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This is an opinion piece and not factual unless you believe King and Austin to be liars.

The no loans policy has never been a thing. We signed Ayari and Binks last season. Ayari is a class player as evidenced this season, just not for us or Blackburn. Before then, we used loans to fill holes in our squad. Signing players on a permanent is obviously a good thing. This season, no...

What makes their mentality awful? Sunderland more or less have the same team as last season and are fighting for automatic promotion. They were a young team missing leaders and that’s all they’ve added. Meanwhile, our leadership core has been stripped and not replaced at all and its impact is...

You don’t keep scoring late equalisers (or winners) if the players are disinterested or lacking desire. The first half, I felt there were some promising differences, things seemed a bit more zippy and we tried different things. EMC’s goal was a passage of play we’ve rarely seen this season...

I’m not desperate to play down their role. The first thing you change in a football club is the manager when things go wrong. It’s only when you churn through managers like Man U where the issue seems to be the structure rather than the manager. As it happens, people are desperate for Robins...

What of it? The manager had final say on recruitment of staff and players. Which trumps any weird obsession you have about this Dr Roberts. When I hire a person, I have someone from HR with me, they are a part of the process but they don’t outvote me on who to progress.

Pretty sure Robins, Dean Austin and King are on record saying that the manager (Robins, now FL) identify the profile of players they want, Austin gives a shortlist that the manager agrees on for the owner / Austin to negotiate the deal with the club. There’s been no mention of a selection panel.

I disagree, the players are good but lack experience around them. Robins was trying to sign a CM, a CB and RB/LB before the window closed and we were unsuccessful with that. Sunderland’s team is more or less the same as last season but they added experience. Now they’re near the top of the...

People have said regularly that ‘since the performance director has come in, performances haven’t improved’ and made similar points about our recruitment because she does fitness and psychological testing. Her influence, with respect, has been massively overblown. There’s also been numerous...

I liked that Rudoni did this as it help create overloads in wide channels. It’s also noteworthy that both EMC and Sakamoto would almost join the striker as a 2nd striker in attack too in moments.

Either way, the manager won’t be reporting into Dr Roberts in any case. It’s clear that both Robins and Lampard will have a direct line to the owner. Even if we bring in a DoF who will arguably be the manager’s boss should that materialise. Her job description and role is pretty clear to...

I think Rudoni deserves a start. I’d like to see us trying Sheaf, Torp and Rudoni. The one thing I liked at points in the second half was Torp operating in half spaces in the opposition 1/3. It’s nothing against Eccles, I just feel like our ball movement is predictable with both Eccles and...

You had Kelly there too when needed and that leadership he and Fadz brought to the team was worth just as much as a Hamer or Vik. We kept 22 clean sheets that season and we scored 58 goals, less than the 23/24 season and even tracking behind this season. The root of all our problems is the...

Fans love Bassette’s work rate (rightly so) whilst overlooking that he’s actually wasting a lot of energy and his work in the box is inferior to Simms and Wright. If anything, I want Bassette and BTA coming off the bench against tired defenders. I almost preferred it when we had less strikers...

Same and jumped in at £550… I have the displeasure of having a 95% attendance record this season (home and away). Like many others, I was emotionally drained after the FA Cup semi final. At this rate, it’ll be Feb before the grey hairs start appearing.

He was de facto captain last season so I don’t believe being official club captain makes much difference. Not many of our players you could say are doing better than last season. Wright scored goals but his individual performances attracted criticism often (which was OTT). Ultimately, that’s...

Yep, paid £5m for him to play 3 games which is a mick take. Parachute payments just kill a lot of competition in our league.

Wouldn’t surprise me if we’ve been winning in 70m all season… 😂 Take out Middlesbrough it’s probably less than 20.

OP here is lazy. We’ve pulled things back from many losing positions and that’s a sign of good character. The issue is probably that they’ve been coached badly over the last 5-6 months, something the ITKs have picked up in previous insights.

I do feel Bassette is being thrust into a start berth too early. His goal v Sheff U was good and he obviously impacted the game with his aggressiveness and his work rate is phenomenal which endears fans. If he is Vik mk2 he also needs to beef up and improve just as Vik had to. That all said...