Teale's 'tache

Happy birthday!

I agree that he'd take more satisfaction from winning something big without a supposedly big club, but at the end of anyone's career what matters is what you have won, who you've won it with is very much a secondary concern. I think Emery is an incredibly ambitious individual, but he's also not the type to burn bridges along the way, he's not morally bankrupt like some 'winners', so I don't see him walking away leaving us in a bad way or anything like that. However, I'm sure he's figured out already how much longer he feels he has left in his career to achieve the goals he wants to achieve, the closer he gets to the end with goals not met the more likely it becomes he looks elsewhere to achieve them. I love the guy, he's incredible and I hope he can achieve everything he wants here, our owners certainly seem willing to provide him with whatever it takes, fingers crossed we keep progressing.

I don't think it needs to be that deep. Emery is a winner, he wants to win things, if not here, then elsewhere. To any Spanish manager, the opportunity to manage institutions like Barcelona and Real Madrid is a massive honour and one that is very difficult to turn down, no matter what state they may be in, any restrictions they may face or how good they currently have it. How many British managers would turn down the opportunity to manage Liverpool or Man Utd? I think it's probably a round number if you ignore club allegiances. If he's offered the chance he will rightly consider it. I see this often on this forum where the fans see 'massive' issues, Emery doesn't look at things that way, he sees solutions, he sees the opportunity to improve. We look at Barcelona and think it's a basket case and he'd be crazy to go there, Emery sees ways to fix it, backs himself to be the one that saves them. We know he didn't achieve what he wanted at PSG or Arsenal, but he's come back to the Premier League to correct the Arsenal one, I have no doubts he'll want to correct the PSG one before the end of his career as well. I believe he wants to win the Champions League, it is the pinnacle of club management, no manager retires without one and is considered truly elite, he was close with Villarreal, but he left them to come here and build something strong enough to go a step further and win it. If it looks like he can't win one here eventually he'll go somewhere he can. I'm not saying he wants to go, I don't think that's his plan at all, like you say he's laid down roots here, and he's building something. It's obvious his short to mid-term plan is to stay here, so I don't think he'd easily walk away. I just think we'd be a little naive to assume he's going to be here for the next 5-10 years no matter who comes in for him or what progress we've made. I hope he will still be here because if he's still here in 5 years time it means we've been successful and are battling for the biggest prize.

Mile Jedinak Mile Jedinak Mile Jedinak Mile Jedinak Mile Jedinak

I've no idea, I guess it depends on who comes calling and when. I'm sure he'd find it hard to turn down the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid, no matter how entrenched he may be here. I think he wants to win the Champions League, and I think he'd love to do that here, but if progress slows and that becomes increasingly more unlikely then those offers to leave will become more tempting. I don't want to think about him leaving, I just want to enjoy it while he's here. But, one day he will leave, that's just life. Good luck to whoever takes over after him though, not only is it an impossible act to follow on the pitch, but imagine staff upheaval as they all follow him to wherever he goes...

We'll take them to the cleaners...

Better? Worse?

We don't 100% know yet, and in fairness, the Purslow/Dragon Rouge badge also had a version called 'Lion Unleashed', which would have been just the text, lion and star, I think. Whatever we end up with, a solo lion or lion with text will likely be used in some cases, maybe not on a kit to begin with, but as the brand grows, it will be used everywhere more frequently.

The thing is Lenglet is left-footed, facing his own goal and that cross from our right would have to be cleared with his weaker right foot, so it's not quite as simple as 'put your foot through it' because it's very easy to get it wrong and slice it into your own net. If Emi has called for it then Lenglet was probably happy for him to take charge of that particular situation. It's a situation I expect other teams to try and exploit with us having two left-footed center backs, low crosses from the right are going to cause us issues. I think if Emi leaves his line in that situation he has to clear out everything, ball, forward, defender, whatever, but he's misread it slightly and doesn't get there. Lenglet I think should be trying to lean in and put off the forward more, even if Emi has called for it, and Cash should also do better to stop the cross. So, I don't think the blame should fall onto one individual, but it is a situation we need to be wary of as I think we'll be tested with it more going forward.

I think it is important we protect our right-hand side at the moment, playing with two left-footed centre-backs any low cross into the box from that side will require them to clear the ball with their weaker foot, or get into an awkward position to clear with their left whilst facing their own goal, either of which is a recipe for disaster. I think this caused part of the confusion that resulted in the Fulham goal. I'd expect other teams to have taken note of that and be looking to take advantage. So hopefully Matty Cash's recent uptick in form continues and we can maybe work him a little more support from the midfield to strengthen that area.

Isn't this literally the definition of hearsay? Which is not admissable in court because it isn't reliable.

It's a very good point, and I'm sure if it all turns out to be true he'll be on his bike along with Heck. People already have an axe to grind with Mr Heck over other things though, so it's not surprising he's the one being singled out, ultimately he's the senior guy, and most public-facing, so he was always going to be the one taking the brunt of the blame.

I think the most unbelievable accusation for me is that he fell out with Monchi and lived to tell the tail... though no recent pictures of Heck doing the rounds ...

To be honest, I've not seen many people siding with management exactly, some just seem to want more evidence than a few tweets from anonymous accounts before they start to sharpen their pitchforks. There have now been a whole lot of allegations thrown around and a lot of hearsay, but nothing verifiable. Is there enough to be safe in the assumption that something is not right? Possibly. If I was a betting man I'd say there's probably something to them, but I've been using the internet long enough to know not to believe everything you read until there's clear evidence or corroboration. Could be a bluenose on the wind-up for all we know, though it would take their entire fanbase's intellectual might just to create a Twitter account you'd of thought.

This is what Bardell has had to say on the matter...

Indeed this new tweet, from another brand new account is just more accusations, with no verifiable proof of anything. I'm trying to look into shirt sales figures to try and corroborate it, but their estimate of our shirt sales this season is 55k less than any figure I've found so far. Also, they say we are in a £50m FFP black hole. That's news to me. How'd that happen without anyone who tracks our accounts noticing? Again I'm not saying none of this is true, but there are some very wild and odd accusations being slung around without any kind of verification, we're only hearing one side of the story from somebody who's clearly very angry and likely over-exaggerating to push their narrative. Chris Heck may well be an absolute douchenozzle, in fact he probably is, but has he really done all of these things he's being accused of? The burden of proof is on the accuser at the moment and they've not produced anything verifiable just yet. If Ty Bracey is saying they have heard from people in the club that something is up then there may be something in it possibly, hopefully the real truth will come out eventually.

No offence, but it is usually best to try and see both sides of any story before making a judgment. As many have said, that tweet could just be a disgruntled employee using previous accusations and current issues to further their agenda, there's no clear evidence of anything in there, just a lot of very serious accusations. I'm not saying it isn't true, it hasn't been disproven either, just that we should keep an open mind. There may be no actual evidence that makes it into the public domain, but if Heck and others leave in the next month or so then you'd have to think maybe some of what has come to light was true. I know we are on the internet where critical thought goes to die, and snap judgments are the norm, but I'd like to think we can at least be reasonable, hear both sides of the story and wait for some substantial evidence before breaking out the pitchforks.

If you think Chris Heck has been dictating transfer strategy to Emery and Monchi then I've got a bridge to sell you. There are many sticks with which to beat Mr Heck at the moment, so there's really no need for us to try and make up new ones.

Hmmmm... some very strong accusations there, and if it turns out to be true then things are about to get quite messy. It's a big if though, Twitter really is nothing more than a cesspit of bots, trolls and clout chasers nowadays. Tom Collomosse from the Mail is following the account now (he covers Midlands sport) so it will be interesting to see if he produces anything on it. I dislike the Mail but Tom is almost bearable which is the highest compliment anyone from that rag will get from me. The club has been very silent with regards to off-the-pitch things recently so I'd be surprised if there's any statement regarding it. If Heck does go then it's going be interesting to see what the next man does, in theory some easy wins to get the fans on board with regards to the crest and North Stand if they can convince the owners to go back down those routes. If this all turns out to be true what kind of a state are we going to be in entering our 150 year? Might go rupture my ACL to really feel part of it...

Think he blinks like twice during the entire interview, it's quite alarming!

I think it will be Tim or move McGinn back, those seem to cause the least upheaval. Sometimes an injury can give an opportunity that sparks a career, if it is to be Tim I hope he grasps the opportunity and makes a name for himself.