sadoldgit

Yet not all that long ago we had amassed more points than anyone else in the league. Even you must be able to see that we haven’t been terrible all season. I’ll give the Brentford game but not long after that went an a brilliant run that only came to an end when key players picked up injuries.

I think you are right. They have blown it big time and I can see stringent measures being put in place to make sure it can’t happen again.

If he was going to be sacked due to this years poor form he would have gone by now. If he was going to walk ditto. I think that he wants to see this project through as much as possible and seems to have the club’s backing. He has hardly been supported in the transfer market but if we can get the players he wants/needs there is no reason why we can’t have a good season next time round. We have seen what this lot are capable of so we know that the potential is there with the addition of more quality in depth. I would certainly give him to Christmas so long there is some money to spend in the summer. If there isn’t then we need to buckle down for a bumpy ride because whether he stays or goes, without some extra quality we will struggle big time next season.

Gao must be absolutely delighted. It has gone from being all his fault to all Ralph’s fault.

Bankrolled to the tune of £3.5 billion. That is some fancy kite!

If this was an exercise to test the water, it couldn’t have backfired more spectacularly. It had all the guile of one of Baldrick’s cunning plans and has left them in a much weaker position than before. File under how not to have your cake and eat it.

There will still be a Premier League and they have contracts to honour. The price will come down in the future but the Premier isn’t just six clubs. If it means long term that some sensible money is spent all round, it won’t be a bad thing. If we think it isn’t a level playing field right now, just wait until the Greedy Six get their hands on ESL money.

I agree. I get the feeling that when they didn’t get their own way previously that went away and started to set up their breakaway league and it will be good to go in August. This sounds like a done deal which is why UEFA are not just rattling sabres. These clubs are owned by very rich and powerful people and they would have carefully scrutinised the legalities before launching the new league. As someone said on the news last night, this is going to get very bloody.

You could also say who made the big 12 owners gods? There currently is no guarantee that any of the clubs will qualify for the European competitions every season (which is what makes it interesting) so why do they get to call the shots. The competition isn’t there for the benefit of the big 12. The money gets used right across the sport. The big clubs have been responsible for paying higher wages and transfer fees and now they want even more money so that they spend even more while the other clubs can go whistle. Why do the big 12 get to dictate to everybody else? Without everyone else they would not exist.

Now watch him turn up at Bayern Munich. He has worked wonders to get an average bunch of players to a semi final and, briefly, to the top of the EPL. Imagine what he could do with a decent squad.

Leicester weren’t much better than us today. Both teams were poor. Vardy’s pace decided the match.

Perhaps they are expecting us to run out of steam in the second half and plan to bring him on to exploit that?

If I were you I would stay away from the rabbits then Duckie! Yes, I remember football in the 70’s too and fortunately the days of kicking lumps out of players or shouting in referees faces are long gone. JWP is a decent player but can’t do it all on his own. He forged a decent partnership with Romeu and was pivotal to our performances when we were playing well. There is a lot more to his game than just set pieces. Our problem is that we don’t have the fitness or depth of squad to keep playing a high intensity game. Even the mighty Liverpool are finding that is a tough call. RH needs to find another way of playing that suits this average EPL squad. There is nothing wrong with being a middle of the table side and we know that we can play a lot better then we have been this year but Ralph is struggling to find consistency and that is not down to JWP being a mummy’s boy. Our current way of playing makes it much too easy to get at the back four.

Did you ever cook for him?

It was a joke

And change their name to Alex Law?

BBC won the toss then.

9 minutes played and he hasn’t been sent off yet. Still 0-0.

It is not there as entertainment. It is there to inform and remove ignorance. These people have been scarred for life after what happened to them. It must never happen again and if these programmes have helped raise public awareness and ensure that children are safer in the future, job done. We can’t just sweep this stuff under the carpet and pretend it doesn’t exist. This is precisely why the perpetrators got away with abusing for years.

Rape is rape. Please don’t let’s try and pretend there is a lesser rape. Either there is consent or there is not. If there is not, it is rape.

Welcome back Delldays/Batman.

I heard recently that incidents of flu have virtually fallen off the radar, probably due to the precautions that people are taking against Covid.

Blimey, some people are hard to please. I’d be more than happy with a scrappy 8th place and a decent cup final. As for Ralph not being the messiah? I don’t think anyone has given him god like status have they? Those that rate him though can see his commitment and passion for what he does, something that has been sadly lacking for a while. It doesn’t matter what score you lose by, you still lose 3 points but it seems to be a hanging offence to some if you lose by more than 6. Ralph is a gambler. Gamblers don’t always win but they do give you are more interesting journey. He seems to be the polar opposite to Puel and also spilts loyalties, although Ralph seems to have more support from the fans than Claud, no doubt because the football is often more entertaining. You can just imagine this place in the early days of McMenemy’s reign. For me Ralph has earned the right to see out his contract having done wonders with limited resources. It is still a work in progress but performances last year show that progress is being made. Changing managers every five minutes hasn’t worked, so now we have someone worth investing in it is about time we let him get on with the job without calling for his head anytime there is a downturn. Of course questions should be asked when things don’t go well and of course he is not immune to criticism, but we need to understand that the grass isn’t always greener and sometimes you have to endure a bumpy ride in the hope that it will lead to a more smoother ride ahead.

I thought that he first blew the whistle when the ball was about half way to Che and then blew it again just before he put it in the net to bring back play?

Funnily enough the same argument gets rolled out every time we go through a slump yet people still want to come and work for us. Go figure. As for the list of players you say will leave, out of those I think only Ings will go, assuming that the right club comes on for him.