blueandwhitematt

It might sound harsh, and probably is, but he is going to have to start showing something else or I suspect you’ll be right. Granted his options are very, very limited, but we still try and play nice football when we don’t have the players to support it. What our plan is to even try and score a goal, I don’t know (beyond just giving it Bannan).

It’s a painful watch all round. I’m being deadly serious when I say I’d rather us invest the time in Cadz Brown and even Grainger to the end of the season now. On one hand you can say it’s not his game he’s being asked to do, and I do agree. On the other though, you’re a professional and you need to find a way in. He is petrified at the moment of engaging defenders, and that is the bare minimum he could do. I do feel for him though. He looks bereft of any confidence and it’s not nice to see. I know we’re low on numbers, but I’m not sure it’s doing him or us any favours throwing him out there every week.

I’m as much an ‘extenuating circumstances’ person as anyone. And generally they can be commended for this season. But that today really was not good enough. Even when things weren’t going for us, none of them wanted to make it a scrap, bring them down to us. Hardly saw anyone getting into the ref. Do something to try and wrestle a bit of something, the little things can add up and spark a moment. And that last ten minutes they even stopped chasing back. I’m not bothered how tired you are, in a derby game that is inexcusable. We just rolled over today.

Yup. And this is what made me laugh back end of last season when all the briefing was about ‘the players don’t like Röhl’ / they want Pederson etc. Perhaps I’m too old school but I remember that actually being a good thing, you’re not there to be best mates with the players. Anyway, that’s gone… I’ve cut him a lot of slack this season, I know he’s working with nothing etc, and rightly so he’s carried himself well. But he’s still got to find a way to influence the game. The tactics today were bewildering, against that side in those conditions. However he can rightly feel let down by them today though, he gave them time off for breaks over the last 2 weeks and this tepid effort is how he got rewarded.

As a couple of others have said, what a damning indictment of how the club has been run. The amount of low hanging fruit available for a new owner with even a tiny bit of business acumen is astounding.

Agree on the CM. With the next points deduction taking away any faint hope of an escape, then one of this seasons priorities now, as daft as it sounds, has to be making sure we don’t break Bannan and run him into the ground.

It’s amazing how much proper interest you can easily get when your master negotiating tactic isn’t “show me how much money you have and I’ll tell you a price”.

Can’t deal with all this. Can’t they put a video out telling me sell my house or to know my place or something.

He would be a significant step up from DC too.

We were always told he was a personal advisor and not a club employee, so presume one of their first tasks is to tell him return your pass in the post and that’s that.

If they need any extra hands just shout up please.

That’s the spirit

While possible, the regulator is a variable that didn’t exist in the example you quote that now makes any of this much, much more difficult to get away with.

It’s a necessary start given he wouldn’t engage with the sales process like an adult. I’ll wait for the Trust too, but my thoughts are that any of the shenanigans we sometimes saw around admin in years gone by will be almost impossible to get away with given the IFR spotlight on us.

The EFL fit and proper test has mostly required just a pulse to be present for most of its duration. In regulator world both the EFL and regulator itself are going to actually have to start doing this properly.

He’d have to get round the IFR though this time if he tried something like that, and presumably would have to pass a more stringent fit and proper test. Which of course he wouldn’t.

Agreed. I’m not sure I agree with the he’d let it rot/is doing it to punish us. I think simply put he just doesn’t care what the fans think either way. There hasn’t been one instance in 10 years that suggests he does. It’s always been about him and his own issues. The shambolic sales process is also how he negotiates. Again we’ve repeated evidence of that. He’s incapable of it, just doesn’t have the intelligence or business acumen. He always thinks he can get more, there is a better deal around the corner, FOMO almost.

This, I’m not having ‘lads will be lads’ as a valid excuse for singing that “rather be a…”song that is referenced in the OP.

Thinking exactly on these lines, the stadium isn’t the get out jail free card DC might think it is. If his plan was to take in rent from that for the next 20 years on mad terms, then it just accelerates our decision to move away. The ground needs so much doing to it, it’s hardly a newish ground with low running costs that he’s maybe trying to hold onto. Might be some short term pain of having to play somewhere else, but if that’s the price to pay to see the back of him then fine by me.

That was the bit that stood out to me, absolutely incredible sentence. The achievement of keeping us up that season is still underrated by a worryingly large amount of people. Rangers would be lucky to have him.

The cynic in me says that now the IFR is happening, they’ve checked out of having to try and do anything serious and will just wait for them to clear up the mess. Another cynic would also think that the EFL want to give the IFR some hard work in the hope that they then fail and self regulation is returned in the medium term.

The only card we really have is to make the games such a farce that it makes a mockery of them and the EFL. I’d prefer them to be on strike at this point but it’s their choice, and there isn’t a chance the PFA will be advising that. Maybe they could just disrupt the game, keep going down injured, launch the ball out of play at any chance, time waste etc. Wishful thinking I suppose.

That wasn’t an 8 minutes stoppage time, certainly not benchmarked against other Championship games I’ve watched over recent years. And it might have made no difference, nothing to say they wouldn’t have equalised in 5. But my point is there is a notable shift in how time is being added on in games this season that doesn’t seem consistent, and it’s the same in the Premier League too. Not consistent with previous seasons, or even across games this season. If they’re going to play longer stoppage times that’s fine, but it needs to be consistent (why I referenced the ridiculous 3 minutes from the Merseyside derby the other week).

Think there’s a real issue with timekeeping this season. Previously you could have a reasonable guess, but I was expecting 5 (maybe 6 at a push) tonight and just can’t see where 8 comes from. And then you think about another example in the Liverpool Everton game the other week where they put up a measly 3 minutes, normally reserved for games where nothing happens. It’s almost like refs have been told to not just add on 4/5 standard added time and are over compensating, it’s happened too often across games I’ve watched this season. It feels a bit off. Something needs to change. Maybe timekeeping is taken away from the referee on the pitch, and another official does it. They can transparently account for the added time as the game is progressing, so it doesn’t just come as a shock at 90 mins when a random number is put up, and takes away the perception that referees are manipulating opportunities.

Nice to talk about football for once. If the score is 1-1 going into injury time there is 5/6 mins max, but is what it is when you’re away from home and one of the leagues expected strugglers. There was at least two extra mins to be added on from Palmer going down though, so no complaints from me there. Don’t want to be too critical of our players as they’re probably all out on their feet but we didn’t manage that injury time very well I don’t think, from wasting extra time to taking Cadz off and going 6 at the back, think we induced a bit of panic but ah well. Great effort from them again though, can’t fault that which is all we really ask at the moment.