lol - I’m being serious. Stoke were physical and we struggled to cope. And Swansea have just put 4 passes who were probably most people favourites to win this league.

14 between first and third as well 😉

Tough game tonight but we’ve managed to handle it and come out with a narrow win - possibly an ominous sign if we win when a long way from our best. 17 points from 7th, 14th from third. Still a lot of football to be played but so far, so damn good. Swansea have smashed Watford tonight and we are there next. Will need to be better than we were tonight - mind you a different challenge and probably a style more suited to us.

Lest we forget Burnley did survive for 6 seasons with a comparatively tiny budget

Ah right - I thought it was due in 2023. Well that is one thing to not worry about.

Praise indeed - thanks guys. What Kompany has managed is quite something. Yes he was able to spend 21 million but he did so on the back of losing 15 players. For that money he signed 11 players. He was also able to attract some excellent loans (Harwood-Bellis, Beyer, Maatsen and Tella). Our style has undergone 180 degree switch. There is hope we can improve HOWEVER we do face losing Tella back to Southampton and Zaroury to the Cup Of Nations which could weaken us. Also a risk teams come in for some of our players in January - or worse our manager! We've also only really had one "bump" in the road, the Sheffield United game. Can we respond if we lose a couple on the bounce, do we have what Dyche called "a strong jaw"? I wish the season could end tomorrow but we still have 22 games to play and everything can change yet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64111067 No idea what the interest rate is - I know the 65 million ALK borrowed to buy is was a fairly eye watering rate and in general they've gone up since then. Always believed WBA were a tightly run business but this suggests otherwise.

Fair enough - it was just on the surface it seemed a little unbalanced.

Looks like far and away the best side in the division will need to wait a little bit longer to be top of the division. Quite a dirty side Birmingham but that’s another game, another three goals and another 3 points. 11 ahead of third now and just wish January was over so our squad can’t be disturbed. Just on the attendances thing - Bolton is about 3 times bigger than Blackburn. Ipswich, whilst it’s direct population isn’t much bigger than Blackburn, there is literally no other league team near - Norwich is about 50 miles away. Is it really a fair comparison?

They beat a tired Burnley - then lost to Rotherham. Like I say, we will look tk out that right in the return fixture but single games between teams don’t decide the league, performances over 46 games do - and we still have 23 of them to play. I don’t accept for one second it’s us and them up with half a season to play. Out next goal is to best Birmingham, who gave us a tough game at St Andrews. One game at a time.

You cling to that if you want - we will put that right in the return fixture however the odds at the moment have us and them at around a 75% chance of promotion, I’d bite your hand off today for second as the league has a long way to run yet.

Far and away? Level on points having played a game more? If that makes them far and away better than Burnley them and us must be light years ahead of the rest of the division 🤷‍♂️

Give over - we are only 8 points ahead of you with half a season to play - and as I’ve heard endlessly on here, we are no Fulham or Bournemouth. Also there is a transfer window coming up that could well change everything.

Not sure why he points out Blackburn specifically. We would suffer exactly as you would, indeed plenty of others too. Also for a ‘football finance expert’ he appears t have little grasp of how much it actually costs to go to a match. I can see both sides to this debate but the reality is with PL clubs being all but exclusively foreign owned they will push this and a fair number in the Championship as well with PL aspirations. With that in mind it’s about making it work because stopping it seems unlikely. My instinct tells me PL2 will be here very soon in tandem with the end to the blackout. If that does happen our football landscape will change forever and probably not for the better.

We have learned this more than we had at the start of the season to be honest - still get in trouble now and then with it though. I didn't hear that but it doesn't surprise me. We've done it since match 1 and we seem to be getting better at it - it has been so noticeable in recent games. I know SU caused us problems with that and then delivery into the box. It is what I expected from you actually - either that or the low block and rely on balls over midfield for Diaz etc. A far point and I concede, all teams should play to their squad strengths, my point was more generally around people complainign about playing out from the back as though it was just generally wrong. Don't misunderstand, I hate this idea that it is the only way to play and love a bit of pace, power and aggresion at times, a big centre forward and centre half going at it.

We do that on occasion as well, it’s all about getting the high press right against us, we do always give teams a chance.

There is more than one way to play - Sheffield United go more direct, utilise set plays well, get the ball in the box, high press (not unlike Burnley under Dyche), we now play keep ball, lots of possession. Both teams so far doing well. How boring if every team played the same way. That said sometimes a longer ball out is the right one no matter what style you adopt.

We have had players out for a couple of games here and there. You mentioned Benson - he doesn’t start most games, he’s an impact sun mainly. Here’s the thing, if we are only top because other teams have been unlucky with injuries then a procession of teams will be overtaking us very soon - & fair play to them. I believe over a season you earn where you finish, top, middle or bottom. At ‘halftime’ in the league we are just on top. We now need to repeat that for another 23 games - though of course if we do I’m sure it will just be by being lucky, and anyway we aren’t as good as Fulham were the season before 😉

The manager said he had been unwell but there has been a lot of talk about him getting recalled since Jones went to Southampton so it wouldn’t surprise me. Was the manager getting ready for life without him? I hope not, he’s such a good watch and has been really important for us. But I haven’t heard anything directly- then again I rarely do. January is always a tricky time, clubs come in for your players, loans get recalled etc. As a fan all you can hope is to come out of the window stronger - or at least no weaker - than you went into it. I’ll just be glad when the window shuts.

Lol - aye ok, we’ve had three first team players missing all season.

We shall see - one result against a very tired team. But it was a day we struggled on so maybe their style is one that causes us the most problems. WBA caused us all kinds of problems as well. In the end they will finish above us if they are the better side. Not sure on the injuries, we’ve had plenty, we just don’t go on about them. As for ‘the better football’, that is just subjective and unsurprisingly I don’t agree. But again in another 23 games the best team in the league will be top and no guarantee it will be us or Sheffield United 😂

Table says otherwise

Well for a shit team you’ve just turned over one of the favourites for promotion!

Only time will tell. Right now it seems on and off the pitch we are in a better place than you. I don't disagree that won't last without PL football at the very least on a yo-yo. He doesn't have Venky's level money to keep us going that is for sure. It has been said publically however that promotion next season was the target so I presume we have enough for now.

As ever it is only the papers suggesting Belgium are interested in him. When he was coming to us he said nothing publically - and as far as I know he hasn’t been asked about it. We are hoping it is too early for him but we shall see.