I've not a clue what to expect. I could just as easily see us put in a swashbuckling first half performance and be 3-0 up at the break. We'd all be sitting there scratching our heads and wondering what could have been. One thing I'm sure of though, is come the final whistle, we won't be in the playoffs.

I'm not sure Big Sam would describe his brain as small. He's got the biggest, all knowing brain the footballing world has ever seen.

I like Big Sam. He's great entertainment. You know he was saying it for a reaction and a bit tongue in cheek, however you'd be naive to say there isn't a small part of him that believes that statement. To be fair to him, his record has stood the test of time but he has become synonymous with a certain brand of football and being the relegation escape artist of football. I'd have loved to have seen him given a good crack at managing an elite club to try and back up some of his bluster. I think he'd have failed miserably, but it would have been great to watch.

I can only speak for myself but I've always enjoyed your contribution to the board. Felt its always reasoned, non antagonistic and I enjoy the outside perspective. This messageboard has always been richer with the views from opposition fans, so personally I'd hope you continue to post. Speaking of which, Ffan from Fulham was a poster I used to particularly enjoy hearing from a few years back. Life always needs a variety of perspectives.

I agree with those saying we need a couple of nasty players who through force of will can drag us back into games. The other thing I think we're missing, of equal importance is a bit of individuality. We play in set patterns because we have a lack of flair. A player who can take their man on and pull others out of position. Without that, it becomes very easy to defend against us and is no surprise that the only players in with a shout for player of the season were defenders. We desperately need that player with a nasty streak and knowhow in the middle, 2 wingers who can take their man on and a striker to put the ball in the net. Not an easy task, but doable with a couple of smart loans.

An utterly mind blowing study here as well. Using a gpt trained model to analyse human thoughts. The study had subjects listening to narrative stories and silent movies and the model had to transcribe their thoughts into text. The results: Perceived speech: (listening to a recording) 72% - 82% accurate Imagined speech: (subjects mentally narrated a 1 minute story) 41% - 74% accurate Silent movie: 21% - 45% accurate https://www.artisana.ai/articles/gpt-ai-enables-scientists-to-passively-decode-thoughts-in-groundbreaking

In the main I've been using it to make me a lot quicker in my job. But I've also had some fun with it. Here's Eminem complaining about his gas and electricity bill Yo, I got this fuckin' bill, man, it's driving me crazy, It's like they're tryna swindle goddamn Slim Shady. I checked the digits, once, twice, maybe thrice, And I'm telling you now, this shit ain't playing nice. I got the gas and electric, the power I use, But the numbers you're claiming got me singin' the blues. I ain't no fool, won't be played by your fuckin' game, You think I don't notice, man, that's just fuckin' lame. My meter was read, I did it myself, Put the numbers together, no tricks on the shelf. But your estimate's off, it's way out of line, You better recalculate or I'mma lose my fuckin' mind. I'm callin' you out, it's time to make right, Fix the mistake, man, I won't sleep tonight. This ain't the way you should treat a loyal fuckin' customer, Gimme some respect, or I'll find another fuckin' hustler. I expect a response, a correction with speed, Or I'll take my business where they'll pay some fuckin' heed. Don't mess with Eminem, no, don't play that game, You'll feel the fury, as I bring the fuckin' flame.

Add in that at some point in the afternoon we'll be sitting in the promotion spots and suddenly believing. Only for it all to flip on its head by the end. We'll concede a late goal or Sunderland will mount a magical comeback.

Exactly this. We often see people stating the bids we received last summer were unsatisfactory, however there are conversations happening daily during transfer windows. Us stating we wanted north of £20million ("a fee which would eclipse what AA went for") would have stopped many clubs bids before they were even scribbled on a scrap of paper. If our price had been set at around £15million, its a figure clubs may have come to the table and negotiated. Its only an opinion and there's no way of knowing, but I'm sure a club would have stretched to at least £12million if they thought there was a possibility of a deal being done. People point to him still being our top scorer this season. Even if only a small portion of that were reinvested I'm sure his goals would have been replaced, and replaced long term, not just for this season.

In the league he's averaged a goal once every 574 minutes since the world cup. If I want to skew the stats a little he's averaged a goal from open play once every 861 minutes since the world cup. That's a goal every 9.5 games! Extrapolate that form over the season and he'd score a total of 4 goals. People moan about Gallagher, myself included, however he's been twice the player Brereton has for the majority of this season.

I've not turned the telly off thinking wow, that Luton lot are a good team. I'm not saying we played them off the park, but I don't think anybody watching that game could really say Luton impressed them.

Luton were very poor but just did what they needed to do. We looked clueless once we went behind. Didn't think we had a hope in hell until Carter popped up and then so unlucky in injury time again with Szmodics rattling the bar. It's painful how much we're lacking a striker. Brereton was shocking once again. Even if he didn't have a contract elsewhere, I'd be dubious about offering him a new one.

Any combination of Diaz off and Dolan over to the left will do for me. Be that Leonard, Szmodics or Dack up top.

Had hoped Luton would rest a few players today. No real surprises with our line up.

Joao Pedro has just been sold to Brighton for £30million. He's talented but is he really that good? We can all see what Whartons trajectory will be. £30 - £40million is the lowest amount that we should even begin talking to other clubs. You see Real Madrid doing it all the time with Brazilian clubs. They'll buy their young stars for anywhere between £30 to £70 million. We're not little old Blackburn Rovers who should be grateful for any offers. We've got a potential superstar in our ranks. Other clubs can absolutely do one if they think they can come in and low ball us. Even if Wharton doesn't fulfill his potential he's clearly a Premier League standard player. The going rate for any player at that level isn't far off £20million anyway so that amount of money is fairly risk free for a Premier League club. Just because it's a lot of money to us, doesn't mean we should all of a sudden start accepting well below market value. I don't care if we could rebuild our squad for £20million. We could rebuild far better for £40million. If nobody wants to pay that, then that's fine. When he shoots us to the Premier League they'll have to cough up £80million once he shows the world what we all know he is capable of.

By Tom Lockyer. Good defender, total thug. If Luton go up he's the type of player who will really struggle. No way he'll be able to get away with his thuggery in the Prem.

Mowbray is a dinosaur. He's got a very good squad at Sunderland. If things are going well, Mowbray is quite good at riding the wave because he gives the players so much responsibility. He let's them go out there and do their thing and allows them to run the dressing room. When things are not going well Tony is a bloody nightmare. At the time where the players really need a manager he goes missing, insular, stubborn, blaming everyone but himself. These are observations but the results back this up. He's horrendous at turning things around when things go south. Given the quality of Sunderlands squad its no surprise to see them in the mix. But Tony was an average manager when he was here and that's not changed overnight.

Correction. We never actually do things, let alone do them the hard way 😂

In my opinion the release of ChatGPT and the effective race it's triggered for all companies to dominate the world of AI is the biggest invention / product since the Internet. Its going to completely change the world, for everyone. In my line of work and small bubble it's all anyone is talking about, so posting in here to hear a cross section of opinions - Have people heard of ChatGPT? - Are you using it and if so what for / how regularly? - Does it worry you, excite you, or both? Personally I'm using it daily. I have to create a lot of learning / training in my line of work and can do it two or three times quicker with the use of ChatGPT. For anyone not aware of what it is here is a quick screenshot. I've only asked it to explain what it is / does in basic language.

I'm not sure this game really matters too much. It'd take quite a set of results for us to make the playoffs with anything less than 6 points, 3 of which would need to be against Millwall

I love Dacky and really want him to stay, but I'm sure the club will be offering him a new contract on reduced wages rather than triggering the one year option. If my head is ruling over heart, that is the right thing to do.

Me too. Everyone was up in arms around the Coventry equaliser due to the handball. But they had multiple corners towards the end of the game with half their team in our 6 yard box trying to wrestle Pears and our defenders pretty much behind the goal line. The ref chatted to them on 2 or 3 separate occasions but didn't actually blow his whistle once.

I don't think they will be on the beach as such. I'm sure they'll be giving 100%. It makes sense though, that now the automatics are no longer possible, that extra 5% may no longer be there. But I do not think they'll turn up and just roll over. April has also been a tough month for every team with so many games. I'm hoping they have a couple of players who may have been carrying niggles or are fatigued and subsequently get rested. It would be encouraging to see Morris and Lockyer not in the starting line up.

By this do you mean a 15 point deduction, only for it to be rescinded a few months later, making a mockery of the league. What I find incredible is seeing some of the worldwide bans from football upheld, yet the point deduction rescinded. Surely its either one or the other. Its like they've been found guilty but decided to only punish the individuals rather than the club, but they were acting in what they saw as the clubs best interest, bringing them an advantage. They weren't doing it for their own personal gain. Every time the Italian league seems to be improving the authorities over there somehow seem to totally mess it all up.

Hypothetically, if Rovers and Millwall both win the next game and one of Sunderland or Coventry drop points, our final game against Millwall could see a draw resulting us both dropping out of the playoffs on the final day. A good old fashioned, next goal wins. Considering we're crap at scoring goals, that would be a pretty worrying scenario but a rollercoaster final day nonetheless. West Brom losing tonight gives me a glimmer of hope. If they'd gone above us too, I'd have put our chances as next to zero. That coupled with Luton now having pretty much nothing to play for means there is still a chance. I do think that promotion would take a minor miracle though. Even if we somehow make the top 6, our lack of firepower will surely see us falter in the playoffs.