I think it's fine to think it's a little bit of both. Things have definitely improved and it's not that strange that he struggled at first - given the unusual circumstances. The players will have been disappointed with a manager they liked leaving, the circus surrounding the departure will have been distracting, and they also had to change systems mid-season. What has been shown to be incorrect is that the players won't play for him or that he can't lead. That was a big part of the narrative for the first handful of matches and the last 4/5 matches have proven that wrong - both in results and, more importantly, in the attitude and effort of the players themselves.

Fair.

I understand the sentiment, but I do I think it's important to listen to what they say. It's the only way we can truly hold them accountable and there's a surprising amount of honest or transparency within the interview...whether that was intended or not.

...and I will greedily asked. If you enjoyed the podcast, leaving a review on Spotify does help us. We barely get any (which I get, I don't review podcasts I listen to), but if we could up that it just increases the reach.

It is why we wanted to get him to clearly state that the ambition was for promotion - which he did. However, he refused to give any sort of timeline or indication that this season now sets the standard. That felt more like job protection than anything else.

Glen, feel free to send me a DM if you want to chat about anything and I can see however I (we) can help. You've also alluded to having some contact with former players, if there's a chance to reach out to them and have part of the discussion we have be about the current situation then that would also be great.

Don't disagree. There's not a lot more that could be extracted, although I would have liked to push a bit more on the perception of the supporters and the resentment that appears to be there. As for the spending and budgets. I simply can't wrap my head around it.

I think that's an immense challenge.

Thanks a lot. I think there are some pretty obvious gaps in the logic and the finance and transfer budget side of things is one of the bigger ones. If the transfer fees are being used for operational costs and are need to cover those costs...that's OK? Not good. Not ideal. But, we can at least know where we stand. But they aren't need for that? But they're used for that? I don't see the benefit of pushing that explanation.

Holding back on some topics was the only way to keep the overall conversation moving forward. It also risked going into a never-ending repetitive cycle on some of the talking points.

The plan just doesn't make any sense. There are elements that are logical, but the money has to be reinvested (or at least, a substantial part of it). Otherwise, you're just hoping for consistent miracles from your academy and your recruitment. It's as far from sustainable as you can possibly get. The club should also be taking advantage of periods where FFP is in their favour, instead, they're just passively existing through them.

We do typically give the guests the chance to request edits and normally episodes go out 24-48 hours after recording. We didn't offer that in this instance - nor was it requested - and the episode was out 2 hours after recording.

To clarify, that isn't me defending all of the answers, just giving him some credit for actually responding to everything.

Thanks, @glen9mullan. Did our best, although there was a line there and a limit to how much we could push on certain areas. I will say, he did sit through it all and answered everything, even if he didn't necessarily get to the heart of every issue or answer it in a way that fans would like to hear.

Thanks for the timestamp.

And we also apprecaite the tweet being liked/reshared: And feel free to share the episode wherever you want. Fully prepared for the backlash...

For comparison, we had Brett Johnson on a couple of days before. He's one of the co-owners of Ipswich Town. It's an interest contrast (although a much shorter interview - starts around 20 in). https://open.spotify.com/episode/6iTryIGGL4DoIk6YNCV8nc?si=32a16c340296489a

I know there's already a Rudy thread, but wanted to create this separately and hope the mods allow. We had Rudy on our podcast today, here's a link to the episode: We tried to push on some topics and there are definitely areas that don't make a ton of sense, but I do give him credit for sitting through the entire thing. The interview starts at around 15 minutes in. I would have loved to pushed harder on a couple of topics, but interviewing does require a certain degree of balance and it does give us the chance to get him back on. When we do have him back on, which questions would you like to hear asked? Are there other figures at the club that you'd like to see on the podcast (we can do our best). Subscribing and leaving a review of the podcast is always much appreciated. We also don't do a ton on social media, but we also appreciate follows: https://x.com/TheBigChillPod https://www.instagram.com/big_chill_podcast/

Well, to add to the PR effort from Rudy, we finally had him on the podcast. Tried to push on some topics, but also have to remain cordial and understanding during an interview. I'll do a separate post on the topic I think, but here's the link to the episode.

Very frustrating. Shouldn't have been hard to pick up 5/6 points from 5 matches. Had we done that, we'd be right in with a chance.

He was never great here and only showed flashes of ability and had limited fitness and availability, but he at least offered the possibility of potential. Do I miss him? No. But all of the replacements are an undeniable downgrade on the possibility of the team improving or overperforming. Sigurdsson at least offered the hope that we might have signed a bit of a gem. I'd take that now.

I mean, he just wouldn't. I could count on one hand the number of managers that would have lost their job within a similar time frame. Let's direct our criticism at the right people and focus it on the areas where we can actually show what a joke this club is at the moment.

That just isn't true. The club is a mess, but 'normal' clubs don't sack new managers after a handful of games. Let's not say dumb things that make it easy to paint us as dumb supporters.

We have to be real and say that any new owner would likely need to know that they're signing up for 20-40 million a year. Yes, they can improve the overall financial performance of the club by re-engaging with supporters, but, in order to do so, they need to spend more on and off the field.

I said I knew a group who were interested. Middle Eastern, not Qataris. At the time, the owners had zero interest in selling. Probably spoke too soon on that one and underestimated the challenge of convincing the owners to sell (it was an immediate no and even felt like a blank cheque would have been rebuffed). Things might be a little different now. Will they sell? Still unclear. But, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that interested groups are making serious enquiries.