Jackie Sewell

i know the goalkeepers job has changed (apart from keeping the ball out of the net), but before it did, I always said Ron Springett was the best keeper I'd ever seen. I thought he was better than Banks. As was said above, he caught every cross, no punching, without gloves. In the days when centre forwards could barge the goalie too. And he was only 5-9. His shot stopping was unreal. And , guess what, goalies never sat down injured in the last few minutes. Ron had a painting and decorating business in London, so he never moved to Sheffield, training instead with his previous club, QPR . So we didn't need a goalkeeping coach. He used to travel up on the train friday night, and Fantham would pick him up from his hotel, as he was one of the few players with a car. Oh sorry, Kay had an old van.

Just going back to the Reddit exchange earlier, nobody in Houston had a good word for him personally, a horrible man, but that's irrelevant isn't it. Also when the temperature is 30 C or 86 F to them, they don't even turn the aircon on. Which is also irrelevant.

Sorry if i've missed something, but has everyone read the exchange on Reddit, where a Wednesdayite asked Houston guys for their opinion of Fertitta ?

I'm always a bit skeptical about this crumbling ground, poor training facilities, bad pitch argument. I'm an old man but all of these are light years ahead of how they were when we were doing good things.The pitch, as with other clubs, was like a sea of mud by now. Neither did we need a matchday experience, the teams came out at five to three, no shaking hands, no announcements, just blood and thunder football. If someone ambitious, with a few quid, came in, a new squad of quality is all that would be needed. Then , the results would bring in the money.

More relevant to compare them to Cardiff ?

I've been going for over 70 years, but this season I'd had enough after the Watford game, and that was as long ago as 2nd Nov. I hadn't enjoyed a game since Plymouth. I've been to a handfull of games since and we've lost them all. And I'm a season ticket holder. I've followed the other games from home and just been glad i didn't go, week after week. I hate feeling like this because i believe my family go back to 1867 as Wednesdayites.

When i watch goalkeepers now, at all levels, I see far too much punching and parrying. They're obviously coached to do this. I think back to the best Wednesday keeper I've seen, Ron Springett. He was only around 5'9"but used to catch every cross that came into the box, (without gloves). I never remember him punching. And that was in the days when forwards were allowed to challenge goalies in the air. But they had the advantage of being able to use their hands. Any shots close to him he would hang on to, not parry because there would be a sniffer type forward waiting to pounce, and he didn't need to save shots with his feet! Any better shots would be tipped over/round the post as they do now. But parrying was unacceptable.

We say its an improvement on last season. Position wise it is, but is it just me that thinks we looked better in the latter part of last season, when we were beating everybody, and thats before all the summer ins and outs.

My cousin is a lifelong Canaries fan, and for years he told me that Cantwell was a bad egg. He's a Norfolk boy who came through the ranks, but was always a bad influence who thought he was better than he was. Talented, yes, but bad attitude. If i asked my cousin, I'm sure he'd say don't touch him.

It's very difficult to bring in a striker who can guarantee goals, even expensive ones. Going back to 2017, Chansiri spent a fortune on Rhodes and Winnall, in January, to fire us to promotion. That didn't work, and I'm sure its still fresh in Chansiri's memory. Fletcher could perhaps be regarded as a success, albeit another expensive one. Since then you could say Gregory was good value, but Marriot and Fletcher didn't score a goal between them. Ugbo helped to keep us up but we know the rest of that story. If we managed to bring in a striker now who has a (nearly) half season as good as Smith has had, we'd regard that as good business. In addition, as others have said, Smith's defensive qualities, not to mention his penalty taking, are invaluable. For me, he has to stay.

Ben 10 got away with it when he was here, and I for one wasn't aware.

If 10,000 buy their early bird tickets, which would bring in 5 or 6 million, is that Danny's January budget ? Or is 10k wildly optimistic ?

It looks to me that our players aren't good enough to play in the way we're trying to. When you watch a lot of Premier League games as most of us do, they play out from the back seamlessly ( most of the time ), with movement, sure touch, close control, all at pace, usually ending in promising situations. And thats the teams in the bottom three as well. They protect the ball well, often leading to fouls as the only way to break up the attack. When we try to do this, 9 times out of 10 we either run into trouble, pass the ball to them, or miss control it. This does make watching very frustrating and yes, boring. But, this is how modern coaches insist on trying to play these days. What's the alternative ? It's obviously going long, and it still works if used sparingly, even in the Premier League. Defenders make mistakes, and you're only losing the ball deep in their half as opposed to the dangerous areas where we invariably lose it. As an aside, we lose the ball from almost every throw in we take.

Danny Batth who wasnt good enough for us 12 years ago .

Good strikers shoot first time, why take a touch. And i'm not just talking about Ugbo. You see a lot of deflected goals from them too.

In my lifetime, as far as i can remember, we've always won the derbies that really matter. 1960 FA CUP Quarter Final at their place, we won 2-0. I was there. 1993 FA Cup SEMI Final, we won 2-1. I was there. 2012 league match at our place, we won 1-0, which led to us going up and them not, condemning them to several seasons in LG 1. I was there. Every other derby game was an ordinary league game, as far as I can remember.

The only player I really met in the 50s was Keith Ellis. This was in the summer of '57. He worked for my grandad at Edgar Allens, on Shepcote Lane, as a trainee draughtsman. Grandad took me in to meet him during the school holidays. Ellis was what they called in those days, a part timer, and was playing for the Reserves. He broke into the First Team a couple of years later and became a member of the best Wednesday side I've ever seen apart from the early 90s team. Scored a hatrick at Old Trafford. Tall no 9 who was exceptional in the air. I remember him being very friendly, polite and smart. He took my new autograph book which later came back to me full of the autographs of the Owls squad, plus those of several teams that Keith played against. I've still got an official Sheffield Wednesday Christmas card he sent to my grandad, simply signed Keith.

Could he have done any worse than Ugbo in these last few matches ?

Poveda needs to watch this video.

Amusingly the Sunderland press were suggesting today that they may have dodged a bullet on Ugbo.

Delia Smith and husband liked to give the impression that Norwich City were a sustainable, prudent family run club. Seems this was far from the case. Now the parachute payments have finished my Norwich cousin fears they will struggle.

I'm remembering the Antonio saga. We had a topic going on all summer with dozens of pages. He had of course been on loan with us since January. Then we had our last pre season friendly with WBA, and there was Antonio sat up in the stand.

As things stand, wouldn't we have been better making sure we brought in Ugbo, Poveda, ( and Beadell of course ), first, to keep us at last seasons level, and then seen what was left to bring in some of the players we have brought in this summer. I would have fancied our chances starting off with the end of last seasons squad more than i do with this lot up to now. Of course things may change.

So why has Ugbo tweeted with a teardrop emoji re Pov going to Sunderland ?

Ryan Lowe, We,ve got Ryan Lowe