StudentOwl

I know that it's a bit harsh to be like "oh he scored loads of goals, but if you take away all the goals I don't want to talk about, he scored very few", so take this with a pinch of salt... but... Of his 8 goals in 31 appearances (not too bad, all things considered), they only fell across 6 games... so straight away you're looking at about one game in every five where he scored. Then look at how many goals he scored in games where it made a difference to the result... I make it two: MK Dons away and Shrewsbury at home. All others he scored in, we won by more than two goals anyway - the only exception being Lincoln City away (loss). So of the six games he scored in, half were games whereby, according to the scoresheet anyway, we won at least semi-comfortably. And that's across a whole season. I said after the Cambridge game that we shouldn't get too excited, because if you look at the trajectory of his career over the last 5/6 years, it's on a downward spiral, and if he finishes the season in league one having only scored a handful of goals - with the highlight being a hattrick against Cambridge United - then it couldn't really be considered the start of a Berahino renaissance. I stand by that. It takes a lot of effort to start turning around a career that's had such negative momentum for so long, and a bang-average season in League One to me doesn't look like someone who has turned that corner. I hope he does, truly, but I can see why we haven't kept him on.

Do we really live in the world where a talented footballer becomes a billionaire on that alone?

2 goals and 3 assists in 1000ish minutes of football. A goal involvement every 200mins. Johnson (who is class at this level btw...) has 2 goals and 7 assists in 3,300 minutes of football, so a goal involvement every 360ish minutes. I have my foibles with NML, he has some flaws, but let's not invent things

Wouldn't have offered one to Wildsmith, unless we're planning on a campaign with Dawson and Wilsmith here as the two goalkeepers? Not sure how I feel about that... unless Dawson has a move lined up? Wildsmith number 2 again? NML is another one where I'm a bit ambivalent. Other than that, it regrettably makes sense. Hope we bring in lots of players in their early 20s. Have to bring the average age of the squad down

How do you know he hasn't been?

Hunt is a great player at this level, but for those lamenting he's (rumoured to be) leaving, it may not be down to the club. It's all well and good saying we should have offered a 12 month deal... but what if we have and he turned it down? What if the wage demand was well beyond a League One wage? Do we bend to his demands or 'stand strong'? He has his cons as well as his pro's... personally I'm tired of seeing us too much money willy nilly. If Hunt stays (and on balance I really do hope he does), it has to be right for the club as well as him. Not just the player.

I appreciate the rules are different, but it's not "just a cold". I had it a couple of months back and was bedridden for two days (last time that happened to me was 1998)... my girlfriend was the following two days after catching it off me. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't dramatic or anything (I even saw the funny side), but if I was meant to be going to training or similar I'd probably miss the best part of a week. Having potentially multiple members of the squad missing a week of pre-season training in July, when the season starts earlier this year, just doesn't seem smart. Again, I can't stress this enough, I think Covid is a lame excuse for not hosting OitP... but I can totally see why the justification given makes some sense.

Probably because it's much easier to give away fouls these days innit. Maybe if you were still allowed to snap people in two there would be an argument to increasing goal size, but as you say if we're going down the route of world class attackers getting breathed on winning a free kick and defenders being much more honed to 'playing football' than indiscriminately hacking and hoofing then no need to change owt I'd say

I think you've completely misunderstood what I said I'm saying that if OitP was hosted next week, it could be argued it would be on as any covid outbreak wouldn't disrupt pre-season training as they're all on summer holidays. Whereas if it's hosted 2 weeks before the opening fixture then any covid outbreak would disrupt the final/key pre-season preparations and training sessions. Not that I'm defending not having it for that reason, but that also seems a logical rationale doesn't it?

Playing Devil's advocate for all those saying but what about the semi-final crowds etc... 1. Am I right in thinking Owls in the park happens a couple of weeks before the start of the new season? General musing that if it was at the start of preseason, and so any outbreak guarantees that everyone is back by the first fixture, it would be on. Far less disruptive if you know that any covid outbreak means players won't be too sick for competitive games. 2. 30k in the stands aren't shaking hands with the players like they would be at Owls in the park. Saying that 30k in the stand is OK and therefore rubbing up against the players is OK is a bit of a false equivalence, isn't it? Still feels like a lame excuse mind, but just trying to apply some logic to the above.

Was it not a penalty shootout? It's a coin flip as to whether they run onto the pitch having lost their sh*t at getting to Wembley, isn't it? Let's not let our dislike for them make our brain cells leak out our ears, in truth there is nothing unreasonable about injured players coming down to the touchline for a penalty shootout. We'd do exactly the same. Can you imagine Sam Hutchinson staying in the stands for a shootout ffs?

13 Championship goals in three years... ffs

I dunno, there are scenarios where it does. E.g., the next Scott Twine becomes available on a free, then Gregory's salary can be used to get that player to us, and then the fee for Gregory gets reinvested in a midfield replacement for Luongo. Don't get me wrong, I would be pretty disheartened if we sold Gregory, but there are ways we can make pretty much any possible transfer out work for us... except maybe a Bannan transfer. Do I trust us to make that sort of savvy move if our hand was forced? No, probably not... but yeah. I'd like to think/hope we can maneuver a little in the market if the opportunity presents itself.

You misspelled "rhetoric"

You must have a real nasty streak about you to go with this