Your comments about the League Cup hopefully arent shared by many. To remove that would be a terrible idea, of course it serves a purpose. Im guessing that you wasnt in Cardiff at any point in 2002. Both cups see rotation in the earlier stages, fine, but it is a great opportunity for smaller clubs to have experiences they wouldnt otherwise have. The primary focus of football should always be matchgoing fans, TV games moved should be limited. For example, 3 or 4 Championship games all starting at 12.30 each Saturday is totally unnecessary. Nations League, this new Champions League format, the planned club world cup, these are the additional games that are really provoking the understandable issues around too many games. Scrap them. Regarding TV deals, the main issue is the price of the packages. The extortionate cost in this country of Sky and then TNT/Prime on top is why people expect so much to justify it. The issue is the price.

That is a seperate issue and I certainly wouldnt argue with any comments about them pushing the club massively back. They are the ones that have continiously held us and pushed us back since they sadly arrived.

The club was in a far better state when Mowbray left than when he joined. The idea that he out of anyone has "set the club back decades" is laughable. Putting aside needlessly calling him a "complete dickhead." It was a shortsighted error of judgement to let Raya go. But his development playing in the Premier League for now a 4th season, going into a second in one of the best teams, working with far better coaches and with regular exposure to top level football has accelerated his development far beyond where he would be at had he stayed here. In his final season here, he made so many mistakes and even when he first joined Brentford, he made a number of mistakes there including one at Wembley which cost them promotion. They over those years of Premier League football and better coaching have been mostly eradicated.

People like to cling onto the idea that had truth to it (pre Venkys) once upon a time that players go downhill after leaving. Raya, Brereton, Armstrong and Szmodics are now playing regular first team football and Kaminski has just come from playing it.

A manager who got worse results would have been criticised more? Who would have thought it. He got more criticism as the season went on because we didnt win enough games, including failing to win a few very winnable home games. Therefore fear grew and criticism grew. He then beat Leeds and Leicester, and we have won all 3 home games this season amidst an excellent start. That criticism has turned to praise. Reaction has been based in results. It doesnt require this scapegoating narrative shite.

Gueye started the Derby game and Ohashi replaced him.

But the initial conversation was about the players and what has triggered this conversation is the addition of the added games I mentioned. They are the ones that shouldnt be added to the calendar. Obviously Pep is totally wrong to want the League Cup scrapped, although it hasnt stopped him from winning it numerous times. Im not saying that if you put it to the players, that they can either lose part of/reduce the domestic or continental calendar, and it would hurt them financially if they chose the latter, they may well choose the former. But this whole conversation seems to be based on the addition of needless games into the international calendar, the world club calendar and additional Champions League games. And it is a fair point shown by additional injuries.

Ive not seen anyone call for a shrunken PL or removing domestic cup competitions. Here it seems that Rodri is answering questions directly as a result of discussions about the expanded Champions League and Club World Cup. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2024/sep/17/rodri-players-close-to-striking-volume-games-manchester-city De Bruyne has also come out before criticising the nations league.

The idea that Eustace became a scapegoat last season is rubbish. He split opinion and received criticism because we didnt win many games under him, he didnt get any stick in the ground despite not winning a single home game under him. This season, obviously only 5 games in but hes already won all 3 at home and is unbeaten, so the narrative has changed because hes being judged on results.

The thing is, the additional games that tend to cause complaints are ones that genuinely do not have to happen, so they have a point. The Nations League, these new plans for an expanded Club World Cup and expanding the size of the Champions League. They have a point. The usual lines tend to be trotted out, ungrateful overpaid mercenaries, I work x hours a week, get a real job, pull out of competitions etc. But it is statistically proven that an ever increasing number of games leads to far more injuries. Its not a case of that they cant be arsed, their bodies are breaking down because of it. I dont get why we would want more games featuring rotated teams or competitions with numerous absentees, there is no need aside from money to keep adding these extra fixtures to the calendar. The cost of TV subscriptions is far too high, that should come down, it shouldnt be lets add more games to give more value with rotated teams what we will likely see.

But the alternative scored 2 in his last game.

That was a different game I think. That was the 4-3 and Sukur got 2 in a 4 nil.

Is that Elrio Van Heerden?

Both Brittain and Beck played together v Burnley.

Very thoughtful of Sky to have such a stupid kick off time.

They played 90 minutes, not 120. There are 4 and a half days between games. And it was a massively changed Preston line up, the 2 players who went off wouldnt have started anyway.

They almost certainly wouldnt have played anyway as they arent regular starters by any means.

With Hedges, he has a year plus a further option. He is at best a handy squad player but has recently suffered the same serious injury twice and doesnt score or assist enough. He doesnt offer pace either, I dont see why we would rush to give him a new deal at this stage. With Weimann being as old as he is, he certainly wont have loads of teams fighting for his signature 6 months in advance. I would wait until probably next summer and re-assess. Hyam would be the most sensible out of the 3, but even then its not desperate.

Yeah, quite slow I would say. Certainly speed is not one of his strong points, Gueye does have a turn of pace and is certainly quicker although not rapid himself.

Shame about the stupid kick off time.

He signed a week before the season having been on trial but my point is that going into his mid 30s, you never know when the real signs of physical decline start to show. I dont get why we would rush to extend now.

The thing with Weimann though at his age is hes already on the decline and that can suddenly accelerate. There wasnt much demand for him this summer so I think the risk of him being nabbed outweighs that of being stuck with him if hes too old to really contribute. Hedges can be a solid squad player but he has suffered back to back hamstring tears and he doesnt contribute many goals or assists. I think he might have an option so we should hold off for now. Sigurdsson I suspect will be a high earner having done little to prove it.

Certainly agree with your first and most important sentence, you cant after Saturday. I think Gueye is quicker though, Ohashi is quite slow although clearly very good in front of goal.

The transfer window exceeded the expectations of most but admist talk from the manager of building a team, considering the fact that we have brought in so much money it wasnt good enough long term to only bring in 4 players on deals for longer than a year. You look down that list and discard the 3 loans, and Dolan is obviously the stand out one where it shouldnt be that difficult to tie down long term, and even then we all know his limitations are ones that havent really improved that much. Hyam has an option in his deal and would probably be next in line for an extension. Hedges and especially Sigurdsson IMO need to do more to warrant a longer deal, and 3 of those players are aging, maybe Batth and Weimann can earn another deal but thats a decision for next summer.

Im sure it wont be over but now it feels like he is making the numbers up here and yesterdays late appearance felt like a token gesture. He had a good run of form under Mowbray in a very advanced role and has never got close to those levels since he left. He was able to nick the ball back and he is good at playing passes high up where he could slip in Brereton and Khadra on the counter attack but he offered next to no goal threat himself. It was assumed that playing deeper would suit him but when he moved back, it required an ability to have good awareness in a more hectic area of the pitch and the ability to try and control games and it turned out that he couldnt really do either.