Lord Duckhunter

Why not, Sunderland got outplayed by Sheffield Utd, yet won it. If we win enough games to make the play offs, we’ll be in some run of form. I bet we’ll even be favourites. Crystal Palace did exactly the same thing, kept on winning to sneak into play offs, then won them.

Now we’re pretty much safe from relegation & The Skates finishing above us (which wasn’t a given when Still was here), we can go full out, nothing to lose, win every game mentality. Whether a modern coach will do that is debatable, he’s probably got one eye on not losing too many to remain in position for next season. It’s unlikely, and we need everything going for us, particularly around injuries. We can’t lose Wellington or Bree, probably can’t lose the centre halves, and we need Ross Stewart to do something he’s been incapable of doing, stay fit. He’ll also need to go on a Saganowski like goal spree & the new bloke chipping in with a few here & there. The only department we can sustain injuries in and not have a big drop off in standard is central midfield. Whilst we could cover other areas ( bar full back) on the occasional basis, any 2 or 3 game unavailability anywhere other than central midfield and we won’t be good enough. Our starting 11 are capable of winning the amount of games needed, if they play well every week, but the replacements won’t be.

I doubt if Jones is going anywhere soon, unless they’re relegated. What we can offer is security. If he intends to run down his contract & then gets a long term injury with a handful of games left, he’s fucked. Surely we can play on that & get him on a 2 year with a 3rd year option. The problem is he is a steady Eddie & the club probably think they can do better in the summer, he’s also not a Premier league player. The chances are we’ll be in this league, but if we’re not, the worse that can happen is we’re paying him a low (for premier league) wage to do fuck all. I don’t think anyone will moan and use that as a stick to beat SR with, or at least they shouldn’t.

Not really. He’s been royally fucked around by this club. How many managers has he played for, he’s been in and out of favour every time we’ve changed manager. If we don’t make the play offs, we’ll probably get another one next season, they might not fancy him, and he’ll be on the fringes again. The alternative is playing week in week out for a bloke who rates him, there’s a lot to be said for that.

Was he the bloke with Steve Claridge’s kit on?

It’s one of the most baffling of many baffling decisions. He’s a solid championship pro, who is used to 3 game weeks & can play various positions. He’s the exact type we needed. I fully expected him to come back for a couple of weeks before shipping back to Charlton. If Tonda had anything to do with that not happening, then fair play to the bloke. I’d also like to know who decided to finally bin Baz, if he had anything part of that, then double fair play. Those 2 decisions could end up being the turning point of the season.

Downs missed an absolute sitter on his debut (or was pushed off the ball in Nod world), complete lack of belief, whereas this bloke powered it in. Need to be careful about over hyping him, as he seemed a bit of a lump to me. Ross Stewart played very intelligently first half, looked like the player he could be before fading. Him, with new bloke backing him up, with Archer as a different sort of back up, we may get away with it up front. One thing for sure “Arma” wouldn’t have headed that. Both full backs excellent, let’s get a new contract in front of Bree now. We’ll need him next season if we’re in this league. Leo average again, Stay on your feet man, get off corners and free kicks. Azaz frustrating again & I thought Jander was slightly off it today as well. Type of game you need to win, but a pretty average standard from both sides…

It was a load of old pony. Some of the questions were way too simplistic, it’s the nuances which define people’s political beliefs. Everybody pretty much wants the same thing, the disagreement is how to get there. If you look at the example of helping the poorest and whether the Government should redistribute income from the better off to those who are less well off. Nobody would disagree that they should, but the definition of rich, of poor, of how you redistribute this money is your political compass, not whether you should or not. Everybody wants world peace, do you get it by sitting around holding hands and singing Kumbaya, or do you get it by mutually assured destruction.

What a load of old pony.

On this we agree. Despite being head of CPS, someone else was to blame. I have it in good authority he wasn’t prosecuted because some clown misfiled the paperwork…

Some series were just the perfect length , Fawlty being one, The Office, Phoenix Nights, whereas others go on too long. As good as those 3 were it does take something incredibly special to go on and on, but not become boring. Only Fools & Fraiser are 2 where superb writing meant it didn’t really reach the end of the road. I’m not so sure that you could put Basil or Brian Potter in too many more situations without them becoming less funny, whereas they did seem to manage it with Trotter. Probably down to the strength of so many of the supporting characters.

In a round about way, you’ve actually put your finger on why Remain lost & why leaving was inevitable. The Europhiles had 40 years to sell the EEC/EU, and sell it to a public who for the most part were in favour of it. What did they do, they pretended we somehow weren’t part of it, that “ever closer union” didn’t apply to us, that it totally needed reform. They didn’t sell it at all, they pretended they were sceptical. I met a German bloke in Portugal who gave a more passionate defence of the EU than any of the senior politicians ever did (the only one who came close was probably Ken Clarke). In his eyes the relationship between EU countries was the same as Scotland and England, he saw a Pole working in Germany as exactly the same as a Sweaty working in London. He saw the EU as one big UK. He genuinely couldn’t understand why anyone would want to leave it (this was before a referendum was even called). Had the pro European side been more honest and up front given us a referendum on Maastricht (which they’d have won), treated the public like adults instead of thinking it was an issue of party management, hadn’t blamed everything on the EU, then we’d still be in. What summed it up was Cameron’s “renegotiation”, pretending he’d leave unless he got a good deal, getting fuck all and pretending that changed everything. That is the perfect example. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still vote leave as my reasons were more Bennite, certain things should be decided by national governments. But I thought it would be similar to the Monarchy, I didn’t like it but it was never going to change. The establishment had 40 years to cement our place in the EU,they didn’t and their deceit caught up with them. If you spend years telling everyone certain things weren’t your fault & years telling people how badly the EU needed reform, it’s not really surprising the lack of that reform causes people to turn against it.

Chelsea leaving 3 players up field for Arsenal corners, meaning they’ve had to empty the box of 4 players and not crowd the keeper as much. Something we should try…

Load of old AI pony…

The nods might, but it’s a no from me. Over rated, done fuck all since leaving. The last thing we need is another son in law recycling the ball.

He can’t help himself. Petie is the story, together with Starmers complete and utter lack of judgement “New broom” 😂😂😂

Any half decent striker would have scored as many goals from open play, and would probably have scored more penalties. I doubt they’d have a stupid fucking nick name either. Decent money for a bang average player….

I like Dave Merrington as a bloke & respect what he did for the club, but he did come over like Alan Partridges grandad at times. Jo is ok, nothing more, but at least he’s an ex saint who played for the men’s team. God know who will follow him, probably that bloke who dances, a bird, or some influencer anyone under 50 won’t have heard of.….

He’s been pretty bang average most of the season, even got dropped at one stage. Transfer window is open and he’s playing well, coincidence? We’ll see when it slams shut.

The standards fucking woeful, so you can’t read anything into it.

The shit show was the goal keeper and the lack of proper full backs. If you think we’d have won with a back 4 containing Manning, & Edward’s (or whoever you’d play) in front of Baz you’re barking up the wrong tree. When he had 2 decent full backs, he changed the formation. Personally, I don’t think he had much choice until Bree came back, and people are forgetting how well we played in his initial spell. It’s way more nuanced than back 3 bad, back 4 good. We had poor players and poor effort. Today we had better players and more effort. He could have played either formation, he clearly felt he couldn’t previously.

Hearts against Dundee united on a muddy pitch, not much mincing around at the back. Dundee down to 9 and the manager sent off as well…

We didn’t have proper full backs though did we. Bree was at Charlton & Wellington was injured. Everybody is congratulating themselves on being right, that all we needed to do was play 4 at the back and everything would be ok. They were right, Tonda was wrong. But it’s not as simple as that. Had Baz been in goal, had Manning been the left back & Bree still at Charlton, we would have lost regardless of formation. As it was, we certainly didn’t play as well today as some of the games when Tonda first took over.

Soggy went to school with the bloke who invented swimming googles. He was a specy twat who failed his 11 plus, but that didn’t hold him back, he’s now best mates with Andrew Parker Bowles and the bloke who took down the Cali Cartel.

What a load of old pony.