Nuwtfly

Remember when you were getting funny with a poster for being needlessly rude in their response to you? The point I’m trying to make is that his recruitment was impressive this season considering the restrictions he had on spending

It’s a thread about how impressive Warne has been - you can say you’re just being the forum fact-checker if you like, but it is pretty obvious why you are doing it

As I said earlier in this thread, the wage bill is probably that high due to the contracts of players not signed by Warne, so I’m not sure it’s fair to use that against him. Think your second sentence is pretty knowingly unfair, too. You know as well as I do that there were still restrictions on spending; restrictions that have now been lifted! I’ll say it again: there are areas that you can rightly criticise Warne on, but this surely isn’t one of them!

I really enjoyed it, too. I’m yet to read an Ishiguro book I haven’t liked!

If you ever get the opportunity to chat to someone who was around the team at the time, ask them what sort of “leader” Keogh was during Nigel Pearson’s time at the club.

I’m not sure - but if that’s all we spent in terms of fees over a season, I can’t understand how anyone can make the case that we are the big spenders of the division And as you said earlier, the argument that we are based on our wage budget doesn’t really hold up either, as a lot of those players whose wages are filling it up were not signed by Warne anyway!

No up front fees for any of these players as I understand it?

All of the money we did have had to go into wages. We literally didn’t spend a fee on a player. We had weird loans and promotions clauses and all kinds of creativity going on. How else could you describe the other than shoe string? We weren’t able to compete with Bolton and Pompey for players - we even got out manoeuvred by Charlton! There are things that Warne can be fairly criticised on but I don’t think managing our budget can be one. Credit where credit is due!

Who has Nixon linked us with today?

Oh come on, we wasn’t able to pay a fee for any players! You can’t tell me we were the big spenders

The football hasn't been too impressive at times, but getting four promotions from League One absolutely is. He's managed to get us up on a shoestring budget with a squad debilitated by injuries. We could have been stuck down in this division for years. I appreciate people have an issue with the football that's been played on the pitch at times - I am one of these - but you cannot tell me that what he's achieved at this less isn't impressive.

All I’ll say is I don’t think he’ll be getting a Happy Retirement card from Nigel Pearson

I would agree with this. Not sure it’s worth it for the price it currently sits at. Also can’t say I would be particularly glad to see the return of Conway, either. Still haven’t forgiven him for that ridiculous Rooney article!

He would get bags of goals in our team, especially if we're going to be a mostly counter-attacking side next season. Suspect Luton will keep him if they go down, though. He is going to score a lot of goals in the Championship.

Yes I certainly found I was reading some books just to read them, rather than for pleasure. But it was a great way to try new things! I'm currently reading A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara) and absolutely loathing it!

Just made an effort to get into bed a lot earlier and read! It was a lot easier than you’d think. Give it a go!

Unfortunately, yes!

The Buried Giant, I think. Though I loved all three of the Cormac McCarthy books. The Three-Body Problem was the best bit of sci-fi (much better than the Netflix adaptation) I'd also highly recommend The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Setting Sun and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle!

I did a 52 book challenge last year. Essentially it was to read a book a week every week. It was an absolutely brilliant way to force yourself to make reading a habit and explore a variety of genres. Here’s the 52: War Horse (Michael Morpurgo) All the Horses of Iceland (Sarah Tolmie) The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu) Storm of Steel (Ernst Jünger) Cosmos (Carl Sagan) Behold the Man (Michael Moorcock) The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima) Coming Up for Air (George Orwell) This Is How You Lose the Time War (Amal El-Mohtar) Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro) The Man Who Fell to Earth (Walter Tevis) Leviathan Wakes (James. S. A. Corey) We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester) Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer) Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein) The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy) Mortal Engines (Stanislaw Lem) Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Harold Schechter) Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) The Shadow of the Torturer (Gene Wolfe) The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro) The Hustler (Walter Tevis) Why I Write (George Orwell) The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang) Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) A Psalm for the Wild Built (Becky Chambers) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) Earthlings (Sayaka Murata) Lapvona (Ottessa Moshfegh) The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones) The Story of Kullervo (J. R. R. Tolkien) All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin) One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami) The City and the Stars (Arthur C. Clarke) The Talented Mr Ripley (Patricia Highsmith) Island (Aldous Huxley) Tokyo Express (Seicho Matsumoto) Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice) The Centauri Device (M. John Harrison) Where the Wild Ladies Are (Matsuda Aoko) Stardust (Neil Gaiman) The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy) Doomsday Clock (Geoff Johns) Blind Owl (Sadeq Hedayat) The Setting Sun (Osamu Dazai) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami) Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)

I went through this quite a bit when Wayne Rooney was manager. I remember saying something critical of him after a win and a poster replied to me with a gif of someone hanging. Unbeknownst to that poster, that was pretty distressing to me. Part of the fun of debating with people on a forum like this is getting to talk to people who don't agree with you. Nobody wants to be in an echo-chamber (or at least I don't). But I have found, particularly post-COVID, people are just ruder to people on here, on Twitter, on the internet, than they used to be. I read a post in this thread, just a few posts back, that made me stop in my tracks and think: why have you reacted to that person's point so rudely? No need. My point being that what you're saying is very much worth saying.

You could well be right! But in fairness I think the moderate “Warne Detractors” were just more concerned with the football being played more than anything else

There's so many you can name where you watch them play for years and think "he's bang average" And then he joins a side, plays under a manager whose system just suits him perfectly, and wow! Whole new player. How many of ours players completely transformed under McClaren? I think Ebou just works here. But, as the pundits said on sportscene last night, Ebou needs to have a controller next to him. Ebou can disrupt the opposition and get us the ball back, but he's going to need someone who can pass the ball and drive forward with it next to him.

I would have said the same about the likes of Sam Morsy, but he's flying high at the top of with Ipswich!

I've made it quite clear that I haven't enjoyed the way we've played this season and I'm not totally sold on Warne being the one. He's proven himself to be, as John Percy described him today, The King of League One. How good he is in the Championship remains to be seen but the evidence we have to go on so far suggests he isn't too great there. With all that being said, he has absolutely 100% earned the right to lead us into this campaign. He's 100% earned the right to sign 8/9 players and shape this squad how he wants it. And he should 100% be given the time to have a decent crack at this division with that squad (so for me that's Christmas). I can't promise I won't be groaning on here if we serve up some of the same football we have this season. But I won't be calling for him to go unless something utterly disastrous happens. And that's from someone who isn't sold on Warne.