S-Clarke

That's how I see it. Norwich v Ipswich (6th v 3rd) WBA v Saints (5th v 4th) Final of Saints v Ipswich, just a feeling.

I guess your whole post is tounge in cheek? The poster was the one who stayed at the hotel, not Rotherham's keeper.

We'll end the season stranded in 4th, I'm pretty confident on that one.

I've always stood by the feeling that we'll end up high 80's, low 90's points wise. As SNSUN said above, in most seasons enough for 2nd no worries. We just couldn't maintain the pace of the top 3, we did for a little bit which allowed us back in there (we needed a 26 game unbeaten run to do it though), but then we just fell through the floor before we could even start to create any breathing space. Pretty relentless up their this year, we just haven't been good enough to sustain it which is disappointing given the quality we have.

Someone quoted the black and white table to Martin as above (i.e. the worst XG keeper in the league). Martin's response as I expected to be honest. "I don't really understand that stat, but speak to Dean (Thornton) or the other goalies - there have been numerous games where he's been outstanding this season.

I reckon he'd consider staying if we broached it, but financially we won't be able to go for players like him if we remain down (WHU would want £15m, he'd want 40-50k). Leeds picked up a really good player from a European league in the summer that not many had heard of, Gruev. Cost them 2-3m. Coventry found Hamer when they were a l1 club for around £1m. Players are out there of equal footing if we have good enough scouting, but that's where the issue starts with us. Our perm signings have been horrendous for far too long. As a Championship club we spent £20m on two players this summer, 1 was injured and still is so has never kicked a ball, and the other is bit-part at best and isn't trusted to play when we don't have a CM available.

First confirmed outcome from this years Championship - the inevitable Rotherham relegation. Lost at home to Plymouth tonight meaning that they are mathematically gone. (big result for Plymouth though)

I'm down for that, I'd only accept 1k a week as well.

I did find that odd, Armstrong is usually blowing after 60 mins anyway and that's been the case for many years now. He should not have been on the pitch at 80mins.

That is true, they can also be spikey - but they have history to backup them being spikey, I personally don't think Martin is good enough (yet) or has achieved enough (yet) to be as defensive he is about his 'way'. Fair enough if he'd won the Champions League with Bayern, Barca and the league with City whilst playing that way, you'd allow him to be a bit defensive to protect his style, but with Martin it's a bit different as he's never achieved anything to be as defensive as he is.

It's not a great look when they go defensive like that, Jones was very much the same. That's what you get with Martin though, when things aren't going well he gets spikey and very, very defensive of everything he does. Adam Blackmore has been given the brunt of that. He's no where near as spikey as Jones (yet), but it's in his makeup for sure. The best managers won't even bring that up or feel the need to address it as they let themselves do the talking, but the constant need to defend himself comes across as a a lack of confidence and a potential nerve being hit. I'm sure he knows.

I would say Adam's missed sitters are technical. He had the wrong body position, wrong touch, poor touch etc - those aren't to do with heart. Gavin Bazunu's throw in goals are also technical as it's down to a lack of ability, a lack of heart or desire isn't stopping him moving his feet - that's just a lack of technical attributes and speed to get across. When they start trotting out the heart and desire bollocks it's thin ground.

That's as black and white as it gets really, you can argue stats when they're borderline and query the data quality etc etc - but he doesn't have borderline to his benefit, he is by a distance the worst, not by .1's or anything, but entire figures. There is no where to hide on this. I thought he had a spell this season where he was fine, we looked settled and he was actually going up that league table a bit - but since Feb he has let in some shockers and low and behold he's tumbled right to the bottom again. I'll be interested to hear if Adam Blackmore broaches this question tomorrow and what Martins response will be. If he can drop KWP for ''playing badly'', then I'd like to see his justification for keeping Bazunu in the 11 with the stats in front of us, which are based on 2 years worth of data - if they want to obsess over stats, they're right there.

It seems hard to believe, but it is the sort of thing you'd imagine we'd do. ''We can just play our game, it doesn't matter what the opposition do'' kind of attitude. We are really not good enough to do that, but I'm sure we'll continue the arrogance until the end of time.

Oh look, just in time to avoid giving the big boys any points deductions. Premier League eyeing ABOLISHING points deductions and introducing an NBA-style 'luxury tax' over fears top stars will leave if rules restrict pay - after Everton and Forest lost points A 'luxury tax' has been considered, where those clubs who overspend will have a financial punishment which would increase the more they splash the cash. But clubs can choose to press on regardless if they wish.

We've got into the Semi Finals of the FA Cup twice in the last 10 years and lost both. Semi Finals of the League Cup as recently as last season and lost And lost the crappy Playoff Semi in 2006 against Derby.

Could be an interesting experiment - stick an outfield player in goal for the next 8 games and see if we fare any worse.

I reckon Mvadidi will miss out. He had a good first half of the season but he's tailed off in my eyes, and also Leicester fans opinion. I think you could say Armstrong, Szmodics and Summerville have all been fairly consistent in their returns over the season as a whole.

He does play pretty statically tbf.

For a club which likes to pride it's self on following stats to gain the 'small percentages', I find it incredible that we're putting our fingers in our ears on these pretty conclusive Baznu stats, I hadn't realised just how bad they were this year. It's not like there's .1 in it or anything like that, you can't even moan about data quality as he is at least 4 goals worse than the nearest shit keeper and that is awful. There's no where to go with them, you can't fluff them up in any way. Statically he doesn't make saves at PL level or Champ level.

Longest amount of games unbeaten without achieving anything

I totally agree, it's all wrong. I hate it, I think they're ruining football if they've not already. All this is going to do is create a massively divided league with teams who are scared to compete, and the teams who have the revenue will continue to be able to compete. It won't be obvious immediately, but you'll have two clear leagues in the PL before long - but I guess that's what they want, the super league by stealth. I find it hard to take it all seriously when you have City still to be punished for their 120 odd breaches, but the PL throwing out points deductions for the easy targets without delay.

We didn't help ourselves with the mental signings in 2022 and the winter of 23, but what Leicester haven't been able to do as readily in recent years is recoup. They lost big players they spent a lot on for free, including Tilemans. We recouped almost £150ish in this summer alone, making substational profits on the original transfers which almost breaks us even, this summer if we fail to go up we will have more funds to raise from KWP/Bednarek/Armstrong etc, and the wage bill will reduce in a significant way. I think we're in control of it without having all the detail, we'll see in a year I guess.

We've done some crazy shit in recent years, but that's even beyond us at our worst. I reckon that Cov game will confirm our playoff place.

There is some chatter that their losses could equate to a 20-30 point deduction, so they could be relegated next year before it even starts (whatever league they are in). The pressure to go up must be huge though, without that PL money I have no idea how they can even start to recover. The players are going to feel the pressure on this imo, if we face them in the playoff final then I reckon it could be too much for them.