The Fish

Bruce lowers the bar to the floor, then expects a round of applause when he stumbles over it.

You think we're going to sell Wilson and Saint Maximin?

I'm not sure those people are remotely interested in 'helping', probably more focused on 'winning'.

Bruce and his coaches deserve some credit for the post-Brighton form. But the criticism he and they deserve for the pre-Brighton form massively overshadows it. We had 28pts from 29 games, that'd get you 36pts and around 17th in an average PL season. We'd scored 28 goals, conceded 48! Only the bottom 2 clubs had a worse GD. Bruce suggests that the only reason we were in that mess was because we were missing Wilson and ASM. Well Wilson had played 21/28 PL games before Brighton. ASM was available for 16. I'd suggest the reason we were in the shit was because he persisted with an isolated striker, passive low block, disinterested in counter attacks, long after it became clear it wouldn't work. We're in the shit because our defence played like strangers. Because we experimented with a variety of formations that all had the same basic failing; inviting pressure onto a poorly organised defence, with no reliable outball when Saint Maximin wasn't on the pitch. I'm a poncy idiot and even I can see that Bruce had the players available to play the system we ended up with from the off. No, Joelinton isn't as good as Wilson, but he wouldn't have looked half as shit if we'd played this style. Back three, Ritchie and Murphy as wing backs, 2 centre mids, two attacking mids, supporting a striker. Play on the counter and for set pieces.

You're a real happy fun bloke, y'know?

You're digging him out for something he didn't do, in a game where he wasn't playing, that we won.

Definitely, but how does FFP impact lower league clubs? Is it possible for their owner to throw tens of millions at the club to try and cover the loss of Parachute Payments? I wouldn't be surprised if attendances are down across the board, post COVID. They had c30k in 19/20, I'd not be shocked if that was down to <20k for the 21/22 season. So gates, sponsors, broadcast revenues are all down and they've a huge rebuild on their hands. Dreyfus will have to bankroll it, as best he can, right?

Saw something on twitter that; their parachute payments are gone, 13 of their players are out of contract, also McGeady gets a contract extension because he featured in the Play Off loss? So, they have to completely rebuild a promotion challenging team. That's expensive. They'll be paying over the odds for players because they're still a 'big club' for League 1. They'll be paying over the odds because they've a billionaire owner. They'll end up getting stiffed because their owner is inexperienced, and will likely end up spending £5m on anyone with a popular chant. In 17/18 their broadcast revenue was £95.6m, in 19/20 it was £17.2m (and 59% of their total revenue), in 20/21 broadcast revenue was £2m. I can't see how they can build a squad essentially from scratch, that's capable of pushing for promotion, when their revenue is so small. But, on the bright side, they can laugh at us because of that one time a fan punched a horse.

Wait, what?

Thing is we could have played the same way we have been post-Brighton without ASM and Wilson. We needn't have been so reliant on them. Fuck I hate Bruce.

It's a possibility, but I don't think we'd sell Wilson, and would only sell ASM if we're offered silly money. I also think there won't be a lot of clubs that will throw silly money at a player who missed 18 games with soft tissue injuries.

If he were to leave, it'd be interesting to see where he went. I don't think he'd move to one of the EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE (tm) teams. He's not quite at that level, for me. His best bet would be Everton or Leicester. Ambitious clubs on the up.

Part of your child maintenance?

Genuinely thought you wrote "dnd" festival and few of those subtitles convinced me otherwise.

Do Sunderland brides go down the aisle to Scooter?

That's hardly glowing praise mind.

My Instagram is private, so fuck you Piers.

You find those kinds of pictures way too easily.

Managed to re-book my second Vaccination, so you can all relax.

Yep

Well then. Shit just got real.

They should be favourites given their stature, but they're in terrible form; 1 win in 9 and that 1 coming against 10 man Plymouth who finished the season in 18th place. They should get past Lincoln, but Oxford and Blackpool are both in better form.

Wife is regularly asking me to do DIY shit round the house, despite 8 years of evidence that I cannot do many DIY tasks to any decent standard. I'm keen to try, but when shit inevitably goes wrong, I should have a little "This is not what I'm good at" sign. I'd make one myself, but, y'know...

That's awful mate, you been onto the insurance company? There must be precedent for this?