bluebruce

Happy to sit back, how did that work out against Luton again?

Edun on for Rothwell. Another defensive sub on the face of it

Terrific ball from Khadra there, poor first touch from BB saw him overrun it and lose the chance. Barsnley missed a good opening right after.

Kaminski - the only reason we aren't losing today yet.

Defensive sub. Mowbray has decided a point is as good as we are getting today. Also means Buckley on the right, which is always a travesty.

Kills you, buries you and pisses on your corpse at the funeral.

I mean, that one was yeh. He can't really cross well with any consistency, he is better at hitting the byline in the box and cutting it back.

You can spin it how you want, yes, but it's this season not last season. It's the Championship - it doesn't matter how good they were last season, they could easily finish at the other end this season, and so far they are. Them being down there now, regardless of where they finish, shows they have started the season badly. So at the least, we played then when they were in bad form.

Seems like he should be talking to Poveda instead.

No. But we're not great.

Jesus christ, I remember comments about aspiring to be Brentford, but did he really say it would take 5 years to build to where they were at the time? That's shocking, but the worst part is that it was probably wildly optimistic under current club management.

Yeh there are nicer non-league stadiums than that now.

The real deal? Presumably not on the same kind of level they see Phillips as the real deal?

I don't mind Buckley and think he could still have a good future, but there would be plenty of names on the sheet before his.

Don't think its been mentioned here yet unless I was being dozy, but Phillips has agreed to a 3 year deal (most that can be done for now) for when he turns 17.

As I am struggling to understand the point you're trying to make. You've decided it's a non-story because you've also decided something is happening in the background which you know nothing about. Anybody can make up some crap happening in the background to try to explain away anything. As we have seen with these ludicrous covid conspiracy theories. Basically you're failing the burden of proof to declare this a non-story.

....or, they're using a combination of analytics and live scouts, both of which probably yield finds and support the results of each other.

So it's a definite non story because you've fabricated another way in which staff may or may not be getting around it? Right...

I don't agree that Johnson should come in when fit. I consider him a bit of a liability. He can be fantastic when he is on it, but it's not often enough. The only thing he really brings to the table over the others is muscle, and occasionally a belting shot - again, when he is on it. He's clumsy and slow and I would use him sparingly. Shouldn't have even been signed on again.

Congrats Joe, and good luck in the new role. I'm sure you'll do great!

I thought you might pedant your way out of it. But are we really criticising a couple of decent shots from 25 yards not resulting in goals?

Why did the keeper save one then?

Lee Williamson, Lowe and Akpan. And Murphy and Etuhu even though you've discarded them for arbitrary reasons. Lowe in particular was far, far worse than Smallwood. The worst player I've ever seen clock in a gobsmacking 173 appearances for us. Abysmal player. He could run a lot and that was literally it. Terrible at passing, tackling, shooting (except that one beauty), positioning, the lot. Brain dead and talentless. Oh and Murphy did reach 30ish, unfortunately. 33 to be exact. Andrews was comfortably a better player than Smallwood though, at this level.

Absolutely, all that ever matters is what happens on the day. Even recent form only gives a vague barometer. "Big club, Barnsley, how can we be expected to match a team who reached the playoffs?"

Hard disagree. They are miniscule compared to us. There are some similarities sure, but they have fuck-all credentials in English football history at the top tier, we have fucktons.