs. We have one hand on it. A big 6 games to go to see if we can become the worst ever professional football team in history. One heck of an accolade to get and will probably never be beaten. What a time to be alive this is!

Same as usual really, we're just way, way, way too far off these teams. We are a mid-table/lower Championship side trying to compete with a Champions League PL outfit, it's just not possible. I really don't want to see 90% of these lot in the 11 next season, or the squad. I can't stand the sight of most of this lot. Bednarek/Stephens/Onuachu/Lesley/Smallbone/Sulemana, just trash heap players. At least Lesley will be going back to Chelsea, one of the few positives. We need one heck of a flush in the summer, if we don't we'll struggle to make Top half of the Championship, that's how little I rate the players we have.