Armchair Pundit

I fucking hate Steve Bruce

Unbelievable Jeff!

Sadly though, we'd take it right?

Ah, didn't realise that

How can someone that played under arguably one of the greatest managers of our time be this shit as a coach?

Would rather give the young lad Anderson a go

Poor old Miggy having to do everything

Krafth

Steve Bruce

Get thee ready for a dry humpin right up the tea-towel holder...

Strewth, how did that happen???

Yep, I couldn't give a toss if he runs around the Craven Cottage stark bollock naked in celebration of keeping us up - not if the bigger picture is us being bought by the PIF consortium. ... a fair horrible image to have in the mind though

Hmmm...

Unless it was Rafa that helped set up the Amanda Staveley interest, we don't know what's going to happen just yet.

No, relegation would be a disaster, regardless. I'm still of the mind that 'a' takeover will happen, but if we get relegated it'll be that much more unlikely because I can't see fatty accepting a lower price. Plus, the bigger fish, if there are any still out there, are far less likely to buy a Championship club over a Premiership club, we'd likely end up with a Sunderland type owner rather than a Saudi.

So I was looking at the teams, from the newly promoted 2017/18 season under Rafa and the current 2020/21 season under Bruce. Essentially we have the same core of players who achieved a league finish of 10th with 46 points in the 2017/18 season. There are a handful of other players outside that core, arguably better ones now (see below), and a bigger squad. That said, I also noted some similarities in terms of results. 2017/18 2020/21 Dubravka Dubravka Darlow Darlow Clark Clark Dummett Dummett Lacelles Lacelles Lejeune Manquillo Manquillo Yedlin Yedlin Murphy Murphy Shelvey Shelvey Ritchie Ritchie Hayden Hayden Atsu Atsu Gayle Gayle Notable others: Notable others: Elliott Krafth Gamez Shar Mbemba Fernandez Haidara Lewis Diame Willock Kennedy Fraser Merino Hendrick Perez S Longstaff Slimani M Longstaff Joselu ASM Almiron Wilson Joelinton Carroll Results-wise I was surprised to see that there were actually some similarities between the two seasons, both team's longest streak without a win was 9 games (though our current predicament could extend that). Both team's biggest defeats all season were 4-1, strangely also against Man Utd (although this season we had a 5-2 loss to Leeds as well). In the 2017/18 season we had a period of 2 wins in 17, of course the longest this season (so far) is 2 wins in 18. The differences however are obvious, in the 2017/18 season we'd had wins against some big teams: Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester and a draw against Liverpool. Our most noted win against a team above us in the league this season was against Everton... that's it. In 2017/18 we finished the season with 12 wins and 8 draws, that was a team that had just come up from the Championship and not had much money spent on it, just some loans. This season we've had 7 wins and 7 draws (so far), so where's the clear difference and the cause in what has transpired? Covid? Injuries? A lack of investment since coming up from the Championship for sure, but I see our current team as having the same, if not better capability, we know that some of them, the core, if coached correctly and actual tactics used, can get results. There's no excuse in my eyes. (To be fair, I know we all know the above, I just found it interesting comparing the two seasons when I had five minutes to spare)

But weirdly unable to recognise what a thread about 'positive optimism' is all about

It's not like the Clough/Leeds situation, don't expect the club to back the players in this.

Would be interesting to know which 'stars' they were, one thing I read seemed to imply Carroll and Gayle stomped off at full time. Not that I think any of it'll make a difference, not while Bruce has enough players to field a team per match.

Sadly, the only response they'd get from Masters et all would be 'No comment'

Bang on

Bizarre that the national media are still making excuses for Bruce and giving him a free ride, yet point out that the local media are being critical, like they just can't see it.

For a time I actually thought Ashley had had enough and was actually looking to sell, making as much profit from the final sale as possible, I was tricked again. The guy is a wide-boy prick who clearly thinks nothing of playing with a couple of hundred million just to take out his own personal hate on a group of people who gave him a hard time early on in his tenure as owner. He's a spiteful, vindictive scumbag who gets his jollies from causing misery to others. Probably the sort of bloke who would burn money in front of a beggar or deface someone's masterpiece artwork just to inflict pain. The fat bastard is evil.

Yeah, we're gone now.

Right up until we get relegated to the first division and meet the mackems coming the other way.