Tombo

I think if we get the takeover done soon and we bring in a whole host of new players, we need to prepare to have some massive flops. Not because I don't trust Rooney to recruit, but just because that's what signing players is like. Win some, lose some.

By the same token, we should see some real quality bargains come in. But prepare yourself for some legendary dross

I agree that the North West corner is absolutely horrendous but that is so far away from our issues at the moment I won't be giving it another thought for many many years

17 minutes ago, Ewe Ram said:

Nobody is more surprised than me at how much I love this bloke. When he arrived I was not impressed by the Rooney circus, but how he’s proved me wrong! 

Yep, I got him totally wrong and I'll admit that. He has serious character and commitment. He will be a top manager with those attributes

I hope he presses restart when he meant to press shut down so he has to wait for his laptop to reboot again to switch it off properly.

I hope he catches every door handle he meets on the belt loops of his jeans.

I hope every pair of boxers he ever wears become itchy and never fully feel like they're supporting his nads in a comfortable way.

I hope his fridge hums all night and keeps him up.

I hope he wakes up at 3am for a pee and then can't drop back off

I hope he miscounts his stairs in the dark and thinks there's another step but there isn't so he does that really heavy step on a flat floor and feels silly

I hope he pegs his laundry out and leaves the house for the day, only to come home to find all his clothes have been rained on

Just minor stuff. Petty revenge, nothing sinister or horrible.

Championship and League One are similar in this sense, very difficult to get promoted out of, but relegated sides from divisions upwards usually do quite well. The quality just isn't there and while every game is a scrap, if you've got the players you'll just breeze it. Look at Fulham as an example for this league. Look at Rotherham as an example in League One.

It will depend on what players we can get in/retain but I'm certainly confident Rooney will prepare them for some scrappy games.

There's players on the books at present who would be absolutely devastating a league down. Cashin would be an absolute monster. Nobody in League One can move the ball like Liam Thompson can. Ebiowei? Forget about any League One defenders stopping him. What are our chances of getting Plange back on loan and making him our first choice striker. League One top scorer right there. Allsop far and away the best keeper in League One??

Max Bird is one of the few contracted past this season. As long as he's not looking at jumping ship, which I'm not sure he would right now, he would be incredible. Plenty more examples, I could go on and on.

Fact is, it's not a guaranteed thing that we'll bounce back up but if we can retain some of these guys we're a very strong side indeed. Keep in mind that we've been relegated due to deductions, not on the field performances. I think you could take the team in 17th in most Championship seasons and put them in League One and reasonably expect them to come back up.

We've racked up 13 wins this season. You can expect us to be in the promotion race. I'll make a judgement on what I expect once I see the squad in August but let's be ambitious. I know we want to not pile on the pressure or expect too much of a club in rebuild, but we asked for a miracle this season and it brought out some incredible performances. We'd have been perfectly within our rights after a 21 point deduction to just "be realistic" and start preparing for League One, but we didn't. And what followed was a strangely enjoyable, if ultimately unsuccessful, rollercoaster ride of a season. One I will remember and treasure forever.

So in short - sod all that realistic expectations stuff, we're going straight back up. Believing is half the battle

You won EFL. Enjoy the Championship without us. I hope it makes you very happy.

Dear lord what a sad little life.

You ruined our season completely just because you wanted to relegate us. I hope you now spend next season getting some lessons in grace and decorum because you have all the grace of a reversing dump truck with no tyres on.

Take your league and leave us alone now.

41 minutes ago, Ramrob said:

Never trust a highlights reel ?

In all seriousness – he likes a long range loop over the keeper! Purely going off Wiki, looks like his first really good season at 28, but maybe he's a late bloomer? A la Ricky Lambert. 

Be nice just to sign a player on a proper contract. Although can't knock anyone this season and hope we can keep hold of the majority?. 

Not a great example, Lambert was scoring double figures in every league he was in for over a decade!

2 minutes ago, StrawHillRam said:

Is that efl saying IF CK could pay 35p then no points docked or is it CK saying he could pay 35p (if his arm was twisted)?

I'm not sure I understand your distinction but from the meeting with the EFL today it seems that paying 35p on the pound is a realistic option that both sides are open to

I've got a moral conscience all the same but let's not go back to this self-sabotage stuff. I'm pretty sure you lot want us liquidated.

He's far from the worst person to own a football club in this country. Come back when he's funding nazi movements in other countries, money laundering on a humongous scale, murdering journalists, or beheading citizens. Or God forbid ruining peoples lives by having outrageous working conditions in Shirebrook. Low bar I know but that's the field we're playing in.

I'll take the guy who sent some dumb tweets a decade ago and is now disavowing them.

1 hour ago, i-Ram said:

Your response made me smile Tombo. Not seen the image before. Not sure that was what caused the reaction though; I think it was more likely the fact that after giving it large, you have absolutely nothing to back it up. 

1. Wasn't giving it large at all. Not sure what you really mean by that

2. I genuinely didn't read your wall of text, and still haven't

3. I don't owe you anything, not least a response to what was probably a load of pompous, arrogant and smug drivel. Like I said I didn't read it but I'm familiar with your work

1 hour ago, i-Ram said:

Tombo. Two reasonable questions to ask of you.

1) How might you get Mike Ashley or any PB for that matter to pay say £50m for something they only value at say £35m.

2) How might you persuade Mel Morris to sell the Stadium to the new owner for say £5m rather than the £20m+ he is allegedly holding out for?

If you can give me satisfactory answers to those questions, I too will lose some faith in Quantuma too. But for now, I still think Q are in an impossible position because of Morris. No one willing to pay anything much more than £30/35m, and wanting the stadium included for that, and Morris not budging for whatever his reasons are. I don't like speculation. but I think his reasons are that he doesnt want either Ashley or Appleby Group paying what he thinks at an undervalue (doing him over if you like). Morris will take this to the wall imo, and I have always thought that. Ultimately though, and I am not sure when, I think he will give, because otherwise liquidation will all be on his head (not Quantuma).

Once again repeating this "threats of violence" myth. This is getting uglier by the day. No longer have any faith in Quantuma

Any reason we're talking about liquidation and League Two and such? Aside from the obvious lack of updates or news or even hope for that matter?

Basically, have I missed something??

Keep seeing people mention that buying a football club is a complicated transaction, which is fair.

However, it isn't that complicated. I mean it's been pretty clear for a while what it will take and how deep their pockets will have to be. Right now, it's clear none of our potential bidders are happy with that cost.

It will take a significant amount of time even when the PB is announced. We're not going to have new ownership properly in place until the second half of 2022, if at all

1 minute ago, Patrick Rams said:

And that's the one thing I have got against Rooney...he's been asked about it in interviews and basically said we carry on playing that way.Why god only knows....I think we've scored about one goal playing from the back...and conceded about 15...plus countless other times when we have just got away with it.Madness!

That's not particularly true. Playing out from the back draws them into a tight press, which we have wide runners ready to receive to beat the press in our own half.

A lot of you would have us believe that there's two types of football. There's "hoofball", and "tippy-tappy from the back". If that's how you simplify things, I can't explain how naive you are being

We've done extremely poorly to throw this away but let's not pretend at half time we'd have been happy for us to make defensive subs and try and sit on one goal. Not only would it not have worked, it wouldn't have been popular

Be critical when we deserve it but be fair and be consistent ffs

Just now, Edtheram said:

Drag Knight and Eboweli off get Kaz on win or bust now - 30 mins to save our season. Rooneys done well but his inability to pick a good team away from home baffles me 

Sorry, couldn't disagree more. The team selection was excellent, it worked and we had a fantastic first half. We thought we'd won it and lost our focus and desire. We forgot what we knew 45 minutes prior, that this was going to take every bit of energy we have to get 3 points. Foot came off the gas

I do not believe this. The very antithesis of everything we've been about this season.

Its "we'll fight to the end", not "we'll get a goal, cruise for a bit, allow pressure and stand still in the box and challenge for nothing".

Nothing like us this. I know it feels like "typical Derby" but this is nothing like us

Such a poor one to concede. Not tracking the movement

Don't be upset because Lawrence didn't score, be happy that we have played so well

Definitely should be two up though. Think it could be a dangerous second half, we will need to look for that second goal and not try to soak up

35 minutes ago, Alty_Ram said:

Have we even paid for Jozwiak yet ? I doubt it.

Doesn't really matter. 1m saved or 1m in the bank makes no difference at this point

Our financial situation is a million quid+ lighter, that's all that matters

11 games, probably need to win at least half of those if not more. Even 5 wins and 6 draws would mean 41 points. Reading would have to take about 1 point per game for the final 11 to make it happen. It's more like 6 or 7 wins we need

Unfortunately I think we can only guess. But the best guess I've heard is that Mel "bought" the stadium from the club for £80m but the club already owed him significantly more in his loans over the years. So actually, we still owe him some money (which he has agreed to waive) but he has a stadium to soften the blow. Basically we offset the £80m against what we already owed him, so there was no extra cash flow for the club, just a debt written off in exchange for the stadium.

Unfortunately for him, he actually took out a loan guaranteed against the stadium which he is yet to pay back. He will pay this back once someone buys the stadium off him.

This is why he won't accept any less than the asking price from potential buyers.

...I think...

I might be wrong but I wouldn't stay up for any news. They'd do it in the morning and face the press all day rather than announce 10pm tonight.

Get your heads down, long day tomorrow

14 minutes ago, Eddie said:

If we were a sheepdog, we are half-blind, incontinent and the farmer would be considering taking us behind the barn to give us both barrels.

And you're only saying that because you're so fond of us