bugenhagen

I agree, and I like players who shows a bit of temper. Like when Downes had his "reaction" under Juric, thats fair - if you get your head down and work hard to get back in afterwards (like he did). I even liked that Wood had that little bite back at the fans last year. Let's not be too eager to judge a player reacting or doing something silly with his toys or tools 😄 That said, I don't rate Wood that highly as a footballer and defender. He has good physical attributes, but I believe that he makes it more difficult for fellow defenders with his poor positioning, reading of the game and decision making. I would like to see a little more of Abbott before we revert to the Stephens/Wood partnership.

Pretty sure if we watched them in training, we would see that they are not better than first team players, and possibly behind by quite a bit in terms of ability. However, there is a valid claim to bring someone in good form (instead of players in poor form) even if they are not of the same quality. Personally, I would love to se more of them in the first team.

How have we managed just two shots on goal against Bazunu? Horrible to watch

Mabye it's like when Villa loaned Bednarek, or when we signed Vegard Forren. You instantly see in training that the player you thought was ready to compete (or go straight into the team) is nowhere near and far behing your existing options?

Only if spying.

But none of them were constantly in need of validation, like "look at me", if i remeber correctly? They shared their info and didn't start to make a big deal about previous posts if somebody questioned them. Wich one of the former ITK's wanted this kind of attention? More about "me" than the info. The VMAN? Or was he/she just acting up around the time Lallana left?

Yeah, it's not really about Tonda. It's about the fact that we have a good thing going (that SR has stumbled upon through sheer luck), and when Tonda leaves the chances are that the good thing is over as SR will have to start making decisions, and they will get the wrong appointments and player recruitments again and again.

Very good point - I forgot about that

This is so predictable: Tonda will be hit with a massive ban (6-12 months). SR will be caught completely off guard as they did not see this coming. During the appeal-process, Tonda will not be allowed on the touchline, and we will stumble along with some sort of a Gardner/Lallana combo. Then the appeal gets dissmissed, and SR (who can not believe their appeal did not go trough) will start from scratch with the search for a new manager. Then they will appoint someone who is very different from Tonda in style and setup. It migh not happen exactly like that, it is mostly set up to illustrate my faith in SR and those in charge 😄

Silence is golden 😉

I work with a company called IKT Consulting (might explain the mix-up) and I will get back to you as soon as I have got the latest info and snippets from them!

Yeah, my first thought too: NOW it has just turned into a farse? 😄 My IKT source tells me he is (or will be) banned for a year. Just relax and come to terms with it: The Tonda experiment is over, and our promotion push probably as well.

Look on the bright side: We won't have to see a new manager trying to figure if Adam Armstrong can play as a lone striker. Silver lining and all that...

Good point, and something that makes me wonder as well. Did the club decide on Tonda as the "fall guy" as they thought they would have a better case to plead the "I didn't know-card" with him, rather than with Spors? It could also be so easy as the analyst team did not report things like this to Spors? I guess the fact that Tonda is the manager (or head coach) and asked someone to gather info from other teams trainigs is why he is on trial, and Spors is not...

Or they just wanna make sure they have crossed their t's and dottet their i's before they light the fire and burn him at the stake? But seriously, I think they are thorough as they don't want to come down hard, only for the punishment be lifted on appeal. I do, however, agree with you that it is probably not as black and white as "we have accepted the charges = Tonda has plead guilty to all charges". There are for sure factors that makes it a little more difficult as others have been involved, but he is the person ultimatly responsible for what has happened.

And the impact of Baz sitting out is like Jamie Jones saying he refuses to play for us against Pompey because he thinks they are bad

I don’t really have a problem with the club watching other teams training, more the fact that they broke it in such amateurish manner and then defended themselves in an equally embarrassing manner… that’s just me. But I really hope we don’t go to the point where we try to drag other clubs down with us. Fight our cause, but not like that.

I think the rule is silly, and is just made up as them showing that they are doing something about it after the Bielsa debacle. I do however see the logic in the 72 hour period. Training is being watched up and down the country all the time, so they can’t ban it full stop without creating a mess for themselves in governing it. They therefore made the 72 hour thing so it potentially covers the two last days of training before the game, again, to make the rule sound smart in their eyes.

Crucifixion it is then! Good… Line on the left, one cross each. Next

That would be just perfect! Maybe we also could get a 2-for-1 deal to include the black box with all the players we had been tracking for years - just a coincidence they all had connections to Koeman.

I think you are jumping to a conlusion here that takes it a bit too far. It does not have to mean that they have identified someone from outside the organization. I think it is far more likely (based on how smart the club thinks it is) that the contigencie plans they have involves Adam Lallana or Ben Garner.

I was thinking that part of the reason why Stewart and Larin worked so well as a pair is the fact that they both started their fair share of games. There were periods when I thought Stewart was our best number nine, and other times I thought it was Larin. With the start Larin has had, it has been very difficult to start him on the bench, but I think this is the only way it will work like last season. A striker number two is never going to have the same inpact coming on at the end of games, if that is all he is doing. Mubama will never come good if all he does is come on from 60 to 85 minute in games.

Of all the thoughts the managers have in their heads before the game, I would think this video is way down the list. It just makes fun of the whole situation. If they had thought that we did something really immoral and disgraceful, then they would not have made fun of it. Doubt it has any effect on the game. Two teams who want to win just as much before and after this was released.

Bolton might be in the market for a goalkeeper in Jan...