bluebruce

I dunno about irrelevant. Pulling off the first ever successful appeal would be pretty impressive, and a bit of a vindication that the deals weren't fucked up. Obviously Waggott needs to go anyway, he has since almost the second he stepped in the door. And there should still be questions about the failure to bring in a striker, it shouldn't gloss over that. I know there are budget issues, but we're going to need to replace Brereton in the summer, so we might as well have done it this window whilst we were a more attractive proposition in 3rd, and still had a chance of the mega jackpot of the Prem.

In fairness, Brittain replaces Nyambe although they're very different styles of player, and Hyam replaces Lenihan. There's just Rothwell from our permanent personnel who hasn't really been replaced, although Morton plays (often poorly) in the same position albeit not role. He's a downgrade but the other two aren't. Some would argue Brittain and Hyam are actually improvements on their predecessors. Of the loanees, the only real losses were JPVH and Khadra. Although some aren't fans of Khadra. JPVH was quality, but we do have young CBs coming through. Even though they're not as good yet, it helps deal with squad depth and we're generally playing 2 at CB instead of three. Khadra, well we did sort of bring in his replacements last Jan in Hedges and Markanday. Admittedly the latter didn't play as much as I'd like and the former doesn't have that pace, but I'd say Hedges more or less replaced Khadra's quality of contribution. Last season, you couldn't have remotely said that about him, so to use an old cliche he's been 'like a new signing'. Not that it was planned or expected, but it's helped. Overall it was probably a downgrade, but not an extreme one. The loanees the likes of Clarkson, Zeefuik, Giles, were all either not good enough or misused.

If the relegation clause thing is true, which again remains to be seen, it was unexpected because it's absolutely ridiculous and frivolous, not because it should have been expected. Those legal teams didn't think to put it in either.

Yep. I'd rather get rid of whoever actually fucked it up, so they don't do it again, than somebody who tried to shield the rest of the club at their own reputational risk.

Just another casual reminder...we don't actually know what happened yet. Official details are sparse.

We claim that the fault is not entirely ours. Which means either we believe the EFL are at least partly to blame, or some other external factors held us back. As much as I do expect we have cocked up, the assertions that we definitely have are a bit premature until we know what actually happened. The club have claimed they will tell us after the appeal, that will be the best time to judge - not when known hack Alan Nixon has divulged details that may or may not be true. I doubt the club are going to make any public claims about the EFL's handling of the case that aren't true, as this could leave them open to legal action.

Same reason he was at Birmingham on deadline day.

They've traded well, for sure, and done a much better job of all that than we did when we came down. But two things compared to the Rovers of right now: 1) Even after selling a few, they've had some Premiership players left over. 2) They have been in a position to trade. Ludicrous parachute money plus player sales gave them a platform to go out and buy numerous players who can excel at this level. It's not just the money they've had available for fees, it's wages too, which is often where we come up short even on fairly cheap transfers. With that and a better reputation and promotion prospects from having been a Prem club for a few years (and a bigger name as their manager than us), they could beat nearly any team in this league to their targets. As we have seen, we can hardly beat any teams in this league to our targets. None of this is to say they aren't being much better ran than us, they absolutely are by some distance. Proper work on contracts and selling players before those contracts expire would have seen us have at least a few million more to play with this summer. That's not the position the current incumbents inherited though (albeit, asking for more like 15 million for Brereton than 20 million could have helped raise funds). Also worth considering JDT doesn't get to revamp his squad - GB does, and for whatever reasons he has shown he can't fulfil the objectives JDT wants delivering, like a fucking striker.

4-1, a Huddersfield consolation goal from Pat Jones whoever he is. Looks like our final sub (only 3 allowed I believe) was Morton off for Horlock on 71 minutes.

Only tenuous link to transfers (one that failed and isn't here now), but George Hirst scored an equaliser for Ipswich against Burnley.

I see Connor Mahoney was in the Hudds side, taken off after 59 minutes though.

I'm certain the rules will be the same for Hudds as they are for us, but the Premier League Cup may have slightly different registration rules. My FM game doesn't seem to think so though (showing the same age restrictions as the U23 league, but it's about 3 seasons old I think). Huddersfield will just have to field a B team that meets the age restrictions, shouldn't be too hard.

Hah yeh I just clocked this on google moments before you replied, cheers though. Saadi came on for Brittain I see. Looking at the LT feed, I see it is indeed 5 overrage players you can field. Also seems Gamble captains the team which seems odd considering all the experience out there. Brittain cross was spilled for the Gally goal, Edun and Hedges with assists for the Leonard goals. Quarter finals after this win.

You would bloody think so...I doubt he will be more than on the bench though. If so, hopefully he comes off it for 20 minutes or so. With JDT and most of the senior staff watching, this game won't do his chances any harm though. Who did Leonard come on for?

I believe I have this correctly... Last season, when it was U23s, you could field 3 outfield players over the age of 23 (slightly more complicated than that, they had to be under 23 on a certain date). Now that it's gone back to being U21s, I think you can field 4 outfield players over the age of 21. I don't think there's anything wrong with this, like you say with the reserves there were no restrictions at all. First teams still have numerous senior players who need to keep fresh just like in the old days. There are no restrictions based on their first team appearances etc, it's purely about their age. Edit - looking at that team sheet, maybe it's 5 over 21s you can field now. Since we have Brittain, Edun, Hedges, Gallagher and Szmodics out there who are over 21.

Last night I was looking at him and think he's lost a little weight since last season? Seems more robust though as not been getting injured so far and more full blooded in the tackle, I think he's been really working on his fitness and it shows.

Apart from Hilton and Gamble, very similar lineups have started first team games before. Strange to see Morton starting it tbh, ok he didn't start the Wigan game but he's had plenty of game time this season. Should be more in need of a rest than more minutes (if he actually did enough to earn one, that is..). I'd have an eye on a few of these lads for the next match so I probably wouldn't be playing this many first teamers personally. Hope they're still fresh by the game. We should take some off around 60 mins if we are still leading comfortably. Also gives the actual kids the game time they need.

That one last night was idiotic. He'd have had to pull off a Carlos to bend it round the wall enough to land it inside the post. Even then he had signposted it so much the keeper had it well covered.

Do neither of those things.

Entirely as predicted when we signed the player. Exactly why we needed a striker. Thomas may prove pointless without one.

Thought he was a central midfielder? He is on my FM.

Maybe he will move on to players who go by Daniel.

Sounds like he likes to link past-it free agent midfielders called Danny to Blackburn Rovers. Bit of a niche but whatever gains him followers I guess...

Well, I would love to have VAR too.

Was gonna say the same.