Lampard needs time, Appleton needs time, Hirst needs time. We all wish you was our boss.

Are they hoping to put some bets on?

Its not if every single manager is in the same situation, at that point after 12 years you surely work out the common denominator. I dont doubt that each manager has tried his best but when poor performance isnt punished then those in employment arent going to leave, they will keep taking the money and believing thay they can improve as anyone would. The only colossal oversight is you letting off the owners when they are where 12 years of underperformance has stemmed from. The way they work, whoever they employ is somewhat fighting a losing battle. Its amazing that after all of these years that anyone is keen to deflect blame from them, especially when blame towards fellow fans is so easily done!

It's an absolute joke that not only our game but most of the FA Cup games are put at times for the benefit of fans from abroad to watch over fans who are going out of their way to attend. Fair play to anyone making that horrible journey that has been inconvenienced again by the authorities.

We won 2 and lost 2 of the reverse fixtures.

I saw him against Wolfsburg's under 23/21s and like in his cup appearances, he was a livewire. Scored a great volley and also hit the post.

It isn't an effective way to run a football club to block the managers attempts to sell players and reinvest, that in itself massively reduces funds available. We were 2nd and spent 700k and got in a couple of loanees. They could have gone for it (not even necessarily as much as Bournemouth but look at what they did) but they chose not to.

I think it tells you a lot about the lowering of expectations under Venkys when merely not selling your players when in such a good position is considered ambitious. That being said, we could have sold one and potentially improved short and longer term.

More pressure on Frank Lampard with Everton sitting in the relegation zone, surely they will make a change soon. Also Nathan Jones only adding to the theory that he is a good Luton manager rather than a generally good manager.

No one has ever doubted that Giles was misused and Hedges was perhaps underused, but the bigger problem is the lack of spending and even the lack of flexibility to sell a player running his contract down to reinvest from owners who have said in the past that they want to get back to the Premier League. The fact that a loanee and a 200k signing could have done a bit more feels like splitting hairs in the grand scheme of things.

England have a number of players that I highly rate, whereas you cant find fault in the team. He is a good player but he is not one of the very best that rumoured price tags would have you suggest. There are a number of better midfielders in the Prem alone.

He is definitely overrated, not worth the sums mentioned. Technically limited.

It really was a strange signing for a top half Championship side considering he had a slightly less than 1 in 3 goal record in League 1. I dont know if the assumption was that he could maintain his run from the end of the season with the fact that he had struggled to score much of the time in League 1 dismissed but he cant have been our number 1 target. That being said, obviously to even score that many in League 1 shows you are a reasonable professional player, he could play in the Conference where surely he would thrive (mind you we thought that about Vale!) therefore he is professional standard.

So do I, obviously. But I would prefer them to get rid of the crap music.

One thing I saw on twitter the other day is a comment criticising playing Sweet Caroline when we win, pretty much unanimous comments underneath in agreement.

It certainly does fuck us up business wise. If you have perhaps less resources than some of your competitors, you have to trade smartly. We either let players go for free whilst rejecting offers that would make us profits or even if we do sell, we don't invest any of that money. Crazy.

A theory that seems very farfetched to me personally but we can all be free to choose which rumours to believe and not believe. Nothing that Venkys have done has made sense from a promotion (to the Premier League) perspective over all of these years so I doubt that it was all on Mowbray with such a specific plan to get a new deal. We should have sold Rothwell, just like Brereton but they don't seem interested in making us a club like Brentford and Brighton that uses clever reinvestment of funds generated to continuously stay competitive.

It is hard to base it on previous times in which poor recruitment has burnt us, that is based on the individuals rather than the type of player. I think the current crop of youngsters have been very inconsistent and we struggle to win the midfield battle, often winning games when it is essentially bypassed and we barely have the ball. I feel it will be a big struggle to maintain a promotion push with that crop of young midfielders. I would love a proven operator at this level, someone like Ben Pearson or Dan Barlaser but I suspect our owners would not support such a signing.

It is indicative of how Venkys have run us that in such a strong position, they not only didn't provide a competitive budget but didn't even give the manager permission to trade to raise funds and strengthen the club that way. Could the signings have been used better? Yes, perhaps. Should we have taken a loanee from the Premier League to boost our strikeforce? Maybe. But are these the main issues? No.

Yep, Mowbray said he wanted to sell Rothwell to bring in 2 players of his own. Makes no sense that he would want that if he had funds available anyway.

Watching the last round of Championship highlights and the pitches elsewhere are far better than here. Even at Blackpool it is 100x better. Crazy the lengths some go to when defending our underfunded cabbage patch.

It's crazy after so many years of negligence, how reluctant so many are to point fingers at our owners. We were 2nd with a small squad and riding the crest of a wave. We then signed a couple of youngish loanee full backs, a kid with 10 minutes of senior experience for half a million who subsequently got injured well in advance of the deadline, and then Hedges for a nominal fee. No denying that maybe those signings could have been used better, but that wasn't the main issue. People for some reason like to make out that there was a big warchest there that we declined to use, as if that was likely, because their cousins partners hairdresser had told them or whatever.

Brighton like Brentford are run so well, the key is a consistent plan from the owners, consistent reinvestment of profits generates on the back of excellent recruitment. Not frequent penniless summers and allowing players to run their contracts down. Mc Allister, Caicedo, Mitoma, Trossard etc all fantastic additions paid for with a fraction of the sales of the likes of Cucurella, White and Bissouma. Also makes the idea of "preferring" Championship football to Premier League football even crazier. Run the club with efficiency and consistency from the top up and you can be competitive in the Premier League in the end. Not under these fuckers though.

Yes, he clearly is a decent player at a professional level. League 1 level. Presumably he would more effective a division below.