Was mooted a while ago on another thread. What would 'working' mean? Play offs? Mid table survival? Promotion 🙂 Prolong the zombie state would be my assessment.

I assume so, under a good coach he will play against top players and on a very good wage.. out of favour here so you can’t blame him.

Buckley is such a weird one, looks to be a decent player, with an eye for a pass but looks and plays like he couldn’t give a shit 🤣 JDT, Eustace and Val haven’t fancied him so it’s probably best for all parties that he moves on. Will be paid a shit load in Saudi and the level and tempo of football over there will suit him.

Unless he absolutely tears it up in Saudi I can't see him coming back to England any higher than League 1. Could see an SPL club taking a punt on him in a few years time whenever his contract over there expires, but possible another middle eastern club will take him on if his current team doesn't renew. Presumably the wages on offer over there would beat offers he'd get over here.

I felt like his one real chance of cracking it with us was in the near miss of the play-offs under JDT when he was becoming a regular and playing really well. He then got injured and just never seemed to get back in on a regular basis from the following season. Good luck to the lad. As an aside I’m sure his bank manager will be delighted!

Buckley going to Saudi is one of the weirdest transfers in a while. I can only assume Des Buckingham rated him from when he was at Oxford maybe?

I’m actually gutted Buckley is leaving. I always hoped he’d come good and rediscover that form he had a few years ago. I wish him all the well but the lad sounded close to tears.

Honestly of all the things the club has wrong with it some of the stuff this last couple of hours is literally just moaning for no apparent reason

I think the UK sports media fawning over him plays a part in the general dislike. There was a MOTD last season where Southampton had lost again, were bottom of the table and I believe winless after 9 or 10 games, and the pundits were raving about the bloke like he was the second coming Ferguson or Wenger. It was absolutely ludicrous and not the first time it had happened. They were basically affirming this modern day belief that style is better than substance - and with RM it's the concept of a style because his teams are usually utterly boring to watch and rarely get consistent results. I will say I have nothing personal against him. He comes across as somewhat arrogant in interviews, but his media persona may not match his private persona. I just wish I could be so mediocre at my job and fall upwards with such unstoppable momentum.

Or thanks for your service for 20 years John it’s now time for a change. The last 4 managers haven’t seen enough in you to warrant continuing on so we think it’s best for all parties if we went our separate ways. Good luck to you in the future

Let’s all find something to be miserable about!

Think that’s because it’s his twitter name

But his alternative options as a footballer is possibly dropping down to league 1 and becoming a lower league journeyman. Cash in whilst he can.

Don't think De Neve is or ever will be up to the required standard, but conversely initial impressions of Alebiosu are good. He lacks somewhat in technical ability but he's got good energy and I can see him making things happen on the flank. Far too early to tell if he'll be an adequate replacement for Brittain, but there have been some promising signs. Not sure about Taveres yet, but think he'll be OK. McLoughlin and Miller should be steady signings, whilst Henriksson has shown he will need time to adapt. Baradji and Morishita are, on paper, excellent signings. Remains to be seen how they perform. We haven't been too bad defensively so far, but 2 of our first 3 games were pretty dire attacking-wise. The Hull match was a massive improvement, and hopefully we'll see that Rovers side turn up again against Norwich. I don't rate Norwich very highly, so I think if we put in another Hull performance we could win by 2 or 3. Otherwise a draw or narrow defeat. Certainly don't see the current Norwich team turning us over.

Genuinely think he'll be back in England in 6 months time.

Al fucking Khalood? He’s probably going to be a very rich man but at his age it seems a poor move for a footballer. Suppose he gets to play against some players who were once at the top of the game at least Anyway we’ve hardly forced him out, should we just keep players around forever if they are surplus to requirements? I don’t understand that sentiment at all; yes he’s been here a long time but been paid all that time Edit - just watched the interview and that was quite an uncomfortable watch I’m not sure that was needed at all unless he requested it

Yeah, "Sorry we forced you out after 20 years mainly because you're a high earner. Now if you wouldn't mind saying a few nice words about the Club before you leave....... Then don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out. Ciao."

There’s another big factor when it comes to Suhail. Probably not quite as big as his ego, but he will bend over backwards for his friends. Up until now he’s held most of the people he’s worked with in absolute contempt. He remains feared by most rather than respected. He has a couple of allies now, and he’s installing as many more as possible. Gestede and Suhail are as thick as thieves, so where in previous years he’d deliberately put barriers in the way of new signings, Gestede will get much more leeway and support - moral and financial. When the details of the 26-27 kit deal emerge it will become abundantly clear how true this is. He’s happy to put his personal relationships well ahead of good commercial decisions. For now we just need to hope Gestede has an eye for a player.

I Is it just me being old or does anyone else detest being referred to as "@jbucko" etc. As far as I know the word "at" doesn't appear anywhere on my birth certificate. It's really annoying. As far as the Buckley tribute is concerned I think calling him "Bucko" is fine, "@jbucko21" is cringeworthy.

These official leaving interviews are so bizare and cruel! Don't recall us or any other club doing them before Shit move for him from a footballing/career pov. Hope he's at least making a good life changing amount of money from it. As others have said.... He's got all the technical ability to be a very good championship midfielder but he's never been able to pull it all together consistently

Didn't foresee Bucko going to Saudi, but good luck to him. He had potential here but for reasons only truly known to the coaching staff and himself, he never really got going here and successive managers didn't see enough in him to ever give him a solid run in the team. I think when he flopped on his loan to Sheffield Wednesday that was the point of no return. It'll be interesting to see how his career unfolds from here. I think it's possible he'll spend the rest of his career abroad.

Least they’ve done a video and stuff, somet I didn’t think they would do.

Think the club statement on Bucko leaving is crap. Why the hell can't they call the lad John instead of keep repeating his surname. Christ the lads been here since he was about 6 years old. Just doesn't read well to me. Anyway I hope he gets lots of game time out in Saudi and re discovers some form.

I would respectfully argue that's an optimistic view of our first two matches. We played 85 consecutive minutes combined in those matches without having a shot on goal, although neither Brum nor WBA were much better and neither could have complained if they hadn't walked away with all three points from those matches. The Hull match was the first game where I thought we genuinely looked good, but it comes with the caveat of Hull's squad being badly hit by some kind of virus during the week, so, difficult to read too much into the match other than to say we got the job done and got it done in style. I think Saturday's match at home to Norwich will be a good indicator of whether the Hull match was an outlier or something to genuinely build off. Norwich are nothing special and there's no reason we shouldn't be able to beat them if we put in the same performance levels as we saw against Hull. It'll be very interesting to see what transpires.

Nothing yet. Travis still expected to leave.