benjii

Do you not understand that a response to an epidemic can’t be based on individual decisions? I’m not saying current measures are right or wrong, but your logic is entirely stupid.

Unfortunately, it's looking like a fairly strong league this year so let's hope we can make it to 40 points. Mid 30s might not be enough. All the promoted teams are shipping goals but Leeds and WBA should pick up a few wins along the way. Fulham will probably go down but may make more of a fist of it than Norwich did. Who else looks set to have a bad season? West Ham are a mess but they will throw money at it if needed and probably stay up. They might get a good new manager in at some point. Brighton and Newcastle are probably good enough to stay up. Sheffield U could plummet down from last year. Apart from that, it's hard to see anyone being bad enough to go down. The mid table sides like Wolves, Everton, Leicester are far too strong to go down or be close to the scrap. The top 10 or so are as safe as they've ever been. We won't do a Puel and finish 8th with 46 points this year and if we don't start picking up home wins we will really struggle.

We don’t buy success, we breed it.

Their keeper made one very good save and a few routine ones. Lawrenson is correct. We’ve played two games and looked shite.

Totally agree. We've needed a creative influence in central midfield for years. Lemina was supposed to provide it but we've never replaced him, despite giving up on any attempt to reintegrate him.

Indeed. We had no choice about Reed given the option but to shift Lemima and Hojbjerg as well with no replacement is inexcusable. We start the season with a threadbare midfield, which is just negligent, particularly when we ask them to run so much.

The new contract for Long has ruined any prospect of another striker, I would’ve thought.

Better ask Usmanov!

Used to love squeezing into the Dell for a league cup match when I was a teenager. 3 quid on the gate. Bargain!

Ten quid. Lol.

Ten quid. Lol.

I agree about Ings but I think he’s probably our only player who would get in a combined XI, which is pretty sad really. Maybe JWP, I suppose.

Not that we ever really have. My point is we need to be realistic about what Ralph can achieve this season.

Just watching Spurs v Everton and it’s so noticeable how much stronger Everton’s squad is than ours. Frankly, the days when we can’t compete with the top 4 or 6 are gone. We can’t compete with the top 10 any more in any sustained manner.

I can certainly agree re Kruger!

I edited the post because we just don't know but it's a lot more than we usually borrow and gate receipts are not a massive part of our revenue.

Well, do we know he isn't one of those? We have no idea. Better to keep questioning than to say "that'll do".

By the way, awful ball by Romeu again.

Moss loving that

Maybe Vest came on because he's a better passer.

Hope nothing bad wrong with Bednarek.

Stephens is still out there.

It seems like by not doing anything Goa has seduced some people. "Well, he's not ruined us and he's not a bellend like the West Ham guys, so he's decent." The fact is, he brings nothing positive. He brings nothing at all. So, yeah, that's ok for a year or two if you have a decent manager but, let's face it, it's no kind of platform at all. The main difference between last season and the previous was Danny Ings and a more confident coach. That's transitory. You want a long term platform in the PL, you need meaningful resources. Some teams have it. We do not. Because of that, we will generally be struggling and a bad run of form away from relegation. Needing a Mr. Moneybags is distasteful. But it's the PL reality now. Do I expect Goa to throw money down the drain? No, because he can't. He hasn't got it. Do I think we have the right to demand that of anyone? No, it's just a question of luck. But the clear reality is that he brings nothing to the table and the fanfare over his takeover was complete bull. You could get behind a financially impotent owner if they had something interesting to say; some kind of plan; a vision that was believable and was galvanising. But he has nothing. As others have said, he just lets other people do the work. But that's not a virtue when ownership is one of the most important factors in success now. If your dad runs off, you don't say, "Well he let my mum get on with it. At least he didn't fiddle with me. He's neutral at worst." I would also like to know why we borrowed £80m this summer - way more than usual. Obviously Covid will have had some impact but not an impact of the size that requires that much more borrowing than normal.

Better place? Football wise, yes, but that’s transitory and is largely down to Ralph being better than Hughes and nothing more or less than that. We borrowed £80m before this season which is more than we’ve ever borrowed for cash flow purposes in the past and as for “keeping his plans quiet” - he doesn’t have a plan. I agree that this newly mentioned chap also seems undesirable.

And, fundamentally, it’s a private equity fund. It has investors and it has a duty to provide them with returns. History and tradition will only be viewed as meaningful if they can be monetised, otherwise it’s empty words. And for SFC, history and tradition will never be financially meaningful relative to Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal etc. even Spurs.