I've just remembered the Cardiff player who couldn't tie his shoelaces yesterday. What was that all about? God level timewasting?
It definitely isn't. If I had a pound for every shoe lace I've had to tie,I'd buy Watford! And that's just the coaches! One lad at Hoddesdon needed to tie his eleven times in an hour. I did them on the eleventh. Velcro is the answer for Cardiff and moreover most boots seem to be slip ons, so why the need?
Old School football boots most likely. Saying that, most people try to get fancy with knots when a double-bow is more than adequate.
I’ve enjoyed that this season, whatever the result, we mostly seem to have at least had a plan and something about us. Yesterday, we were clueless from the off, lacking in purpose and confidence. The passing around between Hamer, Hoedt and Pollock made me long for route one football. Utterly awful, dismal entertainment. Dennis’s cameo was a ray of light, but simply emphasised the gulf in class between him and his teammates.
So ******* bad, not on it from the first whistle. Fear we are going to get pumped twice during this week now if we dont start right. Hopefully Val and the boys can find their mojos again soon. Looking forward to Sema being fit enough to start and Kayembe coming back.
Hamer tried to score with his head and show the forwards how. As soon as King Sema is fully fit we should give him the striker role as he will be far more effective than the alternatives.
What a strange comment to make. HB1 did not even mention the size of the fanbase at all. Pedro is doing very well yes and we are all happy for him. Brighton are a better run club in terms of management and finances. That was the point that was being made. In terms of fanbases, what does that matter? Hereford United have a fanbase just as passionate as Brighton's and Watford's no doubt.
Yep. Anyone can turn up for the glory days. As soon as Brighton go down they’ll be back to their 15k crowds.
Not so sure. Our crowds are about double what they were when I first started going in the 90s. A decent spell in the top division does boost the fan base long term.
It wasn't that long ago when Souffampton was the team "doing it right" . Eventually they sold too many players and they got relegated. Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy the moment Brighton.
Yes 10k would be a good crowd when GT came back and we did well . Only after the 99/2000 Prem season have we regularly got 4 figure attendances after a drop as you say in the 90s.
The biggest difference between us and Brighton has been Dan Ashworth. He’s a first class Sporting Director who was given complete control of the strategy and culture of Brighton back in 2018.
Exactly this. People have got giddy over the last couple of years about Brighton and Brentford "that should have been us but Gino ruined it wah wah wah" - the truth is it is all cyclical and they will drop off in the next few years. I noticed on twitter a number of Brighton fans moaning about their lack of January transfers in...every fanbase has moans and grumbles. Brentford are getting dragged into the relegation scrap as well, the filth are only two points behind them. In the not too distant past Swansea, Watford, Norwich, Leicester, Cardiff, Middlesbrough, Leeds, WBA, Hull, Stoke, Birmingham, Southampton and plenty of others have had sustained spells in the Premier League. Some are still in the cycle, some have dropped out and are now settled in the Championship. That is football. The biggest difference in the modern era is people can't handle not getting what they want and struggle to enjoy something for what it is, they'd rather be the most extreme online presence they can be about what it isn't. Watford win = we are going to storm the play offs. Watford lose = Pozzo out. There is little in-between.
Excellent post .. palace, Fulham, Brentford as you said will all be back down at some point..look at Leicester although they will come straight back up but will find it tough this time around As for the scum despite there fairly good form they are only out of the bottom 3 because Everton have deducted points...I think Everton will get 6 of those back with the other 4 suspended
At the moment L*t*n are having their tummies tickled by the media because they are not hurting anyone of note . However a smash and grab at Spurs or Arsenal will see Fleet St sharpening their knives .
Every other club would say the same. Bad decisions taken, some more obvious than others. It is the same for every club.
The problem with the Little Watforder position is that the ownership they defend so vigorously actually said the opposite in the ‘not so distant past’ when they stated their ambition to be the ‘best of the rest’ and all that. The rest tends to be ‘believe me when I say’ followed by a list of mostly famously mismanaged clubs. Of course, of which we are indeed one.
Cyclical is the key word for me. In the 32 seasons of the PL, only 6 clubs, of the 51 who have played in the PL, have NOT dropped down to the second tier and only a further 5 have NOT dropped into tier 3. Edit: I definitely don’t mean this as a defence of the dreadful decision making after papa Pozzo handed control to his son, just to point out that ups and downs is the norm for almost everyone.
I guess. Very frustrating in our case though. It wasn't so much the Division caught up with us... We put together a string of awful decisions and bad luck in 20/21. A 12 month implosion.
And repeatedly pointed out as it happened by a number of the fanbase. It's not like we were blindsided, you could see the car crash unfolding in slow motion.
Assuming no ownership changes, City, Newcastle, Liverpool, Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea and Spurs are the only clubs immune from relegation. That is nothing new and doesn’t mean the clubs below are all just at the complete mercy of Lady Luck, you still get very well run clubs and very badly run clubs, and we’ve fallen into the latter bracket over the last few seasons, hence why we’re now a mid table championship team again. Looking at Brighton’s current spell in the PL isn’t really seeing the wood for the trees, you have to zoom much further out to see the trajectory they’re on and have been in for a long time. It wasn’t that long ago there were playing their games at a running track, all we’ve done by comparison is end up back exactly where we were when our current owner took over, but with a huge pile of debt and no prospects beyond the desperate hope of some mythical investment. So what if Brighton eventually suffer a relegation? Will their club be in a better or worse place historically if it happens? Yes Southampton have gone down, but they have been in league one relatively recently before a spell in the Premier League that was long enough to make them part of the European super league breakaway, they’ll probably go straight back up again. They’ve suffered a relegation, but they have done before, and then subsequently spent longer in the PL than any other club outside the giant, immune from relegation clubs. Just because relegation remains a risk to most teams who get promoted, let’s not pretend our club hasn’t been run appallingly of late, and Southampton getting relegated, or Brighton eventually at some point doing the same somehow changes that, it doesn’t.
A poor post which fails to scratch the surface. A sizeable minority of the fanbase were onto Pozzo years before the first relegation. The debt. The strange agent relationships. The lack of transparency. The vast “other operating expenses” in the accounts compared to peers. The prioritising of player trading over squad needs. The nonsense ongoing communications to fans. And where are we now? A debt ridden bottom half championship club which can’t afford to make basic squad reinforcements. A disinterested owner allegedly facing tax evasion charges. A remaining close tie to an agent facing financial crime charges. Duxbury still taking his premier league package. (Latest salary to be confirmed soon so may be incorrect now). A completely shambolic management of senior back room roles (Manga, Giarretta). An ongoing poor transfer market performance. And what do you do? You basically reduce all of that to fans being entitled and stamping their booties because we aren’t in the premier league. You have completely misrepresented the concerns of the fanbase because let’s be honest, you disagree with them. Dreadful stuff. People are NOT upset we are in the championship. They are upset because we have been so poorly run.
