Every team in an elite competition should have a chance of winning it, but the likes of Red Star Belgrade, L. Moscow, C. Moscow, AEK Athens, Shaktar, Hoffenheim, Viktoria Pizen and Young Boys from last season's competition never had a hope in hell of winning it. Most of them are worse than a fair few of the teams that qualified for the Europa League. These aren't elite teams and whilst one of them may pull off the odd surprise result most of the time they just get steamrolled by the better teams. It's only when you get to the knockout stages and the poor teams have been weeded out that you get a genuine, elite competition.

A risky move, but it'll be interesting to see how the Cowley brothers get on. There haven't been too many managers who have come up from the lower divisions in recent times and had success. Hurst failed at Ipswich, Jones is having a tough time at Stoke. It's a big challenge for them but Huddersfield have a good squad so there's a chance they can turn it around there.

I usually only start watching the CL in February when the knockout stages begin. The groups are extremely boring and largely predictable.

OK, thread now locked.

They've only done a few PPVs and don't have a TV product until October so it's understandable that the matches would be more style than substance at the moment. You can only do so much with YouTube as a promotion tool. They're trying to make a huge impression with the matches to get people to tune into the regular product on TNT. The ladder match between The Young Bucks & Pentagon and Fenix at All Out was sensational. So much so that it kind of overshadowed the main event (which I thought was a bit of a disappointment).

Honestly I think with the coaching we have in place Raya would likely not have improved much if at all. His career will likely benefit being somewhere that better suits his strengths rather than his weaknesses. It sounds like he's doing more short distribution at Brentford rather than the long punts he was doing here. Ironically we seem to be attempting to play from the back more this season so he might have actually improved on this aspect, but we'll never know.

In fairness when Joe expanded it was more like 95% hated or disliked Kean, and you can call the other 5% an outlier as trolls or oddballs.

Yep. I've had some people suggest to me that it's only because Rovers aren't in the PL, but it isn't that. I was still watching MOTD and PL games long after we were relegated. It's only been in the last couple of years (particularly as the City/Liverpool axis has started to make the rest of the league look especially embarrassing) that I've just totally lost all interest. I'd obviously take some interest in it again if by some miracle we got promoted, as I'd have no choice, but unless that happens I don't see myself getting back into top flight football for some time.

The current Premier League is so sterile that I've lost all interest in it. I haven't watched MOTD or any PL highlights for months, possibly even nearly a year now. I still enjoy following the lower leagues and watch the EFL highlights on Quest, but I have literally zero interest in following the PL beyond the absolute basics. Also the FA, EFL and football authorities in general. Incompetent, lying, arrogant fools who are only interested in lining their own pockets - and they don't even do a particularly good job with that, as the Championship TV rights are imo highly undervalued.

Sheff Weds set to appoint Monk as manager. So much for his long exile from football!

I'm really enjoying AEW tbh. Can't wait for them to get started on TNT. The biggest benefit to AEW starting up is that it's kicked WWE up the backside and got them moving in a different direction. They reportedly even had a few promos that weren't fully scripted this week.

Doesn't surprise me. Decent coaching and a solid style of play will improve any player. I don't think we have either here at senior level, so, we see almost all of our players under-performing on a fairly consistent basis.

Right back and centre back are absolutely imperative for January. I'd say a decent backup GK and LB as well as if either Walton or Cunningham get injured we are stuffed. In an ideal would we'd be looking at an extra right and left mid and a decent striker too, but Mowbray will see plenty of options there - albeit most of the wide men actually being strikers. Can't imagine Venky's sanctioning much more cash being spent on a striker when we've spent £12m over the past two summers and are yet to see a return. Early days yet for Gallagher granted, but good luck on getting a return on that if he's stuck out on the right side contesting 'aerial duels' as opposed to scoring goals.

Not sure this is the right place to advertise a project like this tbh. Would be better off posting it on the FB fan groups and Twitter as most people on these platforms have moved on from the past and forgiven the owners for what they've done. 'We're at our natural level', 'would have been relegated eventually', 'should be applauded for keeping the lights on', etc. I imagine you'd get a response closer to what you're after there.

If I was him I wouldn't walk tbh. I think at the end of last season he probably genuinely did want to spend money on defenders, but then found after his meetings in India that for whatever reason there wasn't going to be the budget for that beyond a loan and a couple of freebies. So instead the money went on Gallagher who I assume met whatever the criteria was in the budget for a significant fee.

"Masters, can we have some money to spend on defenders?" "No."

Judging by the last few seasons the average amount of points to stay up in League One is around 50. Bolton are currently on -11 and, assuming they aren't going to be deducted anymore points, would need 61 points from their remaining 40 games to get to that target. Realistically they are going to have to probably win between 35-40% of their remaining games and have a lot of draws to have a hope of staying up. It's not impossible but I'd class it as extremely unlikely that they'll be able to even come close to getting the points needed to survive. Edit: Just realised without Bury around it's actually only 39 games left, not 40.

Bought a boxed OG Master System from eBay for more than I really should have... but YOLO I guess. I've got a couple of Master System II variants which were very cheap but the original Master System looks much better. Just a shame it's also much more expensive!

A foul would be given in that situation 99% of the time, we had two players impeding the goalkeeper so I don't see how we can cry unfair treatment there. We already got away with one against Hull. Wonder if Mowbray is instructing the players to do this?

I don't think many would advocate removing Mowbray at this stage in fairness. For better or worse he's been given this summer to build on last season and will be given the chance to show he can take us forward. I have my doubts but when you look across our squad we should be expecting better than where we finished last season. A left back who is considered an excellent Championship player, one of Derby's top players over the past few seasons in midfield alongside one of the brightest young talents we've had in some time. An attack which has the likes of Rothwell, Dack, Gallagher, Graham and Downing at its disposal. We bought a player from divisional rivals for £7m and spent £5m on a striker from a PL club. We haven't had to sell any of our best players in some time. We should absolutely be looking at an upwards trajectory, not more of the same. The next run of games will be a big indicator of where we can expect to finish this season, but for me 15th again can't be considered good enough.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49542380 Would be surprised if they succeed with this.

Should have specified I meant in the league.

When was the last time we came back from behind to win a match btw? I remember it being noted a while ago that it was a really long time, and I can't remember if we've come from behind to win since then.

Stoke beaten again, this time by Birmingham. Huddersfield also lose again to Luton. What a terrible start for those two.