The Cunt With The Bell: Resurrection - EFL+ 24/25

I guess we're all ready right? Okay cool

Looking forward to tomorrow. We have a big enough squad and a short term loan to cover the injury from pre-season, plus an announcement today that Ceesay has signed back on after his move to the French league fell through.

How are Coventrys chances of promotion this year?

Fans broadly upbeat for a playoffs place but likely formation is Simms on his own up top and the rumours of him to Bournemouth won't go away which will knacker their season - either they'll have to try and play without him which could well result in next to no goals, or they will have to overspend late to replace him which would be a disaster given their already precarious finances.

we held and contained top of the championship table Blades last week to a 1-1 (which sent their manager into a deep gloom) during a solid pre-season in which we also beat US Lecce and Hertha Berlin. so we're going down, obv. Got one great striker with injury doubts, the rest aren't worth talking about. Can't speak for the Irish kid we just got from West Ham, but he has been scoring and creating against L1 opposition in the Trill budgie-food cup or whatever the fuck its called these days.

"How are Coventrys chances of promotion this year?"

they signed one of the problem players off us, Rudoni to replace O Hare, for a fee which I thought was at least double his true value. Should have realised what a wanker he was when he first signed and was asked: it must been tough getting relegated last game with Wimbledon and he replied not so bad, because at least I scored a goal in that game. And then he developed a knack for missing gilt edged sitters in pivotal 6-pointer games for us... again and again and again.

The BBC website said Blackburn had recorded a thumping win over Derby and I was like ah "thumping" means 4-0, then I click through and see that, well

Good finishing from Blackburn tho, last one was super classy

Leeds have hit the crossbar 3 times in the first 6 minutes, and now they've scored a pen. the cunt with the bell not clanging anymore.

probably is now tho

really enjoying the Radio Leeds commentary team's despondent mood change after seemingly thinking this was going to be a stroll in the park because they are class above Pompey for the first 15.

oh ffs, I cursed it

Barry Fry is still the DoF at posh and despite this they always seem to pick up shit-hot non-league prospects that progress to the bigtime. I'm slightly nervous really, need to dig out my Believe shirt.

omg Fergie jr is still there, talk about scraping the barrel

embryonic L1 table otm imo

hmm

the highest goal bonus in L1 history was activated, yet Brum just about scraped a point at home. More of this please. Wednesday managed to spend their way out of this league with a terrible manager, don't know if Davies is that bad, but he's a rookie who probably knows little about this league, as a former big club cone organiser who has never achieved shit as a head coach.

oh yeah them failing would be incredible

passing it to nowhere while others shithouse to glory (hi)

Steve Evans typically gracious in defeat.

them failing too would be excellent, ty for your service

Talking of Wednesday, they seem to have done a pretty comprehensive job on the greenies in poor old Wayne’s first game.

those match stats are brutal and reports say it easily could have been much worse.

Xps about coventry, a few bookies have us around playoffs again, I'm not so confident but looks like we have a decent your gk this season at least

*young

Overall I think our team is slightly weaker than last two seasons, but the league might be a little easier

Coventry have started badly the last two seasons iirc

Yes we were relegation zone end of November when we eventually made play off final

Couple of attacking signings in Mason-Clark and Thomas-Asante tho I'm not too familiar with their game to have an opinion

there was a great keeper moment for us yesterday with Nicholls, not a miraculous save or anything but just a supremely confident feint that sent the Posh striker sliding past him as he was kicking the ball out, without breaking a bead of sweat. A tiny moment in the game, but I loved the swashbuckling arrogance of it.

Nice result for Hereford yesterday.

Great game, first half was pretty even but they might as well have not come out for the second half. Could and should have been 5 or 6.

They're a good footballing side and Bartlett looked just as sharp as last year. If we get the same outcome against all the other playoff candidates then it's going to be a great season.

Mason-Clark was quite possibly the best player I saw in L1 last season

yikes! just saw the Wednesday/Plymouth highlights. Can see why Miller turned down a contract extension there, shambolic defending. Rooney, why do you keep doing this to yourself. Well because clueless fuckers keep offering him jobs of course. He needs to try something new, maybe enrol on a b-tec photography course or something!

One game into the season

Preston North End have confirmed Ryan Lowe has left the club by mutual consent

they got beaten by a parachute money side that played in the prem last season, so hardly a disgraceful result. They have been the second most boring opposition side to watch, next to Swansea for me in the last couple of years, so I don't think their fans will be crying.

Didn't score in their last five games last season with five losses
No idea why they didn't do it in the summer

I wonder how long till Wazza gets put out of his misery, it was 2 wins in 18 that finished him at Brum.

embryonic L1 table otm imo :p

looking pretty grim here - fourth loss on the trot for Cambridge this month (Stockport and Crawley, QPR in the league cup and a 6-0 pre-season drubbing from Colchester) - everyone looked miserable trudging out of the abbey stadium.

we conceded a penalty in the last 40 seconds of play with a combined keeper going through the player + Spencer dragging the fucker down at the same time. Same kind of shit they were dishing out to us for 90 mons, but never mind!

got a strong feeling that Hull City's flirtation with the play-offs last season was a one off

league 1 will be very tight this season, especially considering rotherham's inevitable promotion

good luck huddersfield and charlton x

we've got the first manager since the 1970's who has won their first 3 games in charge, and still he's moaning about how shit they were in the 2nd half today. He's won me over.

a Hull City fan I heard was saying they fear Medya is getting bored with the project and the common theme in this summer's pre-season prep was top-down inertia.

yeah that seems very plausible, it's felt like a vanity project from day one

embryonic L1 table otm imo :p

― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Saturday, 17 August 2024 20:11 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

okay I'm listening

good luck huddersfield and charlton x

― nxd, Saturday, 17 August 2024 20:31 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

churlish to omit Devon's bastion of pure-hearted working-wonders-on-a-tight-budget goodness imo

(but ty lol)

oh of course my apologies - good luck exeter too!

What on earth has happened to Sheff Wed since last week

diagnosed with a severe case of not playing a team managed by wayne rooney

Okay calz you can almost say the line now

really flat, listless performance by my lot today. But fuck it, the embryonic L1 table is still otm!

lying in bed this afternoon getting over (prob) covid, heard a bizarre succession of sounds coming from the Abbey Stadium, seems Cambridge were playing Blackpool, went one nil down after five mins, got an equaliser, then let in three, then scored three, to finish up 4-4.

enjoying the total absence of madcap thrillers from our season so far ngl

Four games so far this season we've been 1-0 up in each. the first we won and in the three since we've gone on to lose 2-1. This is annoying but doesn't yet feel like a disaster.

On a happier note, I went to see our women's team play at Lewes yesterday, very pleasant day out indeed drinking Harveys Sussex Best on the terrace with the South Downs forming a picturesque backdrop and watching our lot win 4-0 to stay top of the league after two matches. Our manager more or less promised we'd get slaughtered by Ipswich next week.

Lewes is a lovely town! The Snowdrop Inn is one of my shouts for 'best pub in England'

I always enjoy visiting Lewes but I have a more conflicted relationship with the place (I get that pleased-with-itself feeling which makes me itch a bit). I like the Snowdrop too but it wouldn't be in my top three pubs in Lewes even. I recommend visiting the Dripping Pan if you get the chance, it really is a tremendous ground.

I get that pleased-with-itself feeling which makes me itch a bit

oh, totally get this. think when i visited Stroud in 2018 it was at its peak, literally on the cusp of this exact heelturn

three pubs in Lewes better than the Snowdrop? crikey. that's a pretty good hit-rate. although i've now recalled Derby's Exeter Arms (and Alexandra) so it's probably over for most other English pubs

Birmingham have bid something in the £10m range for Fulham's Jay Stansfield, what league is this again. Some of their fans seem to think their owner's bogus sponsorship deal or whatever the hell it is will insulate them from any inevitable FFP issues down the line if they get promoted.

bid rejected, maybe £20m will cut it.

We get a decent percentage of any Stanno profit Fulham might make, still I’d rather see him sit tight and establish himself at Fulham tbh. Love the lad.

we've got a loan move for Luton's Joe Taylor being held up until they've resumed whatever business they are doing. He apparently did the medical yesterday and had to return to the club in case they require him on the bench tonight. One of them potential transfers just designed to collapse at the last minute. Or maybe Birmingham will swoop in with an insane 11th hour offer.

kerching! Tim

Guess so, and we seem to have "invested" some of the spoils on a child from your third team. Happy days all round.

tbf Pat Jones was always more on the periphery of the first team, and if not for injuries etc.. He scored an incredible individual goal against Norwich on his debut. There is a player there no doubt.

I should add he has shown lots of flashes of potential since but his development was also hindered by a succession of fuckwit managers and all the usual stuff when a club is in a period of decline. He could be potentially be a fantastic player in L1.

think the gambling commissioner should have a look at this

Hahahahahahahahaha wtf is going on here fine the lot of them pic.twitter.com/nOOX3G5x4r

— jakefloyd_97 (@j_floyd97) September 14, 2024

that is one gk who won't be getting a good night's sleep tonight

Both our goals against them were from them losing the ball at the back. Evatt surely gone by the morning

otmness of table alas short-lived

about time Wrexham got a reality check, although Brum with 15m worth of J Stansfield could be a bit much for a lot of us

"Both our goals against them were from them losing the ball at the back."

both Posh and Bolton played out from the back very badly. It will play into the hands of any half decent, well organised high press.

Idly watching Wednesday v Baggies in the pub, and I love how every fucker tries to play out from the back in 2024

Lol lovely route one action to Windass for Wednesday's second tho

I'm not going to comment on opposition sides pissing about at the back and presenting easy goals to us anymore. I jinxed it last week and one of our duds did a suicidal back pass that led to a goal and today we've conceded an equaliser while pissing about at the back. At least it's good to have a manager who get's furious with the players when they do this and calls it out as dud and seems to want to coach this shit out of them.

I'm pretty cool with playing out from the back and it's fun to watch, I've been getting pissed off with pundits tutting about how inappropriate it is for the little teams to do it, they should know their place and hump it forwards at every turn unless they're a proper Big Club, which is stupid as fuck at least in part cos the effectiveness of a tactic is as much about who you're playing as anything, if you wanna try Pepball in the Conference you gotta remember you're also veong pressed by teams at your level so why the fuck not?

Also the Windass goal was a lovely treat

our back line has too many garbage footballers with less passing ability than the average under 9's side for trying anything other than quickly getting it forward, preferably not straight to an opposition player!

Don't get me wrong watching Sam Johnstone with the ball at his feet is taking years off my life and he's only been with us for 2 months

I think if we concede a goal like that, Nathan Jones will personally eat the player responsible. The karmic cost: we simply don't score from open play any more

Albion back in this ffs come on Wednesday you feebs

not mentioning a pleasing current scoreline here because I don't want to curse it

look at Brum, a £30m squad and they can't even muster a shot on target.

the gaudy arrogance of the club last Tuesday night. Flashing their stadium lights and serenading their undefeated galacticos like it was last game of the season. I knew this was coming.

I didn't!

God they were hilariously shit though. And to think I thought we'd gone off the rails

they were bang average on Tuesday night as well, unfortunately we were still going through a cursed run of pisspoor performances at the time. The funniest moment was the highest paid striker in L1 managing to intercept a goalbound shot and nodding it over the bar. But in the end we still let him through for an easy goal 15 mins later. Useless fuckers.

Didn't do so badly today! Table slightly more otm than it was yesterday

correction: the 2nd highest paid striker in L1. Stansfield probably has a wardrobe full of gold bullion bars.

Couple of them must have gotten nicked given how he went off at the final whistle

I'd be absolutely delighted for any club to win this L1 title and would forget all historical grudges, barring the current top 2 - both of which I fucking despise and wish nothing but failure upon them.

I'm surprised the Wrexham promotion bump has been so sustained. They've gotta start running out of juice soon. They're our next home opposition, bring it on tbh

yeah tbf on them it seems to be more a case of winning momentum rather than thermonuclear transfer splurges. But tbh I've hated them since their Lee Trundle era and the current ownership are despicable.. so fuck them!

Wrexham apparently were p bad today

great result for Charlton that, love to see it

Yeah I hope their fans enjoy the ride and I look forward to them going bust.

We’ve just scraped consecutive 1-0 wins against poor poor teams (Orient, Cambridge) but I will take the inflated league position all day long.

Dicing with making the trip next month...the game sounds like it's going to be a bit of a grind

our first choice colossus gk legend Nichols breaks down in prematch warmup and needs surgery - out for ages. Our no.2 keeper is recovering from an inflamed heart and is currently restricted by protocol for how long he can even train. 3rd choice keeper Chapman steps up - everyone fears the worst. Turns out he's a pretty good allround keeper who isn't only NOT shit but also growing in stature, game by game. Like it when stuff like this happens

Cambridge really circling the L1 drain this time, just one point from nine games. My son is no longer asking to go, he says he wants them to go down to the national league again so he can come and be their star player in 2032 or so and get them promoted to the championship, then get a transfer to Liverpool. But yeah for this season, if you other L1 people want to have an almost guaranteed win away day I would recommend it, good transport links and the computer museum is ten minutes away. Food at the stadium is crap though.