weedman

This is nonsense. Not every financial problem is comparable to bloody Leeds, some may be, most probably won't be. Automatically assuming worst case scenario doesn't make it right, anymore than it makes those who don't wrong or "idiots" We may be totally screwed and another Leeds waiting to happen, but by the same token we may be nowhere near as bad as that and a couple of player sales and high earning wasters off the books over the next couple of years and we're fine. The point is nobody really knows as of yet, jumping to conclusions (whichever side that happens to be on) is wrong, even if it turns out that you're right. You think people who wait for facts before making judgements are doing it to be smug, but those that blindly pick a side and literally come on to other teams message board years or decades later to brag about how "right they were all along" are the sensible ones? Jog on mate

Surely it'd work better with Hutton on one side and Villa Park on the other? Rather than a random contract? 6/10 idea, 2/10 execution...just like Hutton himself! Just kidding, I love him

Most of this could easily be said about Steve Bruce. Came in, improved our league position, made us some money and (potentially) quitting after a 4th placed finish and having to sell all of his better players...

If Hutton re-signs for us does that mean the prophecy was for the 18/19 season all along?

Onomah will be a good player, he's got good feet and can drive forward and even grab the odd goal, his main problem is he doesn't look for a pass quickly enough in some situations and can get caught out when players close him down quickly - this is mainly as he's come from youth football where you generally get a bit more time and space, another year or 2 playing competitive football either in the championship or prem and he'll iron that out and then he'll be sought after, to get him in a deal with Grealish (if we must sell) would be good for us (and probably him, assuming Spurs aren't planning on playing him), he'll be a Prem player in a few years and if we aren't then at least we'll have another saleable asset to help improve our team. Still wouldn't take less than £20m + him for Jack though

I was thinking this, apart from that first game he's been solid at CB and I think would be good with Chester (Chester for the composure and Jedi for anything above shoulder height. Pace is an issue but he's replacing Terry, hardly Usain Bolt

What did he say?

I reckon he'll do similar to Boro in that Hutton will go up against Sess and be told to pretty much do to him what he did to Adama, I'd say Terry should be able to handle Mitro and Jedinak and Hourihane will buzz around Cairney to pretty much cut out their main supply lines. That should allow Adomah, Snodgrass, Grealish and Grabban to break forward at pace. Boro restricted us somewhat as well, but thats a Tony Pulis team, we'll have more joy attacking against Fulham than Boro. Main problem is they are better going forward and we're highly unlikely to restrict them to no chances like we did Boro, they'll have a few, as will we. It'll be a tight game and I fear for us if we concede first as it'll be harder to counter which is our main strength. I really think that our front 4 (Grabban, Adomah, Snoddy and Jack) should high press them as much as possible and wherever possible force them to play longer, it doesn't suit them and Mile will eat those sort of balls for breakfast - thats pretty much what Blues did and it worked out pretty well for them, obviously some luck will be required but that goes for them as well as us. It'll be a close game, we've both got the ability to hurt the other - arguably them more than us, but we're more solid at the back, if I were a betting man I'd steer well clear of this myself as it really could go either way. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they lost to Blues as the pressure got to them, all they had to do was win against one of the poorest teams in the league to get 2nd place - Wembley pressure will be far more than that, and we have far more experience in that regard which could see us through (I'm forever hopeful!)

I think they'll send them to whoever bought them. I got 3 using different ID's for the Semi and they all came to me

To be honest I like it, if you get there early it just puts you in at a random place, sure it sucks if you're low on that list, but at least its fair to all

How neither of the Boro players were booked for that is a complete mystery, 3 attempted professional fouls by 2 players and if Grealish had gone down for any of them it's an automatic booking, and people wonder why players go down so easily these days!

That can't be right can it? So many areas were sold out or virtually sold out I had to go in Upper trinity so surely there aren't still 13,000 tickets left?

I don't think it is a proper general sale, I booked 3 tickets and wasn't able to use my reference number for all three but had to split them between 3 references so it seems it's "booking history" rather than "general sale", don't know why they didn't just say that tbf

Just came on here to see this

Didn't Bruce say he hadn't trained because his wife was giving birth, would explain not in the squad but still at the ground?

He should have stopped shooting after the goal, the subsequent shots were so bad it just made it seem like a total fluke! He played well though in general, pretty much all our play started with him, helped no doubt by Reading showing absolutely zero interest in closing down even before the Red card

Again this with parachute payments, it isn't just the FA going "ah you poor souls getting relegated, here's £40m to help you bounce back", the money spent by even a shit PL team is astronomically higher than a Championship team, and the parachute payments are there to help with the running costs (infrastructure/wages/staff etc etc) so there isn't such a drastic cut off and huge overhaul straight away. It helps the business keep ticking over until the club can be run on a more even level. If it wasn't for those payments getting relegated would absolutely ruin teams as they just wouldn't be able to cut costs fast enough, especially these days when there's such a massive financial difference between the two leagues. The advantage relegated teams have is they are likely to have 1 or 2 higher profile players that can command Prem level transfer fees which should give them a little more money to play with, the downside being they will inevitably lose their best players and have to rebuild, which is rarely a smooth transition

Interesting that even a Wolves win tonight means we woud have gained 7 points on them in 10 games...and we'd be 10 behind with 11 to play. Beat them and we've gained 10 points in 11 games, and we'd be 7 behind with 10 to play. I don't think we'll catch them, but I'd say it's far from a certainty at this stage, if we both maintain our recent form it all pretty much comes down to our match with them on Saturday

Couldn't tell who was down there and was panicking for a minute until I realised it was only Whelan, phew!

I really don't like this attitude to the "parachute payments", you do realise that they aren't just some hand out so that relegated teams can out spend everyone and come straight back up right? They are literally there because that's how much extra teams spend on wages for largely the same players in the PL, they are there to help with those wages while teams either find buyers for those players or their contacts run down. Its not mismanagement either (well, you could argue for us and Sunderland it was, but we're the exceptions really), take someone like Hourihane, moving to a top championship team he's probably on about £25k a week (ish), had he moved to a low end PL team instead of us that exact same player would probably have cost them £50k a week, soley because they are in the PL where £10m transfer and £50k a week would probably get you a decent backup player. The £40m parachute payment is not just chucked onto the budget, it's instantly absorbed by bloated player wages, leaving relegated teams with no discernable advantage over current championship teams. For example, of the 3 relegated last season, 1 is bottom, 1 is in a relegation fight and only 1 is close to the top 6, although miles from top 2

I think he's far too casual on the ball to ever play DM. He gives the ball away far too often and it's not in the "trying killer passes so bound to have a low pass %" kind of give the ball away its generally because he's dallying on the ball and has no awareness of what's around him so gets it pinched off him which would be suicide if he was our deepest midfielder I think if we must play him, it has to be further forward, simply because on those rare occasions he finds himself in 5-10 yards of space he can actually look pretty dangerous, and when he inevitably dallies on the ball and gets caught out I'd much rather that was 10 yards outside the oppositions box than 10 yards outside ours Ideally he just wouldn't play at all though, if he can sort out his positional awareness he could be a decent player, and if he were one of our youngsters I'd be wanting him playing more just to help him progress because I do think he's got some potential, but he isn't and in the here and now he's simply not good enough for our team at the moment

The Daily Star? Well that settles that then

Michael, a few of those players are OK (generally the ones that are are not suited to English football like Amavi and Gil), Gueye is a good player. Even Ciaran Clark is one of the better ones and he wouldn't get in our team at the moment ahead of Terry or Chester But most of these names, my god that team A would be where Sunderland are now, I can never tell if you're on the wind up or not so I'm going to dip out of this thread now but please don't become a scout, if you must become one, may I suggest Birmingham City as a potential job

This is the EXACT type of comment that wound people up earlier in the season. Its too early for a "I was right you were wrong" debate, and I think a lot of people were mostly on the fence, judging Bruce by how the team was performing, hence so many people losing faith by the end of December, but it was the absolute certainty displayed such as here which caused so much friction. This comment isn't a "I don't believe we'll get promoted" which is fair for anyone to say and a fair debate can ensue on the back of it, it's a "we DEFINITELY will not get promoted. Bruce is a dinosaur that simply isn't capable, and anyone that disagrees with me is a moron", and as far as calling out posts like this as wrong, it's not too early to do that, because whether we go up or not no one can definitively say yet what will happen, these type of comments and people that make them are wrong, whatever happens

Oh I agree, it was a ridiculous position to be in, but plenty of managers have come into new clubs and bemoaned the overall fitness of the players, becoming unfit isn't an overnight thing, it would have happened gradually and while it clearly affected Gabby worse than others, the stats show that the whole team was unfit and hence covering less ground than anyone else in the league. I'd like to be crystal clear, I am not absolving him of all blame (I know you never said that!), but from his point of view here, he showed up to "work" every day, did exactly what the coaches told him to do, then finished work, went home, and did pretty much what he wanted (which I'd wager is the same routine as 90% of players). The day his fitness dropped below, say, 90% (completely arbitrary made up number), the coaches should have been on him and upped his fitness work during training...they didn't, he continued that same routine (maybe the same routine he's had since he broke through under MON for all we know) until suddenly bam and he's too unfit to play. The whole situation was a joke and a total screw up IMO by all responsible parties I always have has a soft spot for him (you can probably tell) which is why I do defend him on here, I don't think he's a Saint or anything but its always irked me that some people have never given him an ounce of credit for past performances and used the "fat" thing to basically completely discredit anything he's ever done for us (not saying you've done this). For me he was a limited player that gave his all for us and gave us all some fantastic memories in his early years, gradually petered off in his later years and could be given a last send off on the final game of a season where we actually achieve something (finally!)