chinapig

Why careful? I don't think anybody thinks it is forbidden to question Nigel sometimes while still thinking he is the right man for the job.

Poor signing indeed but that still leaves the question of why Nigel signed a player he presumably knows well but now passes him over in favour of picking almost anybody out of position at right back. Is that not a legitimate question? It's perfectly possible to be pro Nigel but still question some of his decisions.

No doubt there are reasons, particularly Tanner's absence, but it would be nice to know why Simpson was signed ,presumably as a player Nigel trusted, yet we play a whole series of makeshift options at right back. Not that I expect anyone to have the nerve to ask Nigel so I expect Simpson will leave quietly in the summer and no more will be said.

It's a question that should be asked but I doubt anybody will have the nerve.?

I remain supportive of Nigel but the one thing I expected from him this season was an improvement in our defensive record. So far little or no sign of that so it's fair to ask questions of him.

Their CEO was on Kieran Maguire's podcast this week. Reckons they have a bottom 3 budget.

This is usually only said about left footed players despite right footed ones invariably being weaker on their left.

We won't know how much Covid might have impacted fees until the summer window. My guess is that Prem clubs will try to drive prices down compared to the past, knowing the financial damage EFL clubs have suffered. We shall see.

Yes, he was basically a clogger when he started. In fact in our fights against relegation in those days we were a pretty dirty side! But he transformed himself from that into one of the best we have ever had of course.

Apparently the only barrier is the claim from Boro. Oh, hang on ...

False equivalence is the correct term. Many of us are, and have been for a while, critical of Steve for allowing Ashton to mess up our finances while telling us what a great job he was doing. There aren't many, if any, arguing against and we didn't suddenly realise there was an issue when the latest accounts were published. I and others have dismissed Gould's claim that we missed out on £30m in fees as special pleading and hypothetical nonsense. Again, I don't recall anybody responding that he was justified. But at least Gould has acknowledged that we may have to accept a points deduction etc. and we are not heading for administration. Incompetent yes, cheating no. Contrast with Derby fans cheering Morris on as he cheated then tried to avoid the consequences by dragging the process out as long as possible, laughing that he had the EFL on strings etc. right up to the point he put them into administration. Then it all became the EFL's fault. So identically different then.?

I blame the parents!?

Yep, should have said © Harry.?

If you're in a hole stop digging.

By an "owner" who, it turns out, is actually a minority shareholder. A case of Sunderland till I lie??

If I've told you once I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate. Anyway he's more like peak Pele.?

If I recall correctly. I know, text abbreviations can be a pain. But so can typing if I recall correctly every time.?

It was actually being reported on Friday according to 5 Live earlier today. Perhaps they forgot to tell him??

We actually wanted him earlier but lost out to Wigan iirc.

Crikey, if their defence is fragile (31 conceded, 4th best in the Championship) what is ours (59 conceded, 3rd worst)?

Pardon?

You won't find any climate scientist attributing a single storm to climate change. Indeed you will find plenty of quotes from the last few days stressing that point. And climate and weather aren't the same thing. https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/13/whats-the-difference-between-weather-and-climate/

Interesting thanks. Do you have a link to a source for that? If so I can see the process getting a tad complicated. Does the EFL even have the capacity to verify claims for instance?

Quite, not much job satisfaction there. Though I'm sure he was involved in finding promising youngster Andy Carroll.?

Is anyone going to ask Gould how he justifies the £30m claim? Looks like a hypothetical extrapolation from past sales to me. If not, exactly which players would we have raised an aggregate £30m from bearing in mind that Semenyo and Scott didn't have the profile they have now and we tried to offload Massengo to Brum?