areNOTwhatTHEYseem

Eh? How did you reach that interpretation based on what he said!? Tom was in to start. In the preparation, within the first few minutes he said he felt his hamstring was a bit tight and we had to do a reshuffle. Where has he suggested that he doesn't believe Lees was injured?

In what way did Monk 'throw Lees under the bus' on Wednesday?

That's really good to hear. I'll clearly have to check out The Star website again, then! I'll be honest - I gave up on it a few years ago once the ads and pop-ups became unbearable - it used to crash my iPad! It sounds like you're making great strides in improving the content, which is inevitably what will pull people back in once word gets around.

As much as interviews and articles with the current manager and playing squad are obviously going to be your everyday bread and butter, I wonder whether there's scope to include regular interviews with past players and coaches, both well-known and not so well-known, whose stories we don't always get to hear? You often find that those whose connections to the club are long since past are more willing to offer up interesting tidbits and stories than those still around the club, for obvious reasons.

Because he's had time to take stock and reflect over the enforced break, perhaps? Don't forget, Monk was parachuted in with the season already underway and had less than 5 days on average between each game up until the lockdown started. Things were going well up to the halfway point, at which point the games started coming even more thick and fast, leaving very little time for sweeping changes to try to arrest our slide. If he's used the down time to take stock and reflect on how to do things better going forward, surely that's a good thing?

Well that's fair enough. The stuff about wanting him to celebrate scoring against us to make some kind of point to Monk, though...not so much.

This is up there with some of Baldrick's cunning plans!

You seem more bitter about this than Hutchinson himself!

I thought Monk's post-match interview with Radio Sheffield was an interesting listen, particularly when he alluded to how he used the lockdown period to reflect on how he wants us to play going forward: I made a decision in the lockdown...I wanted to be brave with my decision and I wanted the players to be brave. Because of the results, I could've easily just set the team up to be very hard to beat and try to grind results that way, but I wanted to be brave and I want us to have a little bit of a glimpse of what I want it to be moving forward. I want us to be brave and play attacking football and try and be on that front foot. Over the course of the three games, I think we've seen a lot of it. Arriving in their final third, of course we need to get better at that, but that will come with time and work. But I think overall in the short space of time we've worked on this way of playing and what I want the club to move forward to, I think they've done exceptionally well with it. That's the way I want the club to go and the football we're going to try and play. It was a decision I made in the lockdown. Nobody needs telling that after a very promising first half of the season, our form post-Christmas has been appalling, and it's perfectly understandable that many have doubts about Monk as a result of that. However, if, as he says, Monk has used the lockdown to reflect on things and wants to change the brand of football we play going forward, then I for one am happy to see him given that chance. It's worth remembering that at 41 Monk is still very young in managerial terms, and although he's managed a fair number of games - he's already taken charge of 160 Championship games and nearly 70 Premier League games - it may well be that his managerial style is still open to significant change, improvement and reinvention. A large factor in my willingness to give him time is that we don't yet know what a Monk project might look like, to be honest: the closest he's come to building anything long-term was in his first post at Swansea, where he kept them up after initially taking over, then guided them to 8th place in the Premier League during his only full season there. The following season, he was sacked with Swansea sat 15th in the Premier League. Since then, some harsh sackings and perhaps the odd poor decision of his own have conspired to rob him of the chance to build anything which could reasonably be called a 'project'. Walking out on Leeds after turning them from habitual mid-table also-rans into playoff contenders meant that we didn't get a chance to see how he might have kicked on there; Middlesbrough sacked him after half a season when they sat three points off the playoff places; and then Birmingham got rid after his first full season saw him overcome their nine-point deduction and guide them to mid-table safety. He's seen the best and the worst of our squad during his short time at the helm, and will already have an idea of who he can rely on and who needs moving on. Although it's only three games, the early signs of a new togetherness and recognisable style of play are evident, as well. If he really has used the enforced break from football to take stock, reflect and draw up a new plan for how he wants his teams to play the game, then I'm happy for him to be given the chance to get it right with Wednesday without hounding him for every slip he makes along the way.

Winnall's been awful since he got injured and only started six games under Monk - as soon as he could replace him with players he thought might be better, he did. There's nothing unusual there. Hutchinson on the other hand was a first team regular who was suddenly banished to the reserves, which is quite unusual.

Given that between them they managed to score in a grand total of two league games this season, it's not hard to imagine why Monk was quite keen to try someone different alongside Fletcher. Winnall's not looked anything like a Championship forward since his injury, so it's no surprise to see him released, and Rhodes has been brought back in now our options are limited again in the absence of Fletcher...which are both entirely different to Hutchinson's situation.

Bravo, that man! Very good.

Er...right.