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One interesting little claim in Hope's article was that Freedman didn't join due to unhappiness with the remuneration offer.

Ban?

Definitely. The single best, provably true thing about this club right now is the team spirit, the connection between the players and fans. It's bruised at the moment, but Forest showed it's clearly still there. There's plenty of justifiable suspicion about everything else. But we have to hang onto that united identity on and around the pitch for grim death. Imagine Howe went - what would replace him? At this time, it doesn't bear thinking about. The board and players must understand where our loyalty lies.

Watched the conference. Thought Howe was reassuringly protective of the club and its processes and people. Different ways of interpreting that, but it doesn't look like he'll be knifing anyone or storming off any time soon. He seems to be dipping his hand in the blood, which is better than the alternative. Regardless of anything else about him, I see Eddie as someone who truly wants the best for the club, so his opinions count. It's a smallish thing, but I also liked him overtly stating that he believes the club should sometimes hold it's money back with a view to the long term picture. There have been suggestions in the past that he's all in on short term, 'this season is the only season that matters' thinking. I think that's the first time it's been actively, convincingly dealt with. Honestly I'm just looking forward to getting back to football at the moment. It's sad, but I'm actually looking forward to hitting next summer thinking we won't have to sell, and if we do we'll be able to extract maximum value and potentially set the club on the right path. It's quite funny watching some loyalists shit themselves. Somehow I'm shocked and somewhat disappointed that now is the time it's happened. I think this whole thing is less disturbing when you don't start out from the assumption that everything is always great. There's plenty to be concerned about, but there's still a range of possible explanations, and some of them are still honourable - given everything else, I think we should dig in with support; I think the alternative will do more harm. Remember the good old days - 8 weeks ago - when people were convinced June was a well planned trick designed to mislead the media about our secret war chest?

Ha, you might have a point.

Sunrise, sunset.

If he's not a specialist CB, he's not a specialist anything...

It is a bit, but I guess you have to see the decision through rather than risk creating confusion or media tittle tattle.

We lose Trippier, we lose Miggy's PS5 controller.

I guess we have to consider the possibility this is going to be a tight tight league this year i.e. almost all the conventionally good teams will struggle against all the conventional makeweights, and the victors will be those who grind the most points out of each battle. Haven't had enough games to see that play out yet. Hope it's true, for our sake. As I've found myself saying several times before before, in spite of various negatives I could talk about, there's a team spirit in the club which keeps driving us through. So long as we've got that, we've got a chance.

Feels like he's playing for his career at the moment, in the best sense. Felt like he was too within himself last season, like he was trying to be a good boy and double checking everything he did was the right move. Now he's just going for it a lot more and it's working well for him.

Will be a big loss for us if it does end up being serious. Feel bad for him.

Can we finish this off within 8 posts?

It's why I think it's weird when I see people say things like Isak is the only one they'd be gutted to see go. Brunos are rarer - they're the kind you build dynasties with. The ones we wonder how come only Liverpool and Man United get.

I'll be happy if we win the thing, but I honestly think the competition shouldn't exist. If all we had was the FA Cup and the league, no one would be suggesting inventing an extra junior competition that finishes midway through the season.

Said that same the other day, McCormick's got me excited to see him.

I don't totally disagree, but we probably need that character up front rather than in defence.

I'm inclined to agree with banning her, but wonder if she's actually playing for that outcome to stir up some controversy.

The Tonali interview is another massive statement of support for Bruno's leadership position within the club.

It was still the right thing to do. Only dead fish go with the flow.

I think the league is the only thing that will really count on that one.

God it's like the spirit of Freddy Shepherd lives on in him. When you're making signings to make statements, you're losing. @timeEd32's post earlier about the sheer range of possible explanations for what's going on at the moment, and the lack of sense in assuming any of them are exclusively true, is spot on, by the way. The idea of the club holding out on spending and thinking of having a super splurge next year - probably under a new manager - has crossed my mind. But it's way too premature to start shouting about it and, as he says, only destabilising the situation, probably unnecessarily.

Well, valid about Popey being too big for most to hook that high, but I don't think the guy is selling at all. He's genuinely taken down.

Thick of It style