Throwing Bad Money After Good - the EFL and Beyond 2017-18

I guess it's about time, since we kick off in about three hours. There may or may not be some speculation as to who is ready.

league 2 is gonna rock this year

https://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/leonidslutsky-cropped_yvxbqjh4sy0q192lhbho1cfjn.jpg

HE'S READY

http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/01/Protesters.jpg

FOREST GREEN ARE READY

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/06/article-2447191-187E167000000578-212_306x423.jpg

HE'LL TAKE HIS IN READIES, TA

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/football/2017/07/03/jt-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqM37qcIWR9CtrqmiMdQVx7OTVnVTen2B1t9XMRjiF79w.png

HE'S PREPARED

http://video.skysports.com/FrbHF3NzE6QzWk7pXHiDsdpvX4uyOr8F/promo304699059

HE'S READY, COME ON THEN

I am confident that Slutsky will get the best out of Hull's fourteen remaining players.

http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article4657212.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200/Ruben-Neves.jpg

HE'S REALLY EXPENSIVE

http://eldesmarquevalencia.eldesmarqueporta.netdna-cdn.com/images/stories/201415/Valencia_CF/Cuerpo_Tecnico/NUNO/nuno_mendes_ok.jpg

http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article10758866.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Ruben-Neves-signs-for-Wolves.jpg

https://arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-expressandstar-mna.s3.amazonaws.com/public/YPCBDHSWNRDCRFYQSRS6AAB3FA

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ADenDaL_klU/maxresdefault.jpg

ESTÃO PRONTO

http://e0.365dm.com/17/06/16-9/20/skysports-simon-grayson-sunderland-football-championship_3989966.jpg?20170630105618p=

HE'S READY FOR LEAGUE ONE

tonight's opening TV game looks like one for the, um, purists

tbf hull have signed some defender from sparta prague

feel bad for Hull, they're fucked until somebody can force the Allams to sell up

got to spend at least 4 hours every day next week in the car with a fervent Derby County fan who i don't like much, going to force myself through tonight's game just so we've got something to talk about. that's the plan, anyway

trying to gee myself up atm by reading overconfident Sunderland fan predictions

Wow! a real game tonight - I'm buzzing!

that smug Forest Green twat makes me want to smoke CFC's and burn tyres.

didn't realise Derby had been strip-mining Hull this summer. Thudd and Curtis Davies for c. £2 mill ain't bad business

fuckin hell man is it any wonder the stadium's only a quarter full. Sunderland have 90% of the possession in the opening 10 mins and then don't make even a token gesture of resistance as Derby walk through them to take the lead. this could be good fun :)

There's something pleasingly old-school about Lee Cattermole the Sunderland captain.

ffs Gary Rowett i want to like you please stop managing terrible clubs

Millwall are currently all over lol Forest by the sound of it

You can see Grayson has reduced the pitch size this season by the old lines.

Fuck me I'd forgotten they'd signed Vaughan, his knees won't last until September!

Jody steps up to the plate

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGUsWdDUIAAAsCt.jpg:large

xp to calz

yeah it's a pretty ragtag bunch of desperadoes and chancers they've brought in from League One / on loan this season

been quite consistently embarrassed by the way Villa have comported themselves since we got relegated, ito just throwing money around in a desperate attempt to buy ourselves back up to the Premier League, but hadn't realised until tonight quite how grateful i am for the largesse of Dr Xia - yea, even for John fucking Terry and his presumably extortionate wages.

oh shit penno, that seems a bit harsh

Brucey really aggravates me more often than not but i wd expect him to bring a steady, efficient promotion challenge this season unless key members of your squad go down with arthritis

idk our 15 game losing streak (or whatever the fuck it was) occurred after we'd already spent the better part of £40 million buying up all of the supposed best Championship players. obviously the hope is that everyone settles down nicely now and we move forwards from here but all these cunts going on like signing John Terry automatically makes us favourites for automatic promotion UGHH FUCK OFF have these cunts still not realised that Villa Park is built on an ancient Indian burial ground

keeping sentiment off my betting slip, I think the 2/1 on Brum is a good price today. I would love them to fail, but don't think they will and I think Ipswich will finish rock bottom this season.

"Learning from their mistakes or chasing their losses? After a chastening first year owning a football club, Fosun, the Chinese custodians of Wolves, took time to diagnose the reasons that the club lurched around the lower mid-table for most of the season and decided not to change the medicine but to double the dose.

"This is bold. Even allowing for football’s spiralling [sic] inflation, the outlay for the young Portuguese midfielder Ruben Neves was breathtaking by Championship standards. He is part of another group of fresh faces, several with Portuguese backgrounds.

"Does Nuno Espirito Santo have the experience to handle the Championship? Will he know what you need to know? Who knows? Wolves new owners could be very wrong or very right. What they have got right, at least, is to get the fans talking and mostly excited - excited enough to sell the ground out for the opening day, which is no small achievement.

"It will be a fascinating story either way. Wolves appear determined to prove most of the accepted conventions of how to tackle the Championship need not apply. If they succeed - and they certainly could - it will be on their terms.

"The owners are taking a huge gamble. If you bet on Wolves, you're taking a huge gamble too."

BBC teeing up Wolves nicely in a saying-a-lot-but-not-saying-anything-really kind of way.

Stoked for the madness. Sorely miss the heroic Wolves drawings though :(

it's Jody Craddock paintings this season tho!

i agree with Calz about Ipswich tho you'd think Mick would have enough dogged organization to perhaps tough it out when some of the flakier sides struggle. they look like a club in absolute malaise tho.

two thirds of the reason i want us to have a good season is so i can laugh in the faces of the "you don't get promoted playing football" section of our own fans

I really wish I was going to a game today, getting strong nostalgia pangs for supping cans on a train on away sorties back in the day.

Will be interested to see if Stuart Webber's Norwich project are going to do well. Even though he did some very good work for us, I have a suspicion he is a bit of an overrated travelling bullshit merchant, who got lucky. And also just because Norwich have a better infrastructure than ours was, it doesn't necessarily mean he can go one better. Away at Fulham for them is probably about as tough an opening fixture you could ask for in the current champo.

it's Jody Craddock paintings this season tho!

― put your hands on the car and get ready to die (Noodle Vague), Saturday, August 5, 2017 11:22 AM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha!

I'm looking forward to seeing how Martin Braithwaite gets on at Boro. He has never really scored a lot of goals but can be completely outstanding at times. He was phenomenal when Toulouse beat Monaco last year.

They definitely got more vfm there than £15m worth of injury plagued Assombalonga.

A bruising start for Orient in the National League, 2 nil down to Sutton after 30 odd mins, ouch! I can't find the old Videprinter live score thing on the beeb website. I see what LBI was saying on the other thread now.

Actually the new BBC Football Scores & Fixtures page isn't bad actually. At least you can scroll down the whole league as it happens and see which of your accs are completely doomed. I used to use the live videprinter page and then a latest scores tab for each division, which was pretty a ridiculous way of doing it really.

Yeah the live scores page looks like it's improved quite a bit.

FFS Novak! That'll be my acc with Charlton going down already!

first red card of the season btw

omg! Leon Clarke is a Blade now, that be 17 clubs he's turned out for now.

Been a fun first 20 mins between Fulham and Norwich. Marley Watkins could have had a couple already

I totally misheard that on 5 live and thought Norwich had signed Ollie Watkins

Bonatini Lohner Maia has to be contender for best name in the league

Nathaniel Percival Knight is another cool name.

i dunno this Brazilian lad he's not all that if he was any good he wouldn't of been playing in Saudi we shd spunk 20 mill on Andre Gray

Wycombe vs Lincoln City shouldn't be a football match, it should be a feight to the death between Adebayo Akinfenwa + Matt Rhead!

omg didn't realise Akinfenwa was still playing

Blues losing :) very happy with how these games are going right now.

I would be if hadn't put the bastards on one of my accs where all the other 3 are winning, but on reflection - fuck 'em!

Burnley "friendly" abandoned after Reports of some Hannover fans with knives in the away end!

given the number of chances we seem to be spurning maybe i was unfair on Mr Ward

am gonna do my best not to make kneejerk negative comments about Dave Edwards this season

fuck me i'd've took a battling defeat at 2.59pm

yeah that's a great start to the season. more of this please. Boro winning the division would be so tedious.

i think today, Charlton might have learned they can cope without Lee Novak in the team.

My fave blunt quote on Mick from one of our lot is "he knows how to make a bunch of turds play ok"

I could imagine Mick saying that at his job interview.

winning with ten men for 84 minutes is pretty good

i was playing cricket alas, scoring 31 not out in a total of 76 all out and generally getting to feel right narked off about my teammates (except the one i ran out)

OH FUCK THEY FOUND A WAY TO MAKE THE CHANNEL 5 HIGHLIGHTS WORSE

Talking about cricket?

Grimsby - Derby in the Malibu Cup has been abandoned cos of torrential rain, which judging by how bad it is here i can totally understand

I thought there was something missing in my life that was previously an ever-present. Yeah it has been pouring down hard all day here as well.

that new bbc latest scores page is good enough in theory, but as soon as you click Show Scorers it reverts to earlier and doesn't update.

i have a superstitious fear of following the BBC text when we're playing so i've not looked at it much but i noticed the other day that the live league table wasn't functioning either

We don't start until this weekend, so I forgot to look for the thread.

Final friendly was last weekend, comfortably beat Stourbridge but the first half was pretty woeful tbh. We've kept about 30% of the squad so who knows how we're going to line up any given week - we've got West Brom's 4th choice keeper training with us and filling in for injuries and you can see why he's 4th choice.

I'd take playoffs now, but I can see us finishing mid-table.

PSA: Aston Villa are playing Colchester in the Curaçao Cup tonight and it's gonna be on the telly. kick-off in just under an hour.

been drinking for free since about midday today after my trial got knocked off early and the barristers insisted, so if apologies in advance if i clog up the thread a bit tonight with inane and foul-mouthed minute-by-minute get-involvery as I watch what is sure to be a truly dire football match

Big Chris Samba flying in on the Colchester striker to give away a penalty after 7 mins, how much is this moron gettin paid?

Saved! Naww I feel pretty bad for that guy actually

In the pub watching it as far as I can focus Windsor :D

aaaaaand I think we can stick a fork in this one

Feel pretty bad turning up to someone else's gaff with our reserves,going 2-0 up thru a goalkeeping clanger and an own goal

Wouldn't resent it if they came back to win 3-2

Robbing harder working teams is gh

Whoops...is the essence of the league cup

Guess it makes a welcome change for villa not to be crashing out in the first round 2-0 to league 2 opposition following a goalkeeping clanger and an own goal. Progress is progress.

Except for when it comes to the sponsorship of the efl cup. What the FUCK is a carabao. Wish the commentators weren't quite so earnest when using the name

one touch football from Colchester

Lol

Yesssss Chris Nichol reference! My dad must've told me that story fifty times

no sound in here, ELO on the jukebox tho appropriately

Wrt the Colchester player getting a goal after scoring an O.G earlier. Chris Nichol being the lad that once scored all four goals in a 2-2 draw

That Colchester right winger was quick then, we might even have a game on

well that fizzled out

spent the second half chatting with a girl on facetime, stream froze up on 49 mins. was pleasantly surprised to find we didn't blow it. no complaints here

I was chatting. Saw Colchester have one decent shot that was well saved but it wasn't gripping

Wolves 2-0 up and Villa being thrashed. This day continues to get better and better.

44 games to go yet. Out with my oldest boy today and we're working hard on managing our expectations

fuck it, be arrogant early pacesetters and enjoy it. It is always much more fun - even if you end up bollocksing it all up by October!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4UqMyldS7Q

I can make it even better for you: Paul Gladon (how many games did he play for you last year? Two?) showed Heracles the way today, scoring in a 2-1 shock win against Ajax! Top lad.

there were at least 3 ex-Wolves scored in England today! Vokes for Burnley, Saville for Millwall and Mendez-Laing for Cardiff.

pleased for Gladon, he never got a fair look in for us. bought during the panic spending spree last summer after Fosun took over when i don't even know who was calling the shots but there was clearly no strategy. have no trust in the opinion of Lambert and i don't even know what Zenga's thoughts were tbh.

Gladon wasn't anywhere near Wolves-aiming-for-PL standard, but it's nice to see sub-par players rebound you know, find their place? Little Heracles is a peculiar old club, forever mid table but always up for a fight against the big ones. A club he should feel right at home. Gladon's a hero there after tonight. Even if he plays shit all season, he lead Heracles to a first day win over Ajax, and that's very pleasing and well deserved, because he does work his ass off. Must be those muscles gained at Wolves :)

holy shit

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/dd/d0/ae/ddd0ae018cf71ec61ff650d9e229d25d.gif

I looked but can't find it: where are the EFL highlights broadcast this year? Channel 5? And is it also on during a weekday like today?

It is Channel 5, don't know about midweek shows, doesn't look like there's one tonight

very enjoyable millwall result

Neves mate. Stop it! #wwfc pic.twitter.com/ecTOkUSC9k

— Lee Garratt (@Garratt7) August 15, 2017

That Neves goal was pretty tidy!

bloody hell, it looks like Mick isn't ready for the knacker's yard yet.

ty NV

Neves worth every penny already

Beagrie sacked by sky after domestic abuse case. I am sure this isn't the first time. I can remember a night game against Scunny where he was getting strong verbal abuse while taking corners, people chanting something about him being a wifebeater or a rapist, and that was over ten years ago. Horrible fucking guy, he definitely always had that violent scumbag aura about him.

Our chairman let slip last night that Nahki has gone down the Jordan Rhodes route of chasing bigger money at panicky champo clubs, rather than committing to a season in the bigtime. GL to the little shit, and he might need it - because he also said we can afford to let him rot in the reserves if no move materialises, and he won't be let anywhere near the squad. He has totally overplayed his hand considering how far down the pecking order he has dropped, and might be shocked to find it won't be The Nahki Wells Show even if he goes to "the likes of" Hull, Middlesbro or wherever.

Hmmmmm

next season you'll both be banned from this thread

only just realised EFL radio commentary is now exclusive to TalkSport

fuck that

xp i will happily take the ban if this thread isn't relevant to Wolves next season

I thought all EFL games are video streamed now?

Like legally with that iFollow at the EFL site.

audio only in the UK

lol cya next year villa ;)

"Bruce, preparing for Saturday’s visit of Norwich, said: “The frustration for me is social media now is vile. Thankfully, I don’t read it, but I hear snippets."

Nothing worse than when that happens.

I hope he isn't hearing dead Brucies, that would be scary.

did I really just hear Ipswich have had 11 shots on target this season, and scored 9 of them !

Ah, rats' cocks

Reading bbc's live text it sounded like Cardiff were on top most of the match

League One is ours

Dom is somewhere frowning

cup runs are so passé

Scores against @SouthamptonFC on Monday night for the U23s.

Score against @SouthamptonFC on Weds night for the first team.@1DonovanWilson pic.twitter.com/iN1KuOK48f

— Wolves (@Wolves) August 23, 2017

Chris Samba looking like an actual footballer so far tonight, who'd have thunk

Been a bad first 15 mins but I like Keinan Davies a lot, him and Andre Green have gotta be the development projects this season

Steve Bruce picks a back three for the first time, realises after 20 mins that we're being played off the park, switches to a back four leaving a number of players out of position

Awesome to have a manager who knows what he's doing

starting to think his work at Hull was a fluke

can't front like i paid the least attention to his Hull team when they were in the Championship but what he's doing at Villa right now is a disgrace. leaving c. £40 million's worth of attacking talent (some of it's probably worth at least half of the fee!) out of the eleven in order to lock things down by going three at the back against beatable opposition is unforgivable. can't stand all this "he knows his way out of the division" nonsense, there are the players in this Villa squad to really make a go of it if only we had a manager who knew how.

also i take back what i said before about Chris Samba. at times he has looked like a total boss defending inside our area but any time the ball comes within striking distance he hoofs it out for a City goal kick and it's getting to be something of a problem. obviously this shouldn't be a surprise to you or me, any fule will know that the single-minded block is the sum total of his game.

being too cautious was absolutely his biggest fault when City were in the Prem - they'd probably not have got relegated under him if he didn't insist on trying to scrape a draw against teams he should have been trying to beat, but the first time he took them up he had them playing some decent football imo, three at the back but two good flying wing backs, two up front and Thudd given space to play. looks like he can't even marshall a defence properly now altho why you'd want that poisonous narcissist JT anywhere near an actual team god only knows

tho now he's brought Snodgrass in as well as Elmohamady it looks like he's trying to create Hull Mk 2. i think his bottle's completely gone tbh.

well Bruce actually explained during his pre-match interview this evening that JT actually deigned to drive his car all the way to Chesterfield on "the worst night of the year so far" (i think he was talking about the weather) for our recent Caribou Cup game, and he clapped all the young lads on the shoulder and wished them the very best of luck and told them that he was sure that everything would be alright on the night

that's why he's in the team. apparently.

whether it'd make a significant difference to the overall performance having, idk, Tommy Elphick or Mile Jedinak out there clapping shoulders as opposed to England's Beloved John Terry, who can say

for any Spurs fans who may be lurking out there (lol who am i kidding) Josh Onomah just got his first goal for Villa. you'll be pleased to learn that it was a total fluke and in no way connected with any particular skill on the part of the kid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ9_TKayu9s

http://www.themag.co.uk/assets/jack-colback-newcastle-united-nufc-600x410.jpg

GUESS WHO'S BACK
GUESS WHO'S BACK
GUESS WHO'S BACK

I am sad that QPR have bought David Wheeler off us. I like him, he used to write pro-Corbyn columns in the Express & Echo. I hope he does well there.

It's an odd feeling - we know perfectly well that the only way for a little club with no rich backers to hold our own even in League 2 is to develop and sell on players. We know that the fact that we're developing a pretty good record in doing so will hopefully make us more attractive to young hopefuls in the future, and hopefully this all works in a virtuous circle. We even have another emerging 16-y-o wonderboy to get excited about just now. For all that, it's still a melancholy feeling to see your best players zooming upwards and offwards to not-quite-as-obscure-obscurity.

Barnes 6/1
Afobe 17/2
Colback 10/11
Rhodes 5/2
Oliveira 9/1
Aboubakar 6/4

god I want Aboubakar so badly

dnw Rhodes tho I believe he's there as a fallback if we can't get anybody with a future

just seen a Villa fan describe Terry as "the signing of the summer", not supposed to laugh this hard at work

:(

Fosun be like... #wwfc pic.twitter.com/yTQx8SQAkE

— Oli (@oliktwit) August 31, 2017

We ended up signing four new players, unheard-of in more ways than one*.

I notices this morning that fully one third of the clubs in League 2 have names beginning with C. There are Eight C-clubs in League 2 and there are only four C-clubs in the other three leagues put together.

*Actually I have heard of Jayden Stockley, he played for us before on loan and has recently been deploying his elbowing skills at Aberdeen. Not that I recall him being very elbowy when he was with us. And I could probably have heard of some of the others if I had been paying attention.

"I notices this morning" is a peculiarly Devonian take on the past tense, viz. "he crosses it from the right and I've headed it wide".

ha interesting - noticed last week that scottish league 1 have 50% beginning with A

league one continues to be ours (pending matches against the other promotion favourites)

‘A club does good business, when it rids itself of a turdNovak’ to quote Longshanks.

yeah i have never seen a player go from 'a shit waste of space' to 'an experienced league one centre forward' so quickly as lee novak did when we sold him on transfer deadline day leaving us with one senior striker

but fortunately his replacement, joe dodoo, scored on his debut today :) ta-ta lee!

Lasogga at Leeds is a real coup. Two goals and an assist on his debut.

league one might not be ours after all

It's a funny old game

Wigan's the accident you would've wished happened. Feet back on the ground etc and onwards and upwards.

Birmingham + Leeds losing has improved my mood somewhat.

improved mine quite a bit :D :D :D

gnnnaaaaaaargh

We seem to have started the season OK.

Hope we can hang on.

Just seen the Leeds result - I happened to be in the North Peckham area at half four or so, and there did seem to be a surprising noise from the Den. Now I understand.

'Arry out.

FA cup week again today, beginning to look like a team now. A good few of the players we'd brought up clearly reached their level last year and this season already feels like it's going to be a grind.

'Arry in until they're mathematically relegated, thanks.

new Holte End favourite Keinan Davis (recently of Evo-Stik League South's Biggleswade Town) scores his first ever Villa goal to put us three up away to Barnsley. been a very good day

lol oh fuck i hadn't read the news, i thought you were just trash talking

hahahaha good day gets better

pang of regret for the lolz lost but on the other hand...

14 players signed this summer and he walks after 8 games :D

thought it looked balanced until your second goal then Barnsley folded like the proverbial

Oh shit lol.Redknapp just realized

still been mostly shite (as usual) but today we've somehow parlayed that into a 3-0 win. not gonna sniff at it

Let's go for another battle! Come on, @Wolves! 🐺
Vamos para mais uma batalha! Vamos lá!#Wolves #wolverhampton #Bonatini #WeAreWolves pic.twitter.com/1ATG0KhcGR

— Léo Bonatini (@BonatiniOficial) September 22, 2017

Connor Coady the libero, didn't see that coming

oh good Sky have decided to show Villa and Forest for a change

Been looking forward to the Dortmund v Real match all week and now villa have gone and ruined it by going 3-0 up after half an hour in a game with no streams

Who are you and what have you done with the Aston Villa squad would be my question

To make matters even better, Cardiff look to be giving Leeds a bit of a shoeing in the Top o the Table Clash :)

And spare a thought for poor old Sunderland

gnaaaaargh

QPR - Fulham has been great.

2-0 Fulham in the 92nd minute and it seems remarkable it didn't subsequently end in a draw. Rangers' keeper had a free header in the 98th that would have tied it.

god bless Hull City

Lol yeah came here to say that this has been an absolute treat of an afternoon in the efl championship

get in
first goal i hope of many for our young starlet jordan ponticelli

Oldham will be total dicks if they give Scholes the job. I'm not saying winning 3 on the bounce after months of relegation form should guarantee Wellens the gig, but surely unproven golden-tosser generation ex-Fergie players is a bit of a tainted brand at this point.

Listening to our FA Cup Q4 match on the internet, really nervy stuff. 2-1 up but there's probably 15 to be added on after a bad injury.

Turns out to be 14, the video of the incident seems to clearly show their right back elbowing our left winger unconscious.

Gary McSheffrey has made a huge difference for them since coming on.

They're down to 9 now, their captain has just kicked the ball hard into our dugout in protest and lucky to stay on.

Stream died with seconds to go but it didn't matter. FIRST ROUND PROPER.

always nervous when we're bossing it but haven't scored

NV, dude, top of the league! Feel kinda bad this thread is lagging this season w/ Huddersfield playing with the big boys now, too (though I hear Calz way less about it than when they were in the Championship!).

Happy you don't seem to need Locadia after all, with a GD of +10 you're doing really well right? After mucking about he's been of proper use to us though, he's joint league top scorer and we're top, five points clear of Ajax and Feyenoord.

I'm starting to think there was never a serious intention to get another striker in - we've got at least 6 options for the front 3 and we're ridiculously fluid at times. That said I think the system works best with Bonatini who is a more orthodox number 9 and we could maybe do with one more of them. Other than we could maybe get another centre mid as cover but seriously I'm pretty sure we've got the best squad in the division and barring horrible luck we can win the league without any more additions

I'm starting to think there was never a serious intention to get another striker in

Perhaps, but Locadia sure thought he was well on his way to youse; he's been p sour about how it all fell through in September. All water under the bridge now bcz things are crescendo.

Do you feel Wolves are the 'team to hate and beat' this season with the Mendes link? I don't see it that way, but could see other teams scoff at the Premiership level players you brought in. (I don't know if Wolves get more sympathy or scorn from neutrals tbh).

Wish I could see more of it; it's not streaming here (anymore), miss the highlights since the Beeb got rid of them.

i think we definitely started the season a bit below the radar of the insular English football media - most of the signings/loans are youngsters and not yet established international names. i feel like even Neves was relatively unknown since the Prem's big dogs lost interest in him. the Mendes stuff seems to have died down but i don't read the gutter press so i dunno. i feel like we're ignored quite a lot by the media and i've no idea what neutrals think about the club, probably not much, yet. if we're still top 3 come March i think the "bought promotion" shit might ramp up.

I kind of hate Lee Johnson/Bristol City

The Kennedy Assasination

I don't want to interrupt that thread with ILF talk but I wanted to note it.

Clint Hill gets booked for climbing, is the gist.

haaa

mentioning him is a v quick way to make me sad that nakh and rtc are no longer among us tho

indeed, this thread has been a bit of a graveyard this year. maybe i will spice things up by (in an act of calculated hubris) predicting blandford's boys to go down by four tomorrow

Exeter are being weird, as usual, all up and down, but I never want to post when we're doing well - who wants to read about some nothing lower league team on a good run? - and I never want to post when we're doing badly, because in order to remain a decent human being and not make my lovely wife's life a misery when we lose, I try not to think about football.

I love Reuben Reid as much, I think, as I've ever loved a footballer. And that's even with him being ex-Argyle. But it was when the interviewer asked why he doesn't celebrate when he scores, and he thought about it and said (something to the effect of) "if I score I don't feel like celebrating because I'm mostly relieved". Man alive.

lol! I'm sure if mark was into football he would have found some way to introduce a Neil Warnock joke to the JFK thread or something.

I might put on Radio Leeds for a laugh tonight.

who wants to read about some nothing lower league team on a good run?

goddamit man this could've been the thread title

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/cwclp.gif

excited to sheffield united to get bad around xmas then make the playoffs then lose

could replace Sheff U with about 12 other clubs in that sentence

also i could say that sentence most years since 1997

anyway, as long as Cardiff, Derby and Leeds fail i'm good

Leeds still up there with the cushion of a good start, but have lost 4 out of the last 5 in the league ;-;

for the benefit of my non-Facebook pals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9AC00fs6hI

tbh a dignified silence would be the most fitting accompaniment to this promotion purchase :P

fcuk that i've been dignified long enough

also FUCKING COME ON BRISTOL YOU MOANING CUNTS

Clarke (53' minutes, 76' minutes, 80' minutes, 88' minutes)

great scott!

the Championship results today are insane haha :D

Birmingham in the relegation zone. No club deserves relegation more

some of those ILE big-club snobs disparage it, but what a fucking league!

SECOND ROUND HERE WE COME

fuck's sake City, we could've been 4 clear

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DN3evyKX0AMLa7W.jpg

Shame that sentiment extended to the pitch. We really only scraped past them, bless their hearts. Their keeper made a terrible mistake for our third, just when they looked like they might get back into it, I’d have felt bad for him if he’d had a better haircut.

Wild blades game

Clarke is a bit of an enigma wrapped up in piddle. He goes on these incredible goalscoring runs which usually result in a sideways or upwards move in the next transfer window, and then he's shit again. I think by now he'll know this will be his last big gig, and his last chance to get into the bigtime.

He's an absolute wasteman ffs

I have some pretty low standards of "absolute wasteman" in my old memory bank, as in players like Eddie Youds, Malvin Kamara, Simon Baldry, Danny Adams, Kwami Houdoto etc.. that made you wish you'd taken up a heroin addiction habit rather a season ticket. But Clarke when he is "on it" is quite a formidable presence in a team, the rest of the time he is a wasteman.

always thought he was a tryer, just not actually any good. and yet

shall we just drink this in

2003–2007 Wolverhampton Wanderers 74 (13)
2004 → Kidderminster Harriers (loan) 4 (0)
2006 → Queens Park Rangers (loan) 1 (0)
2006 → Plymouth Argyle (loan) 5 (0)
2007–2010 Sheffield Wednesday 83 (18)
2007 → Oldham Athletic (loan) 5 (3)
2007–2008 → Southend United (loan) 16 (8)
2010–2011 Queens Park Rangers 13 (0)
2011 → Preston North End (loan) 6 (1)
2011–2012 Swindon Town 2 (0)
2011 → Chesterfield (loan) 14 (9)
2012–2013 Charlton Athletic 7 (0)
2012 → Crawley Town (loan) 4 (1)
2012 → Scunthorpe United (loan) 15 (11)
2013 → Coventry City (loan) 1 (0)
2013–2014 Coventry City 34 (23)
2014–2015 Wolverhampton Wanderers 29 (3)
2015 → Wigan Athletic (loan) 10 (1)
2015–2016 Bury 32 (15)
2016– Sheffield United 36 (15)

who knows what that could extend to by the time he's 37

oh yes
13/14 was the season we had leon clarke and callum wilson up front :)

That is 189 (79) since the start of this decade, and of course decent goalscoring stats can paper over a multitude of deficiencies (The entire career of Micheal Owen for starters) but still he has been a far better striker than Lee Novak, for starters!

why are we just listing charlton wastemen now, lemme guess you'll want to talk about andy gray next

Anyone you'd particularly like to draw in the second round, Caek? Shrews at your place would sound tasty? Second round really is just something I desperately hope to get through, though, all second round draws make me nervous.

MAtt Oakley (who took charge of our lot for yesterdays game actually did say "It was a banana skin waiting to happen."

Someone to knock us out tbh. Too many season ms ruined by cup runs

That's kind of how I feel too. Didn't really want to get through to the next round of the Trophy either.

We're ball 13. Unlucky for us.

That was pretty much the worst conceivable draw.

Not so bad if your objective was to get knocked out? Could've done with a team who drew better crowds, obv.

We're away at Forest stupid Green, where we've already won this season, but they've gained some form and we've lost some since then. Would take the draw and replay right now if it was offered.

we have boreham wood at home which hopefully means a chance of a tv game

also, hope they smash us

from what i've heard (from other charlton fans), fleetwood is actually a very pleasant place to watch football - friendly stewards, decent food and a good atmosphere. getting there being the problem

I suppose not so bad in terms of getting knocked out, but a pain to get to and their attendance not setting the world on fire (about the same as ours). Might make a weekend in Blackpool out of it.

I would have liked to have been in with a shout of tv, but doubt they'll be on again. I am just being grumpy about it tbh.

On the other hand, when the last eight balls were still in I was sure it was going to be Carlisle away. That would have been worse.

at least you're not having to play a team you played two weeks ago, in possibly the dullest match you've had for two or three years, except now at their place, which is a sunken pit they nicked off another club

(sorry blandford)

xp Fair enough. Although Carlisle away is always a pleasure.

I was looking down the list and it just made me clearer that there'd be no good away draw in the second round for us, none of the bigger clubs would be excited enough about us to mean a bumper payday, everyone else is a source of fear. Just gotta hope we get through with a chance of a glory day out / big payday (recognising that it's far more likely that we get drawn away to0 Burton and have neither, no disrespect to Burton etc).

For the first time in ages, however, we're not looking at the cup thinking it makes the difference between financial comfort for another year and financial ruin. We've had a really good run of selling players on and it seems like things are steady just now. That's before the fee for Ethan Ampadu is agreed with Chelsea (rumour has it we've asked for £3m, which doesn't seem like very much for a player who's already getting into their matchday squads at 17), they won't go north of £1.5m.)

Rumours beginning to circulate we're a Sunday kickoff, which makes the weekend away look like the best bet.

I don't know why I'm so miserable about it to be honest, it'll be a great day out and we've made a good amount of money out of the cup so far. I reckon our away form is better than home in any case so we probably have a very outside chance* (although they looked far too strong for us last night).

* if we can solve the fact we still don't have a left back (currently playing a right back on the wrong side of the pitch) and all our central midfielders are injured (currently playing a left winger as DM - ignoring the fact it means we are then missing a left winger - and Bobby Purdie, zimmer frame and all, as AM).

It seems like a long way to go and a lot of money to pay to watch us get spanked, then again, Wembley two years ago.

Sorry imago that you have to make a trip to the very much legitimately purchased home of the last bastion of morality in football/Britain. The only thing purer than our souls is our commitment to never ever take a shot.

Seriously. That striker you had who got the hat-trick the previous week - are you sure it wasn't a collective hallucination?

I do apologise, though - it's boring without Millwall and Gillingham barely count - one finds one's South London rivalries where one can, even if they must be somewhat artlessly manufactured. I'll probably come to the cup game. Depending on my experiences and the exact wording of your Karl Robinson banner this time around I may even return for the League fixture ;)

I'm fond of AFCW obv but watching from that away stand is never the best (NB it's not like our lot are any better, we're doing a little redevelopment now and our away end will be covered for the first time).

Gillingham 7 - Reading (u23) 5

(cup)

those poor bastards needed something I guess

Anyone remember Reading's first team losing to Arsenal by that scoreline in the League Cup?

Watching FA cup matches between lower league teams that look like they're playing on school playgrounds is surprisingly fun.

:)

milo do you follow an english team, if not then you can get a season pass on iFollow for any EFL team* and watch the match in full either live or later on

*except Charlton, amusingly enough, who opted out. and a couple of others did that too

i was not aware of that (although fuck if i'm paying $140 to watch sheffield united for a year)

there's a way of choosing individual matches for $6 a pop

Kanye is unbelievable pic.twitter.com/JxL3VXiFvN

— mark haight more like mark fake (@thebasedparker) November 16, 2017

lol

Looks like Merthyr Town are in serious trouble, 80% of the playing staff told to leave because there's no money to pay them. 4 directors resigned in the past week.

Cavaleiro finishes an absolute peach of a team goal with a sick little dummy, 1-0 to the Wanderers

could've been 2 down tho, Ruddy is having a mare

What happened to Reading? They were top six like all season last year no? Did they lose key players?

they were giving us a game before i turned the stream off because the site kept trying to Trojan me

:(

Here are the shots from the opening goal as @Ivancavaleiro17 put Wolves in front. @sambagnallphoto #REAvWOL

📸👇 pic.twitter.com/aYdvLrnSnR

— Wolves (@Wolves) November 18, 2017

📸👇

SCOTT GOLBOURNE OWN GOAL SCREAMER ALERT

bless him :)

toe to toe with the Blades, what a season

jfc anyone watching this blades fulham game?

just following the updates :/

still trying to work out who's had the plastic surgery to look like Leon tbh

barmy game

wtf! That seems more like the Fulham that put 9 past us over two games last season and made Town look like amateurs. Only they didn't have to contend with SuperLeon!

it's the magic of the Champo

big game for us tonight vs dutty Leeds

GL against the Champions Of Europe, their away form is pretty shit but you don't get many easy fixtures in the Champo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grlOImCXqW0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmYud4adHtw

Viera sent off for 2 yellows, Alioski booked almost straight after, cue Wolves' fans having a quick sing of the Joy Division classic "Leeds, Leeds are falling apart, again"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3tU4JTDf8U

enjoy this season tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX_iUXGk0js

ha ha! nice

Leeds had threatened to get back into it before Vieira went off but in the end karma was the winner

cue Wolves' fans having a quick sing of the Joy Division classic "Leeds, Leeds are falling apart, again"

luv2laugh@leeds

I put radio Leeds on for some massive club lols afterwards, but it was all very annoyingly restrained and sensible. There seems to be a bit a Christiansen love-in going on and he has "work in progress" protection at the moment.

they were threatening to equalize until Vieira got sent off, tho we cd've just as easily hit them on the break. one or two of the comments on the stream I was watching were sour grapesy, it's really fun being the only club in the country with foreign owners who've splashed some cash around.

but ultimately there's no shame in being beat by the best so what can they say?

dang - jodi jones, our best player by far, out for the season :(
only 20 yrs old too, hopefully there'll be no lasting damage

isn't it just fucking hateful when a team has one good player and he cunts in two 25-yarders when you've been on top

Stood in a bar with a lot of Hull fans who haven't even got the energy to be disappointed any more

QPR scored in the 93rd and 94th to come back from two down!

Fucking A! Buzzing for r|t|c

you know how the last hope of a scoundrel club outside of a transfer window is out of contract wasters

LEON BEST IN THE BUILDING

lol! I used to rate him when he was at Yeovil.

another injury time blitz!

:D

completely off topic...

Went to watch the local 'Town' play in the FA Vase last night. We were stood near a corner flag and a corner was about to happen. My friend says "Oh this will be interesting to see whether he places this ball in the 'D'"

Not kidding. The guy placed the ball at least ONE METRE outside the D, ref did nuffing. We just laughed our socks off.

~fitba~

Haha love it.

Last season we had a midweek match* at Mangotsfield. Immediately after kickoff we could hear that the ball didn't sound right when it was headed or kicked and told the linesman. He said "it must be fine, the players would complain if it wasn't". Straight after the ball went out of play next to him and when the player picked it up he said it needed more air. Lino bursts out laughing and when the confused player asks why he pointed at us and said "I was having a laugh a minute ago about players being too stupid to know when a ball's flat".

*This was in fact a rescheduled game, after the chief exec tried to thaw out a frozen penalty spot with a kettle of boiling water first time round and the ref was having none of it.

I am also getting used to players being given offside in their own half, seen it 5 times so far this season. The ref knew all about the one the other week, he made the player move the ball to take it twice.

A Stanley player got sent off after full time last weekend. Apparently his misdeed was to perform a little mime for the ref to show how (he thought) poor innocent Jayden Stockley had dived to win a penalty.

I don't know if it was a second yellow, but I think a mime is probably worth a straight red.

Dean Windass once got three reds in a game for Aberdeen I think

Windass was initially dismissed for two bookable offences, but his initial dissent at Dougal earned a further red-card equivalent.

To compound matters Windass ripped up the corner flag and threw it on to the ground on his way to the tunnel, securing another eight points.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-windass-sent-off-three-times-1293795.html

I can remember Windass repeatedly moving the ball a few yards forwards and making gestures behind the ref's back, in his face every decision. This was in his 2nd Bradford City stint, and I've never seen a player undermine a ref's authority and continually take the piss out of him so much and only get one yellow for it. He was a complete arse, but it was a very entertaining bit of pantomime villainy I suppose.

managed to get my ticket for Wolves v Brentford, 2nd of Jan. nearly sold out already. as my brother said: "where were they when we were shit?"

In this age of digital season cards and big data, there must be a reasonable way to fuck off glory supporters to the back of the queue and make them feel like the shallow opportunists they are. just jokin

They have a fan categorisation thing at Town that puts some fans to the front of the queue and it is has been quite controversial, they have a sliding priority scale of P1 (priority) onwards or something. I love the amount of butthurt it creates amongst people who see themselves as uberfans but don't make the P1 cut. When I read some of these fuckers comments I start siding with the glory fans tbh.

Leeds corner, Big Chris Samba gets absolutely sonned by Big Pontus Jansson, 1-0 to the scum. a very EFL goal. apparently theyve had 70% of the possession so far, Bruce OUT ffs

Missed the goal, half watching in the pub, more cheering on Norwich than owt else

lol youve got a game in hand, stop being greedy!

another Saturday, another Sunderlol

Worst goal we'll ever concede.

BT have already confirmed they're screening the replay, apparently.

wonder if Tim was at the Ecotricity Arena or whatever it's called

xp just saw it on Final Score, took an eternity to go in

Can't work out where it hits him last - chest? Stomach?

Not sure you can blame Horse for losing the flight of the ball because of it.

i thought it was off his thigh but i only saw it once

I gave VegAnfield a miss I’m afraid. Sounds like it was fun.

the Allam family are a fucking disgrace

It looks like they approve of the Oysten method.

or Oyston even.

not sure our goal crossed the line, def sure their cunt shd've been sent off, OK for a derby so far

Am I reading it correctly that there is goal line tech in the Championship, but it still couldn't determine if it was over the line?

Let's not quibble over mere details. the score is blues 0-1 wolves, leaving the blues in the relegation zone on goal difference. that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know

Oh absolutely. Still a bit too cagey for my liking tbh

scrappy ugly derby win, seems appropriate given the opposition. 10 points ahead of 3rd

Super Leon Clarke!

Leon Clarke almost breaks the net as United equalise.

The striker picks the ball up on the right after a lovely ball from midfield. He cuts inside, fronts up with Baker in the box and pulverises it past Frank Fielding. There was no way he was stopping that.

who'd've guessed Cattermole would end up in the "red card for kicking lumps out of Jota" club?

I am very pleased to have reached the third round of the cup for the first time in a while. West Brom at home! It doesn't get any more exciting than that IIRC.

if you're lucky you'll draw a big club in the fourth

(Actually I would really really like a replay, never been to the Hawthorns. Sadly two of our brightest performers these last few weeks have been on loan from West Brom.)

They likely won't much enjoy our two-sided ground, our microscopic dressing rooms or the various fungi that are alleged to grow in the showers.

good!

Harry Winks would pick the night Alli gets dropped to turn in an absolute shocker

Lamela looks bright tho

Jesus our passing

claude puel shitting on soton

It's not great but surely not so bad you need to post it on the EFL thread

Was just gonna say

FA Cup nerves. And the memories of the score last time we were on the telly.

Excellent goal.

lol at Costa winning the sending off with dickery

not that we're not lucky to have 11 still on the pitch

well they made us work for that

luv2be pragmatic

The beeb live chat was a Wolves drool-fest. Congrats man.

hopefully we can sign Jota next month, surely the lad doesn't want to waste his life away at Athletico

He'll be used to the glamorous life in the West Midlands by now.

Yr summer target Locadia is out for months due to pulled hamstrings. We miss him.

Could you maybe buy Bonatini as well?

think Bonatini will be more straightforward tho he's probly bumped his price up a bit since August. most of our loans have option to buy clauses, Jota is the one i'm not sure about.

Transfermarkt says we do have a buy option on Jota but there's currently a buy-back option in the loan contract too

A Sino-American consortium with very deep pockets and including the Moneyball yank Billy Beane have just bought Barnsley. I'd love it if they got some promotion success ahead of the fucking White shite or massive Wednesday.

Cardiff lost 2-0 to Bolton o_O

i lolled and lolled and said rude things about Colin

:D

There has been a dissolution of Monk, despite him winning today.

was down Villa Park for the first time in a long while this afternoon. fucking shite. worse than shite. the scale of the incompetence was breathtaking. pedestrian with the ball, porous without it. won a couple of fouls in and around their box, got a penalty and a goal from a free kick, could've and should've lost after that.

it's fuckin Bruce man. we essentially played a 4-2-4, the defenders had no out ball into the midfield and were playing themselves into trouble as a result, over and over (and over and over) again. the 2 midfielders utterly failed to protect the defence in spite of United continually and brutally exposing Jedinak as an over-the-hill crock being played out of position at cb. the whole formation was so loose, playing high up but without putting any pressure on the ball. not a clue. so frustrating to watch.

the one bright point really was Grealish, who grew into the game as it went on and looked a cut above everyone else throughout the second half. the only Villa player able to repeatedly find space, used the ball well, was great receiving it under pressure and wriggling through / drawing the foul. i'd almost forgotten he was ever able to play like that.

anyway. i don't want us to go up this season particularly. with this group of players and this manager it would just be too much to endure. City, Liverpool et al would just breeze past us

City, Liverpool et al would just breeze past us

No shame in getting arseholed by either of them really, although our 2-1 defeat to City was very credible. But I could understand the logic of not wanting an emboldened Bruce at the helm.

well i mean those are just the ones that give me nightmares. most of the others would tonk us too

emboldened not a word you'd associate with Bruce tbh

arrogant was what I meant really.

Try to avoid actively wishing my own team ill but being in the playoff spots is undoubtedly papering over the cracks right now, much more of this and Bruce will be a goner I think. The fans were turning tonight, lots of booing. Though lord knows who we get in and what happens then

Bruce could do himself a favour and stop telling the fans how unlucky we've been every week

lol Pulisbrough

The standard of Championship football was just getting too good, one of the chairmen had to do something about it.

he might keep them up i guess

great christmas for Colin and his happy go lucky brand of total football

off to my brother's to watch us on tv tonight, then off to the Mol on Tuesday, hopefully i am not the kiss of death temporary setback

Oh good, a quality referee

holy shit mk dons played an hour with 9 men and won

I know right?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah stick a fork in it you cunts

gonna request a threadban quite soon I think, go and join calzino in the big boys' room

leave this home of the forsaken

we're not there yet and that was a glorious comeback including Nuno getting in the face of some senile old twats in their directors box

I guess football kind of owes you lot this season, even in the previous epl stints it was still a little inglorious

shame there won't be a black country derby next season mind

also bristol city are wankers yes

West Brom passing us in the other direction is more funny than disappointing tbh

I was wondering if Wolves had won every FL division and it seems they had that in the bag back in '87. The only one we haven't won yet is League 1, exclusive club to be in is that, only 4 others have done it!

We've been up and down thru the lot within my memory, kinda get used to the rollercoaster

come on you Villa

Done.

You guys will cruise this with a 20pt gap the way this is going

this is beyond ridic

lol Cardiff's Christmas run

4-0 lol

never gonna shake Bruce off now

otoh

:)

well that was alright

0-0's at half-time turning into multiple X-0's at full-time are the best

some of the philistines around us were getting a bit antsy by half time but it was just patient methodical build up until they cracked. Brentford played some good stuff but didn't really have anybody who could add the final touch

Surely you must already be thinking about PL football for Wolves next season. How does that grab you?

Terriers for example are holding their own quite admirably, yet the whole affair lacks a certain je ne sais quoi tbh. The weak become heroes, the heroes get promoted and then... The heroes are adrift in the small space of that wormhole somewhere between 11th and 16th. Tri-weekly McNult write-ups, Grary Lnikekerer "interviewing" yr manager every other week, fourth or fifth up on MotD. It's getting by, but it's not pretty.

I kind of care too much about Huddersfield and Wolves for them to be demoted to figurants in the moneyball that is the PL. But there's no way to turn. You do well and get promoted, which seems great, only to get eaten by the filthy rich.

Idk I am only getting myself down with this post but fuck me if I will delete this. Will post for shame.

Terriers havent got Jorge Mendes personally handling their acquisitions tho have they. sky's the limit once that tv moolah starts rolling in

scuttlebutt is that Andre Silva might be back on the market sooner rather than later due to the financial woes over in Milan, hooooo boy

According to some reports emerging from Italy, Wolves had a bid of £34.7m rejected by AC Milan for Portuguese international forward André Silva. #wwfc is expected to make a second bid.

— The 4th Official (@Official_T4O) January 9, 2018

well well

dude mustn't be allowed to play in the Championship tho ffs, it's cheating

i don't know, he's no Jordan Hugill

he's the lad who kept Depoitre on the bench at Porto, so he must be pretty fucking good tbh!

just trying to pretend we're not the unacceptable face of football capitalism

VIDEO - RED CARD INCIDENT - SLOWMO

Lots of requests for this so here is an edited version of @StonesGoals Video of @HerefordFC’s O’Shea Red Card Incident Slowed Down.

The game is gone but should@the red card stand?

Doesn’t look much like O’Shea touched him 👀 pic.twitter.com/UYTzzXDsvY

— 🐮Hereford📱Goals⚽ (@HerefordGoals) January 13, 2018

Straight red for this, 10 minutes into the game. Shocker.

i think this is the first time i've ever enjoyed something Darren Ferguson has done

his dad was both subtler and more murderous tbf

also, that red card - even if he took him out, the keeper is always getting that first. refs need to be professionalised

or shot

Ref didn't give it, linesman did. But I take your point.

what is the ETA of Hereford in League 2 at projected rate btw

3 promotions away. We can go top of our league on Tuesday with 3 games in hand but fixture congestion is a real thing with 14 games before end Feb.

But how many seasons iyo

I think we'll go up this year. Would rather be in Conference North for closer away games but we might get through Conference South (based on current makeup) at the first crack and North is much tougher. Conference itself is imo the most competitive league in the country, at least half a dozen v strong teams every year plus any surprises (Dover, FGR) and whoever comes down.

Our performances against teams from leagues above has been consistently good in both cup and trophy so I think we can compete but... minimum 5 years, probably longer. Maybe 5 till we're good enough to be Conference playoff contenders.

Poor old Tranmere still there. Fifth atm too - more playoff heartbreak beckons

Yeah we was just talking about them. Modern football is rubbish.

somewhere out there, Kenny Irons is crying into his 10th pint.

So, the FA took about 30 seconds to rescind that red card.

Game on! Jota was on for what, 30 seconds?!

nevermind -_-

have only been checking periodically out of superstition, thanks for the heads up

no problem. down again now though.

Pleased to see this classic resurfacing. Just too real for the real England thread.

This just cropped up on Facebook timehop. Still one of my favourite football related pics. So much going on - The Torquay United Ultras pic.twitter.com/J4vcSwRdPv

— Tom Burr (@TomB_CFC) January 17, 2018

oi noodle, talk me some zyro

signed under Jackett as a left winger who can also fill in as a striker, after a couple of months settling in he was starting to look promising, a few good performances had people think he was gonna be at least a good Championship player, pretty quick and skilful, then Antony Kay tried to finish his career with an evil tackle, 16 months out getting his leg put back together, came back to fitness beginning of last summer but hasn't had a look-in since the Nuno regime began

still young, and if his leg's anything like fixed i'd've thought he should be a good addition for a League 1 team

excellent thank you. we're slowly putting together a functioning bunch of forwards, bodes well for putative playoff campaign

16-month layoff though, must have been one hell of a bad challenge

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd3IxIpDinY/

all our fans have a lot of time for him, i hope he goes on a right streak

aww

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK2Gijn4FLg

there's the tackle, at least the cunt's in League 2 now

jfc

um

that is p much as bad as it gets

Anthony Kay still pulling a wage? Jesus wept. He's from Barnsley and one of Gough's drinking buddies, so he definitely deserves to be turned into fertiliser.

darren gough? presumably

yeah

yeah kind of shite how he's an obnoxious tory twat

and i probably don't know the half of it

..and it was worth noting other players that weren't in the club's future plans all got into the party spirit after the Wembley pen shootout in '12. Kay's glowering presence was ridiculous, he was out of the team because he was shit and a liability.

holy shit!

MK Dons defender Kay was yellow carded for the challenge by match referee Mark Heywood

shall we see whether Mark Heywood is still a ref

haha he didn't ref at championship level again. still active in L1/2

ahahaha

📸 | Our new crest #MOT #LUFC

6 months of research
10,000 people consulted
Ready for the next 100 years

Watch video ➡️ https://t.co/rIIdL2Yz9F pic.twitter.com/pMrd3zTjCl

— Leeds United (@LUFC) January 24, 2018

just been savouring this on the charlton board

white pride!

Lol! Couldn't have happened to a nicer etc

Personally I'd go for something more colourful tbh:

http://misscoleholocaustwebquest.weebly.com/uploads/6/6/6/2/6662689/329306169.jpg

https://dc6vmiz8c91pk.cloudfront.net/media/61/05015710568876/home-banner2.jpg

10,000 Huddersfield supporters can't be wrong

never been so embarrased mate, getting ripped left right and centre at work!

— Nick Wilson (@NickLUFCWilson) January 24, 2018

it's embarassing on every level mate, just piles on the misery of another drab january window and missing out on the play offs again

— Nick Wilson (@NickLUFCWilson) January 24, 2018

sorry not sorry, it's the small pleasures that brighten a dreadful day like today

leeds' ongoing immiseration is the great tale of english football yh

so their new badge is a picture of a man covering up their new badge?

lol!

:D

'We heard you didn't like the badge, so we hid the badge within the badge'

lol fucking fascist chest wankers seems about right!

https://www.expressandstar.com/resizer/E3oaGZhlXk9CnkjZdWGPd_x_OM8=/1000x0/filters:quality(100)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-expressandstar-mna.s3.amazonaws.com/public/LONCPXTO6ZGSPEPIVDAQR66DLM.jpg

just watched the highlights, don't want to count my chickens but we are gonna walk this

Villa in 3rd best form in European football rn just fyi, think ur being a little premature putting up the bunting

yeah i was i just got excited by those first 2 goals and i've been tipping Villa to finish 2nd for ages

nah i was only fooling, Wolves have got this sewn up.

it's been fun watching Villa recently, largely because Jack Grealish seems to have his head on straight (straighter than it was, anyway) and has been carving teams up as a roving 10. if he keeps it up much longer we'll have to start considering the possibility that he is not a total wasteman after all, which i didn't see coming a few months ago.

i still dunno about automatic promotion tho. six wins on the spin is wonderful of course but i'm shamefully tempted to bet my little all on a home defeat to the Blues this weekend. it's all been going suspiciously well recently, we're about due a catastrophe

i knew you were joking but i'm still trying not to kiss of death it

i'll try not to kiss of death the Villa either but a run of good form goes a long way in the Champo

it's saturday, it's Sunderlol.

that is all.

SunderLLLdLLand. I'd still rather Wednesday went down, but both of them bismarcking in the same season would be poetry.

it would make some room for Stoke and West Brom

oh shit, Nuno Out

sack him already. A Brucie side wouldn't have conceded that goal ffs!

Grealish to Adomah, I love them both

Hourihane with a beauty

well that's cut our lead back but i can't grudge you sticking it to the Brum

'cut our lead back'

:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmENMZFUU_0

some of you might want to try outplaying doncaster for 94m, missing a few one-on-ones and then letting them equalise from their maybe second chance of the game

i winced when i heard that come thru on the radio tbf

hey at least it was a 94th minute equaliser this time. last week it was an 89th minute equaliser and a 94th minute winner

Grayson has rocked up at Bradford now. I can't think of another piece of Gammon that was managed all "the big three" of W Yorkshire.

"But people are saying 99 per cent of Bradford City fans are happy with the appointment.

"I'm not being big-headed, they should be because I'm a Championship manager.

"To get someone like myself is a coup for the club and the owners have worked extremely hard to do that.

*shudders* at the thought of a time when I used to live off bin-foods and pavement-foods.

I miss those days when the hubris odf broken fules seemed gud!

I meant to mention this week: going 1-0 down after 88 minutes and ending up winning 2-1 is probably the actual best thing.

👀👀

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(i just like the googly eyes tbf)

Our first goal from yesterday is worth a look.

https://youtu.be/Vg71UcmJyTw

All the other top teams lost so now we're 7 clear with 2 games in hand. Beginning to feel a bit more confident.

Belter! Love the sound.

We should take a moment to laugh at Billericay too.

Glenn Tamplin resigned yesterday as manager after being spanked by Wealdstone but never fear, he installed himself as assistant manager until the end of the season. A man of his word though, he did say in a twitter meltdown midweek (which he's since deleted) that he would.

It's been quite a February for him though:

• He's being investigated by the police for death threats made to Elliot Kebbie because he wouldn't accept a month's pay as suitable buy-out for a two year contract.

• Sent texts and money to Jamie O'Hara's wife saying she could do so much better than Jamie and he'd show her what she was missing out on if they met in private.

• Sacked the entire cheerleaders squad after he found out one of them had given her phone number to a player.

• Asked the team to give up a week's wages after piss-poor performances against Leiston and Folkestone Invicta. All but 4 told him to fuck off.

• Revealed he has spent TWO MILLION POUNDS so far and his WEEKLY wage bill is over £25000.

that is wonderful psychopathy

i think tbh he crosses over into prime Real England

out to stud

cocaine is a wonderful drug

Billericay update:

• Glenn Tamplin sacks Glenn Tamplin as manager on Saturday following defeat to Wealdstone

• Glenn Tamplin appoints Glenn Tamplin as assistant manager to Harry Wheeler (promoted from assistant manager) on Sunday until the end of the season

• Glenn Tamplin appoints Glenn Tamplin as caretaker manager on Monday when it turns out Harry Wheeler doesn't want the job after all

• Glenn Tamplin appoints Glenn Tamplin as permanent manager on Tuesday after Glenn Tamplin and Glenn Tamplin unanimously agree a better candidate won't be found than the person acting as caretaker

^ Tonight's game has been abandoned after 20 minutes due to frozen pitch

Steve Evans walking out on Mansfield and heading to Posh is a heartwarming story.

woah we won away at Wycombe wanderers
the dream is still, slightly, alive

Luton Town manager, Welshman Nathan Jones, tells BBC Look East that it's "nice to be compared to Manchester City"

What a fucking tool, seriously. I've seen dicks like that before go straight up again or straight down again after a L2 promotion. But they never amount to shit.

nxd: from 14th upwards the dream is very much alive!

haha yeh it's very tight, although we got 1pt from 4 games before this and only dropped five places
aka everyone is equally great/shit

also fuck luton
they stole james collins from under our nose preseason, altho i'd rather have jamie collins tbf

Yeah I went to Luton the other week in the cold and the rain and we lost 1-0 and it was not terribly joyous. They looked good in that big-strong-well-organised-lads way that usually wins this division. We went to a really odd pub in Harpenden which seems to double as a genteel home counties tearoom but that is another matter. I don't have anything particular against Luton Town. In a division featuring the likes of Ainsworth and (until this morning, apparently) Evans, Nathan Jones seems OK.

(Coventry fwiw put on the best performance I have seen this season as they/you blew our outrageous early season unbeaten run to pieces, Coventry always an excellent day out also obv.)

I am very keen for Wycombe( at least under Ainsworth) to go absolutely nowhere. I am even keener for them not to be in the same division as us.

:D

Big strong well-organised lads can prosper in L1 as well, as Shrewsbury are showing. It was tremendously disappointing that we basically let them have their way entirely last week. Karl Robinson is supposed to be some kind of tactical wizard who can transcend the drudgery of lower-league football *pukes*

Obviously Hurst is doing an amazing job

did i hear correctly that the transfer window will shut after gw1 in the efl next year?

That is my understanding; I'm not sure what difference that is supposed to make, but our club board seem chill about it so I am not worrying too much.

i guess it means we won't get players like ben stevenson nabbed a couple of weeks in with no means to replace him

I guess? But I don't see how it stops you / us having players nabbed one week in (or no weeks in) with no means to replace them?

our club board seem chill about it so I am not worrying too much.

^^ qf use in a future thread title

well for cov, sisu don't seem to keen to buy players so we kinda rely on free transfers in the summer
quite loose terms for supporting it from me i guess haha

We've bought (IIRC) three players in the last 15 years or so, and one of those was £10K.

touché :)

haha wasn't trying to touché! I guess this will stop clubs panic-buying when they start a season really badly, but that aside it just seems to change the date without changing the conditions. I imagine there are times when a club thinks things are all sorted for the autumn and then they get blindsided by an unrefusable bid at the last minute but I bet that doesn't happen often.

(Regular placeholder here to note that Chelsea still haven't paid a fee for Ethan Ampadu; rumour has it we're after £3m and they won't budge over £1.5M. Tiny sums to them, massive to us. Going to tribunal, at which (no doubt) they'll be paying expensive representatives handsomely in order to keep the fee to us as low as possible. He has already seen first team action and Conte's always on about how good he is. Gah.)

dang that sucks
i'm about 7 years into the future on my champ man game and he's now a chelsea regular - and we all know cm games turn out canon

ChampMan OTM. (That £1.5m would not quite equal our entire gate receipts for a normal season, by my rough calculations, but would go most of the way.)

well there goes my pub excuse for the day

Today's FL fixture list is a pure Murdoch's wet dream/Osborne's deficit target being met type cause for celebration.

fuck it i'm going to the pub anyway

The brave soldier on

Due to pressure put on the club by transactivists, #MillwallFC have informed me that they cannot host our event, TRANSGENDERISM AND THE WAR ON WOMEN.
The event will still take place on March 14 at a new venue.
Sad day for #lesbians #feminists #freespeech

I have a number of questions...

sad they can't play that one on home terf

kudos

Amazing

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/hilarious-referee-blunder-sees-former-leeds-and-wednesday-striker-shown-red-1-9051187

The week I'm having we'll get done tonight

Here's hoping

Still time

just sipping in and savouring some of the misery on Radio Leeds and it's almost better than the half decent Rioja I've opened.

couple of perfectly nice Leeds lads in the pub who i commiserated with as i was rolling in the luxury of this total evisceration

"The real problem with Radrizzani is that he thinks we are an ordinary Championship club like Brighton or Huddersfield. We can never get promoted on the cheap as expectations rise if we are any way successful and, even if we are not, we are still a huge game home or away for every club in the division, and never get a fair crack from referees"

low hanging fruit from the commentzz section!

some (of our) fans are the worst but the stench of sour grapes coming from Leeds et al is really pungent

i've had enough

steve evans manager bounce consumes se london football club

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CU7GY2hXAAAB2LJ.jpg

*hides under bed, weeping*

came home at half time because i'm dying of alcohol poisoning but that may look like a lame excuse now

am willing your boys on nv, there’s still time left

and they’ve just been robbed of a pen there

think that's stuck a fork in it

oopsy daisy

at least i'm at home with a satay rather than being mercilessly piss-ripped by Leeds and City fans in the pub