Leaderboard

there's a dusty little back street shop in Montmatre that Youri and Bruno opened back in 2009

I think that's where there's been a bit of an issue this season, players like those two and Collins, Schon, Tutu, have been brought in with significant outlay and related hype about them helping make us 'championship ready' when there's been little in their CV to suggest that L1 isn't their ceiling. Schon and Tutu a bit harder to judge as their backgrounds/journeys have been different, but the others have done all that they've done at L1 level or, largely, below. The two outliers amongst them are Dan, who somehow played a dozen games of Premier League football, and Vic, who played 60 games in the Championship. Matete has played 8 games in Championship but hardly enough to suggest he'd elevate us in midfield and he's looked what he's been, an average L1 player. Collins wasn't exactly prolific for Forest Green or Bristol Rovers, while McAtee was bought on the back of one decent season in L1 for Barnsley. Prior to that, 4 in 26 games for Grimsby and 1 in 30 for Scunthorpe. Of course, a player can improve in an environment and structure that suits them and, in reality, it could be argued those two's numbers for us are about as good this season as can have been expected I suppose where I'm going with it is we've shelled a lot out on a host of players who aren't as good / productive as we might have been led to believe. In some cases because they've been played out of position (Vic, arguably McAtee), in others because they've turned out injury prone, and generally because they fitted into Evatt and Markham's fanciful idea of how we were going to flick and trick our way out of the Division

Big Dave and Big Lewis double in today's win at Chesterfield to clinch the title

Absolutely gutted with this one. A top, humble, selfless bloke. Saw him solo / with the Alarm several times over the years. Great performer. He bravely battled blood cancers for over 30 years and set up the Love, Hope, Strength charity to encourage more people to become bone marrow donors. He also raised £££ for charities and hospitals through various fundraising activities. Been seriously ill for the last 12 months after the cancer came back again with a vengeance, yet still found time to write new music and his biography. A life well lived. If anyone deserved a knighthood he did. RIP.

That would be my logic these days unless staying over for a night out. Making the Semis at Wembley was as bad a desicion as introducing VAR

Suggestions it may be as a result of a lack of "inertia" in the grid. I had a read up, and it is possible. They're linking it to renewables and their drawbacks, which is somewhat disingenuous. It's more of a rush towards the generation, without balancing out the infrastructure. Networks which haven't been updated accordingly. Similar here. Gives carte blanche to the sceptics.

A lot of sense from the ex-head of the MI6

They doubled up today to be in the squad for the B Team LFA Cup Final tonight as well that they won 1-0. Goal from Daeshon Lawrence as well.

@Horwich??? 🤣🤣🤣

Bournemouth didn't get where they are today without spending a few quid about £350m net since they first got promoted to PL in a ground that sits less than 12k table here https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/fuenfjahresvergleich/wettbewerb/GB1

I think they're in a fairly decent place - get a decent #9, and a replacement for TAA, and they'll be fine

I hope you weren’t holding your breath…

Also Player's Player of the Season

and another one looking at that table whilst I'm more than happy to see Forest up there challenging for a CL place against the established teams they had -193M 3 years ago, 3rd highest in the league, they've spaffed money at players left right and centre since getting promoted, whilst getting points docked for overspending so they shoudl be challenging for europe, it's no fairytale

Nobody's risking their mortgage payment on Golden Goal and Lifeline tickets.

Fred Done (BetFred) lives within walking distance of me and if you saw his gaff, you'd realised why I don't bet. I'm too tight to give my hard earned to a billionaire blood sucker who preys on peoples misfortune. I used to have a couple of quid on Acca's etc, but spoke to a guy who used to work for above mentioned property business. T&C's of some betting companies allow access to your online banking via open banking and they know when you've been paid. They know when your circumstances change and they know when to bleed you and when to block you by stacks and stacks of carefully put together data about what you're most likely to bet on. If they don't like what they think you'll do, they'll stop you from doing it before you even know you're going to. They are absolute scum-bags and whilst I don't necessarily agree that gambling should be banned per se, I think it needs to be way more heavily regulated. Credit checks (proper ones rather than just checking for CCJ's or bankruptcies) and no advertisements anywhere. Pitch side, footy shirts, TV etc. Trouble is, most of these owners and CEO's are incredibly wealthy, have various businesses in different industries and have friends in high places

If we were big enough we'd have one on there too. Instead, we'll just have to stick with being by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.

Aye his current club wouldn't stand a chance against Liverpool....

Everyone’s invited … except for you, you baldy bummer.

Why? I Don’t want to support their economy and there are so many other great places to go in the world.

Why do you engage mate. He's the site mental imbecile.

Stick your fingers in your ears, or get someone else to. Pinch your nose. Basically blocking every air hole in your face. Then drink a pint of water in one without breathing. The air will force it's way out as it can't escape anywhere else. This works 100%. Do it every time I'm drunk

I know you’ll not like this as it ruins the vision of the east upper booing massive but I wouldn’t dream of giving them grief. If it was Evatt still in charge I’d simply not bother turning up. The lap will be important to Schumacher and the gauge of where we are at with him and I’d hate to think he’d come off thinking we aren’t with him and the job is about to take on.

Times Radio is absolutely superb

Well that makes you mental according to some on here.

Tough call on who I want to win this. Arsenal are practically French. 3-3

Plastic Straws mate, don't forget the Plastic Straws.

About right for a 66 year old who keeps himself ticking over.

Just speaking to a city fan at work who didn't go to the semi. His logic was "if we'd won I'd want to shell out for final tickets, if we'd lost I'd rather not have gone" Makes sense

It's a good point, but given the limited scope to make space in the squad and how easy he is to get rid of, I'd get rid and hope we can do better. To me he's a known quantity and not good enough for a promotion chasing team imo. He's had a couple of good spells but not consistently shown up over the season. So, take the punt and see who else we can get for me.

Every team spends. It’s Fannies like United and Liverpool that think their organic money is somewhat better than others. While the Wrexham rise is a good example of this that people explain that it’s not quite the same as they’ve had money. I’m yet to see an asterisk next to their promotion where it says has money next to it.

Sharon’s stance on gambling is pretty principled. But Golden Goal and lotteries are ok which is a bit strange.

Yeah - it's just daft, moving away from what football clubs actually are to just brands. It's what Fifa wants, fans watching on TV buying into the product, and it kills off the local support for smaller clubs. That and the whole sport washing rubbish. Should stop calling it soft power, when it's actually about power.

We listen to too much of that station 😭

McAtee did have a 14 in 37 season when Grimsby got promoted from the NL and a fair few assists, that's the reason my mate rates him but yeah, whilst we got McAtee and Matete off Championship clubs, they've done nothing at that level and been deemed surplus to requirements, hence we got them

I have lost a small fortune gambling, did get to stage where it was getting silly so I cut back. Never got to the stage where I did not have money to pay bills but looking back money could have been spent better 😂. I was earning good money and was single but used to be amazed by how much people I knew were not on good money and had families used to bet. The online roulette machines have been described as the crack cocaine of gambling. You used to be able to bet £100 per spin and there was a spin every 6 seconds ! In a casino at least they have to count chips and pay people out, in the bookies or online it is instant. Limited to £2 per spin now, but people put £50 on the wheel and there is pre spin gamble that lasts 2 seconds where you have to gamble your £2 upto £50 before the wheel spins. I used to enjoy it and could cope with the losses but am now happy doing a fiver on football every so often but have no line accounts.

Oh Jesus no. Nothing unfortunate like that in my family😂

Too many players under contract to sign Matete. Need to make wriggle room from somewhere.

I hope Zelensky says, "fuck you" and bombs the fuck out of Moscow

Well done to all who ran yesterday. I was in Manc to watch my youngest run. Gruelling. Taking him to the airport now for his long journey home. I’m sure he’ll sleep most of the way.

Ex poster @Whites man ran 3:59 in Manchester today

I did the MCR Marathon today. First ever marathon and I saw people all over the shop being carried into ambulances/stretchers or collapsed with spectators helping them. The last 10km was awful. I was on target pace until 32k, then coming out of Sale the dehydration kicked in. Cramps started at Chorlton. Just a battle to the finish then. A mate of mine (another BWFC fan) said the same - his hardest ever marathon.

That's actually not a bad idea. Get Ju Darby's boys out there too.

what a grueling day that was the heat absolutely killed me, cramped / dehydrated even before half way dug in and got in done though seen so many collapsed and on oxygen being put into ambulances, grim thanks again, just in the taxi home from Piccadilly

After all that, 14 months of stress, anxiety, therapy and probably a couple of bouts of depression too I got good news on Thursday. As I said above, you might not have realised it but your inputs definitely had a baring on the decision to get the test done. I actually referred back to this thread every couple of months to reassure myself I was making the right decision. Time to start living again rather than just existing. Thank you everyone.

Double over Wigan. Double over Blackpool Double over Stockport if they stay down. Double over PNE if they come down. Not too arsed about Salford if they come up but we'll have the double over them as well. I'll be saying different when the actual fixtures approach but now is the time for over optimism.

Just arrived