mikeyjavfc

Unai won’t be going to Utd. Dave ‘mystery package’ Brailsford will not want to hand over ultimate power and influence to Unai like Villa have. They will want a flexible coach without too many staff, who can slot into a structure devised by them.

Just now, duke313 said:

Yep, we should have went strong and beat City at the Etihad like we always do.

Should have gone further and played the U21 team then with that attitude. Shall we give Arsenal a 3-0 walkover now to save time? It’s madness to me to give up a chance at points at this stage of the season. 

I’m gutted that we threw the City now. Playing a second string against city required nothing less than a win a Brentford. 

We got what we deserved with that line up. Never realistically going to get anything and so it proved. Set up to fail you might say. Frustrating as a full strength team would have really pushed them, that much is clear from how the game went. Hope they are rested and firing against Brentford. The expectation is nothing less than a win after that.

Wall parted like the Red Sea Played ok otherwise. We need the next goal, I’d get Bailey on if he’s fit. This game is there to be had.

Duran and Olsen have been great.

2 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Zaniolo isn't a defender

Not a criticism. Just a fact he has been one on one with him a couple of times now and Zaniolo has looked like Casper.

I fear Doku has figured out he can have Zaniolo on toast any time he likes.

lol…lmao

Gonna be a slaughter

Arsenal and Liverpool fans are going to hate us  

Hope we don’t miss out on 4th by goal difference…

Set up to fail. Shame as it’s a weakened city squad as well so thought we would give it ago.

8 hours ago, duke313 said:

What's now stopping a club like Newcastle just saying, '**** it' and buying a City tier super squad, take a pathetic points deduction, finish mid table, then challenge for the title the following season? 

Not sure we will see a super squad assembled but I think now a precedence for 4-6 pts has been set more upwardly mobile teams will consider this as fair trade for building a competitive squad that can stay in the premier league. The PL were right with the initial 10pts given to Everton - the punishment has to be severe if they want it to be serious deterrent against cheating. 

OK third option: dismantle the Holte End (only stand worth saving) brick by brick and transfer it to a new site and rebuild it along with 3/4 of a brand new bowl stadium. Best of both worlds!

Seems like Forest knew what they were doing and gambled that the PSR punishment would be worth the squad building that cheating would allow. Given they have only suffered to the tune of 4pts and they will probably stay up ahead of Luton I would say they were correct. If they get relegated though it will be a disaster. Bet they shit themselves when they saw Everton get 10pts initially. 

If there is a Huddersfield win tomorrow I will be fully rattled!

Turgid shite but a lot of the ECL performances have been like this. Emery clearly sets them up to conserve energy and do no more than strictly necessary in the ECL as we prioritise the league. A draw is a decent result, I expect we will start quickly in the next leg and try to kill the tie. 

Draw would be a good result for us, not so much for them. Glad Pau and Konsa likely back in the team as the high line was crucial last time out with Son’s hat trick of disallowed goals. I think we will need to score a few to get something from this game. Get an early goal and go from there.

Massive. With Ramsay fit with have a mostly fit squad for the run in as it stands (ignoring the ACL crew).

1 hour ago, Kiwivillan said:

Works in other sports. Problem is would have to be Europe wide

Why? La liga already has a team salary cap. It’s the reason why Barca struggle to register players each summer.
Just apply an absolute cap linked to the average revenue of the teams in the league or some such. Set the level so it still allows the Premier League to still compete with the other leagues and top teams in Europe. Not difficult in a world where Villa, Everton, West Ham and Newcastle are already in the top 20 highest wage bills in Europe. Doesn’t even need to be low, or limiting, just reasonable and equal for all in the league. Would prevent stockpiling of players like Chelsea and City have done, and would encourage clever squad planning and management, and use of academies.
But it would make too much sense and reward well run clubs so it will never be allowed. 

If we’re are operating right on the limit of FFP then I think that is a good thing really. How else can we realistically compete with the big six clubs but to max out our allowable investment allowance, which is still much less than theirs in real terms. Can’t lose sight of the fact that we have still spent less than the other top clubs, the only difference is we have funded it more so by ‘losses’ (aka owner investment) whereas they have funded it more via official noodle partnerships etc.

Is one more noble than the other assuming we are both within FFP? And considering that City are largely funded through sham UAE sponsorships? Just hope we have enough ceiling to keep our best players - Gerrards reign of terror won’t have helped.

On 02/03/2024 at 01:26, wishywashy said:

 

Dan Bardell is being oddly cryptic in response to the notes.

I have noticed Dan has been increasingly negative about the club hierarchy on his podcast so this does not surprise me. He made reference a few weeks ago that he would need to stop being so negative about the club or he we would receive ‘another’ call from someone at the club. And last ep he made reference to Body Moor Heath being unwelcoming. Small digs but obvious enough he has had some bad experiences.

7 minutes ago, viivvaa66 said:

Yes, that is obvious based on the league position for the teams that qualify compared to CL and EL.

If we win the Conference League, fans will party, there will be an open double decker bus parade in Birmingham, we get a trophy, everybody will be happy.

If we qualify for CL, we get more money and can attract better players, but there will be no party, because it is pathetic to celebrate being 4th.

But I would take CL over winning Conference League, because most likely we would keep our players and can get some even better ones.

To what end though? We are not winning the league or Champions leagues anytime soon. We can win the Conference League THIS SEASON so we should probably jump on that. Ask Newcastle fans if they would swap their disaster CL ‘run’ for a ECL final and trophy - I think most would.