James

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He could put forward two arguments which may work. Either a) players and potential managers turned the club down due to uncertainty regarding the takeover. Alternatives weren’t considered good enough. Or b) certain limitations created by the sale environment meant he was only able to spend £X, of which got spent. If either of these are his defence then if he plans the legal route he is presently completely tied down and prevented from sacking Bruce

Anyone checking Ando07 will go to ground for a bit with the mole hunt in full swing?

Don’t at all believe the sports science thing about 3 days a week. Even if not exerting themselves there is plenty of work that can be done on the training ground when in the middle of a relegation battle

He drew Leeds vs Man Utd? If that video was shown at his trial he defo would have been impeached for incitement!

Fraser for ASM and a Longstaff for Almiron, personally would say Matty. Dummett for Lewis. Derek Wright at right back

I think Fulham will stay up comfortably now, for them it was all about turning draws into wins and they’ve started to do it. We are in a direct showdown with Brighton and Burnley. Brighton look vulnerable but that could change if they beat us

The one hope I’d cling onto is that as Bruce has continuously refused to play a number 10 until Jones came in which has gotten tHe best out of Almiron but could also get the best out of the Longstaffs which could mitigate the loss a bit.

In hindsight he was probably behind our best ever youth output with players he had in the academy moving into the first team (or playing significantly more) when he was manager. Krul, Taylor, N’Zogbia, Ramage, Edgar, Huntington were all young players he developed that went on to have a decent professional career. Hardly groundbreaking but it was the best we have managed for decades. I think that was the biggest mistake of not replacing him as caretaker in the end as he would have been a greater asset in our academy.

RIP seems he has been fighting this tumour for well over a decade so huge respect for that too above and beyond his contribution to our club

Is John Carver actually HTT?

We're a club who have and will continue to flirt with relegation in the coming seasons, providing we stay up. We don't compete for trophies and we have virtually no household names, certainly none that will enhance 'the product' as the Premier League see it. We will pull in a bigger viewership than say Watford, but that's about all we offer - and it's hardly something the Premier League will be shitting their pants over. On the other hand, we lose our Premier League status, there's no telling how long it'll take us to recover, especially as it looks like Mike will be here for the foreseeable and has lost any remaining interest, by all accounts. If the Premier League were that fussed about our existence they'd have most likely waved through the takeover. I think you're absolutely deluded if you think relegation would be a bigger loss to the Premier League than it would be to us. It isn't even a debate. It’s a compensation loss, not a loss of our presence. I’d value the loss at £150-300m plus any cost risk of us not going straight back up. PL don’t have any money so clubs going to have to pay in the region of at least £10m each and the clubs will inevitably sack the PL board. So it is a massive PL loss. I realise that from the outside looking in there are a number of factors not related to the takeover that will have caused the relegation. It is very easy to say: get a better manager, sign better players etc. But if Players and managers rejected us because they were concerned about job security due to the takeover, or we couldn’t afford players due to having to avoid incurring debt (again due to takeover) then these are objective reasons why a court would accept that the PL caused the relegation.

It’s not a court case for relegation, it’s a court case for restraint of trade, of which relegation are measured losses.

Later perhaps but I haven’t seen a single constructive post as to why relegation won’t be worse for the PL than it will be for us (assuming the PL acted unlawfully, and Ashley would sell at reduced value if he receives a to. Of compo)

I’ve concluded that if we plan to go to court in the event of relegation, that for the best outcome of this, Bruce should not be fired. If we sack Bruce today and get relegated, the PL will tell the courts that objectively speaking our decision to sack Bruce led to us falling into the bottom three, and therefore relegation is Ashley’s fault. If we sack Bruce when in the bottom three, and the new guy does better but we still go down, we would have inadvertently revealed that we were able to hire a better manager all along and the PL will use point averages to show that it’s Ashley’s fault we got relegated because we should have made the change earlier. Instead the best route of action is to demonstrate that shortlisted replacements we had confidence to keep us up rejected us.

Appreciate people have different views on whether we’d win a court case against the PL (factoring out relegation for a sec) or whether Ashley would just pocket the money those are all fair views. But if like me you believe that the PL acted illegally and will eventually lose in the courts if we don’t get the PIF takeover then rest assured that in being relegated we will win and the PL and its clubs will lose massively.

I must have missed the part where they forced us to not give Rafa a new contract and instead employ the guy with one of the worst managerial records in the history of English football. Rafa has no relevance to events that occurred after he left. Ashley had 12 months ago got himself into a position where he could sell the club for the price he wanted. That’s the objective truth. If Ashley can prove that managers and players turned us down in the past 12 months because of takeover uncertainty, he’s won.

In which case they will have to pay for our relegation. Whatever happens Ashley wins. And this time round the club will win with him.

Ashley probably has a stack of emails from managers and players agents saying they won’t sign for us whilst the takeover situation is unresolved. In the event of us going down Ashley will wave these as the courts and say he couldn’t sack Bruce and couldn’t sign the players. He tried. Either the courts will a) block our relegation or b) compensate Ashley so much that he will sell the club at a pittance. In event a) PIF can then buy the club. In event b), Staveley and Reubens and some second rate investors will buy the club and PIF will buy out investors upon takeover.

At this point I think I’d rather we had Dummett at Right Back

Don’t think we are almost certain to go down just yet, we’ve had injuries and we’ve had misfortune to have to play Chelsea and Man Utd off the back of three games where we looked improved with Jones. Just get through today and get a few results over the next few weeks and we still stand a chance. Getting Bruce out will help but we still have a chance. However if we finish bottom 3 it will be worse for Premier League than it will be for us. All the gateways to the takeover will be opened by the courts and in determining that the PL deliberately and illegally procrastinated the process, we will either be the 21st club in the PL next season or Ashley will be given so much money that he will sell on the cheap and we will be going straight back up with PIF at the helm. Masters and Hoffman will be gone and there will be more chance of Liverpool and Spurs in the Championship in a couple of seasons than us

Could we play two goalkeepers if one promises not to use their hands? Probably do better for the result than playing Gayle, Carroll or Joelinton

Swansea and Bournemouth are two of the scummiest clubs in world football to be honest. They have both gone from the depths of the lower leagues and possible obliteration to the Premier League, and rather than being a beacon of inspiration for upward mobility of other lower league clubs, they have repeatedly voted in favour of measures that benefit them in expense of the lower leagues. Hypocrites of the highest order who I hope get their just deserts and a trip back to the bottom half of League 2

Whitley Mag your actions got also got myself, Disco and Neil banned due to some IP address issue so make sure you behave this time

Don’t agree, when we last switched from Darlow to Dubravka the team were immediately able to play 5m higher up the pitch because of how well he commands the area and distributes. Darlow coming back has coincided with a backwards regression. This is why Dubravka must return immediately.