Rayvin

There is no chance the British government would ever permit him to be sent for trial in America, so he may as well come out and say he did it and that he'd do it again for all that the "truth" matters. Some people are simply immune from the consequences that the rest of us have to deal with.

Happy New Year lads. I hope 2022 is a much kinder year to us all than 2021 was.

Aye. Even if it's as cynical as they're all claiming it is - and I suspect it is - they can't stack up a 19 club conspiracy to try and get us relegated, agree not to sell us players, and then bitch on about us using whatever is at our disposal to avoid that outcome. Welcome to the Premier League motherfuckers, there is no moral high ground.

Well played from the club.

That's a dangerous one though cos they're asking the same questions on their side about BLM, Occupy, etc. I don't personally trust the Tories to play that one fairly.

Having Trippier come in early doors would be a good statement of intent and would calm a lot of nerves. Botman looks like it's on the cards too, has persisted for a few weeks now. Not sure about Ramsay and I saw us linked to a Brazilian forward (Barbosa) earlier but apparently he'd take some convincing since he's not sure we'll be able to pick up any other big names. Whether any of these rumours hold any water, who knows.

Aye but we're a below average side that is very much at the start of a transitional period. He'll be a fine addition for this year and next, cover for a couple after, then done. Works for me.

As much as I enjoy the piss taking (and I do) I actually also enjoy reading Diego and Fish's takes on these things. They're both more informed than I am and it's interesting to see what they think. Cheers both

Aside from enjoying the technical development of the player, I think it speaks a lot to his mental toughness that he continued to stick it out here, didn't sulk, kept playing where he was asked to play - all the while he was increasingly coming under fire from the media (and honestly the fans as well - myself included). I'm really pleased for him that he's doing so well, and his determination will stand him in good stead for the future both inside and outside of football.

If I had to pick the best date for a season ending injury to hit a key player before we were safe, 27th of December would be right up there. Hope it's not as bad as it sounds but this is way better than it happening Jan 27th.

Superb post, great data for any future arguments too.

Merry Christmas everyone, have a really great day!

I agree, it's as true for rumours of buys as it is for rumours of transfers collapsing. £120k doesn't seem like a big deal to me though tbh, for a club of our financial power. It'll be interesting if that turns out to be true.

Ok so, not "strategic vision" but still.

Wait so is the deal that we pay £20 to pose a question? I'm up for putting into the charity whether my question is chosen or not, but I'll pose one in the hope that it's good enough: Assuming we can buy targets in 3 areas (of your choosing) in the January transfer window, which playstyle or tactical approach would you like to see the team change to in order to be the most successful it can be?

I looked into him a bit when we were touted as buying him a few weeks back. Looks like a great player but I don't see us fending off interest from elsewhere for him.

That QF against Arsenal was well worth their earlier 5 games without a win then.

Is there really any significant amount of opposition to the new owners for that to happen with? I think they've got a free relegation tbh, we all knew we were down this year with the Bruce and Ashley combo. If they make good, long term decisions - then for my part at least I'll be completely happy. Whether we go down or not.

For what it's worth, it looks like one to me as well. Much of the new owners' start has, there's just not enough apparent evidence of strong strategic planning to think otherwise - unless we make the assumption that as very rich people, they absolutely know what they're doing in all matters (which is possible and wouldn't necessarily be visible). They'll get there, but this has been a rough start (thanks largely to Ashley). I still think we'll stay up though because I do think we'll get an uplift from mid-Jan with new signings and turn our draws with bottom half teams into shithouse wins. None of our relegation rivals will be able to match us on squad revamp.

That is awful mate. I've no idea what this situation would feel like so I won't try to offer anything other than to say that I'm really sorry you're having to go through with it on top of what has already been a really shit year. Your courage in the face of this is admirable.

Aye but so have most of these teams. Even Norwich have won more games than us and some of the teams people are mentioning here have 5 wins Anyway if we'd managed to win those two easier games instead of fucking them up we'd be on 14 points atm which I think is more representative of where we should be really. Assuming January allows us to improve, I think we can recover those 4 missed points and get out of this still. We need signings in place by mid-Jan though, that's when the easier games hit.

Can someone explain why no one seems to think Watford could go down? They've lost 4 in a row. I know they beat Man Utd a few weeks ago but they've not exactly been pulling up trees anywhere else.

That is one hell of a statement for a political leader Fair play.

I absolutely hate shit like this in relationships I do wonder though if they just want it done and latch onto anything that remotely resembles an excuse.

Their brief is presumably to model based on set criteria including that Omicron matches the virulence of Delta. I mean why are they not also modelling for it being worse? We don't have the information yet on how bad it is and I doubt it will be a stretch for Sage to amend that projection once we do. I think the response he was given is reasonable. Why model a scenario that we have limited information about other than to pin it against existing conditions? What is the logic for us calling this overly negative when we simply don't know? Could we not also call it overly positive?