West ham V city live

comment by 98 Problems (and promotion ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 17 minutes ago
Where does this view that we’ll have a decent season in the championship come from?

The financial ramifications will be severe. Our wage bill is once again ridiculous for the level we’re at. Rudkin will still be in post. We’ll have no money to spend and are very likely to be under an embargo AND a points deduction or at least one of them
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I put the following observations on another thread which relates to a prediction league run by WolfieinFL, the HC Prediction league:

Hi Wolfie. On realising my lead at the top has been cut to 10 points, I have devised a cunning plan to maximise my point scoring opportunities.
I will use my remaining 8 jokers for Leicester City. It’s pretty foolproof.
Leicester to lose and scoring no goals. How can it possibly fail to reap rewards? Let’s hope my fellow competitors don’t read this!
Incidentally, next season please remember to publish in the Championship section; clearly that’s where we’re going, but only for the one season. The present bunch of charlatans pulling on the shirt will not be good enough to retain a slot in the Championship and I fully expect 2026-27 will see us in League One. The only way we can avoid two consecutive relegations is if the current owners clear off back to Thailand and take the inept Director of Football with them. DofF indeed! He would find it challenging to direct traffic in a one way street!
Poor old Vichai (late, lamented chairman) must be spinning in his grave.
🦊😡

comment by 98 Problems (and promotion ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 12 hours, 59 minutes ago
Where does this view that we’ll have a decent season in the championship come from?

The financial ramifications will be severe. Our wage bill is once again ridiculous for the level we’re at. Rudkin will still be in post. We’ll have no money to spend and are very likely to be under an embargo AND a points deduction or at least one of them
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The increasing gulf in quality between the Championship and Premier League basically. Remember that even under our hopeless DoF we managed to get promoted last season.

We'll lose some players (Mads for sure, hopefully Faes and Soumare), but here's a potential line up for 25/26:

Stolarczyk
Coulibaly Vestergaard Okoli Justin
N'Didi Winks
Fatawu El Khannouss Mavididi
Vardy

Bench includes:
Thomas
Coady
Nelson
Skipp
Ricardo
Daka
(possibly add in whoever we manage to keep from Monga, Alves, Evans)

That ought to be good enough to make a decent fist of it. Even if we get a points deduction I'd still hope that team would be competitive for the playoffs.

We'd need a new backup goalie - I'm assuming that even Rudders isn't as insane as to offer Danny another contract!

You’ve cheered me up Nuneaton!
Personally, I would have Ricardo at RB, Coulibaly at LB, although I’m not opposed to Thomas who I think is an improvement on Kristiansen, who can be sold.
I think it’s likely we will lose Hermansen, Faes, Soumare, Ndidi and hopefully Daka.
There’s also Braybrooke to add to the midfield ranks, plus McAteer and Golding.
Iversen might be a decent backup to Stolarczyk, but I seemed to recall we signed a very bright prospect from Hartlepool - Brad ?
Anyway, thanks Nuneaton!

comment by Nuneaton_fox (U7936)
posted 9 hours, 24 minutes ago
comment by 98 Problems (and promotion ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 12 hours, 59 minutes ago
Where does this view that we’ll have a decent season in the championship come from?

The financial ramifications will be severe. Our wage bill is once again ridiculous for the level we’re at. Rudkin will still be in post. We’ll have no money to spend and are very likely to be under an embargo AND a points deduction or at least one of them
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The increasing gulf in quality between the Championship and Premier League basically. Remember that even under our hopeless DoF we managed to get promoted last season.

We'll lose some players (Mads for sure, hopefully Faes and Soumare), but here's a potential line up for 25/26:

Stolarczyk
Coulibaly Vestergaard Okoli Justin
N'Didi Winks
Fatawu El Khannouss Mavididi
Vardy

Bench includes:
Thomas
Coady
Nelson
Skipp
Ricardo
Daka
(possibly add in whoever we manage to keep from Monga, Alves, Evans)

That ought to be good enough to make a decent fist of it. Even if we get a points deduction I'd still hope that team would be competitive for the playoffs.

We'd need a new backup goalie - I'm assuming that even Rudders isn't as insane as to offer Danny another contract!


----------------------------------------------------------------------
We won’t be keeping El Khanouss and Vardy needs to retire. He wouldn’t even do a job in the championship now, he’s shot.

Winks I imagine will also go. They will all be calling their agents - trust me.

There isn’t a chance we’re getting back up next season - we simply don’t have the players or the manager we had last time

comment by Appletonsthename (U10074)
posted 1 day, 13 hours ago
comment by HEY, WE'RE BACK (U22866)
posted 11 hours, 46 minutes ago
I said before you played us earlier in the season, that you’d never go down and that there were 3 worse teams than you in the league - that was under Cooper - and to be honest you weren’t that great then, but you had more fight and understanding as a team under him even though it was pretty poor to watch (I know cos we had it for 18 months)

However, his sacking and replacement have been nothing but a disaster - not here to gloat, but as some have already mentioned - not sure where the next points are coming from

Another example of the dangers of appointing someone with a name - you may as well employed Rooney

I’m sorry for your fans - like the rest, they deserve better 👍🏼
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No, we actually didn't look like we had more understanding under Cooper. Posters were continually saying, "the players don't seem to know what they are trying to do" under his reign.
His points collection looks more impressive, put 4 points were gained against Southampton and Ipswich way into injury time after they had players sent off.
Cooper also had the luxury of a fully fit squad and worked with them over the summer.

RVN on the other hand hasn't had our best winger, Fatawu available once. Plus he had who was at the time an outstanding keeper Hermansen missing for several games along with Ndidi.
RVN can win games given the players of a level for the league he is working in, as he briefly showed at Man U.
RVN was let down in January, when the money he had been promised, didn't become available.
We were arguably the best team against Man City at home. We held Arsenal reasonably comfortably until 80th minute recently.
It's no coincidence that the three teams going down, just like last season, it's because the Premier League is pulling increasingly away, financially, from the Championship.
I think Ruud can become a decent manager giver the tools, only time will tell. Arteta almost got the sack at Arsenal not long after he was appointed, he's flying now.
I don't think Rooney is fit to lace Ruud's boots !

All stems from the "Top" of the club, poor signings on long lucrative contracts.
Not managing players contracts, allowing contracts to run down, lost millions of pounds these last 3-4 seasons, now we are in massive PSR problems along with a team largely full of mediocre players.
A team that is weaker than the one relegated two seasons ago.

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Sorry don’t agree - but what do I know, I’m not even a Leicester supporter

But what I will say is this

Under Cooper you had played 12 games, had 10 points and were 16th in the League

Since then and under RVN, you’ve played 27 games (that’s 15 more since Cooper left) you have only 17 points and sit 2nd to bottom

Work it out for yourself - I may be wrong, but I do think you were performing better under your previous manager - it wasn’t great, but it was better than what you’re currently doing - just my opinion of course 👍🏼

There’s no doubt for me that we were doing better under Cooper. Does that mean Cooper was the right choice? Absolutely not - his signings and approach are part of the reason we are here - appointing him was the first huge mistake (of many).

What’s clear though is that RVN is so limited and naive as a manager that he can’t in any way work with what he has. While he doesn’t have much - his tactical approach and continued starting line up is ridiculous. It hasn’t worked for weeks and it’s got to the point where it’s killed any confidence the players had

Would we have got relegated under Cooper? Probably. Would we have made a better fist of it than this? Absolutely

comment by 98 Problems (and promotion ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 17 hours, 59 minutes ago
comment by Nuneaton_fox (U7936)
posted 9 hours, 24 minutes ago
comment by 98 Problems (and promotion ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 12 hours, 59 minutes ago
Where does this view that we’ll have a decent season in the championship come from?

The financial ramifications will be severe. Our wage bill is once again ridiculous for the level we’re at. Rudkin will still be in post. We’ll have no money to spend and are very likely to be under an embargo AND a points deduction or at least one of them
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The increasing gulf in quality between the Championship and Premier League basically. Remember that even under our hopeless DoF we managed to get promoted last season.

We'll lose some players (Mads for sure, hopefully Faes and Soumare), but here's a potential line up for 25/26:

Stolarczyk
Coulibaly Vestergaard Okoli Justin
N'Didi Winks
Fatawu El Khannouss Mavididi
Vardy

Bench includes:
Thomas
Coady
Nelson
Skipp
Ricardo
Daka
(possibly add in whoever we manage to keep from Monga, Alves, Evans)

That ought to be good enough to make a decent fist of it. Even if we get a points deduction I'd still hope that team would be competitive for the playoffs.

We'd need a new backup goalie - I'm assuming that even Rudders isn't as insane as to offer Danny another contract!


----------------------------------------------------------------------
We won’t be keeping El Khanouss and Vardy needs to retire. He wouldn’t even do a job in the championship now, he’s shot.

Winks I imagine will also go. They will all be calling their agents - trust me.

There isn’t a chance we’re getting back up next season - we simply don’t have the players or the manager we had last time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You've just dumped BEK, Winks and Vardy in addition to my Mads, Danny, Faes Soumare, Kristiansen - I might be wrong but I just don't see us shedding that many players. I still reckon we'll have a competitive squad and disagree that Vards won't be able to have an impact in the Championship. We'll see.

comment by Nuneaton_fox (U7936)
posted 46 minutes ago
comment by 98 Problems (and promotion ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 17 hours, 59 minutes ago
comment by Nuneaton_fox (U7936)
posted 9 hours, 24 minutes ago
comment by 98 Problems (and promotion ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 12 hours, 59 minutes ago
Where does this view that we’ll have a decent season in the championship come from?

The financial ramifications will be severe. Our wage bill is once again ridiculous for the level we’re at. Rudkin will still be in post. We’ll have no money to spend and are very likely to be under an embargo AND a points deduction or at least one of them
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The increasing gulf in quality between the Championship and Premier League basically. Remember that even under our hopeless DoF we managed to get promoted last season.

We'll lose some players (Mads for sure, hopefully Faes and Soumare), but here's a potential line up for 25/26:

Stolarczyk
Coulibaly Vestergaard Okoli Justin
N'Didi Winks
Fatawu El Khannouss Mavididi
Vardy

Bench includes:
Thomas
Coady
Nelson
Skipp
Ricardo
Daka
(possibly add in whoever we manage to keep from Monga, Alves, Evans)

That ought to be good enough to make a decent fist of it. Even if we get a points deduction I'd still hope that team would be competitive for the playoffs.

We'd need a new backup goalie - I'm assuming that even Rudders isn't as insane as to offer Danny another contract!


----------------------------------------------------------------------
We won’t be keeping El Khanouss and Vardy needs to retire. He wouldn’t even do a job in the championship now, he’s shot.

Winks I imagine will also go. They will all be calling their agents - trust me.

There isn’t a chance we’re getting back up next season - we simply don’t have the players or the manager we had last time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You've just dumped BEK, Winks and Vardy in addition to my Mads, Danny, Faes Soumare, Kristiansen - I might be wrong but I just don't see us shedding that many players. I still reckon we'll have a competitive squad and disagree that Vards won't be able to have an impact in the Championship. We'll see.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The difference between you and I is you think we’ll keep the players we want to - apart from Mads. Winks isn’t going to want to play another season is the championship, Fatawu and BEK are on European clubs radars already. I don’t see the poor players who are on high wages leaving - why would they?

Also if you think a 39 year old striker upfront is a recipe for a competitive go at the championship next season I think you’ll be disappointed

Add in the points deduction and I think it’s mid table

98 - you may prove to be correct, I hope I am instead! I don't see Fatawu going just yet given his injury record. Winks hasn't proved himself at Prem level. I'm hoping we'll keep BEK. We'll just have to disagree about Jamie.

Where there is a lack of disagreement between us is what league we'll be plying our trade in next year

That’s true 😂