Herb

If we were a stable club I would expect some mid table obscurity for a couple of years with a few flirtations with the play offs during good spells. I’d expect one or two special loan players that we fall in love with but are ultimately passing through. Whilst developing and selling our own talent so we can invest and strengthen the squad to climb nearer the player offs. Whilst investing in the training facilities and seeing more and more academy products develop into first team assets or at least players we could sell on to league 1 after some loan spells. Unfortunately, we have DC so most of the above is frankly impossible. Therefore I’ll pray that Danny flukes a promotion before he’s poached by a club further up the chain.

Hoping they make general sale but know I’ll be home watching on sky. Boo

There’s a few in that line up that tonight that would do well to earn a move to League 2 when their time with us is over. I’m not a huge fan of calling out the individuals but I’d be genuinely surprised if Penney or Wildsmith ever find themselves back at this level again. The fact that both are having to be called upon when we’ve allegedly spent £300m+ is a fairly damning indictment of the recruitment. There’s others in the squad who’d fall into that category too and a few more that were below par in key moments tonight but those two look miles off the level required.

We’re great at fairly innocuous fouls, or moronic ones against direct sides desperate to lump the ball in the box from all areas. So often we give away the ‘leggy’ free kicks/yellows where we just look too sluggish to keep up with opponents. That winning goal was perfect for the ‘take a yellow for the team’ moment but we don’t seem to have that streak in us. Even when we did try with Penney in the first half he was simply shrugged off

He looks miles off it to me. Really surprised he’s stayed at the club as long as he has.

Understandably emotions are running high tonight as that result was dreadful but if Paterson takes just two of his glorious opportunities we’re talking about a positive result and glimpses of a system that could suit us. Ultimately the same flaws have caught us out again. Very weak defensively, very weak mentally and poor recruitment in forward areas leads to poor numbers.

I think you’re absolutely right. I honestly don’t think he’d particularly register the contempt but right now he thinks it’s an illiterate and problematic few on social media. The reality is the apathy has spread much further than that.

I see where you’re coming from but it feels far too simplistic to pass the blame off to Paixao. Clearly he’s an issue but his continued presence is entirely the fault of Chansiri. To not sever those ties a long time ago is a fundamental error. But Paixao presumably isn’t the one advising the merchandise/ticketing pricing structure or dismissing any key club sponsors so Chansiri can just stick his own name on everything for an ambiguous fee. Or ranting about fan negativity to the press. Almost every decision, every action during the Chansiri era was wrong or late and there’s no way they can all be deflected onto Paixao. This season alone, putting us on -6 through the clubs own mismanagement then persisting with Monk after a truly dreadful half a season. Not recruiting an out an out striker having lost our two top scorers last summer. Recruiting for a 3-5-2 system, sacking the manager and appointing Pulis who favours a back 4. Then sacking that manager having been the only man in English football to not know what style he plays. Then January, Jesus Christ January! Dithering for the last two weeks because we picked up fortuitous wins over Derby and Boro when we had the perfect opportunity to recruit a manager and arm the squad for a HUGE fight against relegation. That’s not even going after the ridiculous contract situations of key players. Paixao can be blamed for a lot of things but it’s far too simplistic to just deflect it all to him. Chansiri is inept, he’s incompetent and his actions this season alone are bordering on malicious towards the welfare of the club.

Chansiri has been an unmitigated disaster. I’m not entirely convinced he’s spent the sums he claims BUT if he has it’s absolutely staggering how little there is to show for it. The training ground, comparatively, is still woeful. The stadium still dated, and no longer owned by the club. The relationship with the fans weakened. Very, very few saleable assets. He gambled financially early on and came close but with no forward planning so we’ll suffer the consequences for years to come. Top assets leaving on free transfers each season now. Take this season alone as a mark of his incompetence. He’s put us on -6. To help us rectify that he’s seen us waste the summer window recruiting for a manager/system that we bailed on weeks into the season. He then employed a manager who wouldn’t have the players to play his own preferred style and sacked him within 10 games. We’ve now had a perfect two week window with no games where a new manager could have had precious time on the training ground and bolstering the squad but we’ve let it pass us by. Three weeks into the window and we’ve still not plugged the obvious gaps in the squad. Presumably now we’re unofficially persisting with Thompson and will make a panicked appointment when he eventually loses a couple. In a season where our own owner has shot us in the foot he’s going to take it down to the last 10-15 games and gamble that a new manager can drag us out of trouble with an incomplete squad. Chansiri is far from unlucky. He’s incompetent, he’s arrogant and he’s so stiflingly stubborn that he’ll toy with OUR clubs Championship existence ahead of admitting his mistakes and making the blindingly obvious adjustments.

Let’s be honest, it’ll never happen but when you throw the incompetence of DC into the mix with some post covid financial caution, changes in habits and a disinterest in our dour football it wouldn’t be a shock to see a big drop off in attendances when we can eventually return.

Let’s not suggest that our ‘coach’ would be operating in anything like the structure of those two. A coach can thrive where there’s a strategy but in Chansiri and his sidekicks we have none of that. The head coach model can be superb but that’s nothing like what we have here.

With respect, he’s not paying the players either. Can we point to anything he’s got right? Any mistake he’s acknowledged? Any area of the business that’s improved? All I see is millions wasted on wages and transfer fees with no efforts to recoup. Managers hired and fired with no long term strategy. There are no positives to Chansiri. Zero. Zilch. He’s been utterly horrendous.

The concern is how. How do we get rid of Chansiri? He’d have to write off a substantial amount of his losses and appears to be a nightmare to negotiate with. He said he’d sell if he’s no longer wanted. That time has surely come now. From top to bottom we’re an embarrassment.

He’ll be back in. Pulis is crying out for the pace. No idea where he slots in but if we can find some of the first half composure again it will massively benefit the ‘flare’ players. Under Monk they utilised most of their energy catching up with a long pass. Last night showed signs of playing through the thirds which can only help the likes of Brown and Harris to have possession in attacking areas.

While that review may fit some of the previous Paterson performances it bears no resemblance to what happened last night.

He’s absolutely key for us on this seasons form. Calculated gamble from TP as it’s imperative we pick up points before being able to strengthen in January.

Some of the ratings in here are absolutely baffling. How can anyone dish out 3’s and 4’s after watching that? Was a thoroughly decent away showing at a very strong top 6 side. We saw comfortably our best ball retention this calendar year in that first half and some big performances from Moses and Reach who looked devoid of confidence a few weeks ago. Rhodes was clearly starved of any goalscoring opportunities but worked tirelessly to get us up the pitch to good effect in the first half.

I’d go the other way with Reading, think they’re overachieving on the expected goals front. I’ll not be surprised to see them top 10 as they’ve a decent starting team but they’ve been a tad fortunate statistically so far. Much like Watford they’ll need to improve their chance creation to stay there.

He looked lively, caused problems and worked his arse off. If he can keep that up he’ll get plenty of chances. Also noticed a few times where he was berating others for not feeding him the ball earlier or trying to put him in behind. We’ve really missed a striker looking to stretch teams for a while. As good as Fletcher was when we allowed him to get isolated it was really noticeable how far opposition would push up against us.

If there’s one type of player that absolutely epitomises the Neil Harris style it’s Moore. Always a clear pattern of penalty box bombardment. Early on we were falling into his usual trap of conceding soft free kicks in crossing positions but we seemed to wise up. Tomlin likely a big miss for that tactic and they seemed to be lacking in the wide areas compared to a usual Harris team. They’ll go well though, playing the percentages isn’t exciting by any stretch but Harris is good at it and Moore will hit 12-15 when they’re up and running properly.

I think we’ve moved towards a much more versatile squad. I suspect we’ll see us switch between different shapes. If we can add a central striker with more presence it opens us up to 3-5-2, 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 4-5-1. There’s much more versatility in there now we should allow us to be much more flexible in our approach.

Out of interest who would you go for?

I can see where you’re coming from but, of the clubs that are likely to be available for purchase, who would represent a more appealing option?

I don’t think many dispute that Chansiri has good intentions but he’s shown no signs of reflection or learning during his time here. I’ve not seen any admissions of errors or recognition of bad advice. We’re in an embarrassing state with the EFL again and may only be saved by a top legal team and EFL’s own incompetence. This wouldn’t happen with a proper chairman. Ashley has his faults but we’d not be making these same ridiculous mistakes if he was here. It’s been a car crash with DC.