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Lots of players have been released or taken up options on; so now clubs are slowly beginning to sign people and formulate their squads, so I thought it a good time to start this thread!

I'll start off with possibly THE Championship signing of the summer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22938995 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22938995)

Thoughts?

Funny signing for Barnsley, the guy is supposed to be really good, but apparently he was only being chased by Barnsley and Huddersfield.

I am looking foward to another exciting season.

It's not often we sign players from Bayern Munich!

The big concern seems to be his ability to stay fit, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do for us.

We have a new Chairman (ex Man Utd director, Maurice Watkins) and CEO (ex football agent) already this summer so things should improve in the behind the scenes running of the club from the old corner-shop mentality, and of course we have Flicker back in charge with the same backroom team.

Our 2013 form was good enough for the top 6 based on the league table from 1st Jan, and we look to be moving in the right direction, so this is definitely the most optimistic I've been for a new season in many a year.  Looks like Luke Steele is on his way out, which will be a loss, but not one that will devastate us.

Next step is to get O'Grady signed up from Wednesday, and to persuade Martin Crainie to sign a new contract.

Because of who started thread do I have to have a punt on Blackpool for promotion? :)

I will have no part of this thread.

I will.

 :'(

(http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/ripple11/th_r304_9_cherries-2_zpsc48a880b.jpg) (http://s621.photobucket.com/user/ripple11/media/r304_9_cherries-2_zpsc48a880b.jpg.html)

.....in before next season  :)

I will be getting involved once things look a bit better, Charlton fan :)

Agreed will be a great signing, quite suprised there wasn't more interest.

Our kit was released yesterday Man U's kit from last season so hopefully we do as well

#comeonyoureds

looking at the fixtures, wow alot of tough games!

Watford have about 5 players in total at the moment, but I'd expect us to go off among the favourites.  Hoping we drift a bit more after selling Vydra in the next week or so, and then it's definitely a back to trade if we go out to 20-1.

I expect Abdi, Ekstrand, Anya, Casetti, Battochio to return on permanent deals to add to Deeney, Forestieri, Hogg, Hoban, Hall, Doyley.

Vydra will leave, Chalobah won't return to this level and Zola doesn't fancy Pudil or Geijo.

We'll either resign Almunia, or get Schwarzer in goal with Bond as cover.

Varga will likely replace Chalobah (Hungarian international) but Middlesboro also interested.

Fabbrini will be the Vydra replacement.  Assombolanga will go to Sheff Utd on loan.  Angella will arrive on loan to strengthen the defence and Marco Faraoni will arrive as wing back to replace the Poodle.  The real coups will be in we can secure any of Merkel, Zilinksi or Kosecki although it is debatable whether any will want to play at this level.

The spectre of FFP hangs over Leicester City

We need to get the wage bill down and reshape the squad before being too competitive again so Wellens, Gallagher, Beckford, Danns, St Ledger, Drinkwater etc are available. Drinkwater is the only surprise here though he lost his place to a King/James combo from March onwards and there were rumours he wasn't happy.. All though have another year on their contracts and are not easy to shift. Several have indicated they will wait it out rather than go somewhere for less, so its a tough task to get rid, to then invest in younger and cheaper....

The gamble of investing heavily to get promoted pre FFP having failed, we now face the combined "expertise" of Terry Robinson from SUFC and Dave Richards from SWFC coming in in boardroom roles to oversee cost-cutting and to help out the frankly clueless owners, Doesn't fill me with much confidence.

Going to be an ultra competitive division again, and not too easy at this stage to see the Cardiff/Newcastle etc runaway winner.

Feel like QPR will either romp it or really struggle, depending on how happy Harry is with what he is allowed to bring in and is able to ditch.  No basis for this, just a hunch!

Random, but really like the new Charlton strip.  It's like a reverse of Man Utd's away kit last season.  Looks very smart.

Watford's strip is different, that is for sure.  No red at all.  I am undecided.

http://www.thehornetsshop.co.uk/

The "expertise" of those two hardly give you confidence.

Both SWFC and SUFC ultimately when backwards and debts spiralled.

I think you're right to be worried.

Bournemouth away first game get in! Nice weekend away, hopefully.

about 14 players, no management team, joy

luckily they brought in 26,000 season ticket holders before this mess :D

looking at bottom 8 for brighton this season IMO

In the process of building a temp stand at the away end ( instead of an empty space!)..........so don't bring too many :D

Watford close to signing Javier Acuna, a Paraguayan striker.  Anyone familiar? 

Thought you had an embargo?

Poyet announcement tomorrow apparently.

LOLZ

I'll lay 2/1 you finish in the bottom 8 if you like.

seen him about 3 times in last 2 seasons in la liga 2

decent player can play in any of the front 3 positions uptop looks to me to ultimately be a winger


if he settles and played a whole season i would go for about 12 goals in the championship

It's a "soft" embargo.  We can sign players, but just need to get pre-approval from Football League in case we are doing anything naughty.

Obviously this is a rumour, but it's from a source who has been pretty reliable in pervious seasons.  It's someone who posts on the forum of the local paper.

A large number of transfers have already been completed by Watford.  They will be ratified all at once by the FL (under the soft embargo).  They will be announced en masse at the end of next week when the squad assembles for pre-season training.  The squad is supposedly FAR stronger than last season and the signing of one player will surprise a few people.

Still some 14-1 about which is probably worth a dabble, or the 9/2 to be promoted.  Keep is small though till news is more concrete.

Wow drenthe and bridge gone to reading so far..

Been around poker way too much, saw the first line and insta thought Frequent Player Points.

laters poyet :)

rofl, hes on bbc3 for uruguay game.

Was cringeworthy watching it. He said that the BBC were the first people to tell him he was sacked while he was in the studio, and he looked gutted.

Have their been any replacements looking likely for Brighton for the manager spot?

Hi Oscar

<3

Huddersfield have resigned Stead, also got Paterson from Burnley and Hammil/Wolves.

Gonna be another tough season.

Hopefully get Vaughn back.

Any views on Sheff Wed this season please?

Likely improvers? Likely to reshape the squad at all?

Oscar Garcia loves to play attacking football
 Oscar Garcia took charge as Albion’s new head coach – and told fans he is “obsessed” with attacking football.


<3

McClaren to QPR? feel sorry for them :)

why? excellent coach

Forest were awful with him in charge.

Watford are sniffing around Lewis McGugan who is a free agent at the moment to boost the midfield numbers.  Forest fans seem divided on their forums about him though.

got loads of talent goes missing though

worthwhile signing though

Looks a done deal now.

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/10521128.Watford_set_to_sign_McGugan/

Leicester have just reached an agreement with peterborough for Gabby Zakuani they are offering jamie vardy or Schluup on loan plus 1 million

From the Poshy transfer rumours website thingy

Won't be schlupp

I have heard Vardy to Peterborough

Will score a hatful in L1

What happened to Vardy last season?  Injured?  Didn't see him feature at all in the 2nd half of the campaign.

a few niggling injuries Nov-Dec, by the time he was fit we had brought Wood in and were playing with a bigger one up top

Missed a lot of chances in Sept-Oct, would have been different if he was in form at that stage

Going to be a good one, but L1 is right at this stage for him

Bournemouth charging £60 for a pre season friendly albeit against Real Madrid

will help with ffp

Hardly.

We had 22k average and 6th lowest playing budget last season yet still lost £8m. This was our first season back in champ.

We also sold more pints than anyone in England at the ground.

All champ clubs are stuck in this so will make it an exciting league.

Good player for us, though tellingly mostly as a sub last season. Good luck to him.

Yes......important to get some quality pratice before gracing the Premiership.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/10521224.Cherries__Football_giants_Real_Madrid_to_play_at_Dean_Court/

Two years ago Leicester had Madrid, Mourinho and all, first XI as well, for a pre-season

We paid £1m to get it, charged £22 a non season ticket holder (ie not excessive) sold it out and made £4m in extra merchandise and promo (selling boxes for the day etc)

Bournemouth will do similarly as well, though obviously with a three sided ground and lower capacity the prices for punters to make the costs work are higher

Must be nice people paying you £1 million to show up for a pre-season knock around!

What was the score Tighty?

was a joke!

The grizzling has begun  ;)

eagles_tel says July 4, 2013 8:16pm

I don't get it I thought Watford were under a transfer embargo? How can they continue to sign these players - it's an outrage. I shall be writing a strongly worded letter to the FA as this is a shambles. I fully support Ian Holloway who is an inspiration to all eagles fans but how can he do his job when we get pipped to players like Acuna by Watford who we beat in the play-off final and have to settle for Carlton Cole and Dwight Gayle for £8.5m. They are signing much better players than us this guy Faraoni is miles ahead of Joel Ward. How are we supposed to compete in the prem when we resort to signing Watford rejects like this Bangura chap. Disgraceful.

God God, Dung - some of the Selhurst lot refuse to 'get over it'     .....     imagine the bile if we'd have won the bloody Play Offs?

I'm liking the new players coming in.

The Pozos 'scout and sign' regime seems to be light years ahead of 'Premier League' Crystal Palace'!

I think if it wasn't for me, you guys wouldn't much like Palace :D

I dont :)

Charlton played first friendly, the annual warm up away to welling we won 5-0, only have one senior striker as both Haynes and Fuller have been released not fussed about Fuller but Haynes when fit is quality :(
On bright news one of our u21's who scored 38 goals last year in the development league and cup double he got a hattrick and only played the first half, hopefully he can make the step up. If we sign 1-2 good strikers we will be  up there playoffs defo

Charlton are skint and looking to sell. If the few young lads come through and score goals like you say it might push them to edge of playoffs. Was one of them at loan to bromley or someone close last season and banged in loads?  My sources are pessimistic under current owners and their attitude to where they see the club going...


Leeds are a weird one, spent £1m of a crew midfielder :) maybe they had a bob or two. Just signed a sponsorship deal with sky bet a local Leeds firm :P  

Blackpool look fucked

We do appear skint but i have a good feeling that will change, no source just a hunch

We had Smith out on loan to bromley i think, he is apparentally more ready for first team then Piggott (person who got hatrick yesterday) but i still think well get a striker or 2, hopefully a gem :)

COYR

Rumors of Grant Holt to Wigan. Good signing if true.

Rumours? It was confirmed on BBC radio yesterday afternoon.

Still no signings for us, not looking good.

Well I guess anyone with Jordan Rhodes in this division has a chance as he scores 20 goals in poor teams never mind good ones.  Will put them down as one to consider on the spreads "buy" column.

Spreads not out yet, but so far, from tips on here and my own opinions I have:

Positives:  Watford, Reading,  Birmingham, Blackburn, Barnsley
Negatives:  QPR, Forest, Brighton, Bournemouth, Blackpool, Wigan
I have yet to form views on Leeds, Bolton, Leicester, Ipswich of the other front runners

This list will need to be whittled down considerably of course over the next month

I cant be having Wigan at all this season.

I am not a fan of Coyle at all and although the signing of Holt looks ok on first view i am not so sure (along with the non scoring Fortune from WBA)

Ross McCormack turned down chance to move to Blackpool last week after £1m bid accepted. True or not?

Some silly prices for winning this League (esp Busto Down the Bush @ 6/1);

I think Watford and Leicester could be about right, around tens, or elevens - but Middlesboro @ 25/1? Seems long!

This year could heavily depend on squad sizes - and a lot of teams are shedding players at an alarming rate.

We're quite comfortable in this department down the Vic - every Ryan Air flight into Luton Airport seems to be full of more imported Pozo Progeny.

The pedigree of some the players arriving at Watford is truly impressive (on paper) and the owners seem to pick them up for the price of a packet of winegums.

Looking at the horrendous sums that are being spent on very ordinary players by some of the Prem clubs. it makes you wonder     .....

It seems that having a Serie A, and a La Liga, outfit as twin feeder clubs could be the 'Championship Blueprint'

Very much like the team this year Luther.  Still feel we need a defensive midfielder and one more centre back to be completely happy with the squad.  According to reports young Murray has lost his beer gut over the summer, so he could be the centre mid, but I hear they are training him as a wing back.

Upson set to sign for us.

Conceded 0.5 goals per game for the 20 or so games he played in the league :)

We've been very quiet so far and I'm sure us Wednesday fans are finding it difficult to realise which way the team is going at the moment.

We have signed a highly rated talent from Burton & Helan from Man City who was on loan, but other interests was with Kevin Davies, Gary Taylor Fletcher, SEB, Phil Bardsley & Kenwyne Jones. Really would like to see Bardsley and SEB here, but can't personally see it. If it wasn't for two very weak teams in Donny and Yeovil coming up, then I'd be worried about our chances. We have so much deadwood in the team though. Not sure how we can ever get towards the middle of the table with Prutton, coke, semedo, Llera & Madine in the squad, who most of them are likely to be starters.

Think Madaric wants out, this FFP should personally be a massive benefit to us, but instead..... I'm not sure we are going to use it to our advantage.

I wouldn't be too happy just yet. Would say at Palace he could be guaranteed a first team spot and I think we would be prepared to shed the cash as well. Must admit I thought he was a goner to Cardiff though and this has shocked me.

Hmmm Adam chicksen signed to replace bridge.

Only seen him play once and was alrite.

Not sure about this one!

There's a 'young prospect' at Watford, Sean Murray, who was offered the 'Prem Dream' by a couple of clubs (before Zola arrived) - and he turned them down too.

He asked his Dad for advice      ....      as his agent was itchiing for Sean to move.

John - a QPR fan - who I've known since a lad (a bit of a boozing legend around Waford in the local pubs since the 80s - much admired for his Marcel Marceauesque  interpretation of a log bobbing along in a river) in a chance fleeting moment of clarity said to his boy,"Why shit on the club that's bought you this far, to go and play in the reserves elsewhere? If you want the money, go - if you want the chance of first team football stay."

I think there is a growing trend not to 'move too soon' - also I've also heard from scouts & coaches that a lot of kids now avoid offers from top Prem Academies where they've got little or no, chance of progression.

Reality could be starting to sink in at the roots of the game, though I doubt it will ever permeate the clueless upper echelons at the FA, who are without doubt the most detrimental factor to the advancement of English football.

 

Bit of different case Luther.  Think Ince is ready to step up right now after being a first team regular for 2 full seasons.  This once seems strange to me.  Maybe he just doesn't see the point of going to Cardiff where he feels they may well come back down and is looking for a bigger team.

Very true, Dung - I was just commenting on 'emerging trends' really.

As for 'stepping up', I truly think that Ince will do himself a right favour by getting further experience under his belts before moving.

When you observe the basic mistakes made, and the woeful lack of stamina of some of the younger Prem League starlets' its enough to make you weep.

The risk he takes is Blackpool having a stinker of a season which might reduce his appeal if his form inevitably goes down with it.

If I were him I'd be angling for a move to a Fulham/Southampton type team so he gets lots of game time but doesn't have much risk of being back in the Championship this time next year.

Watford have signed Ireny Santos da Silva who is an experienced Brazilian hatchet man who can also pass the ball from Granada.  Think that is the final piece of the puzzle as he replaces Chalobah.  We might need one more centre back as Hoban and Nosworthy are on the long term injury list.

Squad looks superb now, assuming Fabbrini and Acuna can replace the goals of Vydra.

14-1 still available at Coral.

3-5-2

Almunia
Angella, Ekstrand, Cassetti
Faraoni, Abdi, Ireney, Fabbrini, Romero
Acuna, Deeney

Subs:  Bond, Hoban, Doyley, Anya, Pudil, Battochio, Hogg, Murray, McGugan, Forestieri

Nice :)
         

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/top-goalscorer

Any thoughts anyone?

Acuna.

Sure is quoted.

Based on jan onwards, ulloa. He will be out pen taker I think now we are not signing david.

On our pre season tour, saw us beat getafe 1-0 last night.

Pretty much continuing from last season. Just need two midfielders, and a left back.

I like Ulloa, but so much depends on what team Brighton put together by he start of the season.  At the moment, I don't expect them to be free scoring.  Still, for Catellon/Almeria/Brighton Ulloa has 78 goals in 185 appearances which is very good.

Certainly proved it over a long period and a higher level than Acuna (21 in 56 for Girona).  I do expect Watford to score significantly more goals than Brighton this season though, but much depends on how Zola rotates as Hornets have 4 genuine first team strikers now for the 2 berths (plus Assombolonga and that whizzkid from Reading) so game time might be limited whereas I don't think it will be for Ulloa.

Watford players all confirmed as signed on perms this morning.

Get in       .....         

sounds like a strong team, although our first 11 will be very strong come August, just got f*** all on the bench!

What profit/loss did you boys make in your latest set of accounts?

Not sure - we normally make a heavy loss even after selling players, but that was before Pozzo.  Don't think we have had post takeover accounts done yet.  Attendences are up, but presumably wages up also.

kemy agustein set to join us, quality signing.

left back and midfielder and we have a top 6 side easily. nathan jones, who did wonders with charltons youth team and speaks spanish (and an ex player) joins, along with two very experienced spanish staff, one who has 15 years at valencia.

things looking a lot better now. thought it would all go pear shaped.

Watford travel to Poshies on Wednesday for a friendly, will report back.

Sheff Utd just took U20's England Captain Coady on loan until January.

Sheff Utd are in league 1!

Steve Lomas is making some good changes at Millwall. Their problem last year was scoring goals but Morrisson is back on a years loan and it looks like Scott Macdonald is about to sign from Middlesborough, they could make a good front two and it's a big improvement from last year. The squad has also been improved with Richard Chaplow signing from Southampton, Nicky Bailey joining from M'Boro, plus a couple of other experienced players strengthening the squad.

Definitely top half potential and I think they'll perform a lot better than the bookies think. I've had a few quid on them getting promoted at 25/1, yeah it's a bit optimistic but I think the play offs are a possibility. 

Incredibly disappointing to be a Wednesday fan at the moment, we've made no moves whatsoever. If it wasn't for two weak sides in Yeovil and Donny coming up, then is be very worried about our chances.

We need strikers & quick.

I struggle to understand Barnsley signings though. COG is very 'meh', Nyatanga wasn't overly wanted by the faithful at Bristol City & Cofie made no impression at League One level.

I was looking into the future....?

I know it's only pre-season but I saw them play Brentford last week where they had a pretty much full strength team I'm lead to believe. They were awful - unfit and several leagues below the Brentford lot in terms of ability on the ball. Lomas has a hell of a job on his hands. I'd be very shocked if they made the top half. I'd expect bottom 6.

Looking forward to your report Chompy.  Saw highlights of the Stevenage game and we were fizzing it around like fancy dans.  Hope they haven't got too cocky.

To be fair - Millwalls new front pairing does seem a significant upgrade.

Going to see us at Crawley tomorrow.

Football ground number 77 :)

At Lewes vs a Brighton development XI tonight and Brighton have a player on the teamsheet named Matthew Benham. A trialist they don't want to name? Seems like its probably a Tony Bloom troll.

Why did you go to this?? I work in lewes was going to pop down but sacked it off for first team tomorrow.

We had a trialist from Chelsea playing whose England u18. He's already played one game for us in pre season.

I'm a Lewes season ticket holder. We looked pretty decent. Not sure any of those kids are likely to trouble your first team, though I'd imagine the best youngsters would be with the first team during the preseason.

Wow impressive.

Yep that's our under 18s. Our good youth players will play 45 mins at Crawley like the other friendlies. The striker who played tonight has played 2 or 3 first team games 18 months ago though.

I work in bell lane, by the swan pub! Have my lunch down by lewes ground usually, nice little town.

Good luck for the new season.

He's real https://twitter.com/MattBenham_

COG is far from 'meh'.His form was outstanding in the second half of the season. Nyatanga didnt do too well last year but he was solid when on loan with us from Stoke. Coife wont be starting for us, he's one for the development squad. We've also signed Jennings who could be class and a big unit of a defender today who I dont know much about. We've kept all the players we wanted from last year. We're one striker short of a very good championship squad.

I have so much faith in Dave Flitcroft. The bloke installs confidence in the fans and players. There's been some exciting changes at board level too. Any Barnsley fan will tell you its the most optimistic we've been since our return to the championship. Cue 0-6 drubbing to Wigan on opening day.

Crawley looked good last night. Will be up there, we won 2-0 with our reserves but they knocked ball around very well and have a good bright young manager.

Notice sheff wed have signed a 6ft 6 striker.

HOOOOOOOOF

2 Barnsley fans on one forum.

Is that some sort of record?

Heh, seems com that Bloom would have a player with that name on the books of his club.

Watched Barnsley lose 3-1 to a very good Bordeaux team tonight, but am encouraged by what I saw, particularly from new signings Jennings and M'voto.

Bordeaux are the current French Cup holders.  The next game at Oakwell is against the current FA Cup holders, which is a coincidence I expect never to be repeated.

Camel I think the record currently stands at 4 on www.racingferrets.org.

Sherrif, anything more to report on m'voto? I dont know anything other than he's big and we poached him from under donnys nose.

He did everything right in his 45 minutes tonight - won everything in the air and made a couple of crucial tackles and blocks.  Early days but he could well be the commanding presence we need in defence.

FYP

Are you sure you are close to a very good championship side? All the players I mentioned came from teams who was unwanted by teams that finished just above you or below you. Jennings could be very good though, not a clue about m'voto though, it's not in my view a team that will be again much clear of the drop zone for another season. The positives are that you don't start the season with hill though!

As things stand though, 2/1 top SY team doesn't look bad compared to our quietness

We've strengthened a squad that had top 6 form over the 2nd half of last season since Flitcroft took charge.

Most of our signings were to re-sign all the out of contract players such as Steele and Crainie.  Every one we offered a new contract to signed, which says a lot about the management team, plus making O'Grady permanent.

Saw last night that we're 6/1 to finish in the top half.  Will be having a dabble on that as we're going to surprise a few people this season and I expect the margins between 8th-17th ish to be really tight again this year.

Flicker wants one more striker for the squad (McLean from Hull looks the most likely at the moment).  With that we'd have as good a squad as any reasonable BFC fan could expect us to have to begin the season, plus a management team who are genuinely inspiring to listen to.

Saw Jennings for the first time last night.  Very skillful and looks like he'll be a other playmaker reminiscent of Butterfield's role a couple of years ago.

The needle is definitely pointing upwards.

Sheriff

We were chatting on TfT

Barnsley 12-1 Top Yorkshire side

Leeds 4/5 then Wed, Donny, hudds at 9/2 up. Middlesborough not included in mostmarkets

Barnsley the outsider

Obviously you need Leeds to be worse than expectations, but the rest look much of a muchness, and Barnsley look value

thoughts?

Sporting Index season points are out - I'm quoting mid prices.

QPR favs (75.5)
Watford/Reading second (73)

Forest/Leicester look a sell to me (69.5)
Bournemouth look a sell (63)
Blackburn look a buy (62.5)
Barnsley look a buy (52.5)


http://www.sportingindex.com/spread-betting/football-domestic/championship/m4184804_1/championship-points-2013-2014

Happy to do a few trades with people if they have any views.  We can sort out margining arrangements.  Happy to do very small trades if people are new to spreadbetting.

12/1 looks huge, on first sight.  Definitely value, even with the rose-tinted specs.

I think we were 15/8 on the top South Yorkshire team market I looked at yesterday, so this price is basically driven by Leeds and Huddersfield.  Of the two, I'd be more concerned about Huddersfield being the spoiler, as they've invested well over the summer, IMO, and Robins is a good manager.

I really like the Top Half bet at 6/1 though, and we have +30 points on the handicap list, which are my other markets of choice.

Basically, the bookies (unsurprisingly) appear not to have given any credence to the post-Flitcroft improvment last season and we're in our usual place of top 3 relegation favourites.  I think you can find value around us generally, as we have, if anything, strengthened in a division where FFP will adversely impact quite a few teams compared to last season.  Rather than the usual optimism based on hope, the facts show that this squad (largely) under this manager last season were a top 6 side over 20-odds games.  If you remove the exceptional impact of the relegation dogfight last year, then I still think we're a team capable of making the top 12 at least to the extent where 6/1 is value.

Agustein agent says he's joined us. Great signing.

Four more signings this week are rumoured to be happening.

'Very strong championship squad' might have been a poor choice of words as it suggests I think we're a top six team. I should have said something like a solid championship squad. Imo this years squad should comfortabley avoid relegation and I wouldnt be surprised with a mid table finish.

Went to Watford v Granada today - purred like a Rolls Royce in a 2-0 win.

Very "after you sir" style pre season friendly though as both teams not wanting to injure the player pool so not sure how much can be read into how much time everyone had on the ball.

Spanish Dave re joins us, turned down Forest. Good lad.

Three :)

Jonathan Hogg any good ?

Formerly Watford.

Will do a decent job for you - Zola's signed players from a 'different planet' to replace the likes of JH recently.

I didn't even realise that the season started on Saturday, this close season has gone very quickly. I'm not even excited to be honest, weird.

Hard working, puts himself about a bit and reasonably skillful.  Good motor on him.  An above average Championship central midfielder.  Zola didn't want to sell him, but Hogg wanted a move up North so we decided to let him go.

Good signing for Huddersfield (not sure how much they paid for him, but probably a £500k player)

Lots of SkyBet price boosts ahead of the FL season

Barnsley 13/2 top half, Brighton 18/1 amongst them.....

http://www.skybet.com/football/sky-bet-championship/event/15456944?aff_id=7945&dcmp=snt-bet-championshippb-tw

Some tragic news.....


http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/07/29/former-birmingham-city-striker-christian-benitez-dies-aged-27/

Very sad news.  From reading what the father says it seems the hospital might have not seen him quickly which is disasterous with suspected appendicitus?

Elliot Grandin anyone, what was he like for Blackpool please? Think we're getting him.

Cheers Dung and Loof.

Damn - sold a good prospect to Chumpy's mob    P/Boro to pee Div3 probably now    ....    get on.

Just went to our fans forum event.

Bloom said poyet asked to leave four days before palace league game (3-0).

He then says on BBC in the confed cup game that he has always wanted to stay. What a complete twat poyet is.

Yes, because boards and chairmen always tell the truth

Erm poyet asked to leave.

This is a FACT, and is the truth since its been with lawyers.

Why does it really matter now?

New manager in place, new season fresh start

he is a first class snake, who is an extremely bad loser.

Charlton finally have bought a couple of strikers! now we have a chance playoffs IMO

Sordell, i have seen little of him but he had a good spell @ watford and on loan from Bolton who have a very strong frontline this year any thoughts? i assume should be a great buy but i dont see us playing 4-4-2 from the off and will start with Kermo, possibly bring him in a 4-3-3 formation or if our midfield is solid could see us playing 2 up front after half a dozen games

Simon Church, always used to be raved about as im sure he was either challenging or up front when Shane Long first came on the scene? or maybe he replaced him and was supposed to be similar but not really heard much of him of late

would appreciate any thoughts from any Watford/Reading/Bolton fans?

Sordell not for me but he is young enough to improve still and has a good attitude to life and the game (article today in the telegraph was very good)

Church runs all day, gives 100% every game lacks a bit of something to make him stand out but a very good team player and a solid signing

Whether either can get 15+ goals i would doubt but not impossible

Sordell was excellent for us, although I was happy to get £2.5 million for him when he went to Bolton.  Doubt he'll ever cut it in the Premier League but definitely a good signing in the Champ.

Money absolutely pilling into Watford overnight on the spreads - up 1.5 points now almost level favourites with QPR

On today's evidence, Wigan are a class above any of the teams that were in this division last season and are capable of romping this league (although I suspect I'll be saying the same about Reading soon enough.  Not so sure about QPR though).  The only problem I see for them in going straight back up is the Europa League campaign getting in the way.

They're surprising physical, which I suspect is the change from Martinez to Coyle, but have tonnes of quality through the team and plenty of depth in the squad.

We contained them for most of the 1st half, but gave Watson too much space and let him hit a great shot from long-range.  Their 2nd (albeit Holt looked offside) killed it, and Jennings getting sent off 5 mins into his debut as sub really killed it and it was a question of how many from then on.  The last goal will probably get highlight reels for the number of passes leading upto it.

To be fair, I expected us to lose today, so I'm far from dejected and the only surprise to me was seeing exactly how good a team they are.  7 years in the Premiership = massive gulf in class in this division.

Blackpool away next, which will be a more realistic test of how competitive we are.  Flitcroft is still looking for another striker and it's definitely the area where we're most lightweight at the moment.

Positive performance for Blackburn lots to be optimistic about this season.  Should of had the game won imo, but hopefully as the team gels and gains confidence we'll be able to close out games like this and be play off contenders.  Top 10 is a realistic target and under Gary Bowyer (who the players like and respect) we should be able to put last season behind us.

Emile Sinclair is still available if Barnsley want him...

Any hudds town fans on here??

Looking forward to Sunday tighty? Will it be a big home crowd?

Aye lad.

Should be a close game. 27,000+ probably. Good test for both sides to see where they are

How you guys looking for tomorrow night? It has to be a must win for you! Will you have a full strength side out? Are you coming to see the league cup runners up?  We have just sold out 4000 city fans should make it a fun day out

Should imagine you will outnumber our fans, expecting half the team that played Forest to start.

We have a terrible record in this competition, gl.

Why is it a must win? Championship clubs throw this fixture every year.

"Must win" over states it.

Under FFP most championship clubs should take the cup competitions a lot more seriously this year. They need the revenue from cup runs to keep those wage/turnovers ratios within the limits to avoid the FFP penalties

Starting tomorrow we'll see if that comes to pass, once we see the line ups

Lose vs Bradford and it does not look good really! I think hudds will go down this year

Why? We lost 3-0 to Swindon and finished 4th.

Victor are offering 11-10 about Ulloa being Brightons top scorer, fill yer boots.

He's the only goal scorer we have in the team, coupled with the fact he is very good. We tend to play 1up and Barnes has been playing more in midfield in the friendlies, couple that with CMS being both injured and shit. Will lay a big price we lose Ulloa at any point during the season so can't see any reason why he is not very short.

Is there much money in a League Cup run these days?  Need to get to quarters really before attendances pick up?

Hope not!  I've bought their points - quite like the look of Hudds this year and expect them to finish in the middle.

Errrrmmmm;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23583380

......        no violence.

Dopey prat on a horse mows down a steward (about 1 min into video)    .....     Neddy doesn't deviate from set course.

Conclusion:

Excited fans dance about on a pitch after winning a derby game

Ince howls like a big girl - more to do with his crap side losing? (the same man that walked off at Vicarage Road making abuse gestures to the home fans, last season. Watford fans were so incensed, they put down their thermos flasks and waved their clappy sticks in a threatening manner).

Media      ......     "Oooooooooooooo. a football 'riot'" - let's sensationalize!

Loofah thinks what's all the fuss about - plus, that myopic jockey shouldn't be let near a bleedin' horse again any time too soon.

Tends to be a little 'argy bargy' on derby days everywhere, JJ - sort of 'traditional'     ........

A Blackpool fan once explained to me the rivalry with PNE - Orange Proddies vs the Catlicks of Priest Town.

Is it true, or a load of baloney?

I've often wondered.

A very interesting set of line ups across the cup tonights, lots of teams fielding full or near close to full sides tonight

Went to the game tonight.

Very worrying times. Oscar the first hoof ball Spanish coach I've seen :(

We did lose 3-0 to Swindon and no goals in our first two league games last season though...

Second half until the red card i thought we looked very lively, obviously need some work done with Augustein's obsession with giving the ball away

Come on?? Agustein was quality. Our only positive out of that match.

You said similar about ulloa, when I corrected you ;)

Same will happen here!! Guy is going to be awesome if he stays fit.

What game were you watching?? Yes he did a number of excellent things, some of his long/through balls and crosses were worldies. He also gave the ball away in our own half on more than 5 occasions, 2 of those times he tried to dribble around 3 players in our own half.....

He managed to have 3 sub 10yrd passes intercepted in the middle of the park and played balls into danger that the likes of Spanish and Ince had to dig us out of.

Like i said i can see he is class but he has a lot of work to do before he can start for us imo, we are not a team that scores lot of goals so retention of the ball is crucial, why do you think we dont start LuaLua???

We were the 5th highest scorers with the best defence, i'd say we score a decent amount of goals. I only saw one misplaced pass, and bridcutt who was on the pitch for like 30 mins gave the ball away 3-4 times. Was useless at Leeds too.

Kemy was tired from the 70th minute, seeing as the last time he played 90 mins was about 2009 :P

Think we will struggle this season, style doesn't fit our players. Looks like he just wants the ball as far up the pitch as possible and doesn't care how it gets there. Crowds already dropping, about 4000 unsold seats for our first league game at home....crazy prices though cheapest seat is over £30 that is free.

Calderon has had his red card rescinded at least, still joke tilting as its cost us a place in the next round.

Leeds are a good price for away game on sky this Sunday vs leicester. There is no way we are 4/1 chance to win there. I feel 5/2 is about right given its only the 2nd game of the season and the teams are settling in.

Lumping my £5 on an away win.

Draw. Should be a close game.

There's several games across the divisions where I think the bookies have over-reacted to opening day performances.  Bradford are very short due to Carlisle capitulation against Orient.  Oxford also short after winning 4-1 at Pompey.  Feel it's best to pick the less obvious stuff this week as you can't make massive assumptions after 1 game imo.

Agree Leeds look big at 4-1.

I also think Leeds are a bet at 4-1 but no way they are 5-2

Mmmmmm     ......     the 'smart money?' piled on Watford early, at a very generous 14/1, because all eyes were on Onest Arry's Loopy Oops.

I know early results mean bugger all in the most open League in this country, but we're off to a good start.

6 - 1      ......     and Bournemouth were by far the better team in the first half!

We were close last year but, as I posted a while back, Zola has strengthened that squad with some very impressive signings/loans in pre-season.

It could be a very good season for the small club at the end of the Metropolitan Line       ......        "We're the famous Watford FC, and we come from Italy".

This description applies today for sure.

We looked absolutely useless today. New manager is clueless.

He notched today. Looks like great bet imo

Well the odds on Leeds just before kickoff came in to 3/1 ish so just laid it off, Draw was ok result for Leeds. Came with a game plan and it worked fine.

Interesting conversation I heard about yesterday between Tony Mowbray and Chris Powell after the game on Saturday in which Boro got a deserved win. He said to Powell that he expected the sack last week after losing their first game of the season! he said the club expectations were so high and the investment so much he was virtually living on a game to game existence.  Seems weird to me, obv. they lose in cup but had about 10 clear cut chances and should have won by 8 in his words.

Leeds will need to do more than come for a point to get top six in this league, but its early days

Similarly we'll have to do more than play a wishy washy 3-5-2 that's really 5-3-2 to do the same

Draw was a fair result. Neither will have Watford quaking.

Need 1-2 center backs, a winger and we should be close. Mills from Bolton was done deal until Freedman pulled the plug at the last min, not great. Early days yet though, happy with the fact we could go there to frustrate and try and nick it. 4 points from Brighton and leicester is good given our budget,

Essaïd Belkalem an eye-catching loan signing for Watford. Lots of Ligue 1 interest in him before he left Algeria.

The above tweet from Andy Brassil a man who is much respected on the european scene.

Another coup for Watford

Some of the Palace faithful thought the same of Freedman at the start of this season. Remember he only had us 17th in the last season and rock bottom three games in to the start of last season so it really didn't look good for him. And then it was pure magnificence.

I think it is foolish to judge him at least until another 8 more games. And also you were mentioning Kemy Augustien as being a tasty player when up against Newport, he played for Palace and didn't much set the world alight.

Least you got the two wins, no matter what the opposition its a good solid start. Ince will do well to get them mid table with limited resources.

Would you not class what you chairman is doing as running the club well or just tight?

We are away to Leeds at the weekend, expecting a loss, but somehow think we could get our first point, in the middle of a somewhat injury crisis

You won't

at least we are not the only ones then

orlandi, bridcutt, bruno, CMS, hoskins, chicksen already out of which 4 are 100% starters, and possibly even CMS would start in this long ball style.

From what I could make out after spending a few months reading fansonline/henrystreet every day earlier this year, he's a parasite and has siphoned as much of the parachute money out of the club as he could.

'Funds are available', but I get the feeling that he would probably want some form of repayment vehicle in place, as opposed to it being an investment :D

Joking of course, but I think the bloke is a wrongun and it's a terrible shame for what seem to be a great bunch of fans.

Last season when we had a terrible run the fans turned against Dave Jones, but I was happy for him to stay, I believed he could keep us up, but now I am just fed up of him & he is losing the plot.

His style of play is not brilliant on the eye and we are a counter attacking team, even at home. If we continue in this way then we are never going to be able to get out of this league, of course this wasn't going to happen this season anyway, but it could have helped us develop for the season after that. It is not just this, but there is somewhat of an injury crisis and he has gone and told Gary Madine that he will not be playing, does he now know we have hardly any players available? Yeah so be it, don't play him, but don't come out publicly and say he won't be playing in the next few games because of the courtcase you numbnut!

Furthermore a season that could have seen us develop & with the introduction of the FFP... this season could have been something, but no, it will be at this early stage, a season of us trying to stay over that dotted line.

I actually can't believe I am wanting Jones out already!

Mandaric is doing eactly what he did with us

He'll sack Jones, bring in someone to stabilise it, try and stay up..all the while  not investing in the team in the hope of flipping it on to an overseas owner.

He's an asset trader, and a good one too...but the good times will roll for Wednesday if and when he does sell to a wealthy buyer as a "trophy"

unless of course the owners do what they did with us, and waste the investment (£100m) on inflated transfers, contracts, though under FFP the investment has to be lower these days

Listening to Paul Walker on Football Heaven last night it sounded as though the club had made the call on Madine and Jones was having to abide by it, rather than it being his decision.

There is already someone interested in the club, apparently the ex Birmingham owners, but according to Mandaric (which I do not believe), he 12 months ago had already put £20m in and another year has passed, I do not see much margin, if any. But then again, I do not see how he sold Leicester for £40 (although I am sure you will tell me).

I don't listen to Radio Sheffield that much Sherrif, but I think it is common knowledge Jones isn't keen on Madine. It is going to be a long hard season for all of South Yorkshire, once again, even at this early stage.

I don't think Bridcutt is injured at all, Andrews comes in as a sudden loan for the season combined with this 'injury' makes it look like Bridcutt is off

Great that the Leeds vs Sheff game is on TV but its Cat A. tickets! Brighton was on average £15 cheaper to watch and not on TV. Makes no sense, still expect  28k + if Sheff bring a boat load.

Leeds against Wednesday, live on Sky and hardly any run up around this for some weird reason. Weirdly enough, I don't have that much of an interest in Leeds, yet everyone would call them "Leeds scum", but I am all meh, it's actually not one of the fixtures I look out for in the season.

I can't seem to work out why Leeds are 11/10 in some places to beat us, I would have them as odds on shots and most bookies are around the same mark. We are down to the bare bones and now have given Madine a holiday along with JJ being suspended. I was going to put this in for TfT, but market is tight, no value to be had, but for me, Leeds are looking a bet here.

We are not very creative either, which is disappointing and assuming with how poor our defence is, I would assume we would need to get on the scoresheet to get anything.

Stephen ward joins us on loan, finally a left back.

If he gets to the form he had a couple of years ago it will be a good move for us. A lot of height in our team now.

lol I knew things were going badly at Brighton, but ouch.

He is without doubt my most hated player, mainly because of how he featured so heavily for Ireland and it's annoying how much first team experience he is getting with decent clubs, when his ability shouldn't allow it. It felt amazing to see what Zaha did to him twice when we won 1-2 at their gaff.

I very much doubt you will like him.

Wolves fans seem to like him.

Besides, it's not like we've signed a striker whose scored 3 league goals in 3 years is it....

He'll come good imo.

When was the last time you see me act like a bit of a prick on here? Pretty rare. But Stephen Ward brings it out of me. I think everyone has that one player.

You weren't acting like a prick, just giving an opinion! I've only seen him play upfront away to Liverpool and down at Amex last game of the season.

We will see how he does but considering we don't even have a proper left back it is a positive move for us.

He's no Wayne Bridge.

I think Garcia will come good with you by 10 games btw, I think you are suffering a huge hangover from the joke situation with Gus Poyet, perhaps the terrible effect of that won't go until the court case has been settled but at least he isn't around the place.

If anyone has any links to Leeds/Weenesday game tomorrow drop me a pm. Although apparently its on Pick TV which is on Freeview.

Was looking at the payment options for Seagulls Player this year and this made me rofl:

Step 5: Choose method of payment

You have chosen: £37.99 : Annual Direct Debit or £42.99 Annual Credit Card

Please choose an option below to be directed to a secure payment area.

    Pay by credit or debit card (sorry, AMEX is not accepted)

Leeds v Wednesday doesn't sell out?

Why's that, ticket prices?

That and on Sky, if you pick and choose games televised ones will be missed?. Loads of empty seats Leicester vs Leeds last week too?

Not a dig btw

 I'm sure any Forest Sky games will suffer too (apart from vs Derby probably).

yes there were empty seats at Leicester/Leeds too

Leicester tickets for a home game are £35-39 for a non corner seat. Just too much for a load of people if its on the TV

I can never figure the 'live' thing out.

Half empty stadiums look dreadful on TV, and are hardly the 'look' that the broadcasters wish to portray to the fat lumps smothering all those settees in Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh.

Why, oh why, don't all those unimaginative dull home clubs make it Kid-a-Quid, and a fiver for adults, and fill all those rows of empty seats?

The mini fans will gorge on overpriced junk food, swill buckets of sickly flavoured soda excreta, buy crappy Fishul merchandise, and after enjoying a football match they cannot usually afford to attend go home to their poor parents in a total 'E numbered' frenzied state to recant tales of derring do.

The adults might cotton on that a day out on the piss at the football is preferable to be dragged round Lakeside by some credit card busting female.

Instead the 'footballing spectacular' on Tikay TV remains consistent: two teams going through the motions in Echo Alley, where the highlight of the day for the couch potato audience is noting the creative cursing by the away teams physiotherapist at the oppositions crude tackling.

English Football, the 'professional game'     .....     run by business inept wallies who'd struggle to turn a profit running the tombola stall at the Annual Village Fete!

I don't think I've known the game become a sell out or even close in previous seasons

Leeds won't be going up, very lacklustre.

It was set as Cat A before it was moved to TV, so basically £30+ to watch a midday game on TV. Sheff brought about 1000 fans I believe, not a huge away support. Plenty of other home games to pick of choose without spending a lot of TV games. Rhinos last night also :)

It's not a lot of fans because people don't want to spend money where violence had been threatened, pay over the odds, whilst it was on TV.

Given any other circumstances I would have assumed 2,000 min.

Much needed win. Shame I couldn't go :(

Our prices are ridiculous. Luckily have 24k season ticket holders since these prices work out £24 per game compared to £28-40 per game on individual basis.

Hornets defence still looks dodgy - hopefully this Belkalem chap will sort it out.  Fabbrini looks rather good up front from the bench - although have that fear that he's not going to fancy the long slog over winter though.  Hopefully will be proved wrong.

Hopefully these rumours about Deeney being targetted by Premier teams are unsubstantiated.  He really does bind the attacking unit together.

Hey flushy do you still think ulloa isn't that great ;)

Surely the best player EVER in the championship. Why on earth is he not at a top 4 club?

Brighton very good against Leeds and defo best team we played so far. Give the table a month or two to settle and they will be in the top 6 easily.

Will be interesting as we have these players out injured

Bruno
Orlandi
Bridcutt
Cms
Barnes
Hoskins
Andrews

5 of them would be in first 11!

League is very even and can only see forest running away with it.

Which of those 5 would you have in starting lineup?



jeez still going back this, i knew how quality he was as someone in the know had told me, what i said was he was a bit lethargic in his first few games, surely now you can see how poor he was in the first few games compared to now?

He was poor but you could tell he had premiership quality. He hadn't played for a couple of months prior to signing though.

Hopefully by the QPR game our team will be..

-----------------tomasz
bruno---greer---upson----ward
----------------bridcutt---------------
-------kemy--------------Andrews
----------------Orlandi
----------Ulloa-----------CMS--------

bench would be strong. buckley been useless, and new managers style is perfect for CMS....

Blackpool away tomorrow     ....       please, oh please, give that snarling little twat - Ince Senior - plenty to moan about, Mr Zola.

Forest last Sunday: looked a good side in the making (maybe coulda nicked it) - they worked their socks off (their players looked totally cream crackered as they came off) - could be a good year for them     ......         and a massive thank you for McGugan, Gianfranco's gonna turn that 'lazy bastard' into a helluva player.

Where they could come unstuck this season is on the disciplinary side - they committed 20 fouls against Watford, and got 5 bookings     ....     they're gonna need a big squad at that rate, to cover the suspensions!

Bournemouth (L/C): they put out a full side against Watford's 'reserves' - huffed, puffed, and got clobbered on the break.

I like Eddie Howe, he plays the game the right way, but (early doors) they look like one of those teams that are "too good to go down"     ....      too many unforced errors, a little naive, don't get the 'breaks', and desperately need a bit of quality injected, especially in front of goal.

Watford: unbeaten so far - but hardly ripping up tree stumps, as yet. 

We gave the rest a rather healthy head-start last season, but with the new additions are starting to gel with last years mob it makes for a satisfactory & promising start to the campaign.

Agree Luther - I'm pleased with the start.  Just hope we don't lose at Blackpool to go into the international break on a downer.

Leicester sign Hammond.

Slowest turning circle in the champ. Gives his all though.

I think Watford are going to have a slight issue with the home grown rule.  It's making Deeney and McGugan pretty hard to drop.  Whether this makes them take their places for granted remains to be seen.

Also I am sad to see it is limited Battochio's place in the team.  We weren't even able to name him in the squad for Saturday, and we can't swap him for McGugan due to home grown rule.  Abdi will never be dropped, so it would mean Iriney being kicked out of the squad to accomodate him.   Hmm.

What's the home grown rule?

I think you need to have 6 players trained in England in the team/substitutes.

Specifically six players who have been developed through an Academy/Youth level at any British club in the match day 18

So would Nahki Wells count, even though he is a Bermudan international for example?

Nationality is not the issue, its where they were developed. If Wells was at an English youth side thats fine

(one of the many reasons a team like Arsenal takes so many French, Spanish kids at 13-16 years old is for this reason )

Don't really understand the logic of the rule - I would get it if they had to be British (don't think they can do that anyway due to EU law) as it helps the national teams, but this rule just seems to encourage big clubs to pillage other european acadamies, thus meaning that those clubs don't even get much of a transfer fee for unearthing a young gem.

think wells started playing football in the UK at the age of 19/20

Have to say I wasn't even aware this rule was in place!

I'm sure your squad is full of strapping yorkshire chaps so not a problem ;)

Thanks, didn't have a clue about this. We should be okay despite having 2 irish players who i presume do not count ?

If they were developed in the League of Ireland, then they count as not developed at home

Most are developed in England though

---

"but this rule just seems to encourage big clubs to pillage other european acadamies, thus meaning that those clubs don't even get much of a transfer fee for unearthing a young gem."

Yes as a secondary issue but in practice only the very biggest English clubs can get talented European Kids over at the age of 16 or under. The the key point about the match day rule is to encourage, long term, investment in UK club Academies. This is why, for example, spending on Academies is added to revenue for FFP calculations and not added to cost.

Got to love FFP if that is true.

Club A can fritter away £50 million on players, and also pump £50 million into the acadamy and be £100 million in debt and be fine

Club B can spend £10 million on players and be £10 million in debt and get a fine.

"this is because UEFA have allowed clubs to exclude certain expenditure from the calculations. UEFA are keen to develop the game and don't want the FFP rules to constrain clubs from investing and developing - without any exclusions a club building a new stadium or new stand would be hit by an FFP penalty (the cost of the development would mean the club reported a large financial loss). Clubs can therefore exclude infrastructure development costs and youth development/community development costs. Manchester City announced that they should be able to exclude around £10m a year as a result of the youth/community exclusion."

(http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/resources/Table%20July13%20max.jpg.opt860x501o0%2C0s860x501.jpg)

A must read is http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/financial-fair-play-explained.php

We are forecasting just over £8m loss.

Bridcutt will go in January for about £4M though to halve that. Sad times for Champ clubs!

Sad times for some Championship clubs. Not others. For a club like mine that chronically overspent and has been badly managed for a long time, thats fair enough

On a medium term perspective, it should make the division even more competitive, and give reasonable spenders a real chance

What remains unfortunate is that Premiership parachute payments articifically inflate revenue once they enter the Championship and give them a real competitive advantage until those payments stop

Any chance Brighton could take Konchesky today please? Pretty please? Been on the cards for a fortnight, and would like his wage bill off our books please!

"This is why, for example, spending on Academies is added to revenue for FFP calculations and not added to cost."

Ah okay - the rules make more sense now.  Your post read as if Academy expenditure is actually added to revenue as a sweetner!  It seems the expenditure is just exluded from costs which seems sensible.

Yes - I agree the FFP means that parachute payments are an even bigger advantage than they already are.

I hate the concept of FFP.  If a team wants to take a punt with a rich owner then let them get on with it.   Watford have rarely been the big spenders, but I don't have a problem if Leicester want to give the dice a spin and chase the dream.

This won't happen, Ward looks pretty good, and Chicksen another signing has returned from injury :)

Our losses are basically our new training ground being built...

I fear for Wednesday this season given the pre season lack of transfer activity, the start to the season and the lack of transfers in the window.

Seems Mandaric is looking to put in as little as possible and maintain Championship survival whilst looking for a buyer.

We have lost Buxton at right back and Gardner at centre half to injury. I saw Gardner in Genting on monday night and he has a leg brace on, looks like he's out until Christmas if not longer to me.They were 2 solid defenders last season. We have Martin Taylor and Miguel Llera as centre half cover. Taylor has had a nightmare with us and been very poor. Llera is 100% committed but prone to one bad error per game. Whoever replaces Gardner will be paired with Zayette who is decent on the floor but cant win a header.

The fan base is suicidal currently. We desperately need a beast in midfield and a centre forward to have a chance of competing. Without them I can only see another awful relegation scrap.

The only possible light may be loan signings from Premiership clubs which can be agreed from next weekend I think. Last year we survived because we had the likes of Lita, Wickham, Barkley on loan who added some quality.

God it's awful. It's like watching a car crash happening in slow motion in front of your eyes :-(

Palace have a lot of players available for loan if your interested. You have missed out on Ramage though, he's suring up Barnsley's defence.

Looks like Grandin, Dobbie and Phillips won't make our 25 man squad. Snap em up.

Also Wilbraham.

0 goals in 24 games?

Phillips would be an AWESOME signing for anyone's bench in the championship. He turned us down 2 years ago though.

Ossuana today have approach us to speak with our new manager. We have instantly declined.

Hows Matlock? Was incredibly good for us but heard he is useless for you?? Perhaps as he has permanent deal i guess.

Surely the Brighton gig is more attractive than Osasuna unless he is homesick?

Indeed, this will tell if he is 1) homesick 2) not been given the money to spend he was promised

He is very highly rated in Spain, and Barca want him as a future manager.......(I haven't seen anything yet to suggest why this is)

Osasuna have confirmed that Ex-Almeria manager, Javi Gracia will be the clubs new manager - 2 year deal.

Bolton have not won a league game in 2013 without Craig Dawson

lol, only after comments made on here about Brighton turning them down when approached. That has gotta hurt.

Welcome back to the thread Ant!  It felt 'different' without you!

The Ramage signing was very hush hush.  Normally, we get an inkling of who's on the way in, but this one was off the radar until our CEO announced on live Radio that someone was potentially coming in.

Great signing I think, although I'm perturbed to hear the club say he's a replacement for Scott Golbourne, who was being played as a left wing-back.  Surely he has to be played at CB, or a conventional left-back if necessary.

He's a calamity imo at right back, and he can't play left back.

Relatively assured cb with the potential mess up in him but he hasn't played first team football in a while and I think he will have a lot to prove at your place thus making him a good signing.

Anyone that manages to get Owen Garvan on loan would have a lovely little player and Dobbie can't be overlooked either, two very effective players for us last season.

Garvan being very much a luxury type player in attacking midfiked that links up well with wingers with a sweet left foot for through balls, crosses, free kicks and pens. Only concern in the prem was he was just not strong or quick enough to get the passes away but in the championship he is a great player. I think Freedman is favourite to getting him tho for Bolton.

Matock hasn't really had a fair crack of the whip at Hillsborough.

He started last season, played 2 or 3 games and played poorly. That culminated in a game where he was played out of position at right back and got took apart before getting sent off, He didnt get a look in again really because we have Reda Johnson who is a big black lad playing at left back, not his natural position but he is very effective and gets goals from set pieces.

Mattock started this season in the QPR away game because Reda was injured but got injured himself and he still out now.

Why he choose us over Brighton in the first place is a little suprising, he must be on decent money with us to have signed. Its a shame because you can see he's a decent footballer.

Mattock was always a great talent, but also a complete idiot. Not a brain cell in his body, as his brushes with the law attest to

He wants to be nearer home/family in Leicester where he still lives, Hence Sheffield

When he came through with us the Chelsea Head Scout watched him for half a season, was going there and then blotted his copybook

Yes I've heard he's had problems and been a foolish young man.

Maybe his attitude has been a problem behind the scenes.

Football Clubs do tend to take risks on characters that wouldn't get a job in other walks of life dont they?

Only if they have talent which he does

Have heard various stories about Mattock from at least 4 different people all of whom i would trust

Eventually the patience runs out or the player ends up at top non league level were he may   
get away with it

Not surprising really most of these players are told most days of there teenage years how good they are and how good they will be pretty rare thing to happen

Anyone remember Billy (?) Kenny at Everton?  Everton fans I have spoken to said he was the best player they ever saw.

Ladbrokes have now paid out on Palace Ant.

Dunno where to put this

http://m.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/player-by-player-breakdown-of-what-pompey-owe-1-5468027

STAGGERING.

Wow.

In league 2 and get £9m prem parachute money, lol.

That's staggering isn't it. 

What I find interesting, is that some of the big ones on that list were signed AFTER it was clear that they were in serious financial difficulties.

I'm pretty sure Liam Lawrence and Dave Kitson were signed after they had gone down to the Championship after a points deduction.  They will owe those guys £600k each 4 years later so how on earth can they have put them on those contracts given the circumstances?

And look at the players names, Dung.

Most of them I've barely heard of     ......      and - without being funny - I doubt any of them would be good enough to get in a Watford squad, let alone the team!

So much money goes to Premshit clubs (and their 'paratroop payments', when they go down) -  they spend the Skype Millions so, very, badly.

I hope they send the Ben Haim bill to twitchy honest arry directly

True about Ben Haim, but before I opened the article I was expecting to see a whole raft of Harry signings, but that doesn't seem to be the case unless  my Pompey signing timeline is off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/price_of_football_2013.pdf

Our ridiculous prices continue, most expensive 'cheapest day out' in the football league.

Everything more expensive than Aston villa too (except tea).

I don't know how to react to Dougie Freedman having a terrible start this year with Bolton, but it is interesting. And he must be devastated not to have stuck with Palace because under him we really were flying.

Blackpool really are the surprise package, what a great result for them to hold out with 10 men for most of the second half. I think QPR will methodically come top of the league though and I think Owen Coyle is going to be found out at Wigan, not Coyle's greatest fan tbh.

I think Forest and their manager will be pushing too and are a shoe in for the top 6.

Reading are the Worst Team I have seen in a long time.

Mediocre at best.

Ripped them apart when we have A LOT of players missing/unfit.

Fancy reading to go down.

One of the worst games I've seen in a while. Both teams destined for midtable IMO. Ulloa out for three games will be a big miss.

I've said it a million times. LuaLua is an impact player not a starter. He was dead near the end, if he had come on for Buckley instead of vice versa he could have torn that defence apart.

Reading look shocking, sure we should have done more but have a lot of injuries and only Ulloa fit up front (although Barnes looked like he might be ok now)

If we had lost anyone else on the field but ulloa it would have been a 2 goal win imo

If ulloa gets injured this season we don't have a chance at all.....

Turns out Southampton/West Ham was even worse. Not the greatest Sunday ever.

Went to the Watford v Charlton game - wasn't great to be honest.  Draw was fair result.  It seems Watford have a lot of lightweight players.  Even the midfield enforcer Iriney (who had a great game) is all flicks and one touch passes when he gets the chance.

Watford went for an ambitious 3-4-3 formation, with Forestieri, Fabbrini and Deeney up front.  It seems likely that Forestieri and Fabbrini can't play in the same team.  They are thrilling to watch, but often end up on head down dribbles down blind alleys and having both of them in the same side is too much, but it was worth trying.  We were much stronger when Acuna came on up front as he holds the ball up, shows lovely touches and takes the pressure off Deeney. 

Anya also made a big difference when he came on after being rested after his Scotland exertions.  Watford fielded "The Beast of Algiers" at centre back - Algerian international Assaid Belkalem.  Looks quick and strong, but needs time to get used to the English game.  On the negative side, he gave away the penalty with a mindless lunge and was booked for body-checking someone with his face.

All in all, it felt like we had too many offensive players in the same team and we need a rethink on formation.  Doncaster at home Tuesday, Barnsley away Saturday.  We need 4 or 6 points to be back on track.

Another predictably awful performance from Sheffield Wedneday on Saturday.

We were gifted a goal in the first half and then Yeovil have a centre half sent off.

In the second half Yeovil simply outplayed us with their ten men and to be honest deserved to win. Got to give them a lot of credit.

Wednesday were awful. Jones tactics are simply baffling, his negativity is clearly affecting the players and you can see the little self belief they had draining away. He looks like he's lost them to me.

Unless we recruit a midfielder and centre forward quickly, I would lay Wednesday especially at home every game at the moment. Away from home they might feel less pressure and nick the odd 1-0 win.

Very worrying.

Dobbie has been loaned back to Blackpool. On the bench tonight.

I'm hearing that Watford have missed out on Chalobah as they wouldn't pay what Chelsea were demanding and he is having a medical at Forest at the moment.

On loan of course.

Interesting discussion with Mr P Parker before the QPR v Brighton bore draw.

We came to the conclusion the Championship (or second tier of English football - whatever it's been called) has never been stronger than it is today.

The reason?

There are so many foreign players in the Premier League nowadays, players who be regular starters with mid table clubs in the top division just cannot get a look in and have to drop down a rung to get regular football.

Makes sense doesn't it?

Aaron Wilbraham is from Knutsford, Cheshire?

Palace don't count.

Obv

Should have picked Stephen Dobbie as he is currently in the championship with Wilbraham coming soon, darn. Missed a good oppo there.

Yeh you seem to be right. But I think what is clear is that the Chmapionship this season is not going to be as crazy as last. Imo anyway.

Chalobah was the best player I saw in the Championship last year at age 18. A cracking signing for Forest that.

I wrote about this in Tft about 2000 pages ago

I think it is particularly prevalent in strikers

Every time a Norwich sign a Van Wolfswinkel, or Swansea a Bony that means a domestic striker who a decade ago might have been in a bottom half of the top division side is now in the Championship

So you have a good set of Championship strikers, and a less talented set of Championship defenders (generalising) and this is why over the last three years goals per game in the Championship has risen, incidences of both teams to score has risen

   

We need one of these strikers at Hillsborough.

We only have one recognised striker that Dave Jones is willing to play, the big Austrian kid Nuihu signed in the summer.

Madine has been found guilty of assaulting a couple of lads in Sheffield and is awaiting sentencing, looks like he's going to get a jail term, Jones will not play Maguire who signed from Derby last year even though he clearly has a footballing brain so he's playing either Antonio or Jermaine Johnson up front who are both quick wingers but aren't centre forwards.

Looks like we've signed McPhail to strengthen our none existent central midfield.

Lots of rumours about players like Lita and Sharp but the sad reality is that the gulf in their existing wages and what we will pay even as a percentage means it's unlikely players like these will sign. Someone like Sharp is more likely to go on loan to a team like QPR where they will pay his wages in full.

Hasn't this always been the case though?  I remember from many years ago the likes of Swindon signing Fjoroft to lead their line.  Watford imported Helguson.  Even the minnows have always looked to strikers as their first port of call when buying from overseas.  And you ended up with strikers like Paul Wilkinson and Paul Kitson playing in the championship when in years past they would have got a top division role.

Hmm, I'm not so sure this is correct.

Lots and lots of foreign defenders, midfielders too and especially goalkeepers.

I make it 4 starting English keepers in the Premier League.

Yes fair points

How many of

Austin, Nugent, Deeney, Rhodes, Ince T, Le Fondre, Ulloa etc would be playing in the top division a decade ago (at their current age and ability) I suggest over half. Some still might

then you have Holt etc who drops down a division when Norwich bring in two strikers, 

I suppose I just find it more noticeable with strikers

10 years ago I would say that Rhodes, Ulloa and Ince would be in the top league.  Although thinking aloud, the likes of Ashley Ward used to be a Premier League mercenary about 10 years back, moving around lots of lower league clubs, so on that basis it would be hard to say that the others mentioned wouldn't be in contention.

I think another part of the reason for the improvement is that the scouting networks in the Championship are far more extensive now.  10 years ago by an all UK backline was common in the Championship whereas now I imagine it is a rarity.  The widening on the net allows clubs to snap up players like Knockaert who was less likely to be on the radar in the past. 

Missing from our game v Bolton

Andrews
Jake Forster caskey
Ulloa
Cms
Hoskins
Orlandi
Bridcutt
Ankergen
Ward (possibly)
Agustein (possibly)

Should get good odds....and v ex palarse manager so he will be up for it :(

Indeed - but Forest are obv paying the £ 35k a week in wages demanded by Chelski that Watford baulked at!

£1.5 mill + a year at 18, lucky old Chalobah      .,.....

Getting played off the park by Watford.  Their passing and movement is fantastic and we have no answer when they're in possession.

1-3 down already.  Could get messy!

Are wednesday winning though?

It did, Sheriff.

Surprisingly, the 2nd half could have turned out quite differently, as we changed formation and started to look threatening.  I hope they show Almunia's save tonight as it was one of the best I can remember seeing - proper point blank stuff!

2-3 at that point would have made for an interesting game.  As it was, a long-range effort against the run of play (at that point) made it 4-1 soon after.  Anya's 5th goal is worth staying up for too - ran 80yds or so, outpaced everyone and tucked it away.

Really, really impressed with Watford today.  They looked like a Premier League team in waiting, although we're not exactly the toughest opposition at the moment when we have baffling team selections like we do at present.

BBC website says not one shot on goal for B'mouth today .....yet bizarrely we get a 3-3 draw!

( 2 pens and an own goal)

Surely a penalty should count as a shot on target.  Always assumed it did!

Agreed, I listened to it on the radio and you came back strongly in the 2nd half.

I did chuckle when they gave Scotland the MoM, and then 2 mins later he missed an absolute sitter.

We still need to get our defence sorted out - as indeed do Barnsley - but, too be honest, we've been pinching ourselves to see if its all a dream since the Pozzos & Zola arrived.

The players they've brought in, and the wondrous way they play, have got us all drooling down in SW Herts (and many of our 'fans' could have won any gurning/window-licking contest hands down without any encouragement from those on the pitch).

We're a good side to watch & try to play the game 'well'.

Good luck for the rest of the season - I hope you pull it round, Sheriff.

The Watford fans were hilarious after the Jason Scotland announcement.

They started singing his name, and then "He just too good for us", etc so were already having fun with it.

Then he missed a late sitter to make it 5-2, to much laughter from the away end, followed by a chant of "He scores when he wants" in his honour! :)

He was our best player today, but I wish they wouldn't make the home-side only MOTM announcements when we're quite clearly getting battered.

Rohan Ince > Chalaboah (sp)

Missing a whole team yet destroyed Bolton.

Looking good for us, Andrews back and Bridcutt, and Orlandi and Ulloa back V Sheff Wed :)

QPR certainly the right side of variance.

Outplayed convincingly again today, but still managed to win.

First time we've had 6 clean sheets in a row for 50 years though, must say something.

Interesting to note Brighton and Bolton are the only two teams we've faced so far who were in the top 10 of the betting pre season.

QPR seem to be getting the rub of the green recently, remind me of Hull who bored everyone to promotion last season.

The Watford v Norwich game was a bizarre one.  Enjoyable though.

An even first half, Norwich unlucky to go in 1-0 behind

From 45th to 80th minute Watford absolutely battered them, and could have been 4-0 up.  They had a settle for 2 in the end.

Then Norwich scored a great goal out of nothing, and everything changed.  Panic ensued in the Hornets team, referee added on 5 mins injury time for little obvious reason, and Hooper equalised with the last touch of the game after continual waves of Norwich attacks.  Norwich the better team in extra time (looked fitter and stronger) and won 3-2.

Footnote - first time I have seen Hooper.  Has he always been such a big unit?  Or has he been tucking into Delia's pies?  Obviously no problem with his fitness as he made the 120 mins easily, but he didn't "look" very conditioned.  Had a bit of the Jon Parkin about him.

Always been like that size wise.

Was ATROCIOUS when I saw him for southend (used to live there).

Was best player for Scunthorpe at withdean though.

Rumours, as yet unconfirmed, that we're getting Jack Butland on a 3 month loan.

He'll certainly get plenty of practice ahead of the World Cup if so.

OK, it's passed the "I'll believe it when I see it test", I guess.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/stoke-city/10336656/Stoke-City-goalkeeper-Jack-Butland-joins-Championship-side-Barnsley-on-loan.html

how has ramage played?

Bit too early to judge - he's not the biggest problem in our defence, that's for sure!

I think he'll be a good signing for us over the course of the season, but not stood out so far.

Went to Watford v Wigan.   A draw was a fair result - Wigan shaded it in a poor spectacle.  Will take the win though - makes up for losing at Blackpool after battering them.

For the first time this season I've seen a small light at the end of the tunnel at Hillsborough.

Signing 3 players who have performed historically in the Championship might give Wednesday hope of kick starting their season.

McPhail in midfield ran the game on Saturday and looks a class act. He tired a little in the second half but overall had a big impact.

Roger Johnson at centre half looked a composed decent player who can help steady the ship with Gardner out injured.

Matty Fryatt has signed on loan from Hull and only came on as a sub but he's an intelligent player.

Although I backed Donny on Saturday I have to say Wednesday dominated the game (which is rare!) and Donny were lucky as they were very poor.

We play Brighton away in midweek which on paper looks like a hammering - but strange things happen in the Championship.

Ulloa stress fracture injury.

Top 16 at best for us now.

How long does that put him out for?

Time to get out of my buy of Brighton league points I imagine.

Good result for Wednesday last night at Brighton. As I alluded to in my last post things look better than they did certainly in terms of performances if not results.

I had a suspicion we might nick it last night and had a small bet on a 1-0 Wednesday win at 13-1 :-(

Still its going to be a long old season.

Single: KAZENGA LUA LUA @ 16/1
Single: ANDREW CROFTS @ 14/1
Single: CRAIG MACKAIL-SMITH @ 14/1
Single: ASHLEY BARNES @ 20/1

Prices this morning BetVictor were offering on brighton top GS, oops Vic wouldnt have done that, new prices after they realised Ulloa has a break:

Andrew Crofts    5/2
Ashley Barnes    3/1
Craig Mackail-Smith    7/1
Kazenga Lua Lua    7/1


Good game VC account....

That new Andrew Crofts price has to be wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Crofts_%28footballer%29

What am I missing?

He's out for 2 months, he might miss as few as 6 matches - there's 2 international breaks coming up.

I'd still make him clear favourite to be top Brighton scorer.

He's our penalty taker and has 3 goals.

Another dogshit performance against a forest side who looked a complete shambles at the back.

Won't blame Oscar yet seeing as we have had the most ridic injury list I can ever remember since supporting us in the last 20 years!

Forest cannot defend against a cross, laying them for my life against anyone who has a 6ft2+ striker

George Thorne a great loan signing for Watford.

He was on loan with Poshies last season from de Baggies, as was Saido Berahino, and both looked serious prospects. Thorne ran the show in midfield for the short time he was with us, and went straight into the West Brom first team when he went back. Then he picked up an injury.

He's only 20 and is a massive plus for Watford imo.

Good to hear Chompy - we've been a bit short in the middle since Abdi has been injured all year.

Also the permed thug Iriney, whilst awesome, seems intent on getting a yellow card in every match.

I see that coward Southgate is asking for quotas for overseas players in the Championship in the Daily Mail today - obviously doesn't have the balls to go after the Premier League.

The artcile cites Watford and Brighton as the main offenders.

Don't see how this works in EU Law anyway. 

His main argument is "if the foreign players are playing in the championship then they can't be of the absolute highest quality".  Is he expecting to find Messi hiding on the Doncaster bench???

What a clown, just because Bloom rejected him for Brighton manager.

29 Kuszczak
14 Calderón (Conway - 81' )
17 Ward
04 Andrews
03 Greer
20 Upson
08 Crofts Booked
18 Forster-Caskey (D. López - 63' )
09 Barnes (Barker - 84' )
30 Buckley
25 Lua Lua

14 players from our last game, and FOUR are not British, one who has been here since about 12, tomasz whose been in England for 10 years, and Calderon whose played 150 games in 4 years.

Watford's defence was abysmal at home to Derby in a game we shouldn't have lost.  Gifted them 2 goals.

Really don't think making 5 changes a game is helping us - especially at centre back.  Zola needs to pick his best back 3 (angella, ekstrand and Belkalem imo) and stick with them to build up understanding.

Brighton and Leicester next up.  Hmmmmm.

I just hope Hoban & Nosworthy get fit soon, Dung - that back four needs stabilizing.

Yes - they will help, but don't see how Angella or Ekstrand can be dropped as they seem head and shoulders above everything else we have.

The Derry Pele's goal on Saturday deserves a wider audience.

Within 2 minutes of this happening he'd thrown up on the pitch and been substituted!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99v579vmlds

What a goal!

Throwing up on the pitch :D

Flitcroft claimed it was an illness.

Given Paddy's reputation, there's a decent chance it was a hangover!

Seems to have been a fan's favourite at Celtic, so hoping that we see more of this from him until we lose him in the January transfer window (see also Ricardo Vaz Te).

Was very impressed by Bournemouth on Saturday. Certainly like to play open attacking football and definitely deserved a point.

We have our best four players out still so will be plain sailing for you.

We are AWFUL. New manager is clueless.

Hudds vs Leeds at weekend, is Vaughan out suspended? Would be nice if he was, repeat of last season please.

Yeah he's banned.

GG us.

Should piss all over them Seagulls tonight - half their squad out with injuries, Basil Fawlty's mate Manuel in charge       .....     cue an 'Ornet Disaster' at the Amex?

Also said on Talksport first time all season Watford had a full squad. Worth a TFT reco Luther?

Watford aren't playing great at the moment.  Zola unsure what his best team is and I can't see Abdi being ready yet for any action tonight.

You won't need to get out of first gear.

This is the most clueless manager we have had since hinselwood when we lost 12 in a row. Hasn't helped we have all our best players out for whole season so far though, but for sure poyet is by far a better manager.

I'm on 4-1 and 5-1 to Watford.

Will be boos at full time for first time I suspect tonight.

In what world is he a clueless manager??

He's got us playing far more direct when chasing a game and has us creating more chances than we did under Gus. We aren't as good a team by a long way because of all the injuries and missing Bridge.

Very unfair to call him a clueless manager, i don't know what else he could have done.

He said after each game we are playing well (we have played well twice). To me that is clueless.

Every game I've been to he's managed to turn the best defence into one that looks like will concede from every attack! Players don't seem happy at all.

Yeovil was one of the worst games I've ever been to, just gets worse and worse.

Poyet had 13 players out for a month in his first season in the champ, and he coped well, including beating the table toppers 3-0.

Shows no passion either.

Haha met your old landlord James by the way on Friday night. She was talking about flats in Brighton and said she let here out to a poker player, and happened to be you!

Can't remember much, but think she was Swedish?! Was the flat in Portland st.

Ha Val. Where did you meet her? Yeah was funny my neighbour in that building was skjervoy, pretty sick that i wasn't even the best player in the building

When I was acting like a drunk nob on way to the fishbowl! No idea why I spoke with her considering she's over double my age. Pretty sure she said she used to be an actor??

Colossus win a Milly on Watford/draw tonight.
Sick sweat.

Is this the guy who has done the Coral coupon?

The guy who placed £35k in bets on the coupon or something, surely should be backing Brighton for more than that tonight to show some profit?!

Yeah that's them, pretty sure they will lock a result.

Loofah's bets are on for a heavy Watford win     .....       so lump on for a no-score bore/1-0 BHA win, lads!

Two out of form teams really.  Draw fair I guess.  We need to pick up our performance for Leicester.

How are you not annoyed with the ball over the line / Bruno not being sent off?!

Btw extremely impressed with Watford players reaction to brunos obvious red card, and ball over the line incident.

No berating of the red, something which the other 91 clubs would have done.

Yeah - it's annoying.  Refs seem to hate us to be honest - think it's because we dived a lot early last season.  The over the line thing was just one of those things I guess, but Bruno should definitely have gone - that was just referee cowardness.

However, don't think we deserved to win the game.  Just hoping we can stick around 5th to 10th until Xmas when (hopefully) the team finally gels and we go on a big run in the new year.  It's frustrating at the moment, as there is so much talent in the team, but a lack of pace and urgency.

Think this season may be a write off for Brighton - by the time they get their players back from injury they are going to be too far off the pace.

Lack of pace?? Fastest team we've played (attacking wise) since we played you last season. Your three centre backs are all donkeys though.

Forresteri is quality.

Season is a write off for us yeah. Orlandi, bridcutt and agustien resume training this week though.

We've had awful refs all season, been the worst I can remember, except yesterday !! Ref was so biased towards us.

Oh well, another punditry debacle.

Result probably just about right - even with the officials help.

Fifty sovs contributed to Tikay's Skybet pension fund, thankfully generously offset by binkage in the £1/1 DC game at the G last night.

Overall, a point away from home is not to be sniffed at - we've accumulated more points than at the same stage last season.

As Dung says, when this team properly melds, then we'll see a few teams running for cover.

8/1 to win it seems about right, at the moment (which could look rather generous if we go 'on a run' in the lead up to Xmas).

In terms of lack of pace I guess I am comparing to Vydra last year.  When Abdi is absent the midfield moves the ball slower as well.  And as much as I like Faroani and Pudil, they don't offer the speed threat Anya does.

Forestieri is indeed playing well though.

Knockaert being booed for missing a pen (odd) and is now ripping Watford to pieces.

Very dodgy at the back again.

Off to see Charlton vs Leeds next week in a box, but spending more with mates in London before, anyone know if relatively safe to get train there before game? I know 3-4000 Leeds fans there but want to avoid trouble etc..

Fantastic result for us at the weekend.

I think at the moment we have some fantastic attacking ability, but through the middle, we are very very poor. These loan players are not going to stay here that is for sure, but with a decent central midfielder, it could be the difference between us bring in the relegation battle all of the season or being comfortable. I can't see it happening as thing are, sadly.

Been hearing a few rumours about Blackburn and the FFP, that they are losing lots of money and this could affect them too.

Derby at the weekend!

Never had any problems at Charlton before, and done the trip via train many times.

I'm sure it'll be a bit spicier given that it's Leeds fans, but I doubt you'll have any issues.

be absolutely fine. Heard you sold out 3000+ in 22 mins or something crazy!

Watford were dreadful on Saturday.  Painful to watch.  Something isn't right - Zola under pressure for the first time, and he's not getting the most out of his squad at the moment.  Battochio and Acuna don't get a look in despite the woeful form of Deeney and the central midfield.

Abdi may be out for the whole season now.

Worrying times.

By the way  - Knockaert is booed because he dived in the last minute of a playoff semi final, not because he missed it!

Last time Leeds were at Watford they were loud but no trouble.

Cheers, just don't fancy trouble!

Yeah I think Leeds got about 400 more tickets allocated to them, so it should be a good atmosphere. Plus lots of Leeds fans scattered around the home fans seating as per usual. No last min winners for Charlton like last year please.

You've got more chance of getting a slap off a drunken girl in your local High St on a Friday night than getting any 'trouble' at a football match nowadays Mr Mouse.

99% of Leeds fans turn up on Fishul club coaches, are loud and abusive to the home support, revel in the 'nasty reputation' of their forebears from the 70/80s (whilst carefully positioned safely behind rows of stewards and police), and are about as much trouble as a Women's Institute knitting circle.

The only possible area where you might find any 'confrontation' going to, and from, The (very friendly) Valley would be in the area around London Bridge, where some of the Millwall nutters tend to frequent the pubs if a 'troublesome' team's fans are heading for a game in Sarf Lunun.

On the very few occasions when they do 'meet' the rival groups tend to bounce up & down, arms akimbo, 100 metres apart, for at least five minutes - hoping they've given the cctv camera operator enough time to summon the police.

Cue one copper appears around the corner and a semi-surge for all of 10 metres happens from both 'firms', before they all turn tail & run in opposite directions - this is then claimed by all & sundry as a 'Result'!

Apart from that, enjoy your day out at Charlton watching the 'dreaded' Leeds away support (a collection of fat, bald, tattooed wannabes in designer gear 20 years out of date) desperately try to look, and sound, intimidating whilst foul-mouthing off to the family orientated home stands.

Football hooliganism is sooooooooo last century.

 ;tightend;

Had some of the 18/5 on Wednesday at Derby earlier in the week.

The 5-2 win against Reading will have helped confidence and I still think Wednesday are more effective away from home.

Derby best team we have played this season (forest were v good for 25 min patch though).

Might be worth a no goal scorer bet on Brighton.

Orlandi, Lua Lua, Buckley, cms, ulloa out.

How did I miss this?

Exceptional.

Blackburn very good. Score line flattered us but we had our best five attackers out.

Bridcutt came back today and kemy on the bench. Orlandi and Buckley back for the next game, things lookin slightly better for a 6th place finish.

Very even division though so anything can happen.

Joshua king is a very good player too. Is he in the u21s?

strange. i was given a ticket today so went to the game as a neutral and i thought blackburn were awful. i thought they had a decent 5 mins (just after half time) but were easily dealt with by a brighton team who looked distinctly average. ince and caskey the standouts for me with kuschak (sp?) hollywooding some saves to make it look like blackburn had some proper chances.

i havent seen a lot of championship football this year but i'd be surprised if brighton finished playoffs or better and i think blackburn could be relegation candidates if rhodes gets injured. a comprehensive 3-0 win from an injury riddled team who never got out of 3rd gear.

Yeah have to agree with the second review not the first, Blackburn were appalling, they seemed to lack a lot of fundamentals and had no clue how to defend after 35mins they also decided they had no interest in going up for 50-50 balls, very odd. Super Tommy was made to look outstanding by some of the saves, sure he had to go and make them but they were always at the perfect height etc (he beat what was out there though so he cant be faulted i don't think he could do any better than he did)

I don't know how anyone could not pick Conway as MoM he was outstanding, Caskey excellent in the second half but poor in the first.

Rin i think its unfair to judge Brighton atm given the better players in our side are all injured, we could have a very good team going forward into the second half of the season, areas that need improving would be a right back and a centre back imo

i may well be being a little unfair on brighton with the injuries they currently have flushy. a 3-0 win today in 3rd gear is definitely promising. personally, i see them in the 7-11 region but with some luck they might get into the playoffs. i think there's a few stronger teams though.

Joshua King is a superb player, but already a full Norwegian International!

A couple of weeks ago i would have agreed with you but having seen some of these other teams look poor and now witnessing some of our fringe players putting in decent performances i am optimistic of a top 6. Obviously with such a tight league luck plays a huge part and will be the deciding factor, i hope it falls our way.

Blackburn were very good in the second half. We won't ever have such a flattering score line again. A view shared by every person I spoke to after the game!

Good to see Lua Lua off his crutches too.

Definitely need to upgrade our centre backs, do not suit our high tempo pressing game at all. We are a work in progress and our style will be like sotons with playing high up the pitch, high intensity, tempo and pressing. Better to watch when it comes together than poyets slow build up passing.

Wtf? We've missed a trick there. Plays like Townsend, very direct. Best player we've had down here this season by a county mile.

No net since Friday but went to see Leeds. What a scorer Ross Mccormack really is (top of the league atm), Charlton played so much better than us for 60mins but they don't have a goalscorer fit. Good support from Leeds again.

Its nice to have a manager who reacts and changing the team around to fit the situation. Both fullbacks out, and we had to put in Brown and Pugh (LOL) for their first starts this season. One thing Warnock never did was have a plan B.

Highlight of the day having Jim Davison call me a Leeds ***** :) I guess he cant win them all.

Fans are getting restless at Watford.  Think they have an inflated opinion of our players as I think a draw at Boro isn't too bad.  The team is coming across as a bit fancy dan though, unlike the more industrious team of last year (Vydra/Hogg/Chalobah).

I think Zola needs at least 4 points from the Bolton/Yeovil games coming up or the fans will be grumbling.

Trouble is, I fancy Bolton to beat us on their current revival and our scratchy form.

Murmurings that we will get two out of Zelinksi/Ranegie/Merkel in January, but I'm struggling to see where we'll put all these players.  Battochio can't get a game at the moment, neither can Acuna.   Battochio is the Italian U21s number 10 but Zola won't play him :(

only seen Battochio a few times Dung but really really like him

It's a mystery to me.  Came on as sub against Wigan and scored the winner and not really featured since.   It's not as if we are winning every game and couldn't do with a change!

McGugan (whilst he's been largely good) seems undroppable as far as Zola is concerned.

Was speaking with Mike Bowron at weekend, how Harry Redknapp still manages to work in football is beyond me based on what he said...

You shouldn't be     .....

The only club 'Onest Arry' was never allowed to weave his 'magical transfer market dealings' (major benefactor, one Harold Redknapp) was Tottingham, where Daniel Levi Jeans wouldn't let him within a thousand miles of any financial transaction!

Not 'mucky rumours'  - it's been 'common knowledge' in the football world for donkeys years     ....      along with a whole range of 'top, top', other chaps who've managed in the Premiertheftship.

An insidious little sporting Ponzi scheme - overseen by the incompetent, and equally corrupt, Football Association.

What do people think of Leeds? They seem to be doing well with a fair squad, they are priced 6/1 for a top 6 finish. I am sure there are Leeds fans around? Any good?

very true, thankfully this sort of thing is harder to do these days.


Mike Bowron was the lead police comm. who brought the case against 'arry.  He was pressured not to do so. Now Jersey police commissioner he travels to every Charlton home game and takes the piss out of Northern accents.

Donny on sky tonight, not been to see them this year with all the travelling I've done, very worried about behind the scenes. A belize hedge fund have been causing problems with takeover talks, culminating in the chairman resigning before our last game at Barnsley. Very uncomfortable. Hopefully we perform better than the boro.

I knew some of the chamionship teams dealt in silly money but some of it is makes no sense to me. 

I am in work just now, leisurley Saturday shift before heading off for the football and I have been reviewing some cases we currently have going through and the one I have just looked at was for a young footballer who plays for Leicester.  I hadn't heard the name before (sounds like a former England goalkeeper) so I googled him to see what he has achieved.  Not much by the looks of it.  But somehow he manages to get paid 10 grand a week.  Insane. 

"cases we currently have going through"

cases of what?

Chris Wood getting 10k a week (international footballer, goalscorer, came from a Premier League squad) is the least of the Championship's problems!

Property Purchases.

Wednesday in free fall. Jones should be gone this weekend.

The next 4 fixtures are horrendous playing the likes of Leicester, Watford and Forest.

In deep do do.

Rohan ince.

This guy will be an England international. Superb player.

The charge is on....

 
Walsall FC OfficialVerified account
‏@WFCOfficial
The Chambers twins showed tremendous courage to play today following the untimely death of their father on Thursday. They are an inspiration

Two very good pro's sorry to hear of their loss

£5m for bridders to Sunderland in Jan perhaps?

You still hating on Oscar for being clueless?

Brighton seem to have turned it around chaps?

I went to Watford v Bolton on Saturday and Watford were dreadful.  1 shot on goal all game.  Bolton didn't look much better.  So frustrating as the players all look good on paper, but such a lack of menace and such a low pace of play. 

To be fair he has changed his style (more intricate passing than just aimless hoofing, although could be the players misunderstanding before) and now doesn't change the team every game. The last two games we have pressed the opponent as soon as they have the ball too (not done in any of the previous games).

This is our front 6 at the moment with two 19 year olds in the middle of the park:

--------ince-----crofts---------
-------------caskey------------
Lopez-----------------Conway
-------------Barnes-------------

This is our front 6 in January when Orlandi Lua Lua Buckley ulloa are back:

-------bridcutt-------crofts-------
Buckley------Orlandi-------Lua Lua
------------------ulloa-----------------

No place for ince, aguestien, Andrews, Conway, Lopez, Barnes, CMS, caskey, lita

Worrying for everyone else I guess.

When is Ulloa due back?

In light training for the last 2 weeks. First week of January full fitness is expected. What are you betting on?

Orlandi is more key than him.

Kinda don't want Ulloa back got 18's on crofts being our top GS lol

Takes him six weeks of training before he plays again? Shirley not. Backed him at 5/1 for top club scorer

Bridcutt and Orlandi training for 2 months....

Pretty normal with this fucking German doctor.

6800 Leeds fans heading to Blackburn this weekend, main train route down. Should be fun on the M62 :) It's a real shame other clubs dont just offer Leeds as many tickets as they want to fill the half empty stadiums.

Leeds has also been half empty for the last 5 years.

Yes but no one ever fills up the full allocation of away tickets at Leeds, you see the point I am making? If they did then I am sure we would give them more, Boro i think have been the biggest away support so far. Harder to fill a 40k+ capacity in the championship :)


We was capped at Charlton to 4.6k last away game in an empty stadium.

You have the lowest home to away fan ratio in the league (4th across the FL), maybe if the club focussed on filling Elland road instead of wanting for away tickets?

I didn't go this year but pretty sure we filled up last year at Elland Road, not bad considering how far it was.

I used to think Leeds was this amazingly well supported club 2-3 years ago, but when you look more deeper, you realise they actually are not that impressive at all.

Leeds the 3rd biggest city in England, home of only one football club. You would expect them to have a really large attendance week out.

I am not sure these figures show that much impressiveness.... either... their home game attendances so far...

Brighton (33,432)
Sheffield Wednesday (24,766)
QPR (23,341)
Burnley (26,465)
Bournemouth (21,749)
Birmingham (21,301)
Yeovil (25,351)
M'boro (30,367)

For a team with a fair chance of promotion, biggest one team city, they are pretty lame. In fact until you started shooting up the table, they wasn't that impressive. I would say if you wasn't doing as well the Yeovil and M'boro attendances would have been a lot worse. In fact, you are not far off playing in a half empty stadium each week. Last season you averaged 21,000, that is just over half & sometimes you even played with not even half in the stadium with a low of 16,000. Compared to a similar club with a similar stadium...my own team Sheff Wed, we averaged 24,000 & a low of just under 19,000.

Perhaps if you lot concentrated on filling your own half empty stadium, perhaps you might go up this season.

so lol @ empty stadium quote

Price is a big factor for away fans at Elland Road (or has been in recent seasons under Bates).  Not sure what the current season pricing is just yet.

£36 ticket price for the last two seasons there, which meant I boycotted both games, despite being 4 miles away from Elland Road.  Last season, many opted to go to the Charlton away game instead, where the tickets cost £5, rather than pay £36 for Leeds.

Indeed, elland road is a rip off for a stadium that needed worked 10 years ago and still hasn't.

We all know Leeds and sheff wed have huge supports, mainly from their past. Who really cares, I'd rather be the better football team than have massive support.

This is not an epeen on who has biggest support or not, simply a fact that home teams should allow more away fans if the need is there and the home fans don't fill the stadium..

So this is directed at any team who have a decent away support..

wp though on the attempted trolls..

I guess when you have the 3 or 4th biggest away support in all the leagues including the prem your home to away ratio will be low.

Yeah, just let as many away fans in as they possibly can, because it doesn't cause any problems at all does it?

I think you lot should worry more about the 20,000 seats you are not filling, rather than not having enough away tickets.

Well filling Elland road is a different point is it not? If you care to do a little research you can easily find out the measures the new owners are doing to achieve increased home attendances.

I think Sheriff is correct the pricing before was naughty for away support, £36 for Barnsley fans is beyond scandalous. Hopefully this will improve.

They are focused..Hence why the support and buzz around the place is increasing slowly overtime. Rebuilding the trust that was crushed over 10 years with Bates takes time, I predict if we are in the Championship next season our average home crowd will be close to 30k..

You are sat criticising other teams of having empty stadiums, when last season you was sat with 25,000 empty seats, it's a bit hypocritical regardless of how much your tickets was, because I am sure they would have come if you was playing Manchester United.

I agree with you, it has been a ripoff hence the general support at home decline. Due to Leeds history it seems they still get good away support, even through the Bates years as many felt they were not lining his pocket at away games. Leeds home gates are a fuking embarrassment though, the size of the city means we should easily be getting 40k a week, yet the Leeds Rhinos get more local home support than Leeds United.

Your last point, I dunno. I much prefer supporting a club that takes a huge away support to all games. Wigan were better but don't tell me it was fun watching them away in the premiership with the 50+ other regular away fans they took.

Alot of clubs in the championship have good away support and how much better atmosphere is the game when a huge away support turns up?

You have missed the point, not sure how I can explain this again..

Leeds should allocate more away tickets if there was a need, as the stadium is never full. It makes no sense for Leeds and any other team not to increase the away teams allocation. As Charlton did 2 weeks ago.

Criticizing? Nope merely making a point on why home teams decide to not allow a big allocation when it surly generates more revenue etc?

I am not sure if Leeds ever had 25000 empty seats for games as that would mean an average attendance of 10k less than it was last season.

I appreciate you trolling hard, but if you got the facts correct, the context of the original point correct it would be a little weight to the bollocks you post.

You're geting 2002 away tickets at Forest this season just like Bournemouth did , big away support or not :D

I love forest....even when we lose :)

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGiw8sN2Z7w  at forest :)


YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_IHSmf8jfs santa leeds fans at forest :)

I must be one of the few opposition supporters who likes the Leeds away following.  Always creates a good atmosphere.  Last season at Watford there were about 30 of them dressed as convicts :)

 

No one is criticising the away following here.

Just bemusing that the team with the second most empty seats in the football league (and third in the country) is moaning about how half filled stadium do not offer unlimited away support. I'm sure they would if Leeds would cater for moving home season ticket holders, policing costs etc. away clubs have to buy the tickets upfront so id suggest asking your own CEO.

If only all their away supporters went to elland road :)

You mentioned half empty stadiums, nobody else. In reality it is only Leeds and Wednesday who play in half empty stadiums and people come a lot closer to filling out their allocation, than they do at Wednesday.

Then you mention teams should get bigger away allocations, there are not many teams that fill out away, so this again, just aimed at Leeds, once more.

With regards to the 25,000 spare seats according to the Football League stats, you had an attendance of 16,000 for a league game, that is nearly or more than 25,000 spare seats.

When I said half empty stadiums its not a literal figure that has to be exact. It's meant to be stadiums not capacity.

Of course my initial comment was aimed at Leeds, but it can be used as a general comment for all games and away allocations where the home fans will not fill the stadium.

To backup a point on Leeds having a half empty stadium (statistically~) by recalling one league game in which they had an attendance of 16k (not this season)  is so lol it cracked me up. 

Keep on trolling you might make the calendar again.

Mr Mourse, it was you who said that Leeds had not played in front of 25,000 spare seats. You never mentioned season.

Leeds United, Twenty Five Thousand, unsold spare seats, for a league game.

I wonder if that is some kind of record? Probably is, "most spare seats at a championship game"

Biggest club in the league, most spare seats at a league game.

Not trolling here, but that is trolling btw! ha

As far as clubs organising then Leeds at home is one of the more expensive matches, I'm not saying all Leeds away fans are scumbags or anything like that but there are an element who travel amongst the Leeds supporters who cause trouble. The idea of inviting more of these animals and thus drastically increasing the policing costs doesn't sit well with a lot of teams.

Never really had much of a problem with Leeds fans.

OK, they're a noisy bunch of northern benders totally deluded that they're a Mahusive Club, with a rock 'ard firm'      ......     which we all know isn't true.

Just another 'giant' floundering around in the mere backwater that is The Football League.

I think all us 'little clubs' should be grateful to bask in their shadow as O'leary Chubby Boy prepares for the next assault on Barca & AC Milan in the Champions League!

Another woeful display today has cost Flitcroft his job.

No idea where we go from here.  Could make for some interesting next manager bets again!

Absolutely huge result for the pub team! Completely ignored on local radio  as per usual.

Great result, and Dickov seems to be doing a good job there.  It was a tough call between which set of fans were more ecstatic on Radio Sheffield afterwards, Donny or Rotherham.

Made for a nice change of pace from the Barnsley, Wednesday and United callers, particularly as it seemed to be another 'sack Dave Jones' dominated show.

I don't think I have ever been on the bandwagon to sack Dave Jones, but I think yesterday was definitely enough to see he needs to go.

He still has the inability to see the problem with the midfield & this is frustrating.

We have two tough games coming up with Leicester & Forest, so we need something to happen soon, but we all know Mandaric really doesn't want to put any more money in, hopefully he realises if he doesn't we will be back from where he got us from! However rumours are saying he is or already has been sacked!

Haha Watford had 27 shots and TWO were on target. Is this an error on BBC?!

No, the only danger posed by the Watford 'attack' yesterday was to the advertising hoardings around the pitch     ....     well done Yeovil.

Dave Jones is sacked.

There is already a market up and running.

Gary Megson, Gary Megson!

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/sheff-wed/next-permanent-manager

Hope you are kidding he's awful jones had to go when you consider they are 8 points behind my local team donny and sheff wed have a much better squad

Sheffield Wednesday  rotflmfao rotflmfao rotflmfao

Please select Di Canio :D

FYP

Outside chance of being on bench on Tuesday....

Watford in the dung.  Another absolutely dreadful performance.

Owing Coil gone    ......     how on earth did he last that long?

Only one other football manager can beat him for trotting out excuses, Brendan Rodgers - and I think he'll get found out soon.

Leeds vs Wigan midweek should be interesting who they have looking after the team.

Leeds pushing this to be a big crowd by giving away 14000 tickets!

Excellent idea - why, oh why the 'businessmen' running football into the ground cannot fathom that empty seats generate bugger-all income, I'll never comprehend!

If two thirds of those 14k only spend a fiver on food/drinks/merchandise another 50 odd grand could be added to the clubs cash flow from a game against unattractive opposition.

There's plenty of kids/skint people/lapsed fans who'd love free/discounted tickets to a game      .....     get 'em hooked & they'll return.

Watford used to do 'Quid-a-Kid' schemes and they'd sell out for 'fan frenzy' matches against Preston etc.

Good marketing ploy by Leeds.

agree 100% you have to engage the locals, offer freebies, incentives etc..we had a vacuum in our fan base from the last ten years of Bates, where he stopped all local initiatives.

Along with this freebie thing, all Leeds Rhinos season ticket holders get in for £10 this week.  Not rocket science but great for swelling the numbers.

Steve Cotterill coming in for a huge amount of support.

Massive sigh.

The Wednesday market is changing all the time. The bookies don't really have a clue yet.

Steve Evans now favourite. Before that it was Cotterill, then Warnock, previously Pearce.

I lumped on Stuart Pearce at 33/1 last Wednesday (hope what I heard turns out to be true) and the price dropped to 2/1.

Doesn't take a lot to move the market.

Steve Evans 4/6 in a place for Thowls.

If I were a Thowl, I'd be tempted to become Terblade if Terclown came in.

Erm the cost of stewarding, staff for additional kiosks, food, food write offs, cost of producing tickets, sending tickets out

Doubt they will make anything from it, and hardly any would return when it's £30 per ticket.

Our CEO, the best in the league, and in the UK has the marketing and pricing spot on.

A close friend of mine played for him at one of his previous clubs.

All I can say is he'd be looking much more closely at our relegation odds and that in his opinion he would be way out of his depth.

On my bet mentioned earlier in this thread, it appears sometimes some people place a very high value on their services :-(

Apparently, he's turned down the opportunity to speak to them today.  They requested permission from Rotherham yesterday.

At least it's not Cotterill.

I'd take Warnock.

I don't think the point is actually making money from them free tickets at this match. Its all about introducing new people and fans to Elland road, bringing back people, creating fans for tomorrow.

I can see why you'd want someone with such a proven track record but surely this would be as divisive as when Wilson went to United?

I would imagine you'd have the same hardcore of supporters who would simply refuse to accept him from Day 1, which ultimately curtails his longevity in the role.  Whether or not that would extend to protests taking place in the car park at the press conference announcing his appointment remains to be seen.

Can you realistically envisage it happening?

Given that Warnock snubbed Mandaric at Pompey and Mandaric returned the favour at Leicester I'd be surprised if those two ended up working together.

There is a huge list of things Warnock did in the last few years to warrant he never manages again. Seeing as he once said if he ever managed Sheff Wed he would see how fair he could plunge them down the leagues this is a non starter.

To be fair, that comment was all part of the banter.

There is part of me that thinks Warnock might be tempted because he feels he was screwed by McCabe at United and managing Wednesday (if successful) would be pay back.

A lucky escape if Steve Evans turns you down....

Very vile man

Nope, definitely can't see it happening, especially after Mandaric mentions he wants to give the fans what they deserve, etc. But I would happily take him, considering the options available.

There isn't really anyone I can genuinely say, I'd really like to appoint them as manager, probably the reason why I wasn't part of the "Get Jones out" brigade.

I feel the same looking at the list for our job.

There's a poll on the forum at the moment and I'm struggling to vote.  The one's I'd most like are the names I don't think are realistic for various reasons (e.g. Holloway) and the one's who seem more realistic don't particularly inspire me.

If Phelan is a realistic candidate (and I'd say this is only feasible due to the links between Watkins and Man Utd) then I guess he'd be my choice.  If he's not then I'm torn between Wilson and names not currently at the forefront of the speculation.

The ecstasy: checking in at 10:15pm and seeing you won away at Brighton.

The agony: looking straight to the Wednesday and Yeovil results and realising that you're still bottom.

Huge results for all 3.  Back in touch with the pack at the very least.

One Micky Mellon, there's only one..........

Booed off the pitch at half time and full time.

Lots of people saying on our forums are saying what I said earlier now. Garcia is clueless....the good thing is we have only played well for 135 minutes this season and are not a mile away from the play offs.

Good result for us last night & good value for it too.

Warnock clear favourite now, odds on with SkyBet. No idea what is happening.

A few rumours he has been appointed now & the fact Mandaric came out saying he will explain the appointment, might suggest he does indeed want to appoint Warnock. He's still EVS in places, 4/9 on sky bet.

Pearce now odds on favourite, hope there has been a change because I was told he had been interviewed but couldn't agree terms.

Maybe that has changed.

Not a fan of Pearce as a manager but quite keen on my 33/1 bets coming in.

No goals from Dirty Leeds required for the 2nd half      .......     if so, the Loofah 'specials' free-rolling for the scoop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS. What an atmosphere     ...............     from the travelling Orns.

Spoke too soon - great comeback.

Just seen Ince's post match interview there, and reckon he might get invited for tea and no biscuits at the FA headquarters on the back of it.

Just been to Hillsborough.

A classic Billy Davies performance and team.

Strong, aggressive and masters at timewasting and play acting when 1-0 up.

Forest were the better team and out muscled Wednesday for most of the game.

I wish Wednesday had a nasty aggressive manager with a winning mentality like Davies.

You hate him as an opposition manager but you'd love him if he was getting results for your team.

I burst out laughing, one of the best manager interviews i have seen in a long time. It is almost as if he is pulling everyones leg.

Because it just hasn't been embarrassing enough being a Blackburn supporter over the last few years.

Massive victory for us.

Ulloa came off the bench too.

Looks like Zola has walked.

Oscar Garcia 68th in the list of longstanding managers.

24 have departed since July. Incredible.

No doubt he will be top 50 come may!

Indeed, I was gutted when Dyche was sacked - he did so well with sfa resources at Watford..

Looking back a joint management team of SD & GZ could have worked out nicely    ....     flair and defensive grit, the ideal combo ftw.

As you say,"Funny old game..."

It's almost as if any manager goes on a bit of a poor streak (seem to be about 6 games these days) the chairman gets an itchy trigger finger.

I thought our arch enemy, Derby, had it right with Clough working away nice and steadily with little to no budget, then wallop, he gets it too.

Clubs have to be realistic, you are where you are in most cases, as that is your level.

It's as if there's 35 clubs who think they deserve to be in the Premier League (we are one of those too).  When the reality is far from that.

To be fair, Watford lost 5 games in a row at home (Bolton, Yeovil, Sheff Weds back to back!) and have 4 points from 27.   The performances at home have been dreadful.  Zola seemed to have run out of ideas, so this was probably inevitable.

This could be good news for some of the players Zola doesn't seem to fancy like Iriney, Acuna, Belkalem and Battochio.

"I thought our arch enemy, Derby, had it right with Clough working away nice and steadily with little to no budget, then wallop, he gets it too."

Do you think they are regretting it now though?  They are absolutely flying.

Well that was quick.  Giuseppe Sannino, former Palermo manager, 1/4 shot across the board for the Watford job.

Copied from my post on Fred:

Barnsley have called a press conference today where it's expected that Danny Wilson will be announced as our new manager, who is now 1/20 with Bet Victor.

Saturday's woeful performance against Yeovil effectively put the nail in the coffin of any chances Mellon had of winning the job full-time.

Personally, I'm overjoyed to see King Danny return to us, but the scale of what he's stepping into was highlighted on Saturday when I chatted about it with the guy who sits directly behind me.  Time will tell if he keeps his promise of "never setting foot into Oakwell again if he's brought back."

FWIW, with regard to Fred's various bets on Barnsley this season, I think this is an appointment which will require us to give him time and patience to address the issues with the team.  If anything, I think it increases our chances of relegation this season compared to some of the 'quick fix' managers who could have been brought in until the end of the season.  However, provided he doesn't get hounded out by the vocal minority and that he's given time to fix things, I think it's the best medium-term appointment we could have made.

live press conference for barnsley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY6FLsUer34

Just catching up on it and it's a classic so far.  4.5 minutes in and is still a shot of an empty table with a billboard behind it.

Mutterings that Di Matteo is the number 1 target for the Pozzos and there is a chance of an interim "Rafa" style appointment this season until Di Matteo's Chelsea compensation payments cease in the summer.

Not sure what that means for this season.  Probably not good.

Shocking treatment of Zola.

Some randomer pre lined up.

Some big games in the championship today, Tightys team vs QPR on TV should be a cracker. Not sure I want either to win.

Think Barnsely who have a jinx over Leeds and a with their new manager might upset us today and nick a draw. Its a shame its so expensive for the away fans, u gonna listen to it sheriff?

blimey

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Future-City-secure-owner-wipes-huge-debts/story-20352762-detail/story.html

Yes, will be tuning in while visiting family.

Think it might be a bit too soon for Danny to work his magic, so not expecting anything today.

Pissed off that I'm having to miss his first game back, but I'm not paying £36 to watch Championship football anywhere, and Leeds have been charging that for 3 seasons now.

I think we'd sold around 800 tickets as of Thursday, so I'm clearly not the only one.  None of the group of 8-10 I go to games with are going today, that I'm aware of.

Should be huge crowd, gl listening to it Sheriff, may the best team win

Liking the way Boro are playing under this Karanka fella.

Coping with difficult conditions very well.

See that Agent Lomas has been given the boot by Millwall...

Anyone got any fancies for next man in the chair?

Blackpool vs Leeds ref was appalling :(

Least Charlton got a well needed win.

Did they change much from last year? From memory, without sounding too much of a Palace fan, even though I quite like Millwall, I think Lomas was probably doing a good job to have them where they are.  

Leon Clarke wanted by decent championship clubs, the world gone mad?

Look at the number of clubs Clarke has had and it tells its own story.

He can do it in L2, L1 at a push but the Championship is a step too far.

His attitude when with Wednesday was a big, big problem.

He had perhaps 3 games for Wednesday when he was unplayable but in the rest of his time he was very, very average.

Just reading the QPR forum post the Watford game yesterday (which was a dull, cold 0-0).  Didn't realise that there is quite a lot of anti Redknapp sentiment.

On the Watford front, Ranegie and Merkel are close to being done deals.  Sannino has tightened up the defence, but we need a boost up top so perhaps this will be it.

Strange to see that Dung as he has always been quite an attacking manager in Italy

The defence must have been in some state, i suspect he has upped the tempo of the training sessions which may have resulted in the tighter defensive performances.

Blackpool look to have finally ran out of luck, look knackered last few games. Appreciate Gray is not everybodys cup of tea at Sheff Wed but he has tightened them up fancy a 0-0 or 1-0 either way there on Wednesday.

This could add some spice to the game, suspect it is just something leaked by Ince's agents after he got some stick at home yesterday

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/sheffield-wednesday-transfer-news-owls-2971986?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Yes - not so sure it was a change in the system, more the fact that the defenders had such disasterous lapses in concentration under Zola or were busy passing the ball square across the backline!  He seems to have focused minds a bit more in this regard.

Surprised to see we are only 5 points off the playoffs despite being in awful form for 12 matches.  A crazy league.

Mandaric already come out and rubbished the Ince story

Excellent 6 points for us having beaten QPR and Leeds....right in the mix now.

The league table is making me squirm with Leicester and Derby there ugh!!!!

Yes - that felt like a big Xmas for Forest.  They felt like they were dropping away before those 2 big wins, but I expect them to go on a run again now.  I see Davies wants to spend more money again though - he never seems happy that bloke.

Forest best team to play leeds that i have seen this season.

would have been nice to nick a point lol.

Leeds were very tough, genuine play off contenders imho. Was good to win, thought we'd blown it when you equalised.

Key for Forest is the transfer window.

Not too bothered if Derby and Leicester do well as long as we can perform well and maybe get up through play offs.

I got an insider text earlier, you know those insider texts that seem to always be wrong.

Paul Ince is going to be next Wednesday manager & it makes zero sense, but punter on it for punting sake just in case!

Aaron read the response from Mandaric

The mirror story that the betting move came from was utter bollocks (according to mm)

just posted this on tft

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25552351

https://audioboo.fm/boos/1823523-interview-milan-mandaric-with

Stopped taking bets on Ince according to my phone. Really do hope its not Ince, rather do my money in tbh

From someone very close to the top at brighton.

We paid bridge £20k per week! All papers guessed it was £10k.

Also we tried to sign someone on loan, and the club said we would have to pay £65k PER week. He plays in the prem, no idea who that is.

No wonder Bolton are £165m in debt.

We paid £10k of his £90k was my belief, ha wonder who that would have been for 65k

That's what I thought but it was £20k. Maybe we are paying cms £20k too....

£1m bid for Buckley rejected. We rejected 5x that 12 months ago.

Watford refused to pay Chalobah his £30k a week this season on his new Chelsea contract so I presume Forest have agreed to....................do they even play him?  I presume the £65k a week guy is an established older player who has just fallen out of favour or is coming back from injury.

30k a week is ridic. Although armand traore when 17 and don't think he had played for arsenal was on £25k a week (knew his gf at the time who he's had a kid with).

I reckon the £65k a week player we went for was Michael essien.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11706/9096030/premier-league-crystal-palace-release-striker-kevin-phillips

Would be an asset to any Championship club.

Watford cofirm signing of Alex Merkel. 

Not sure we need another midfielder, but this bloke is supposedly a cut above.  Made 10 appearances in the AC Milan first team as a nipper in 2010 before being sold to Genoa and then has stalled a bit since then. 

He is on loan, and Ranegie the giant swedish striker is joining on a permanent deal imminently.   Haven't heard of any other incomings.  I'm going to the home game against Reading in a week so hopefully they will both play.

Been to 3 of our last 4 games.

Bournemouth are pretty good, missing a second striker and a decent full back.

Charlton are shocking, no idea how we lost to them. Pitch was worst I've seen for years though. Think they will go down.

Huddersfield were okay too. Lots of average teams in this division, and we are one of them when we have 6 players out for every game. Orlandi and ulloa are back now though.

Sunderland bidding for bridcutt and Buckley several times with no joy. Bridcutt is the best player in his position in the league, however since he's been back from injury he's been average at best. Buckley has been awful all season, but constantly injured so think it has something to do with that, as only ever manages 2 or 3 games at a time. I'd accept £6m for the pair. Think both have had minds elsewhere since poyet left.

We have hit the woodwork SEVEN times in our last 3 games.

Hope he plays a strong team in the cup.

http://www.cafc.co.uk/news/article/20140103-duchatelet-completes-charlton-takeover-1273149.aspx

finally charlton sold to someone who might give a shit about the club. It's been left to rot for too long.

:)

Ha so com, 6m was the combined number i thought acceptable.

Last year would have been a much higher number mind.

Not sure you are right about Bridders, had this discussion other day, i personally feel he is still as good as he was just the squad has strengthened around him so he looks less dazzling

Another 3 against the woodwork in first half here v reading.

10 in 3.5 games!

Michael Chopra 8 ‏@MichaelChopra10 5m
Fucking joke this come in training only 6 fucking players here then find out the fitness coach taken the football session #joke

Bridcutt hands in transfer request....laters

That Twitter app can be quite expensive ;D

Who does Chopra play for now?

Blackpool

fyp

Barnes gone to burnley for 800k.

Out of contract in five months, but pretty disappointed about this. Most improved player in the last two years for us.

We released Scott Wiseman and Chris Dagnall today.  Wiseman has signed on a free for PNE.

Preston fans are making great capital from the fact that he turned down an offer from Blackpool to join them.  It seems a strange decision on the face of it but suggests that all is not well at Bloomfield Road.

Thoughts, jjandellis?

Watford after Dereck Boateng (sp?) from Fulham.  Any intel?  Looks like a midfield enforcer.

We are also after a pacey striker apparently.  Quite where all these players are going to fit in is another matter, but Boateng, Merkel, Ranegie + 1 would equate to a decent transfer window.  We may be too far off the pace though.

Preston probably pay more than Blackpool?

That Oyston mob don't like sharing money!

Ffs at our game being called off. 2 hours before kick off, feel sorry for the Barnsley fans.

Lol Leeds.

True form kicking in.

its been like this for 5-6 games......dire.

Funny how the ohh so quiet Sheff Wed fans pipe up on twitter after a good win, :)

Exceptional again from Brighton today, I honestly can't see how anyone (except Leicester) can be playing as well as we are right now.

Interesting now deleted tweets from puncheon today about Warnock..


IF only people knew the stuff he got up to at Leeds........

odds on leeds getting relegated?

Abdi came on as substitute against Bristol City last night and seemed as good as last season.

A midfield triumvate of Abdi, McGugan and Merkel should be very effective, so might be the time to start backing Watford after Merkel's suspension finishes in a couple of games.

We are also signing Derek Boateng from Fulham as well as a defensive option, so things are looking up, especially if Ranegie is a success up front.  Confident of a strong finsh and a top 10 berth.

Praise be    ....     Abdi's back.

(League and Cup double n the offing now, obv)

we actually had a good shout on him coming to Leeds, but the money men veto the move at the end. :(

What a great bit of business we could be doing. Best striker we have had down here has a bid accepted for 1.1m today (Lewis grabban).

Although I miss Barnes already, probably my second favourite player :(

Incred piece of business by Huddersfield to pick up Nicky Nacky and Joe Lolley for £1.5m combined.

Up to the boy Ings to get us weighed in!

how come hudds splashing so much cash?

some say they paid £2m last week for wells  too.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BeIttTHIgAAYV6C.jpg)

the contract Holloway has got every Milwall player to sign