I think where we are right now with strategy is the owners would rather finish 14th but have a higher squad value due to young players who can be resold than finish 7th with older players coming to the end of their careers. Is a strange place to be as a competitive football club.

What Is Gestedes idea of success here tho? Staying in the division? Hoping to hit the jackpot with a few bargain basement signings to make a few million profit to lessen the money required from the owners to keep the club running? To develop some players from the academy to sell at the earliest opportunity? Imo he isn't here to try help build a team that can get us promoted. Promotion is not on the agenda here. Broughton might not have been very good at his job but imo he wanted the club to progress and wasn't just looking at saving the owners a few quid

He was the best one i can recall in recent times although i think JDT did ok at first. Thing is with Eustace he wasn't listening to the club rhetoric he was only really bothered about results, hence why they wanted rid.

Eustace seemed to do ok with that in the first half of last season.

I'm sure Gestede said the same thing in the Allardyce podcast. Eddie put him under a bit more pressure with his questioning and he blurted out "My job is to make sure academy players develop so we can sell them" Going off both those podcasts he is an absolute clown." The fans should be happy we have a team to play on a Saturday and Tuesday night"

Your sophistry is tiresome.

If we ever had a head coach who was good at subs and game management it would gain another 5-10 points per season. Always get the impression that getting players on the pitch to gain mins and increase in value sometimes trumps common sense reactions to what's actually going on out there and occasionally its bitten us on the arse.

It’s a possibility that certain posters will be more balanced with pronouncements and thinking less dogmatic than Pravda, the Taliban or QAnon. Or that the Raos will develop some football acumen, interest and increase spending, that Pasha will resign, that more money will be spent on players and the fabric of the building, that the astonishing haughty approach to the fans will change or the club will stop falling into decline…whether it happens....

There can't be many clubs where sales have 0% impact on the transfer budget. It's a ludicrous statement unless the club is in deep financial peril and needs every penny to keep the lights on.

Yeah, that's fair enough. There is definitely a contradiction in what Gestede has said. In a couple of interviews he said what I mentioned, about the plan being to reinvest. Later though, he has clearly said something else i.e sales don't affect our transfer budget. That was the last thing he said on the matter, so presumably that is the current situation. It could be a language barrier thing and him being put on the spot. Or it could be a changing of the goalposts from somebody above him. We have heard rumours of the latter before. If paragraph 2 above is what was told to Ismael at the start in good faith, but then the situation changed, as per para 3, then you begin to see why there are some theories that he has been sold a dream and that this has a similar feel to JDT and Eustace. Theories, though. All we can do is see how it plays out.

They’d just cut back on expenditure. They’re way past caring now, if they ever cared in the first place. We’re just a broken toy.

Dexys Midnight Runners - Keep It (Part 2)

This is the scary bit.

Beaten by Cheadle Town Stingers. Wonder how long it'll be before similar ignominy is being heaped on the mens' side?

self inflicted & self imposed though

There is a report on the website ‘Reflecting on the match, new Rovers head coach James Mallett said: “I am incredibly proud of the team.Considering we’ve only had three sessions together and one friendly in just 15 days’ Sounds like something out of the newsletter of Lammack Juniors or whoever, not a side that was one promotion away from the Women’s Super League a few months ago… and that’s me doing a disservice to the organisation of Lammack Juniors.

Maybe not......although I wonder if anyone has told them how much income we'd lose if we went down yet.

We'll have to agree to disagree on whether VI is fully "in on it" or happy or unhappy. Just as a point of order though that bit is definitely incorrect if RG is to be believed, he's clearly said any sales do not affect the transfer budget. At the time I think he was put on the spot by Eddie asking a very tricky and pertinent question about why we didn't capitalise on a temporary improvement in our FFP position due to all the sales. So with English not being his first language and being under pressure to produce an answer he might have blurted out something that wasn't 100% accurate. In the absence of any clarification to the contrary though that would seem to be the position.

the journey brentford have had in the last 10 years is fantasy stuff for their long suffering fans,the club has spent the majority of it`s life in the bottom two divisions,now they have spent 3 seasons in the top flight and have a spanking new ground,no wonder they are all happy and forgiving

Much as it was a horror last ten minutes against Birmingham I think we should select the same side. It looked defensively solid until the subs. Not much going forward but I can't really see what changes in the XI we would make to address that. One small adjustment I would make is to swap Kargbo and Ohashi round from time to time. Let Kargbo sit on the last man and roam around. I guess the downside is the ball could not stick, even more so than with Ohashi, but I would like to see the speed demon free to run through the middle. Rotating Ohashi and Kargbo frequently in the game could be quite effective in unsettling the defenders and making them unsure whether to push up (to compress Ohashi) or drop deep (to prevent the ball over the top to Kargbo).

Wont make a ripple back at Pune Towers..they dont give a shyte.

I visited the Brentford forum to gauge the mood and was surprised to find the majority optimistic and happy with Keef in charge, even after the weekend. They really seem to trust their decision makers, even if from the outside it looks like lunacy.

That format makes sense for the NFL. There can be something 'big' happening in a game every 5 mins or so. Be that a touchdown/field goal or a massive play that takes a team 50/60 metres down the field. The highlights, jumping from game to game structure works. Different in football. It's all about being engrossed in the ebb and flow of the game from end to end. See the match yesterday, after Arsenal's goal how many highlights were there. The odd Cunha run, penalty shout, and a good save from. Raya from a header. Slim pickings for a Red Zone format. I still enjoyed the match tho.