DE.

Don't think we've had a shot yet in this half, have we?

Pears' issue isn't so much with his fundamentals as his tendency to have at least one absolute clanger per game. When he went through that period where he wasn't doing that he looked decent. Seemed to have just been a purple patch of confidence though. Not saying Pears is particularly good for the record, but it's his concentration which makes him a liability.

From what I've seen from Kargbo I'm surprised he's behind De Neve in the pecking order, unless it's a fitness issue.

I'd say functional at best. Didn't make any glaring errors but a clear downgrade on Brittain.

Terrible first half, but the fact we could have had a penalty (rightly or wrongly) shows we've still got a chance. Concede again and it's game over though, and I can't see us getting any more than an undeserved scabby draw at best.

We look about as shit as you'd expect from a team cobbled together on a minimal budget with Ryan Hedges as a first eleven player.

Welcome to the Championship, Wrexham. Interesting that both they and Birmingham threw away their leads at the death, although at least Birmingham got a point out of their match.

Whilst yes, there's no guarantee higher spending will increase league position, under competent leadership it's reasonable to assume this will happen. That excuse just reads as the owners having zero confidence in the people they employ, and also no confidence in themselves as leaders of the club (rightly so, granted, but still). It's embarrassing to read. Absolutely no ambition whatsoever and, as always, makes you wonder why they own this club.

There is zero point in releasing the minutes at all if they are mostly fiction. As noted previously, it will completely destroy any faith in future minutes being taken seriously and casts suspicion on previously released information too. If the club are not willing to allow a truthful transcription of the meeting to be released then no version should be released, and a statement from the FF should be put out instead confirming the reasons behind this decision. Further meetings with club officials will be pointless if any contentious elements will just be redacted from the minutes or, as is seemingly being alleged, amended to be a fabrication of what actually transpired.

I've always felt public criticism of players is a sign of a manager who is not in control. Unless it's something seriously egregious, those things should be kept private. Doing it after one league game is lunacy.

Regarding Henriksson and Crohn's - I have it as well, and yeah, it's pretty brutal and takes a toll on your body. The main issues for an athlete would be that your body struggles to absorb nutrients and also struggles to deal with inflammation - which obviously happens naturally when using the gym or being involved on physical sport. Crohn's also causes constant fatigue which is mentally taxing to say the least. With that said, Crohn's can be managed and put into a form of remission. It doesn't fix things but it does mean the person can live relatively normally. Unfortunately there's no cure and the medication does eventually stop working (if he's on biologics then it's typically around 5 years). You can switch to a different biologic or start infusions, but there's no guarantee these will work as well as the medication which has put you in remission. The fatigue is the one thing the medication doesn't really do much for, even when in remission, but I'd say it only became noticeable to me in my 30s. At Henriksson's age it wasn't such a problem for me, but then I wasn't a professional athlete either. There are professional athletes with Crohn's (as noted by others, Darren Fletcher is an example) so it's not a total roadblock, but even with careful management a severe flare up can still occur at any time which would mean indeterminate time off for the player, so there would be risk involved.

Considering wages are repeatedly being paid late it may soon not be worth the paper it's written on. Either that or a takeover there is imminent.

Indeed. Everton were a pretty decent standard as well and we did alright there. Shit performance from the whole team today but let's hope it's just the rust being shaken off before the season starts. The situation at the club as a whole is much more of a concern to me than random friendlies.

It was a pre season friendly. Calling them cloggers who need replacing is massively OTT. Our problem is repeatedly letting good players leave and bringing in cheap punts as replacements. Which is exactly what will happen when Travis and/or Tronstad leave.

Travis and Tronstad are not the problem.

Looks like Hackney has rejected the move to Ipswich - wonder if that impacts Boro's offer for Brittain?

Hopefully Taveres will get some minutes.

This silly arguing can stop now - fair warning to all involved. I don't want to see any more of it.

I see Ohashi more as an industrius, hard-working forward who can play across the line. Rhodes was - in some quarters infamously - largely limited to being useful within and around the penalty area. I consider Yuki a more flexible player, but at the same time one who isn't likely to get as many goals. I really only feel I can compare them at surface level though, as the Rovers team Rhodes played in was very different to the current squad. Ohashi doesn't have any player on the level of Ben Marshall, Josh King, David Dunn or Tom Cairney to feed him. For better or worse, our team back then was set up specifically to account for having a fox-in-the-box type striker with an incredible scoring technique. I don't think the same focus will be applied to Ohashi, and nor should it. Ultimately last season was a difficult one in terms of making a judgement call on Ohashi. He came in midway through the Japanese domestic season, so he'd already played 20+ games before the Championship even kicked off. He was either partnered with or in competition with a striker with totally different attributes to him, also new to the club. The entire team had to deal with severe management turbulence which disrupted cohesion. He also missed January through February with an injury. One positive is that 4 of his 9 league goals came under Val's management. Before his injury he had scored just 1 goal in 19 league appearances (his other 4 goals all came in his first 5 appearances). It maybe provides some optimism that Ismael's system could work well for Ohashi. We'll see. As I said, I would be delighted to be proven wrong and to see Ohashi net a hatful this season - because the chances of us having anyone else to rely on is slim to none.

I don't think he's physical enough or quick enough to lead the line. Personally think he's better playing off a lead striker or coming on as a substitute. I actually think if we were playing a traditional two-up-top system Gueye and Ohashi might work well together, but one assumes we will not play that kind of system - and even if we did I'm not convinced Gueye is consistent enough to be the first choice target man in that duo. I like Ohashi and think he's a capable backup striker, but as the main man? Not sure about that. I suppose it depends what your expectations are. If it's that we finish somewhere in the bottom half then yeah, he's probably good enough for that role. If it's playoffs, I wouldn't say so. I doubt we sign anyone better, though, so here's to him proving me wrong this season. I wouldn't have said Szmodics or Brereton had 20+ goal seasons in them either.

Gueye brings something different to the table and can have a big impact on matches. However, his consistency and general finishing ability is poor. He'll never be somebody we can rely on to lead the line as our main striker, but I do like that he offers something very different along the front line, and on his day he has shown he can change the course of a match in our favour. Considering how weak we are in terms of forward options, I wouldn't be in favour of selling him unless we had a decent replacement lined up to immediately replace him and the offer was somewhat above his rough market value. His character and charisma is a plus, but not so much so that I would personally factor it into whether he should stay or go. We didn't really replace Szmodics last summer, and it looks like we aren't going to this summer either. Ohashi is good but he's not a lead-the-line striker either. Selling Gueye would just mean we need to fill both the lead and supporting striker roles. Keeping him means we have two supporting strikers but still lack a lead striker.

Just seen they've also had one of their stands closed by the council due to it failing health and safety regulations. Grim stuff.

Pretty terrible human being, but an integral part of wrestling's two biggest boom periods. It's a shame that his personality ultimately ruined his legacy. It is what it is. I suppose he wasn't as bad as Vince, at least.

We saw it with Mulgrew. His legs were suddenly just gone, and he went from being a solid first choice to somebody you'd only want to bring on for the last 15-20 mins. A shame as he was by far the best player we had from dead-ball situations. Unfortunately he couldn't jump off the bench just to take free kicks and corners.

I know the club's twitter feed used to provide game updates, no idea if they still do or if it was ever utilised for pre- season games. As far as the club caring about the fans in general, no. Begrudgingly tolerating would be more accurate.