Eddie

I've always been fairly positive about midtable finishes in the past, but it is hard to see how this season is heading towards anything other than relegation. The worst part? I'm not sure that I even care anymore. I've tried. I tried to get in to all of the signings in the summer. I saw it as exciting, I hoped things would improve. But they're mostly crap. The side is awful. The manager is useless. All this talk about 'defending together, attacking together'. We lose together. That's all they do. I feel sorry for some of the players. It isn't their fault that they are here and a few of them are better than this, but these owners have sucked the soul out of the club. For those wishing for relegation, I think that's a mistake. It won't force the owners out. It won't force change. It will just make us that bit less relevant. We're heading towards League One football with crowds of sub-5000. It won't be pretty.

Chiesa was pretty special throughout that tournament. Injuries have set him back a lot, but in 2020/21 he was one of the best attacking midfield options in Europe.

Not sure on the best fans in the world stuff, but his criticism isn't of England fans in general or how well they travel. It's specific to the atmosphere at England's home stadium. It isn't great there; there are lots of reasons for that, but I understand his observations.

Cool it. You can disagree and have an opinion one way or the other, but you can't be so confident in your own position. They do it in other leagues, and it's a rare enough occurrence that relying on 'precedent' is really solid ground. Just let other people be frustrated by what was an undeniably frustrating sequence of events. Not only that, but regardless of how confident you are in the EFL's correct decision, there's also no denying the fact that Rovers got the short end of the stick in every aspect.

Ordered? By our owners?

Now, if the club had any sense, this is a chance to turn a potential replay into a positive. Just have it be free tickets for everyone. Try to get as many in as possible. See it as a bonus fixture that can create new supporters and generate revenue from concessions. They won't do this, but it would be a silver lining if the full replay is required.

I think the only realistic and 'fair' outcome is a full replay, but that Ipswich allow us to score immediately. If we can't win from 1-0 up with 90 minutes to go, then it's at least a somewhat balanced outcome. That would also allow Cantwell (assuming that he is available) to get a goal that may be significant for him in terms of bonuses and incentives.

Save that for a different forum.

Kind of unrelated to that actual story, though.

The story is basically: I wanted to leave. I thought I could leave earlier in the window when the first club came in. Turns out the club wanted more money. I thought they'd accept less. They didn't. They indicated that they would sell me, but they didn't make it as easy as I wanted it to be. It's totally nothing. I'm a huge critic of the club, but pretty much any transfer could have this same story. It's also a slightly misleading headline that makes it sound like it might be referring to contract negotiations.

Feels like a bit of a nothing story.

To be honest, the cross isn't much better. Awful keeping, and he completely flaps at something that should be pretty straightforward.

It's such a strong position. He'd need about 20 players to get injured to even make the conversation. (he's also not good enough)

We played really well yesterday and, on the face of it, we deserve to be on more than 6 points so far. This is the Championship, there are plenty of sides around us at the moment who will finish in the top half. There's no reason that we can't go from our slow(ish) start to once again challenging for the playoffs. It's possible to dislike the regime, acknowledge that there is plenty wrong with the club, but still enjoy a performance like yesterday's and be excited about a couple of the new signings.

Really solid performance. Encouraging early signs for both Morishita and Gudjohnsen, who, aside from one lazy pass to Kargbo, looked fairly classy when he came on. I think Alebiosu might be an upgrade on Britain.

The message, as when we spoke with him, is a bit confused.

I'm not sure that is always sound logic. I'm not particularly hopeful about this one, but most of our best signings were cast-offs or, in the very least, not star players at clubs at our level or below.

I don't know why foreign has to be rubbish, but we wouldn't have to go far to get a defender of Hyam's quality and we'd be furious if we were signing him for 2.7m with 12 months left on his deal. The timing is the bad part.

Hyam was definitely leaving, so I get the idea of selling him...I just don't get why they've waited until the window is virtually closed. Maybe they'll pull something off? But I doubt it. Hyam is a good, but unspectacular CB at this level. His best ability is the fact that he's never injured or suspended, but he's easily replaceable from a quality perspective.

Hopefully, these are just muscle injuries coming from a combination of workload and the fact that he's had a reasonably big growth spurt over the last couple of years. But it is definitely concerning. Picking up non-contact injuries every 3/4 months is not a great sign.

Can we honestly move on with this? We don't know the full terms of those deals and that transfer was also 18 months ago. Inflation alone makes 15m now 16m, never mind the exponential inflation in football transfers and wages. Will this club be forever defined by the decision to sell a player? Should Everton fans still be going on about how they only got 27m for Rooney. Southampton only got 10m for Bale. Celtic only 13m for van Dijk. Honestly, the list of players who should have gone for more is so incredibly long, is this club really going to be defined by ONE PLAYER that we sold. We've also fleeced some clubs in the past when both buying and selling. Why don't we speak about that more?

Not sure he's going to love being called Scandinavian. We've had a hit or miss experience with Nordic players, although there have been some great ones at the club (MGP, Berg) and some very serviceable ones (Tronstad, Nils-Eric Johansson). Overall, Nordic players do seem to settle well in England, so it's a good place to be sourcing players from. Siggurdson signed here under unusual circumstances, was barely used in the right way, and was consistently injured. There was a good player there, and I don't think he was just here for the money.

Ultimately, I follow this football club for entertainment. This transfer window may turn out to be awful. We will only truly be able to assess that over the next season or two. But, in the very least, it is delivering entertainment and a sense of hope that things might get better. My biggest frustration in following this club over the last few years has been the sense of apathy that has set in, the loss of any sense of adventure, and the fundamental belief that the club isn't even trying to get better. Yes, the subtext for these overhauls is the desire to reduce the wage bill (probably not a terrible idea) and to get rid of some more disruptive team leaders (possibly a bad idea, possibly a good one), but at least it is giving me hope, albeit potentially briefly, that things could change. Some of these signings could be great. They could be the difference makers we have sorely missed. Was Travis a good Championship player? Yes. Should we have shipped him out? Probably not. But he also wasn't going to be the central figure and difference maker in a promotion push. We know we've lacked pace, creativity, and goalscoring. Maybe these new signings will bring that. And maybe they won't. But if they don't, then we are just in the same position that we were 2 months ago, just with a different set of faces. In the meantime, I can at least live off of that hope. If only for a little bit.

I don't know. He might make more money, and he's now guaranteed 8 Champions League matches, including 4 matches against really top clubs and a couple of matches against the kind of teams he may see as his next move (Benfica, Ajax). I agree in principle, but I can also understand a player choosing Champions League exposure over playing in the Championship. Especially if a move to Qarabag could include a relatively friendly release clause that could be activated in January or next summer.

Decent fee for a player who's nowhere near good enough or consistently fit enough to be a significant part of our squad. Always a shame when a young player is held back by injuries, but League One is probably his level.