Thank God you stepped in. Since he quoted me, I was busy working out how to pretend I understood it.

Can we bin this nonsensical argument though. By that reasoning, none of us can comment on player performances post match, unless any of us have personally been professional footballers at Championship level. Pears has another howler in goal, tough, you can't say anything unless you've been GK in an FA Cup match. What, you think the Ewood pitch is looking poor?! Not your place to mention that I'm afraid, unless you've been a top level groundskeeper. The food and service was crap in the stands - well pipe down unless you've run a catering operation that serves thousands of people in a matter of hours. I could go on...and on....and on. We're customers, we have every right to form opinions and views on how we see things from the top of the operation to the bottom. Same in pretty much any industry, but moreso in football I'd argue. Attempts to circumvent that just undermines any valid arguments being made.

I wish.

Read like that to me too. Money has been spent on the pitch came across like me telling my wife I've hoovered the living room. Sure, the hoover entered that room, what it achieved while there is very much up for debate.

A lot of ifs and maybes there all weighted to put a positive spin on the situation. I could flip all of them to fit my miserable demeanour- it might be that Wigan offered more than us, maybe we even upped our offer in desperation to keep him, Broughton could gave invited him in for a face to face to persuade him one last time...... and despite all that he knocked us back. And now GB knows a larger chunk of his budget will have to go towards sorting the RB position, leaving less for other areas identified. Now, how much more depressing does that sound?! I suspect the truth is somewhere between the two scenarios. I hope he tried to hold us to ransom, and we called his bluff. That story would certainly help me sleep better. I mean, sodding Wigan..... 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

England women 6-0 up at halftime. I remember when we all ripped USA to shreds for celebrating every goal excessively when they hammered Thailand 13-0. Bad sportspersonship, looking to embarass and belittle the opponent, was the general consensus. Be interesting to see how we do it if goals 8/9/10 do pop up.

Like Nelson Mandela was due to be released. The joy of JDT coming is seeping away fast.

We'll take them though, right?

Fair points. I wouldn't know how many players transgress through for other Countries though. Germany, France, Spain, Italy etc. Would, say, 6 or 7 from a winning youth team all end up playing together in the senior team? Would be interesting to know. For some reason I feel like it's quite common for players to excel young but then fail to make it at top level. (Jason Lowe.) But it's a total guess on my part. Just remember all the talk about England being crap because our youth structure was crap. But last few decades we've done much better on that front. Cause for a bit it optimism. 🤞

Indeed. There was a time there was a lot of talking about grass roots and lower age foundations being needed. Follow the German and Spanish models. Now we've won 2 in 4 Euro tournaments at U19 no-one seems to care. Probably because the senior team has actually got quite decent. The shouting about it was back when we could barely win a knockout tie. We must think the job is done.

Wish I could. But you're right, this new setup does feel like a breath of fresh air, so hopefully we've turned a corner. Onwards and upwards. 🤞 (P.S. No chance we get 12pts from those games. I'd put my house on it. Par would be 9)

So sorry, but I'm going to have to sprinkle some misery on that optimism of yours: 1. QPR= No problem, good record 2. Swansea= Won 2 out of 10 in league 3. West Brom= Won 1 in 8 4. Reading= Won 1 in 7 away 5. Sheff Utd= Won 1 in 7 away 6. Stoke= Won ZERO in 7 home matches Now, I've obviously cherry picked the home/away records to maximise my glumness....but I make that 5 wins in 39... a 13% win ratio. (just the 5 matches) I'm terrified of that start to the season. And I'm a big believer in how we start shapes the whole season, we've never been a team with bouncebackability. If we get through that opening 6 with even a modest haul of points keeping us hovering around mid-table, I'll be absolutely delighted, and will start thinking we can win the league!! P.S. I think I'm right that all 6 of those teams has been in the Premier League in the last decade.

Get the sentiment, but think it's better left as an example of how 2 fellow fans that disagree, can at least end the conversation in a respectful manner. Good stuff from you and Mani imo. But my word counts for crap round here....so, you've probably just wasted about 500 characters. 😂

Very astute observation that. Perfectly summed up by our neighbours. I remember that first team that went up for them. Absolutely nothing special or attractive about them. But somehow they just kept grinding out 1-0 results. And although they yo-yoed at the start, one of the few teams that managed to make their Championship style effective in the Prem over time.

Let us know if you overhear any news breaking conversations there please. 😆

I'll be honest, a few years ago I would have been happy for Neil Warnock to be our manager. Not another slight at our old manager, just felt we needed a change at the time. Then I read this today, and felt immense relief that we've got a young, up and coming, ambitious manager: Neil Warnock Bizarre DreamTeam

Fully on the hype train. I'll whisper it quietly, for looking stupid down the road, but got to be the most optimistic I've been in the Rao tenure. I had high hopes for about 6 months with Lambert. But now, a proper heirarchy and structure, long term vision, and people showing some passion and saying the right things. Really looking forward to things, rather than dreading.

If he's racked up £120k gambling 'debts' I'm going to estimate that means he's lost minumum 500k, perhaps more like a million+. Awful stuff. Must be tough going from being on that pitch with thousands of fans chanting your name......to basically less financially viable than the local homeless person. Stay tough Danny, always liked him as a player.

Just wait till John Terry gets a gig. He'll soon show you!

Yeah, but that perfectly sums up why it can often be a problem. You can't 'react' and jump down people's throats when you perceive something to be 'completely wrong or unfair' if it's not backed up with some evidence. Particularly as you've finished up with calling it 'an opinion'. We've all got opinions. Example: If I go back in a time machine to before about 500bc and tell everyone the World is round and not flat, I'll likely be labelled a madman. Even though I know what I'm saying is 100% right, I would need some compelling evidence to prove the theory. And me getting angrier and angrier when people don't believe me won't help. Even worse, when people ask me how I know this, and I answer "Sorry, can't tell you!" it's likely to make more people disbelievers. And annoy them. Summary: I don't feel like some of us are '..guilty of anything more than.." refusing, at this stage, to believe the word of some random username on an internet forum who insists we've all got it wrong, (despite all the precedent evidence available to the contrary), and we need to see the light like him. It's expecting a hell of a leap of faith. And we're being admonished for not making it with a full blindfold on.

I'm not even really intending that angle, it's seeding for future Tournaments, harder draws, so certainly a relevant competition. More the big ones read Semi Final, Final. Should count for something that. U can get an occasional pass.

Off your game tonight.... yes it's very much automated.... any political party mentioned causes a post to self destruct....so don't waste time writing them. Open goal and you Robertsed it. 🤦‍♂️

Hadn't thought of that, it's a fair point. Errr..only been new Wembley once and was in the posh seats....so gonna swiftly move on. 😁 So you'd hope proper football fans would realise that and cut some slack on this occasion. (Meaning all the NL games) He's got some credit in the bank surely. He's tinkered in a tinpot tournament and got his fingers burned. No big deal. There was a time we all cried about judging a manager on the Tournaments. Cos we had those guys that smashed qualifying, and then collapsed. Now we kind of have the opposite, it's shame him time. Feels off.

They're enabling Michael Owen so certainly deserve all blame that comes their way.

I can understand any criticism of Southgate, fair enough, but I thought that crowd was poor tonight. Will have contained some of the same people that criticized us for turning after what?!- 18 months of solid shambles and lies. Those England fans have had half a decade of fairly impressive progress and success....but one bad month or so and they instantly turn nasty. Not having it, after all the patronizing lectures I've had over the years about bring a 'real' football fan. Not from the same people who refused to even listen about WHY we were pissed off. They've all chucked their rattles out the pram at the first bump.