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

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