The College Dropout

I disagree a bit. When fully fit Wilson is able to get through more pressing and physical battles and has more in the tank come the end of a game. Likewise Gordon and Wood when he was here. The lack of stamina is a fair criticism. He’s a top player but the stamina isn’t elite.

Let’s be honest most people that follow Abrahamic religions wouldn’t be vocal advocates for LGBTQ+ even if they were themselves part of that community. I assume he didn’t want to cause offence by refusing to wear it like the Ipswich captain. And maybe isn’t ’anti LGBTQ’ or doesn’t want to be seen as such but he wanted to make the statement. It’s messy because football mixed politics all the time. We had a whole bunch of stuff for Ukraine war. The rules should be more honest and say you can only support political or religious beliefs that align with our agenda.

Which is by design. Only 6 clubs are allowed to have a wage and transfer budget that can sustain a squad to be competitive in the CL and PL. Imagine Villa could keep Diaby and Luiz but still sign the players they did like Onana.

His stamina is so poor. There’s so many goals to be had late in a game. Feel like Salah scores loads of late goals. Lad is made out of granite. Isak is skinny and soft yet doesn’t have stamina. Howe is a notorious liar as well which doesn’t help. Him saying he’s out makes me think he starts and plays 90.

Very tempted to take him out my FPL team for a hit.

Think he scored a late brace against Forest one time. But aye he’s usually blowing by 60 mins. immobile by 75 minutes.

Howe’s such a fucking liar man. Him and Arteta are the most dishonest when it comes to player fitness.

Again - I don’t follow Golf. But is it not a case similar to boxing that you come in with lots of cash and get your way? Similar to the boxing. There’s like 5 major boxing promotions and they are all selling to the highest bidder. It doesn’t take elite business acumen to take over the game. It’s easy to build momentum. Football in 2024/25 is far more competitive than boxing and I assume golf. Write a big cheque in boxing and the biggest enemies will hold hands together and smile. Agreed. That to me would be ‘doing everything they can’.

TBF Wilson and Wood were proven PL strikers.

No fear of training ground and stadium costs being incorporated. These materially improve the economy.

How much is Yasir running things? I would prefer a Yasir underling that can talk to him everyday than some suit he’s hired. You can’t win in this football game being slow. Opportunities will pass by. If you’re going to be slow working with a UK council - you will waste millions and months/years. Staveley and co. made mistakes but at least they were dynamic. You would’ve thought the Reubens would’ve helped expedite building infrastructure

I’ve had a good idea of what my team should look like for a number of weeks now. Not getting there fast enough has cost me more points than the hits i would’ve taken. And now I see new problems beginning to open up. So I have to take some hits anyway. The. Move from position of strength. Isak is a big issue. If he’s not fit I probably hit him out (for Jackson) and I have a super strong attacking 8 (but can only choose 7). If he’s fit, I keep him, I think he has a good record against Liverpool if memory serves. Swap a good asset in midfield (Mbeumo) for a better one (Saka). Upgrade midfield later for free. Jackson has good fixtures for the long term so don’t mind the hit. I must say - we’ve not been scoring. So maybe Isak out is the common sense move. Isak of last season was a brace magnet but this season he’s only really scoring tap ins with regularity and single goals. But he has a good record against Liverpool and the next 4 are excellent fixtures. What do you lot think?

Any pictures of him in training? Any news?

Agreed. But we have to actually use him. I said the same thing. Liverpool have the most quality in depth attack in Europe. City have 1 striker. They had a good understudy who moved for more football. I would like us to use Osula more. I also don’t hate Gordon up top when he’s in form. this is one of the Eddie quirks I’m used too.

Chelsea have alaways operated like that. Managers have input but a lot of the action was dictated by the club/Roman. Spurs are also largely run like that. A fair number of signings are happening no matter what. Similar in Europe. Thats why owners want coaches like Slot, Maresca And Ange. They’ll use and be happy with the players bought for them. Someone like Conte only uses who he wants. Liverpool didn’t sign the CM they’ve needed for years, not a peep of discontent in the media from Slot. Their owners are also fairly happy for them to finish level with the investment.

Delap wouldn’t have been a world away from the Osulu fee by PL standards. But I guess he needed guaranteed minutes. The idea of proven, fit PL player for a backup is tosh though. It’s a young player, old player, or shit player. I always thought Wood was as good as you can get a proven PL backup that might be happy to sit on the bench for a club like ours.

Need to be more aggressive. Didn’t take the -8 point hit I was considering. Which would’ve paid off. Will get there mind.

Ok cool. Sat perfectly midtable. With a talented but unbalanced squad. Didn’t sign anyone in the summer to start. Constant talk of needing to sell to buy. No plans in motion that will significant increase revenues. Maybe waiting for another club to win a court case. Atmosphere in the club has soured in the last 4 months. Hired a DoF in July, not on the same page with manager in August. Want a top 6 finish on a top 8 wage bill. Let’s see where we are come May and June.

These are all easy things to do and/or things led by Staveley. Ashley was such a bad owner that we had lots of low hanging fruit. We’ve picked nearly all of those. Now comes the stuff that requires some real savvy.

No matter what - 3 years is a a long time to not have any concrete plans for stadium or training ground. You seem averse to admitting they’ve made any mistakes or could’ve done things better.

Doesn’t impact stadium, training ground, doing what we can. In any case, do you think we are central to their World Cup plans? Genuine question.

Waiting for the APT case is a lack of dynamism. City will be suing for losses earnings if successful and will then immediately bump up the sponsors. Why are we waiting? Training ground, stadium - slow. They let Staveley and co. put us in a hole they only corrected at the very last minute. We are 3 years in. The lack of progress, is evidence. They talk a great game. They seem to demand a lot from the staff. Without showing great dynamism, direction or acumen themselves. The public misalignment between Howe and Mitchelll is another example. PIF should set the mandate. That doesn’t happen with strong leadership.

No gloom over here - just trying to assess things as they are (with what we know, knowing we don’t know it all). I genuinely think the issues at the top are impacting the team substantially. The atmosphere has shifted.

When they bought the club some quarters doubted the Saudis acumen. At least in comparison to Abu Dhabi. Staveley definitely brought dynamism. I personally find Yassir charismatic. But atm they aren’t delivering at leadership. I’m growing into the view that PIF are demanding but not dynamic/innovative. you can’t win at football being like that. Demanding Europe with a distant 7/8 revenue. Slow roads on pieces that would move the needle. Villa are having similar issues to us but at least their owners are aggressive. With the wealth and power Saudi have - if PIF were as aggressive we would be much further ahead. Is there anything else you could share re: working in Saudi that would be relevant to us?

Agreed. Agreed. There isn’t dynamism anywhere from the owners to suggest one thing is holding them back. If we had stadium plans, training ground plans but just not this - I could believe the idea they were waiting for court rulings before announcing further deals. But atm it just sounds like copium. Someone pointed this out and it only just clicked. I think we all feel/think the FFP June fiasco played a large role in Staveleys and Mehrdads exit. But PIF let that happen and only held them accountable at the very end. PIF let people who have never led a football club previously fuck up the finances and got rid of them when it hit the fan. It’s so passive yet demanding. Rudderless and lacking dynamism - yes that’s exactly it. This is the main reason I’m going easy on Howe. The entire project feels rudderless and lacking dynamism and it’s impacting everyone. Inm praying whoever we bring in as CEO can engage and challenge PIF and create that dynamism and be that rudderless. I don’t think Eales was doing that. But that would require PIF hiring someone that’s not a yes man or just happy to get the job. Which is unlikely.