DE.

Smallwood knows he'll never get a contract close to this one again so is making sure he gets every penny from it. Blame is 100% on TM and we can add the last year and a half of Smallwood's wages to the £12m & Mulgrew's wages that have likely eaten up massive portions of our budget. Tbf we took Rodwell after he drained Sunderland of more wages in a week than Smallwood costs us in six months, so not sure the club or any supporters can cry ethics unless they were vocally against Rodwell's signing because he'd robbed a living at Sunderland for two years.

That's some bottle job by Forest. Ouch.

Even if they are it's extremely unlilkely at this point the investigation will conclude in time to give them a points deduction this season. I imagine Big Club would likely appeal as well which would stretch things out even further.

Seems a bit of a bizarre decision considering they just secured Championship safety by beating WBA... but who knows what is going on behind the scenes there.

To be honest at 26 I don't think we can call Lenihan a youngster anymore. He should be entering the prime of his career at this point. By and large he's a solid Championship defender but at this point that is probably his limit. His best chance of playing in the PL is probably being promoted with a Championship club.

Am I right in thinking that any team above 49 points is now effectively safe? Even if Wigan win on Wednesday their theoretical points deduction would take them down to 49 points, which means even if Boro or Birmingham end up in the bottom 3 on 50 points they will ultimately be replaced by Wigan. Meanwhile the only way Hull can stay up is if they beat Cardiff and Luton & Wigan both lose.

It's all going to depend on how Luton handle the pressure. It may not technically be a 'must win' for Luton but they know a win is the absolute best chance they have of staying up and will obviously be aiming solely for that. We will be our usual selves with some good play and some bad play, and we'll give Luton opportunities to score as we do every team we play. It will be a case of whether Luton have the bottle to take those chances and put themselves on the front foot. If they don't then we have enough about us to punish them. A very interesting end to the season regardless and I'm glad we're involved in a match with some stakes rather than a dead-rubber.

Comparisons between TM and Kean are weak at best. For all Mowbray's faults he is an actual manager rather than a coach pretending to be in charge. Agency links are what they are but Kean was a complete and utter fraud as a manager, whereas Mowbray is just one of many average managers with flaws he is unable and/or unwilling to change. Even on his worst day TM is a better manager than Kean could ever hope to be. Also unlike Kean I don't sense any outright deceit from Mowbray, only a stubbornness and questionable ethos at times when it comes to tactics and team selection. The only time I think Mowbray has not been entirely truthful is the 'defenders are coming' debacle where something seems to have prevented him from fulfilling that promise, but we never learned whether it was direct Venky mandate or other issues. Two loans towards the end of the window was not what anybody was hoping for and one of those loans only lasted a month or so before being injured for the rest of the season. Granted there was also the Mulgrew situation which was odd to say the least, and I still don't think we've heard the truth about that. By and large though I think Mowbray is honest with the fans about most things, even if at times very frustrating to listen to, whereas Kean came up with a new lie every time he was interviewed - to the point where we had the classic #SteveKeanLies trend on Twitter for a week or so.

Tbf Grant and Norwich aren't PL quality which is why they're coming straight back down.

Personally don't think Lenihan is anywhere near smart enough to be a Premier League regular, but he could provide adequete backup for squad depth.

That would not surprise me in the slightest and I think it's the most likely outcome.

Our GD certainly backs that assumption. We've scored 64 goals which is more than every team above us (up to 4th) except Cardiff. Unfortunately we have conceded 60 which is more than anybody above us and more than a few teams below us as well. Last season we scored 64 (so if we score any on Weds we will have improved on that) and conceded 69 (unlikely at this point we'll do worse this season unless Luton beat us 10-0) so there has been improvement on both ends, just not enough to be serious challengers. We need to keep up the same level of scoring whilst conceding at least 5-10 goals less to have a realistic shot of the playoffs. It's not impossible by any means but could be difficult if we sell Nyambe or Lenihan (former seems more likely than the latter to me).

I can understand their fans being on edge about it, but logically it wouldn't make much sense for them to have points deducted this season. It's not like the Wigan situation where admin = 12 point deduction no matter what. This is a more nuanced case and I would imagine any ruling would be subject to appeal which would surely delay any points deduction being handed out. It's the EFL though, so who knows. They're a law unto themselves.

It's a shame for Walton as before lockdown he was playing fairly well, but post-Lockdown he has reverted to early season Walton and been a huge liability. He should not be coming back here next season I'm afraid.

I'd be really surprised if they applied that deduction this season, particularly if Sheff Weds sought to appeal any ruling.

With their points deduction in mind Wigan winning on Wednesday would give them a max of 49 points (if the deduction is applied). They also need one of Luton or Charlton to lose or draw - they are ahead of both on GD by a significant margin. Charlton are away to Leeds and Luton, of course, play us.

It's going to be a strange end to the season as far as relegation is concerned. Hull effectively gone with their GD in mind - Wigan now have to beat Fulham on Wednesday or the -12 point deduction will send them down.

It wouldn't have been like this, for sure. Likely a drab 0-0 with Reading more likely to nick one than us.

Brereton, Rothwell and Gallagher all on the scoresheet. A rare day indeed. As it stands Hull are on the brink of going down with their GD taken into account.

Looking like Millwall's playoff aspirations are finished. As it stands it'll be between Cardiff and Swansea for 6th on the final day. Forest's GD means they should be involved regardless.

Looking forward to more of the same next season.

According to the BBC they've had two shots on target and both have gone in.

Yep, the talent is there but the mentality is not. We are in desperate need of some winners to drag these boys along when the pressure gets tough, and no matter what Tony thinks Bennett isn't one of the men for that job.

Brentford and WBA both tripping over their own feet as they get towards the finish line.

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