longsiders1882

So Kyle Walker, 6 times PL winner, Champions League winner, FA Cup etc etc is finished and a bad signing whilst Granit Xhaka, who pretty much failed in the PL, makes a team 6/7 places better? It’s a funny old world but I’m not so sure but we will see. My main memory of him was calamitous mistakes a couple of times a game. That said they have made some good signings so we shall see. I do think the promoted teams might have a better chance than recent seasons if Bournemouth and Brentford are as damaged as they appear but I still see us as clear favourites for the drop. It is becoming a real issue today that as a fan you regard promotion to the top flight with such ambiguity, wanting it but then dreading the coming season.

Can’t or won’t? There are 92 league clubs in England and, & this really does stick in the throat, you guys are easily one of the bigger clubs. You just need some half sensible owners.

Not sure I agree but you might be spot on - that said his experience could be invaluable. Inevitably we are taking calculated risks. We can’t compete for proven talent in its prime so has to be older, like walker, potentially injury prone (Hartmann and Tuanzabe) or unproven kids with perceived potential (Koleosho when we signed him). I doubt I’ll have anything to gloat about in 6 months or all season though - even if Walker proves you wrong on every point Thanks for the heads up 😉.

You’ll likely get your Jelly and Ice Cream all the same but Esteve signed a new contract, hopefully Beyer and Ekdal are back fit and we’ve added Hartmann, Tuanzabe & of course Kyle Walker so you might argue outfield player wise it’s stronger rather than being dismantled. Obviously need a new number 1 now and will no doubt struggle - but we would have regardless. Still no sign of a striker either

All the ‘loans with an obligation to buy’ are moving purchase all over the place. I imagine it’s done to stay within PSR regs. If we accept transfermkt as a source of truth (it isn’t but probably best we have) then we’ve spent around 45 million in GBP. That would include the purchases last season of Esteve, Tresor covering about 26 million of that. It doesn’t include this seasons loans with an obligation on promotion (Anthony, Fleming and Humphries) so in real terms about 45 million is probably fairly close. We did also sell about 110 million worth of players.

Mask slip? All I said was you’d had the benefit of his money AND parachute payments. I don’t know why the post was deleted to be honest.

we owe the first promotion to Coyle and a massive slice of good fortune but agreed, Dyche was the one who really pulled everything together for us. He was a once in a lifetime manager and I’ll be forever thankful.

Who knows what will happen. It feels more when than if we fail to get promoted within 2 seasons so lord knows what happens then, how much debt we will be carrying, what saleable players we’d have. My point, if I had one, was simply to point out any success we’ve had in the last 15 years was built by getting promoted without massive investment, not by having parachute payments. The club since that first promotion has been managed mostly exceptionally well and this has given us seasons in the top flight and promotions I never imagined we’d see back in the 4th Division days. Other clubs who’ve had PL money and parachute payments haven’t necessarily fared quite so well. Middlesbrough, Stoke, WBA spring to mind - even Swansea and Hull. I know it will end for us but until then I’ll try to enjoy the ride.

I did concede that was hyperbole 🤷‍♂️- & we are still in third and we will drop points before the end of the season just as Leeds did today. I firmly believe we are heading into the playoffs but will be delighted to be proven wrong come the end of the season.

Not little old Burnley at all, a simple of assessment of too many draws and a current top 2 who look fairly relentless. The top 3 are fairly clearly better squads than the rest, the points difference tells that story but one of us has to go into the play offs & that doesn’t always go the way of the ‘best squad’ - look at Leeds last season and many other examples - even us under Coyle who did a Reading side who were far better than us. So my ‘too late’ might well have been hyperbole but simply to demonstrate the challenge as I see it and to provide some balance to the posts suggesting we have the momentum.

Haha, thanks for the vote of confidence but sadly for us I think it’s too late for us. We will lose sooner or later, have arguably the tougher run in (inc Sheffield United, Coventry, Bristol City and a seemingly resurgent Derby). Right now Coventry are the form team in the top 6 and I can’t say I’d feel confident in a play off lottery. I just don’t see the top 2 dropping points as much as I can see us doing. Sheffield in particular are looking relentless with Leeds having had a small wobble. All that said it is in our own hands, if we match Sheffield United’s results and beat them at home we are top 2.

If we keep playing the way we have the last 2 games they might upset the odds in that one. We’ve been all over the place.

Mmm we might also be looking for you to do us a favour last game of the season 😮

Sheff Utd and Leeds can’t both win on Monday and Sheff United have to play Burnley again. In theory it remains in our own hands. Sadly I think you are right though because we struggle to score consistently - although Edwards does look a level above so his addition might help us in that area. I can’t quite get my head around what has happened at Boro - they looked good then suddenly their form falls off a cliff. I know they sold Latte Lath but they also invested. Maybe bringing in so many players upset the dressing room - or is it just they relied on him so heavily? Right now you have to be fancying your chances for the playoffs - imagine if we both made the final …

As I was after the dire Preston 0-0, the Leeds 0-0 … You must have missed those posts I guess.