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

It's still mightily impressive if it included Inhumans

Perfect prep for managing Leeds

One of the Champo summer transfer rumours doing the rounds is VLP to Leeds. VLP recently said he was using Town as a stepping stone to a bigger club - he might need some of that Revie Ecstasy to convince him of how fucking truly massive the "Champions Of Europe" are though!

Much handwringing as we fail to hang on to John Mills over an alleged £30 a week increase and he moves to Bath. Much less handwringing this week as the FA charge him with 166 gambling offences and the club reveal Mills' leaked increase was huge misinformation.

Friendlies going well, routine wins with a few goals.

Much less welcome was club captain and first choice RB Jimmy Oates turning out for Exeter as A. Trialist. He was there on loan a few years ago and the new Exeter manager knows him from Harptbury College. I'm on the fence because there were times last year when he looked like he'd reached his level but if it all comes off then I'm pleased for him.

I should be going Saturday and Tuesday. Just don't tell Mrs aldo because I only get back in the country Friday and leave again the following Saturday.

I don’t recall Oates’s loan, Aldo - where does he play / what kind of player is he?

I am a liar, I was confusing him with someone else

Anyway he played 70 minutes last night apparently. Good signing imo, an overlapping RB with a decent cross on him (if a particularly weak throw). I always thought he had higher level football in him even if this season was a challenge at times.

Thanks - Captain Oates well known for heroic sorties outside.

Our forum is full of divided opinions - as you'd expect - but I'd never grudge someone the chance to go pro when we're only offering him pay-per-play.

The first season was kind of hilarious because we got to three games to go and he was the only squad player who hadn't scored so was being teed up for shots and given dead balls that he just wasn't ready for. Missed a penalty even in the last home game.

Finally scored his first about 5 games into the second season together during a home game. We had a pitch invasion to celebrate. The fine was worth it.

Player of the year unanimously between players management and both fan groups in the second year and made library captain as a result.

Mixed third season if I'm absolutely honest but missed a couple of weeks with a minor injury and we were glad to have him back.

A solid 7/10, play a system where he can overlap successfully - an outside right that always cuts in for example - and you'll get an 8+ out of him.

Might have been our best player across the past 3 years.

Sounds interesting - we had a fellow called Kane Wilson in from West Brom last year, who was very good and very quick; he's gone back to the Baggy mothership and rumour has it he'll be in contention for their first team squad. He wasn't starting every game, though, because we have a right back called Pierce Sweeney who's much more in the mould of yr trad lower-league full back - gets up and down, hard as nails, liable to drift from time to time; I like him.

Strange times for us, having had the same manager for more than a decade, it's so weird to see the squad being re-shaped. So far franchise have taken our manager, assistant manager, first-team coach, club captain and most experienced midfielder, plus a centre forward we'd released. I hope they all fail utterly, not because they left us but because franchise.

Weirdly, I'm quite pleased. It was definitely time for a change and the new manager seems to be saying (and doing) roughly the right things. Liable to be a bumpy season though.

As I said, manager knows him from Harptbury College so not surprising. Trialling Sid Grant from Westfields and looking to secure Mustafa Bundu from Aarhus are the other logical steps.

The West Brom thing is interesting because we had Dara O'Shea on loan last year and they haven't been answering calls on him either.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Diu7__BW0AELJ-4.jpg

In light of Jimmy Oates signing for Exeter I propose "Finally big enough to be considered a feeder team" for this year's title.

I am on the other side of the world so have only seen two psfs but I fear for next year.

It must be fitting for some players (yes you Johnny Mills) seeing someone else from the side go to a football league team when you went to Bath.

*gutting*

That would suit me - we feel a bit like a feeder team right now also, we've sold five or six players on to higher leagues over the last two years, which is utterly unheard-of for us (this also means we're more or less financially stable for the first time in my lifetime, which is nice). And I wouldn't be surprised to see someone coming in for our main striker and our keeper in the next fortnight either.

I am looking forward to the football starting again, though I suspect it's going to be a bumpy season. More progress expected for the Bulls this year?

I suspect no progress at all. As I said, I have only got to two psfs (although listened to the rest over the internet) and we sound weak at CB (although apparently we are announcing a Bristol City loanee over the weekend) and definitely up front (where an aging lump who has passed the age/talent threshold in the close season) is now out for 10 weeks and was our main goal threat. Losing to FGR, divisions above or not, does not make me confident.

I feel like we're less prepared than season 1, when we started the first game of the season with only 14 players, 5 of which had played together before.

FGR aren't bad in L2, FWIW. Last season started as a struggle for them but they got a lot better IIRC.

They bought (!) a couple of decent players from us, including Reuben Reid who can be absolutely brilliant at L2 level. So don't feel too bad about that.

I quite enjoyed watching them on Goal Rush but there final league position wasn't a fluke.

Sure, but I don't think it tells the whole story either - when I saw them they weren't by any means terrible, though they seemed a bit soft in midfield. Anyway I hope the season goes better than you expect!

Beginning to feel really weird being away for the start of the season on Saturday but not as weird as listening to a radio commentary on a non-league game at 2am.

Scraping the playoffs, calling it. Team changes in September when it isn't working, Beadle goes in the spring.

When you said "no progress at all" up there I thought you were feeling doomy about your prospects for the season, rather than reckoning you were play-off bound.

I think we might well get to the play-offs this year again, with the caveat that I don't think changing a manager after twelve years is a recipe for a smooth season. But I think our squad looks pretty good. People have been saying nice things about Oates's showings in PSFs, it'll be interesting to see whether he goes straight into the first team. We could still do with another centre back, I think (though not necessarily in week 1, more for when one of our current ones breaks).

We've the local derby against Carlisle on Saturday, and due to ground redevelopments we'll have even less than the half-a-ground we played with last season: the capacity on our big* standing terrace is reduced as a result of work being done on one of the exits.

*It's simultaneously not very big and the biggest in the football league.

We're on the telly this Saturday, breathing fresh life into Sunderland

I'm being bold, mainly because I saw that the bottom team making the playoffs last year lost 15 and scraped 63 points together. More a case of reduced expectations for the league rather than thinking we were better.

We have the local derby against Blyth on Saturday so it's clearly the season for it.

we've just signed jordy hiwula from huddersfield - wikipedia has informed me (a) his goalscoring record looks p good and (b) his school nickname is 'deckchair'

in fact i think his goalscoring record looks completely made up

i hope we didn't sign him based on this haha

Oh god yeah the walk along the canal on Kraanlei was super-atmos, lots of likely-looking places to eat round there in Patershooi also IIRC.

EASY, DEVIN: English Football League and beyond, 2018/19

Ahaha that post was for a different thread on a different board, I wondered where it had gone.

See you on the other thread, thanks for giving me a year-long reminder of my personal autocorrect pain, LJ.