Groundhog January

This is evidenced by one year not letting JDT sign anyone over the age of 15 and then signing Forshaw, Fadz, Fleck. I’m sure we were following the Brentford model a couple of years ago and then Broughton and JDT were bringing in lots of Scandinavian talent. The one consistent plan they have is to spend less money and to pull the wool over our eyes.

Im hoping any outgoing deals are put on hold now given the injuries picked up tonight. Fadz is surely needed now. O’Riordon and Garrett might find themselves starting on Saturday if they stick around long enough!

I’m nearly as angry tonight as I was after the O’Brien and Maguire debacles. It’s criminal that our lack of planning and urgency has meant we are coming into these crucial winnable games without a competitive squad. Having owners that don’t care about the club but won’t sell us for some unfathomable reason is like football purgatory. I wonder if JE will hold his counsel in his post match interview?! I know I’d struggle to in his position.

I’m guessing we won’t have signed anyone prior to our match on Saturday. This is simple sabotage. They haven’t a hope in hell out there. If Eustace is as furious as me then he’ll be desperately searching for a new job.

As teams around us hurriedly sign players, what exactly are we doing?? We are sat in a playoff place during a spell of winnable matches and we can barely put out a starting 11.

Same old story. Squad is lacking over the brutal winter period AGAIN. Can’t fault the effort of players and the manager. JE has done brilliantly to have us in contention. Let down by the powers that be once more I’m afraid.

Whilst I’m not blown away by the prospect of BTA, I’m sure he’d represent an improvement and I’d rather spend what little money we have on a championship striker rather than a hopeful gamble from overseas (like Gueye). He might also be a lot better than expected under JE’s tutelage. I think we are unlikely to get anyone better with the funds we are willing to spend. You’d think Asgaard would be a no brainer at the quoted 3m. Huge potential for future sell on profit and only a matter of time before other interested parties take a punt. Alas, It would seem the days of any ambition and sense are well behind us though.

No issue with either signing as squad fillers as we are thin on the ground. Clearly if we don’t also sign some good attacking players then my view on these signing will change.

I guess that would only happen if they win the court case?

I feel the rule that Venky's have to match any transfer fee with a bond in India is a convenient excuse for them. If they invest £5mill in transfer fees then it would cost then £10 mill. This degree of funding would be very useful and might even be enough to make the playoffs with our excellent manager. From what other more knowledgeable posters say FFP should be no impediment to this. The reality is that the bond for this degree of funding would be a comparative pittance for a multi-Billionaire. Maybe this is oversimplified, but failure to stump up the funding is clear evidence of their neglect and makes you wonder why they don't just sell up.

Schlupp would be a cracking signing. Him and a striker would give us an outside chance if they stay fit. I’ll believe it when I see it.

If we sign anyone it will be on deadline day. Ideally we’d have signed a striker who could play today. You’d think the importance of today’s game would have been understood and some forward planning might have enabled us to have a better chance.

If he’s not suitably supported this transfer window then Eustace will leave at the first reasonable opportunity and I wouldn’t blame him. His stock is high and it’s unlikely to drop much even if we plummet down the league as suitors are well aware of his pitiful budget. He and we deserve so much better and every transfer window I have a slither of hope that our owners will take notice and do their duty. For some reason I will no doubt be invested in the window and then be left exasperated. How can they top O’Brien and Dunc-gate? It is ever thus.

Can’t knock the effort and desire. Ultimately not our day but at least we got a good unexpected draw at their place. It is only fair to mention that their squad is worth many times what ours is and they are certainly not that many times better than us. They are very solid but unspectacular and fingers crossed that will only get them so far and we’ll be playing them again next season! We just lack quality in offensive areas and we all know that we are unlikely to be getting the desired quality anytime soon and whilst this remains the case we are always paddling upstream. Eustace and the squad are doing very well to compete with squads like Burnley/Leeds and whilst we are all disappointed, I think this is important to remember. Labore and not enough Arte is preferable to me than the other way round! Maybe next time!

The flip side of the coin is that we didn’t lose despite being outplayed in the second half and entering the final minute a goal down. Depends on whether you are a glass half full man or not I suppose.

The draw with Sunderland was not a bad result!

Poor result against a struggling side. However, they are improving under Selles. Tired and uninspiring today, but we will lose some games and we are in a much better place than last year when we lost to Hull after Xmas and looked a complete shambles with a manager who wanted the sack! Upcoming couple of games are obviously very tough, but I do think this side/manager have more resilience than Rovers of recent years, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we picked up some points 🤞🏼. Victims of our own success really as we have massively reframed our expectations since August when we were one of the favourites for relegation. A bit of perspective should make people feel a little merrier this evening!

Is it just me or was Ohashi in an offside position when the ball ricocheted off Dolan’s head for the goal yesterday??

Gobsmacked

I thought we played the conditions perfectly today. Eustace-ball at its finest. We created very little but we didn’t need to. We played sensibly and held out comfortably. That is excellent coaching. Enjoyed the fact we were 1 nil up at HT despite having 0 shots! I make that 9 points since the international break. 3 x 1-0 wins benefiting from an offside goal, a pen and an Og. Bloody love Eustace-ball! Living near Hull this game has special significance for me me…so thank you Eustace and the lads!

It’s now torrential.

I can confirm the current weather in East Yorkshire is ‘light drizzle’.

Eustace would be a very unlikely fit for Hull City as their owner is obsessed with attacking football.

We’ve scored 2 goals in 7 games and one of them was a lucky deflection. Alarm bells.