S-Clarke

The only positive slant I can make is that I'm fairly sure there would have been a similar thread on WHU's forums last season. They came from nowhere to qualify for Europe, but it was aided by adding some experience in Soucek, Coufal and Dawson. Not flashy signings by any means, but experience and character which injected life into their team.

Leicester fans would disagree tbh. So would Villa and Leeds fans, I'd imagine. It's not all about throwing money into the club, it's about providing just a tiny bit of leadership and strategy from the top which will then filter downwards. But we don't have that. It's like we don't have an owner at all, we are just floating along from year to year and it's getting to the point whereby this situation is going to damage this club for a generation if we're not careful.

He's unrealistic for us because he'd cost money to release him from his Brentford contract. We only go for managers out of contract as we have no money.

Ownership is the number 1 for me. If that doesn't change then nothing else changes, full stop. Pointless, soulless, dead club at the moment.

If we're worried about why Stephens didn't play then that sadly shows where we are as a club. Lowest of low ebs. Such a depressing 2021 so far, awful. Just never ending shitness. I thought we'd started to get something from Bednarek, Vestergaard etc, but sadly no - purple patches, the pair of them. Both need shot ofand we need to build around Salisu as the left sided CB. I'd even be tempted to sell JWP for 50m+ and use that money to bring in players such as Delaney - those are the sorts we need in this team, not this bunch of fairy's.

Not sure what happens to Leiecter at the back end of seasons, seems to be a Rogers trait to be honest? They got an FA Cup though, so all in all another magical season for them. Everton have done everything they can to be as shit as we have for the last few months, although unsurprisngly they still beat us.

I've been pretty consistent with my views on Redmond tbh. Never rated the guy, a purple patch doesn't change that.

Hughes, Pelligrino didn't make any difference. Why are the players getting off scott free? This group have been together for 4-5 years now and have been involved in our worst performances, defeats and runs as a premier league team. That's under numerous managers. Horrible squad, horrible group. Bar 3 or 4 I'd let the lot out of the door tomorrow.

To be honest, defensively (Bednarek) - absolute mess. JWP in midfield, absolute mess letting Bowen get a run on him and beat him. Keeping the ball in between the lines and failing at either end equals a very, very, very poor team. Nothing good about this bunch, load of losers.

It doesn't matter where he plays, he's still shit.

He makes me want to gauge my eyes out. We've had 5 years of this moron. We deserve medals for having to put up with it.

Modern football, fans can't see beyond the manager. They seem to think a new manager is going to get this bunch playing better. Hughes didn't manage it, Pelligrino - let's not go there. We ideally need to rip the squad up and start from scratch, bar 4 players in my opinion. I know it won't happen though and I fear for next season because of that.

The spine of this team is flawed, full stop. JWP is a pansy, good player in his own right, but an absolute poof as a captain. Needs stronger characters around him. When Bednarek is on form he's average, no more than that. When he's off form he doesn't know how to play football, there's no middle ground from him. We need a strong, powerful centre back with character. We need a strong, powerful midfielder with character. And we need to show Redmond the door before I push him out of it myself. It is a little bit like groundhog day, it's been groundhog day since Koeman left really. Trying to make a long-term competitive team with this bunch is pretty much a lost cause, sadly we have no money to change it. Big cockup. Now prove me wrong and go and win the 2nd half with a Redmond hat-trick.

So, in essence, you agree with CBFry about adding variety to the league over wanting the same 3 promoted. Not sure why you had to make a meal out of it.

L1 looks a bit daunting for little old Portsmouth now. Sunderland, Charlton, Ipswich, Wednesday, Bolton? They are going to be struggling to even compete with those clubs around, even at that level. Fun to see.

Great read that, I will always be a massive fan of Nigel. He was the main reason there was so much positively around us for a good few years. Those L1/Champ years were easily my favourite years supporting this club, the most success I've ever seen as a supporter anyway. The whole energy in away games/traveling to away games, home games etc was just great. I know some fans argue that he didn't do well with us because we should have won the league, in either season, but that's a bit of a silly way to look at it in my opinion. He wasn't with us for the start of 2010/11, in which we had a terrible start to be fair, but we still pushed hard to finish top. We didn't finish top of the Championship, but who on earth expected a top 2 from the start? 2nd place alone was an unreal effort given we'd just been promoted. We weren't far off either. I think it was the Reading game at home where Jason Roberts scored that prob put to bed our title hopes, but the ultimate aim was achieved. Great years, great memories. I'd love to get a feeling like that around the club again.

These variants are never, ever, ever going to stop. Not for the rest of our lives. It's incredibly boring now that we have to get scare mongering over each one. If they zoomed in on the common cold or the yearly flu, they'd find 10004204204204 variants of that. It's just how viruses work, they mutate. Why aren't scientists telling us that to remove the panic? But no...they're not, so If we are literally going to go full on panic mode on every 'variant' then we might as well pack it all in because this is never going to end for the rest of our lives.

Not sure if it's just me, but the last two seasons/years have kinda moulded into one for me anyway

It hasn't been a season of many important results really, we were always safe and never really going to threaten the top end. I'd say the biggest win was against Newcastle at home, just to take us top of the league for that short period. Something many fans have never actually seen, no matter how short a period. Nothing else has really happened of any importance beyond that.

Personally I think he's exactly the type of profile we are missing to be honest. Bit of experience, bit of leadership, doesn't need time to 'adjust'. Straight in. If we can add a couple of these experienced heads along with younger talent then this is a positive approach. Unsure why people are so concerned about resell value, let's worry about the here and now for once. Obviously it might not happen though!

Losing Eze is a massive blow for Palace, according to some rumours they had lined up Zaha's sale this summer in light of Eze being a ready made replacement. The fee for Zaha was going to help them rebuild their squad and replace all their out of contract players. I think they're a bit stuck now.

I hope Jake makes a good career for himself at the lower levels, I think he could turn out to be a decent Championship player in time.

I always had CM as a position we needed to strengthen, without selling anyone. So this is a positive as this guy is experienced at the highest level. He will be known to Ralph from Germany and I think, for that price, that is a proper shrewd bit of business. Very good calibre of player. My only worry is that now other clubs will see him available for that price...

Yeah, that's a fair one. I really like him too - could turn into a very good CM for England for years to come. Might be too soon for him this year though, but his progress at Dortmund has been frightening.

Back on the market and ready to mingle from December onwards I'd think. That's when clubs get sight of the Allardyce alarm.