The Humble Club - Abhorrence Of Arabia

[Nut]

27 minutes ago, smhouston said:

Anyone else hoping they were arrogant enough not to put relegation clauses in to players contracts? 

I'm sure they'll have tried but it's whether the players would sign them. Players weren't exactly queuing up to sign for them so they may have had to waive relegation clauses. The way they talk, their players are on league 1 wages anyway so it wont matter. 

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

4 minutes ago, i used to be sc_owl said:

Anyone with an ounce of common sense and knowledge of football knew what was going to happen this season.  

 

They got promoted through hard work, team spirit, some interesting tactics and a healthy dose of luck (which all successful teams have).  This carried them to a great season in the PL as they were an unknown quantity.

 

Second season in the PL they sign a load of players for big money which upsets the team spirit.  After several seasons of running themselves into the ground they come up against teams that now know their tactics and can match, even beat them, for work rate.

 

How can anyone be surprised that they are struggling?

 

Plenty of pundits, ex-pros, football journalists etc. failed to foresee them having a season as bad as this one.

 

I just had a quick look back, and you yourself were talking of them 'stabilising in the Premiership' and 'knocking on the door of Europe' this time last year.

 

I honestly don't remember anybody predicting a season as awful as this one heading their way.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Athelwulf said:

Wilder simply shifts all the blame onto the players these days.

 

That second goal was a free header, but how come there's nobody standing at either goal post?

 

Strikes me he's only now interested in limiting the damage to his dwindling reputation.

 

In one of his interviews, he managed to get it in that Moyes had changed the system as the Blades were doing so well; then all his good work was undone by Norwood's suicidal pass...

 

Whereas as Moyes said they had to try something a bit different due to missing a few players. Also said Antonio could have made the squad but they didn't want to risk him at this stage, basically thought they could cope without him for this game, proved to be correct in his thinking. 

[i used to be sc_owl]

10 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

Plenty of pundits, ex-pros, football journalists etc. failed to foresee them having a season as bad as this one.

 

I just had a quick look back, and you yourself were talking of them 'stabilising in the Premiership' and 'knocking on the door of Europe' this time last year.

 

I honestly don't remember anybody predicting a season as awful as this one heading their way.

 

This time last year was prior to them upsetting the squad balance with some, IMO, poor signings.  

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

Plenty of pundits, ex-pros, football journalists etc. failed to foresee them having a season as bad as this one.

 

I just had a quick look back, and you yourself were talking of them 'stabilising in the Premiership' and 'knocking on the door of Europe' this time last year.

 

I honestly don't remember anybody predicting a season as awful as this one heading their way.

 

I wasn't surprised they weren't relegated last season. It didn't look like the strongest PL in many years and even some of the top clubs were in transition, Chelsea & Arsenal prime examples, making the odd 'surprise' result not that big of a surprise. I could see them having enough to finish anywhere between around 14th and bottom. No way did I see them managing to finish 9th despite only scoring 39 goals.

 

I can't imagine anyone seriously thinking they would get off to the worst start in English top flight history on the back of last season. 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, McRightSide said:

LOL

 

Goebbels would have been embarrassed to airdrop that on 1940s Germany 

 

So many gems, I love this one 

 

“Ramsdale has weathered storms at two top flight clubs”

 

Now let’s see

 

Storm One: ship broke up in high seas and sank

 

Storm Two: Exploded on starting engine and sank in the port

 

Ramsdale was sold by Sheffield United to Bournemouth in January 2017 for a fee of around £1M.

 

In January 2018 Ramsdale went on loan to Chesterfield. In 19 appearances in League Two Ramsdale conceded 33 goals, keeping 2 clean sheets.

 

Having clearly excelled in League Two, then following January he went on loan to Wimbledon in League One. In 22 games he conceded 31 goals. He did however manage a few more clean sheets this time.

 

In 2019-20 he became number 1 at Bournemouth who had established themselves as A PL club. IN 37 appearances he conceded 62 goals as Bournemouth were relegated. In his final 20 appearances of the season he kept 1 clean sheet.

 

This fine record somehow resulted in Sheffield United, the team that sold him for £1M, three seasons ago, now thinking he was worth paying £18.5M for.

 

In 24 league appearances for Sheffield United he has kept 1 clean sheet, against a team that set up to defend and had a man sent off in the first half. 

 

He has had about as much success at 'weathering the storm' as any empty crisp packet. 

[beswetherick]

Be reyt, Egan-y is out injured now so 38 year old Jags will be back in the team to earn his 50k a week or whatever it is he’s on

 

 

[bradowl]

Looks like Egan will be out for a while, I think they could suffer some heavy defeats there league position warrants now. 

[darra]

As discussed on the radio a couple of weeks ago they were a surprise package last season as are a lot of promoted teams. Then they get sussed out as United have and the other teams adapt. Add to that a poor transfer market and the rest is history

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

26 minutes ago, i used to be sc_owl said:

This time last year was prior to them upsetting the squad balance with some, IMO, poor signings.  

 

Last season's big money signings hardly fared much better, either.

 

I just don't buy your notion that 'anyone with an ounce of common sense and knowledge of football knew what was going to happen this season', as many pundits and ex-pros clearly didn't know what was going to happen. 

 

FourFourTwo magazine, Gary Neville and Robbie Savage tipped West Brom, Fulham and Villa for relegation.

Micah Richards went with Crystal Palace, West Brom and Fulham.

Michael Potts in the Radio Times tipped Brighton, Fulham and West Brom to go down.

The Guardian writers' average predicted position for United was 11th.

[Skyline]

Some really angry fans slating Norwood and Lundstrum.

 

Norwood was a wizard, best passer ever and all these PL clubs that sold him once promoted were so stupid for doing so.

 

I'm sure his confidence will e high going into next season.

 

"Lunny" I have no idea how he still plays? Wilder showed Duffy the door as soon as he asked for more money, Lunny is refusing to even sign and still plays every game. 

[i used to be sc_owl]

1 minute ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

Last season's big money signings hardly fared much better, either.

 

I just don't buy your notion that 'anyone with an ounce of common sense and knowledge of football knew what was going to happen this season', as many pundits and ex-pros clearly didn't know what was going to happen. 

 

FourFourTwo magazine, Gary Neville and Robbie Savage tipped West Brom, Fulham and Villa for relegation.

Micah Richards went with Crystal Palace, West Brom and Fulham.

Michael Potts in the Radio Times tipped Brighton, Fulham and West Brom to go down.

The Guardian writers' average predicted position for United was 11th.

 

How much time, and attention, do you reckon those pundits actually paid to their predictions?

 

[The only way is S6]

6 minutes ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

Last season's big money signings hardly fared much better, either.

 

I just don't buy your notion that 'anyone with an ounce of common sense and knowledge of football knew what was going to happen this season', as many pundits and ex-pros clearly didn't know what was going to happen. 

 

FourFourTwo magazine, Gary Neville and Robbie Savage tipped West Brom, Fulham and Villa for relegation.

Micah Richards went with Crystal Palace, West Brom and Fulham.

Michael Potts in the Radio Times tipped Brighton, Fulham and West Brom to go down.

The Guardian writers' average predicted position for United was 11th.

 

I'm reminded of a Viz Top Tip along these lines.

 

 

[punkskaphil]

3 hours ago, McRightSide said:

It's been happening forever - Newcastle in 1996 was a perfect, high profile example. The signing of Asprilla ostracised half of the players responsible for getting them there...I've mentioned on here before but a friend of mine who played in that side was earning less than Asprilla's translator...

 

To be fair, anybody who can translate Geordie into Colombian Spanish deserves a decent wage.

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

Just now, i used to be sc_owl said:

How much time, and attention, do you reckon those pundits actually paid to their predictions?

 

The professional football journalists whose job it is to stay up-to-date and have an extensive knowledge of the game? A fair bit, probably. Why?

 

Let's pretend they dashed them down on the back of a fag packed during a coffee break, though. It doesn't change the fact that a range of people who have at least 'an ounce of common sense and knowledge of football' between them didn't know what was going to happen this season.

[i used to be sc_owl]

1 minute ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

The professional football journalists whose job it is to stay up-to-date and have an extensive knowledge of the game? A fair bit, probably. Why?

 

Let's pretend they dashed them down on the back of a fag packed during a coffee break, though. It doesn't change the fact that a range of people who have at least 'an ounce of common sense and knowledge of football' between them didn't know what was going to happen this season.

 

For some reason, this seems really important to you?  Is it because I used ounces instead of grams?

[areNOTwhatTHEYseem]

16 minutes ago, i used to be sc_owl said:

For some reason, this seems really important to you?  Is it because I used ounces instead of grams?

 

Eh? I'm just questioning the veracity of what you said, as it doesn't ring true to me.

 

Plenty of people who know a fair bit about football didn't see United's implosion coming.

 

For some reason, you keep deflecting rather than just addressing that.

[i used to be sc_owl]

Just now, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

 

Eh? I'm just questioning the veracity of what you said, as it doesn't ring true to me.

 

Plenty of people who know a fair bit about football didn't see United's implosion coming.

 

For some reason, you keep deflecting rather than just addressing that.

 

Plenty of people didn't - that is true.  I would be fairly confident that if I spent enough time trawling through this forum and other sources I could find plenty who did.  I'm just saying if we spent all our time on this sort of exercise, the forum would get very dull, very quickly.  

[SiJ]

Getting a bit tetchy in here.

 

Go and make some memes.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, i used to be sc_owl said:

 

Plenty of people didn't - that is true.  I would be fairly confident that if I spent enough time trawling through this forum and other sources I could find plenty who did.  I'm just saying if we spent all our time on this sort of exercise, the forum would get very dull, very quickly.  

 

Plenty of people thought that they would get off to the worst start in English football history this season and after 24 games would have 3 wins to their name? You'll have to point them out as they will be in the minority compared to those who thought they would crash and burn last season.