midds

Only 3 home wins and 8 away wins out of the 15 fixtures played so far. Far too early to draw any conclusions about playing behind closed doors yet obviously but it's a little surprising.

I’d imagine it’s seen as bad crack to be openly throwing manager’s names about when Bruce, as inept as he is, is still currently employed. Wouldn’t show them in a favourable light at all when the takeover hasn’t actually happened yet. I’ve got no doubt they’ve sounded a few people out but would never leak it directly or via Caulkin.

Ashley's lickspittles aren't the subject of the test, it's got little to do with them really. I'd have thought that at least Ashley and his lawyers would be party to that information. If he knows, I can't imagine him being arsed to pass the information to the likes of Charnley though. It would be the courteous thing to do I agree, but I'm not sure they'd be obliged to do so though

Ashley's lickspittles aren't the subject of the test, it's got little to do with them really.

Lots of sources claiming it's done now. I feel a thread title change is probably warranted but I'm absolutely not the one who's going to do it

Bins could do with a scrub I suppose?

No sentiment, no sympathy. Short, concise statement basically saying 'thanks Steve but we've got our own managerial team coming in. Bye and good luck.' Get it over and done with straight away and build on what we've got. 9 competitive games should be enough to show the new bloke exactly what he's working with, who he wants to bin /keep. It's the perfect situation to walk into. No friendlies, no pissing about, let's see who wants to stay and who couldn't give a fuck. Impress the new boss or leave type of thing.

Agreed But then again I was saying the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully this isn't another false start.

'can'. But is he actually doing it?

Eisern Union

If these claims were that significant then why weren't then presented a month ago? If they're only new claims then I'm assuming the PL would have already discovered themselves during their little investigations. I'm still confident it'll go through for the same reasons as I was a month ago. They can't really say no unless there's definitive proof, they don't want to say no to the money and they don't want the decision being dragged through the courts, it'll too be embarrassing for a lot of people. Just sit tight and see what happens tbh.

Mique

Again, I'd love someone to spin it around and get these pricks to explain exactly why someone like Steve Bruce deserves to be given a chance to spend a huge amount of money to do something he's never ever done or come remotely close to doing. Break it down step by step. He's a dinosaur and needs binning asap. No sympathy or sentiment, just his P45 the day they get the keys.

Crying out for strikers, CMs and wing backs more than anything else. Keeper is canny, like our little squad of CBs mostly, like ASM and Almiron but after than it's pretty chronic really.

Jonas and Enrique dovetailed up the left wing better than anything I've seen in black and white. They weren't necessarily the best players but they were pretty fucking good together for a season or 2.

Important to understand that the accounts only go as far as last July. Things will have obviously changed over the last 10 months and the situation right now could be far, far worse. Could be better too obviously but I'd be surprised seeing as they're sitting in 7th and look like they'll be there at least another season. Income from all normal sources will dry up very soon. Looks bleak

Huuup, here we go

I’m sure the Crown Prince will be hanging on his every word...

So there’s no more parachute money, negligible sponsorship and kit deals, small tv payments and potentially no fans buying tickets. How on earth are they going to survive? I mean forget about moving up the leagues, I mean how are they going to honour their bills without another loan? Loads of them are out of contract but but reserves and youths are some of the worst in the country so they can’t dip into that little pool of players to fill the squad out. They’re in so much shit man.

"ok lads, let's play"

His favourite flavour is vanilla apparently.

Ashley will love that little snippet :lol:

Just a slight variation on "once the players cross that white line that's it, it's up to them" or other such shit. Completely laying any blame at the players in advance because they were the other side of a line. Not me guv, I don't play the game etc

Nothing's been decided and it would be wrong to do so based on the balance of probabilities. Everyone knows they've virtually sewn the league up but it's setting a dangerous precedent if you decide things before they've actually happened. Where do you stop? Relegate the bottom 3? Award CL for the top 4? Who goes into the EL? With a quarter of a season to go? Is nothing going to change with regards to the league table? What about prize money? If you've already played all of the better teams you'll probably finish higher? It's a huge can of worms predicting what you think would probably have happened and it should be ruled out imo.

Timing's everything.