Saint86

4 wins on the bounce now with Sheffield Wednesday.

Ah, so looks like he's been a very naughty boy then.... The number of links between Monk, his agent, and the numerous transfer dealings (even when not the agent for the player in question) is far too much to be coincidence for me at least. Always helpful when an ex-Southampton man has been out and about sabotaging the competition though 👀

Apparently he's had 4 years out of the management game, makes you wonder if he's had some troubles at home etc. Either way, its a slightly interesting appointment by Cambridge. You'd think he's probably far too good a manager for them in truth? So mildly curious to see what happens to him with that one. Surely the last throw of the dice for him re potential failure... if all he can get now is Cambridge anyway... 🙈

FFP / PSR is a sham in any case. It exists solely to cement the top clubs in near unassailable positions, with commercial revenues far in excess of anything upstart clubs can muster, and with almost guaranteed access to the UEFA millions as well. We got screwed by the big clubs before, Leicester at least got Champions League money and a league title before eventually falling away, and Brighton will be the next team to be stripped and sent packing. Clubs like Newcastle and Villa (with mega rich owners that can underwrite any debts) will not be allowed to threaten the established elite (unlike City, Chelsea, Blackburn etc did historically), and its all out of fear of the big clubs breaking away to form a super league. Meanwhile Uefa have essentially created one anyway with their new champions league, and all that is really happening is an ever greater long term competitive divide between the top 5-6 clubs and the rest of the league. Just look at united, shite for years, minimal prize money domestically or continentally, awful transfer business over nearly a decade... and yet Villa dare to have one expensive summer and they face being slapped down, whilst United have an uncompetitive spend which is protected almost indefinitely because of their established "big club" commercial clout. If they don't rebalance these finances controls fairly, they'll kill football for most people.

I mean, pretty much all self inflicted by Sports Republic. Imagine another scenario where they'd not undermined and sacked Ralph (the best manager of their tenure by far), and instead actually gone out and purchased a striker for circa £30M. Actually, i'm not fussy, Openda for £6-8M would have done that summer.... Now granted, thats just one of many possible futures that would have likely seen us still in the premier league - and with a a far better outlook for the years ahead than we have now 😰 .... Woops. Ah well, its fun being the top dogs in the 2nd tier, seeing all our best players and academy prospects being poached, and gradually losing our competitive edge the longer we stay down here 🤣

Sad fact is a lot of people predicted the form of Leicester, yet we failed to capitalise on it. We should be more like 2 points of top after today's win, not 5 points of second. Just need to get through this week with max points if we can. Then see where we stand. If we're still 5 points off when we come back from the international break then we're very likely to be in the playoffs with at least one side at least our equal.

Agree. But to be honest his entire post was pretty embarrassing from where i'm sitting. He could've celebrated the win, but instead he decided to act like a condescending bell end to other supporters. To each their own i guess. As to your point - The amount of goals we're conceding (let alone as a side chasing automatic promotion vs relegation threatened sides) is totally unacceptable and a huge cause for concern - and it comes entirely from the manager's tactics, selection, and set up... Need to get through this week with max points and then get into the break, and then seriously get our defensive shape and efficient ball retention sorted.

Really quite an important win. Not just because of what the other sides have done, but also because it sets us up for this week and hopefully means we can hopefully go into this impending break with some positivity.

Thank god for that!

I hope you aren't trying to imply that he is in someway one of the manager's favourites😶

Last chance saloon with the subs here then.

Notable that they scored after we took off our CM for a CAM again. We cannot defend when 5 of the 6 are attacking players ffs.

Utterly pathetic. What are we doing?

Haha, yes Willy, get stuck in there!! (Martin, get smallbone off now please).

I think it probably was on balance, could have been very very dangerous had he caught smallbone on the knee.

Awful corner by Smallbone, but makes up with it with that cross. Perfectly placed for che (even if he did almost fall over!!)

If you could spend your time slagging off bazunu and manning we might keep some clean sheets!! 🤣 Great goal by brooks though!!! As others were calling for... he had a go!

Disagree. For basically every loss we've made 4-5 changes, most unforced, and we've broadly decided to line up with no CDM, or with just one defensive player and the other 5 midfield/attack players being just CAMs/wingers/strikers... absolutely zero defensive shape. Totally lost the plot and unsettled team. Our defensive woes come because defensively, the central 3rd of the field just hasn't existed. Look at the vast majority of the goals, the other team goes straight through us.

He says this shit every week. Fields a team with far better players, then says we've had a few chances and should have been out of sight. As if that in someway excuses the frankly appalling defensive balance to the side.

Isn't mates with the manager though is he.

Manning went for that header even though bednarek went for it, and then wasn't ready for what happened. Basic stuff.

Good run and effort by Smallbone there.

We really should be winning this today. Perhaps naively, i still expect us to, and for it to be relatively easy by the end. Dropping more points would be absolutely unacceptable however.

Its more that we play a highly drilled style of football, and then we unsettled it by going out and signing a load of players mates from Bompey and putting them straight into the team, whilst also loaning out Alcaraz, and not signing sufficient cover for CDM/RB, or just a first team LB. But its okay guys, we've got £170M burning a hole in our pockets ready for the prem, and we absolutely won't regret selling JWP over having that £27M.

Goes without saying sadly. But Rothwell is mates with AA, Stephens, and brooks... Whilst Martin didn't really fancy alcaraz. On the face of it though, it was a silly bit of business that one, at least from a squad quality and balance perspective. I know I've said it before, but that loan could have been used to get cover at full back or at cdm...