S-Clarke

It's probably more fair to say 4-4 at HT. I think we both had chances, we had a couple cleared off the line ourselves if my memory serves. It wasn't a perfect game by any means, lots to improve on after that, but I don't think it's fair to say we could have been thumped as we also gave our fair share. 2 pen shouts too, at least 1 was a certain.

I think so, yes. I still believe we lack genuine wide options, I'd class Dibling as more of an inside forward than an out and out winger. I think we could smash a team together, but without some wide options I don't think it would ever truly fit what Still wants to do. So, even without those sales, we need a GK, a proper 10 and a wide player I'd say. Bonus positions would be RB and CM in the Charles mould.

I guess it's also not just about looking at 'now', we really want to start putting together a team which could flourish in the PL. Building around Dibling/Fernandes is important in that, otherwise we really will become a proper yo-yo outfit. The concern I'd have is that we'd replace proven PL talent with Championship players, as that's our current level, and the players wouldn't have the same celling as either Fernandes or Dibling. Thus, we'd have to spend mega fortunes next summer (if promoted) to bring our level up again. But we are also in a tricky place where we're struggling to shift the fodder like BBD, Edozie, Aribo, ABK etc - and because of that, we can't move on areas we need to improve on today (wide attack, AMC etc). It's a really tricky position for the club to navigate, which has been caused by years of poor windows, but my feeling is that we can't sell both Dibling and Fernandes this window - we've got to keep at least one of them and build around them.

I don't think it's the goals scored which skew peoples thoughts, it's how many we let in. That meant that all those goals just got us over the line in games we gave away goals, rather than us going away and dominating sides 5-0 or 6-0 like a Leeds and Leicester were doing. Yes, we scored goals, but the way he enabled us to score goals created an incredible fragility at the other end. We scored 87 goals, but ended up with a GD in the +20's, that probably tells you everything.

I can probably guess BBD, Taylor and Fraser? To be fair to Taylor and Fraser they have been good pros, but for a PL side they didn't lift us at all and seemed rather pointless.

The evidence is pretty much stacked up. MK Dons Swansea Ourselves Rangers. All conceding in excess of 60 goals - with Rangers on route to do the same, in a pub league. That's not down to luck or players making silly decisions, it's due to the entire structure he implements. It's flawed, whatever Fabrice says. I will never be able to have any good thoughts towards someone who laid the foundations for our worst ever PL season.

I think they have respect for the player who has been with them all of his career, they're looking after him as if he was one of their 'kids' - from all I've read, they feel he deserves better than a 2nd division team - which is fair to be honest, he is clearly too good for this level. I reckon a Porto or someone like that will come in and offer less than us, and they'll let him go. I think that's what they've said to him, they won't stand in his way of a top league European club...but they don't want his talent wasted in Preston or Stoke. I can't see any situation where this happens. I started to get suss when that acount started going a bit random with it's updates, it screamed Gakpo from the outset really.

Is this the game Sparv equalised to make it 1-1? Then we fell short in the 2nd leg. Good times though. The following season was better as we got to the proper group stages. I remember walking back home from the Inter game high as a kite, thinking how far we've come and excited for the future - but I had no idea that was pretty much where it stopped for us.

Hopefully he can carve out a decent league career. I think he could be as impactful as Sam Hoskins was at Northampton, as long as he stays fit. The injury came at a bad time for him for sure, but he's not really someone we need to be hanging onto anymore.

I think we'd have won the league, or at least pushed Leicester really, really hard. It was a tough season with 4 run aways, but we were the 4th placed team when we really shouldn't have been if we're honest. I only ever saw us as a playoff side, we were never truly in that auto race - always on the fringes, which was pretty frustrating. The last min wins against Millwall, Watford, Birmingham etc really papered over some cracks - they were great and all, but we did struggle in most games we played I always felt. We were never comfortable. Out of 46 games, I only really remember Sheffield Wednesday, Swansea, Blackburn and Preston as being comfortable wins. The rest were utter slogs.

We are notoriously slow at making the common sense calls. Nathan Jones being another case-in-point, and even going back to Pelleigrino - we stretched him out too long. It's obvious when it's not going to work out, giving it more time isn't helping anyone.

I think the Championship team is the better rounded setup IMO. The PL punditry team is just full of egos. I liked Neville and Carragher when they first started out, but they've become parody's of themselves over the years and try too hard now.

Blimey, even Russell is calling this an embarrassment. In all seriousness, check out their forum. The hate for him is on a different level than even we had.

I don't think you were alone. I found it a really weird season, In fact I'm still really conflicted by it as we finished on 87 points and got promoted, but it never felt right. Something always felt off. I'd have been accepting of us swapping out in the summer we got promoted, but we were never going to do that.

To be fair they should have been out against Panathinaikos and Plzten if they'd had their shooting boots on. They've been flawed all seasn.

But remember, you have to go through the initial pain for the beautiful results. Which for us, was a weirdly underwhelming unbeaten run and the worst PL season we'll ever live through. So yeah, once you get through the initial pain, you'll be in for even more.

This is certainly helping me heal some of the scar tissue he caused me.

Why are we rating a first window which hasn't ended yet? Seems a bit daft. I've always said the best value comes at the end, loans, dominos falling into place and all that. If we're sat here in Sept with Dibling sold and the same squad, then yes, we can be a bit concerned - but you can't rate him yet. I'd also add that it will take a couple of windows to cycle through the squad. Some players we want rid of won't go this window, it may be January or next summer - so that has to be taken into consideration. This wasn't an overnight window fix job, the squad has been entirely fucked for years and needs a reset which will take a couple of windows to cycle through. We'll get an idea how things have started by the start of Sept for sure, but I don't think it can be a full judgement even at that point.

The bloke simply cannot coach a team to defend, brave bollocks and all that nonsense. But his teams simply do not defend. He's a disaster of a manager. Isn't it Celtic this weekend? Maybe I was optimistic in suggesting he'd be there 8-10 weeks, he'll be lucky to last into September at this rate. They will end up chasing him out of the city. He'll struggle to get another job after this.

He'd almost certainly be included in any deal IMO. I know the current popular trend is for those 'swap deals' to be advertised as 'entirely separate deals, they're not linked', but they are. And it would be directly linked if it happened.

The fact that he came out after and said ''Yeah, if we had to go again we'd target more physical players'' - yeah whatever. We started the season with Will Smallbone, Joe Aribo and Flynn Downes as the midfield 3. He got rid of Charly and loaned out Charles and he felt that was acceptable. Absolute bonkers bloke.

Yep absolutely, be great if they do. Quashie needs to learn how to control and pass though . Downs will score goals, he's got a presence about him. I don't like how some of our fan base have already written those off though, just reading social media and there are people saying they shouldn't play for us again.

We had Aribo at CB though, don't forget that magic moment.

If I'm honest, if we'd stayed down I don't believe Martin would have stayed in charge. We'd have dumped him. I think it would have entirely changed our course.

If our scouting has genuinely improved, we need to be finding players like Tanaka, Torp, Sakamoto, Wright, Van Ewijk, Bogle, Gruev etc. None of those cost big bucks, just well scouted and well suited players who slot straight into the team. No clever bollock kid signings, just ready-made starters. If Coventry and Leeds can obtain those sorts in the Championship, then there's no reason why we can't.