Johnnyrotten

Its not just football though. Concerts, cricket, cinema, restaurants, tennis, family days out at theme parks etc, it all costs multiple times what it used to. I'd say watching Bolton has increased in price less than any of those, I used to pay about the same for S/T 20 years ago as I do now. I've been to Lancs v Yorkshire and the golf open in the last couple of weeks and the two tickets weren't far short of £200.

Yes, top price v Man U etc was £39 and that must have been 25 years ago.

I'm not disagreeing £36 is a lot, but for eg Cardiff and Barnsley were £30 last season in ESL; £32 for Cat A. An extra few quid after promotion (as well as inflation) is just to be expected.

Not sure they'll be that much? PNE £33 it sounds like, Blackburn no doubt similar. Not sure about Burnley, surely less than £40. Wrexham and Birmingham charging Hollywood prices? Hard to see any other clubs charging £40 to play us, we'll be Cat C for most 😄(one bonus of no longer being a big fish in a small pond).

Not when you consider the Prem teams won't even notice the money they take on the gate from away fans. 3k paying fans at Arsenal is probably about 1% of their matchday income (total guess) dwarfed by sponsorships, TV deals here and abroad, corporates etc. If we can get £100k out of the away fans once a month its a big part of our annual budget, we aren't propped up by Sky.

Probably cost us more for tickets in East and West, they are normally more than North and South. Might be £40 for us? Interesting that the away team gets the prices before the home team! This isn't a moan, its just surprising.

As much as I would criticise Tuchel for that, they all do it, for some unknown reason. Even the expert analysers on MOTD or Sky, never pick up on it, and commentators routinely praise the shot and never mention the lack of marking. Its as if a top Premiership or equivalent footballer isn't expected to be able to shoot on target, unchallenged, from 20 odd yards, its mystifying because we see them result in goals (often from deflections) every single week, at all levels.

Two theories on that, one is that if you put a dozen crosses in, the law of averages is one will find an opposition player unmarked, especially if the player crossing happens to be the world's best player ever. But also, without checking the line up at the time, there were so many changes to our defence in the 2nd half, I bet half of them didn't know where they were supposed to be or who they were marking. People talk about having a settled defence, keeping your shape, communicating and being organised - from where I was sat it looked like a load of bodies were just put in the box to get in the way of as many balls as they could, if it was meant to be organised defending it didn't come across that way. Tuchel to blame for that as well as for removing our "out ball".

I guess they didn't know, like the rest of us, we got to the play offs so zero guarantee of promotion. He signed Taylor hoping he'd be good enough for L1. And Apter. Not all signings are made with the season after in mind. And if SS thinks Simons is good enough for the championship, its surprising he hardly used him in L1.

On reflection I agree McAtee isn't as likely to stay as the likes of RR, Dalby, Forino, Sheehan, of course they are nailed on to be a big part of the first team week in week out. But the next level down - Gale, Simons, EE, Christie are all players that are replaceable should we get signings in. Currently they are all needed because we are generally short on numbers and that includes McAtee's position. Who knows what will happen, but as you say he was selected in the squad 23 times last season, despite injury and suspension, and he came on in most games, so SS does rate him even if that's only at L1 level. We have no idea who he rates to make the step up to the championship yet but I suspect he would upgrade as many as he can and McAtee is just one of those.

Strange that pre-season is huge for Kenny, but he's injured for all of it and their first league game is 2 weeks away 😄 Whoever he signs for, he's unlikely to be starting league games in August if he's not started his pre-season yet, if what MON said is right.

Tuchel hovering between 2 bad defeats in 2 games, and "best England manager since 1966/best ever performance in the history of English football on foreign soil", to be determined by a match with about as much standing and seriousness as a BSM group stage match v Blackburn U21s. The whole charade is bizarre and deserves to be ignored win lose or draw. If we lose I won't be including it in any assessment of his tenure and the same if we lose heavily, because the players should be at home with their families by now.

Around £20mil. They should be able to afford to give Forss a new contract now.

The joy of no BSM cup this season is probably a blow for the prospects of the fringe players. No illusion of the likes of Warren, Taylor and Randall having some involvement around the 1st team. And no FA Cup first 2 rounds either. No meaningless or piss easy games means we don't need an inflated squad, if you can't play in the championship there is no point being here. Last season we'd played 7 such games by early December, a game every 2 or 3 weeks. They'll be wasting their season if they hang around because there's next to no chance they'll get on the pitch in the championship without at least proving themselves lower down the EFL first.

The talk of what to do with Taylor and Randall is logical, neither were part of the first team plans for any prolonged time and our promotion has sealed their fate if it wasn't sealed already. McAtee was part of the 1st team squad (without checking) about 90% of the time he was available. We are already short of attackers, and have lost at least two "no.10's" compared to a year ago if we count Dempsey and Randall. He isn't going anywhere unless someone comes in with money, which is highly unlikely with a year left. The same applies to every player under contract that was part of most squads last season, we are as likely to lose anyone as lose McAtee. Presumably every player has his price and he's no different but I'd be amazed if any of the recognised squad leave before the January window (when it will be clear which aren't getting a game).

I'd love us to be playing against Forss next season, but we won't be. Same category as Burstow, great blokes and OK in L1 but we aren't in L1 now.

Which, if true, just means we don't deserve to win a trophy IMO, its meant to be a reflection of the country's abilities. If others are winning it with foreign managers I don't agree with that either (although I don't think that's happened yet?) but the overall effect is just to dilute the whole thing. Ancelotti managing Brazil for god's sake, thankfully they were terrible. Not sure if Brazil have had a foreigner before but with this particular one they performed worse than ever before so at least they won't be encouraged to do it again. Martinez at Belgium and Graham Potter at Sweden 2 other strange one's, its one thing getting top quality from abroad but another getting championship managers.

I agree with your last 5 words, but we can't criticise a German for not singing our national anthem! I must admit if I played for England I'd be torn on singing the anthem, and its nothing to do with arrogance (the overpaid bit is irrelevant, they get millions whether or not they turn out for England). I never sing God Save The King anymore, I don't recognise it as a "national" anthem, but I would belt it out if it wasn't a tribute to the royal family, eg Land Of Hope & Glory or whatever and it would also help if it was an English anthem not a British one. Singing about wanting a bloke to reign over us literally sticks in my throat, I can't get the words out.

I never used to give it a thought when it was Sven, not sure if it was just that he seemed a bit less foreign 😀 But when we were in the latter stages of this WC (Q-F onwards and therefore in with a shout of winning the trophy) it 100% took away some of the wow factor, that if we finally win the thing after 60 years, we've done it with the help of a German (of all countries). I just can't imagine the Germans having an English manager and if they did it would lessen any achievements IMO. If the difference between winning and losing was having a foreigner in charge I'm not going to turn it down, but I'd be lieing if I said it would mean the same to me, I can get behind the players but the manager isn't able to join in singing the national anthem because when his contract ends he wants Germany to beat us. Its just not the same.

I know you are very patient with managers and I get that and respect it. My thought is an international manager shouldn't be learning on the job, and to answer your question, I don't expect him to change his outlook. I think he's had his chance and he can learn from his mistakes elsewhere, but of course he isn't going anywhere in the next 2 years and we won't find out if he's learned until we are 1 up in the semi! (although in hindsight we saw it coming with his squad selection, and no I don't want to re-open that debate!). On SS, this isn't the forum, but I was just referring to Vale away when SS over compensated for the so-called terrible pitch and played into their hands by taking our strengths/best players out of the team (dropping Sheehan, Kenny on the right wing, Apter on the left etc) - over thinking it, not being ourselves, just as TT did last night. SS wasn't faced with the same situation again and hopefully won't be in the championship.

We might not be good enough, fair enough. But it would be good to have a manager that would allow us to find out. That team wasn't a representation of England, in the last half hour it was a representation of a (German) football manager. And if "we just aren't good enough", why are we arsed who the manager is? As fans we just want to see the best version of ourselves. Comparing it to SS and Bolton, we don't want to see the version that SS put out at Port Vale, that just wasn't us, it was a false line up and tactics. We want to see the Bolton that absolutely played to its strengths and thrilled us with the 3 play off performances. And if we'd lost, we'd have gone down fighting playing with an identity.

And while I'm talking about the game rather than England, the other positive last night was that the team retreating, and not even bothering to mark up, lost. It would have done the game a massive disservice if we'd won 1-0 like that and maybe repeated the trick on Sunday, as much as we'd all have taken that. But with a new season around the corner, it would have been an awful message to send to the football world. The defensive coach was well beaten - good. Hopefully the bullying tactics at corners that Arsenal have been allowed to get away with are either outlawed or seen to fail this season too.

Yes, for all of the pain of watching us retreat, the football fan in me was purring at the way Messi took the game by the scruff of the neck. He should have had 4 assists never mind 2, if his teammates had half his ability to finish off what he was creating. With him no longer visible at club level, its been a pleasure to watch him over the last month especially as its probably the last time.

Evatt and Keith Hill would have got England to the semis with the draw we had. I would just like a manager that enjoys watching the same players we enjoy watching, within a structure of your Rices, Andersons and tactical acumen. Shrinking whenever we play against a good team - and literally not marking anyone - why are we going to another country to get that manager, we can get that bloke from the EFL.

And we'll see that tactic every week in the Prem and EFL. Someone explain it. And not only is it bonkers but it shit to watch, attack v defence like kids.