The Europeometer™ (2024/25)

[The Butcher]

The fred is called TopFourometer. We failed to strenghten the squad in January and we've won 1 in 8. People are asking questions. 

 

It's not that shocking, is it?

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by The Butcher

[Guest]

Man U win tomorrow and we're in a stronger position than we could have expected going into this weekend.

[Conjo]

1 minute ago, The Butcher said:

The fred is called TopFourometer. We failed to strenghten the squad in January and we've won 1 in 8. People are aking questions. 

 

It's not that shocking, is it?

 

I don't see many questions asked, but a lot of statements as if they were facts.

[TRon]

9 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

It's absolutely lifting. The club made it clear that FFP is an issue until our commercial revenue increase. They've also indirectly said that none of our first choice targets were available. 

 

Still that's not good enough for the FM-merchants who need us to qualify for the Champions League this season, who love to tediously trott it out every single week.

 

 

 

 

Aye, I'm as disappointed as anyone, but the message doesn't seem to have registered with some folk. I'm sure we'd love nothing better than to spend £80m on a 30 yr old world class player or two, but FFP has been designed specifically to stop us doing that. City and Chelsea could do that 10 years ago, those days are gone now.

[The Butcher]

3 minutes ago, Conjo said:

 

I don't see many questions asked, but a lot of statements as if they were facts.

It's a forum. That's how it is.

[STM]

The fact that top 4 is even in the equation is mind boggling.

 

The fact that some of our "fans" would prefer to look at a few recent results rather than the bigger picture, is totally unsurprising.

 

We've lost 3 games all season and are 20 points ahead of where we were last season. I, for one, am over the fucking moon at our progress.

 

We will get a second wind this season and the sooner it happens the better our final league position.

[The Prophet]

2 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

The fred is called TopFourometer. We failed to strenghten the squad in January and we've won 1 in 8. People are aking questions. 

 

It's not that shocking, is it?

 

We've undoubtedly hit a rough patch stemming from poor form in front of goal.

 

Would a better January have helped that? I don't know, none of us do.

 

But the same posters making the same conjecture based argument every week, despite the club giving reasonable explanations is beyond tedious.

[ohmelads]

1 minute ago, Conjo said:

 

Because it's such an over used and boring statement I don't know whether to laugh or cringe.

 

We were the 5th highest spenders in January which based on everything we hear from the club in terms of FFP the club tried to push on as much as possible within the means they can operate.

 

Your opinion's boring as well. Some agree with you, and some don't. Caveats were already said so boring to repeat.

[Nine]

1 minute ago, ohmelads said:

 

Your opinion's boring as well. Some agree with you, and some don't. Caveats were already said so boring to repeat.

Not worried, if we lose or draw next week the same people will rush to this forum to tell everyone how we should have spunked an extra 100m to go for a CL spot.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Nine

[SUPERTOON]

8 minutes ago, STM said:

The fact that top 4 is even in the equation is mind boggling.

 

The fact that some of our "fans" would prefer to look at a few recent results rather than the bigger picture, is totally unsurprising.

 

We've lost 3 games all season and are 20 points ahead of where we were last season. I, for one, am over the fucking moon at our progress.

 

We will get a second wind this season and the sooner it happens the better our final league position.

We are having an incredible season, but there is no guarantee we will get a second wind and suddenly find form again. Top 7 would still be incredible, anything less would be hugely disappointing imo.

[Hanshithispantz]

Your "no guarantee January would have made a difference" schtick is getting a bit daft now man. We obviously need to improve half of our squad and doing so (through productive transfer windows) will objectively make us better, and results easier to obtain.

 

 

[ohmelads]

25 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

It's absolutely lifting. The club made it clear that FFP is an issue until our commercial revenue increase. They've also indirectly said that none of our first choice targets were available. 

 

Still that's not good enough for the FM-merchants who need us to qualify for the Champions League this season, who love to tediously trott it out every single week.

 

 

 

 Lifting?

 

How about less straw man, less hysteria and more discussion.

[Conjo]

3 minutes ago, ohmelads said:

 

Your opinion's boring as well. Some agree with you, and some don't. Caveats were already said so boring to repeat.

 

What I wrote wasn't an opinion. One statement was a fact, the other was based on what Howe, Staveley & journalists have been telling us for a long time now.

[TRon]

We were never going to go through the whole season in the form we showed first half of the season. This could be a blip, or it could be we are just running out of steam with a small squad. But while we are still in there with a very realistic chance of getting top 4 I don't see any reason to throw in the towel. A couple of wins and we could be back in CL positions.

[Myleftboot]

Change to top eightometer please.

[TRon]

Leave it at TopFourometer please.

[ohmelads]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

We were never going to go through the whole season in the form we showed first half of the season. This could be a blip, or it could be we are just running out of steam with a small squad. But while we are still in there with a very realistic chance of getting top 4 I don't see any reason to throw in the towel. A couple of wins and we could be back in CL positions.

 

Absolutely. We played well today, and we were bloody unlucky. Questions about Howe's selections are fair, but he has earned that trust.

 

It's certainly fair in my view to say the window was a missed opportunity, with the caveat that we will never know the finances of any club and can't trust public statements. It's a missed opportunity because Chelsea and Liverpool won't leave the door open next season. There will be disagreement over whether we should gamble while that door is open, or regret not taking that chance. There's no right or wrong answer to that, but many feel the squad weakened overall when it could've strengthened for the run-in.

[STM]

6 minutes ago, Myleftboot said:

Change to top eightometer please.

We already have a top7ometer. Head over there if you like. 

[Myleftboot]

4 minutes ago, STM said:

We already have a top7ometer. Head over there if you like. 

I said eight.

[wormy]

Change it to bottom10ometer. Its all over. It all means nothing anymore.

[Kanj]

To be very clear, we could absolutely spend more money than we did, but the RISK is the lack of commercial deals to offset the spend and keep us “in line” with FFP in the tests that will be performed per due course. Some clubs speculate and spend before the deals are inked banking on the fact they’ll find ways to balance books when needed. We don’t. And that’s fine. Is it the right move? Up for debate. Our squad deficiencies are showing right now and when we decided to spend 40m on a winger, we did so on a long term target. Awesome stuff, but he’s clearly one for the future and it’s not like we spent that on Gakpo or Harvey Barnes. It’s not just about potentially getting to CL anymore, as it stands we’re risking top 7. Get 6 points from the next 2 and it’ll be far more calming but right now we’re not firing in goals. Hell as of the last few matches we aren’t even getting the ball on fucking target. 

[Hhtoon]

33 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

The fred is called TopFourometer. We failed to strenghten the squad in January and we've won 1 in 8. People are asking questions. 

 

It's not that shocking, is it?

 

 

 

 

You only fail if you try and I'm not convinced the club were willing to deviate from their long term strategy/plans just to secure 4th this season. 

Letting 2 players leave without replacements as it was too good an opportunity to miss - forest desperate and no guarantee of summer exits for them otherwise - shows they're willing to sacrifice in the short term to benefit the long.

 

Fans have a right to be disappointed I guess, but that's not really the clubs priority.

[Kanj]

And until Silverstone and Eales and co announce new deals to advance us then we’ve got a big fucking problem on our hands. I’m sure they will in a few weeks, or very soon, as the local press has alluded to - and I’lll be ready to congratulate the clubs deal makers in doing so. They inherited shit deals, that much we all know and I get that. But these executives were hired to grow that side of the business. So get it done. 

[STM]

Sometimes think our fans are missing the sleight of hand being played by the club.

 

While we are all looking at what's going on on the pitch, have a look at what's being done off it, for a clue as to how ambitious we intend on being.

 

If being smart with our money allows us to invest in our infrastructure, our scouting, our medical team, our facilities, our future, I can just about let them get away with not going overboard in the transfer market.

 

So far, they have hired the cream of the footballing world to take this club forward. I couldn't be more relaxed about the future.

[Guest]

We could have also kept Shelvey, but then triggered a new contract with no guarantee someone takes him off us in the summer and we're stuck with deadwood again when we're trying to rebuild a squad with quality.