Jim Smith

Thought we were good other than the errors for the goals. Our attacking and midfield options are frightening. Mainoo and Toney both huge positives from tonight. The latter now Kane replacement if he gets injured. the worry remains the defence. They all have errors in them. We may have to just accept that and back ourselves to out score sides.

Sorry but I can’t agree. I do have a degree of sympathy for what Lakey is arguing. I can see what Webber was trying to get at in terms of football having the beneficial effect of giving some kids (whatever their race) from underprivileged urban areas a focus, a route to a career and it keeping them off the streets where they might otherwise fall into the wrong company . albeit he did it in a way that was clumsy at best and yes did up being racist, albeit possibly unconscious bias type racism rather than anything with intent. In my view the absence of intent when people say things is important in terms of culpability albeit it doesn’t mean it’s not a racist comment or removes culpability entirely. However you seem to be saying that he made these comments and they weren’t racist because he knew the specific players backgrounds or characters which is possibly even more offensive to them and their families and doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny based on what we know about several of them?

I agree re Knapper and Webber. I do think Knapper could have said something publically earlier during our bad spell but in the end he was saved/perhaps fortunate that our upturn saved the day. At board/executive level I do think there is a vacuum in terms of someone being the public face of the club which has probably not been filled since Kensell left. I still think we could do with a chairman or someone of the Munby ilk. It doesn’t seem to be Zoe’s natural style.

I’m not sure how active his charity really is yet. There’s not much evidence of activity in its website other than his climb and the podcasts. No mention of any programmes or grants they are running/offering yet. Personally, im surprised more eyebrows were not raised at the time when the two most senior executive employees at the club set up their own foundation, whilst in full time employ of the club and with more or less the same objectives and aspirations as the clubs own charitable foundation of which Zoe is a trustee. He could easily just have raised money through his climb for the CSF but perhaps that doesn’t set up their foundation for the future for them.

She switched back to Webber I think a little while ago. who knows why she did so although a cynic might come up with a few reasons

Not sure that’s really the case. Stuart will know he’s screwed up. He will also know how football and PR works. Absolutely no reason why a suitably worded statement cannot be put out even if its a bit embarrassing for him.

I agree and we obviously can’t blame her for his stupid comments. That said, it’s moments like this that call for leadership (and others in recent times) that beg the question as to whether another executive employee or perhaps chairperson is needed at the club both for corporate governance but also for the public facing elements of the role. Rightly or wrongly I very much get the impression that Zoe is more used to and comfortable operating behind the scenes.

This is what a vacuum of corporate governance gets you. Webber has been handed free rein to do snd say as he likes for years, despite his penchant for saying stupid things. It seems even when working his notice he’s got free rein to give interviews etc. the person who should be overseeing him/keeping the reigns on things is his wife who now effectively needs to slap him down in public to protect the clubs reputation. There is nobody else employed at the club who can do that. This highlights exactly the issue that Delia and Michael scoffed at when asked by Conor at the AGM.

I will say, we know what he’s like and the sort of stuff he comes out with. I also don’t think he’s really, fundamentally racist but I’m not surprised he’s said something stupid like this whilst spouting off about how great he is. The rest of football, however, has probably not heard his previous gems and seems to have held him in high regard. So this will no doubt have come as quite a shock.

Sorry I meant not getting involved leaning on Archant (if they have been doing that). I do think they need to make a statement to distance us from the comments.

I’m not really sure he should be doing interviews whilst working out his notice. It’s equally inappropriate for him to be talking about things like selling Sargent for £20m when he’s still employed by the club and his wife is the senior executive board member

They might start banging on about camels again or something. Maybe let someone else handle it!

I think the club probably would already have said something were it not for the fact that you know who is the chief executive officer

Club really should be distancing itself from his comments. The more this story spreads, the more our name is dragged through the mud by it.

The club should not be getting involved. Or is he still working out his notice?

The OP may well be trolling but there is more than an element of truth in the point he makes in the original post. Webber used the “he was desperate to leave” line to justify a sale the club needed/wanted to make to fund other transfers. And it shows again how harmful our ownership model was to our prem survival prospects. Meanwhile, the slowest takeover in world history limps on.

How has his charity work helped those communities? Has it actually raised any money for anything yet, apart from his mountain climbing?

I do blame us for fixing the fee in advance though. Stupid when it was obvious that he could show his potential there and we could have had a bidding war on our hands. He was looking fitter and sharper in pre season. I thought it was strange they loaned him out just as he was looking like he might finally be ready to make an impact for us.

He’s always been a good player but he’s not a natural holding player, nor is Sara. And that was our problem earlier in the season. Both are best when getting on the ball, being given a bit of freedom to roam and to play incisive passes. Kenny also very good at CB as he can see the whole game in front of him. Nunez and Sainz coming into the side has really improved the form of both Kenny and Sara.

Injuries obviously offer some mitigation for Wagner for the run earlier in the season but they do not excuse it entirely. He should have been able to adapt better to keep us competitive and it also should be remembered that for quite a while he was choosing not to play Sainz and Nunez who are now integral cogs in our new set up. So I will give him some credit for persevering and managing to find a system and shape that now works for us when we have our best players available although it’s also relevant that those players are very good and will have too much for most sides at this level going forward. if there are two cautionary notes they are that spells at QPR and Blackburn plus the Boro game show what happens when we let our intensity drop and do not press and play on the front foot. This side is not good enough defensively to let the intensity drop. Also as good as we were when attacking, I thought there was some really, really poor defensive marking at times v Stoke and a better side might have got back into that game. As ever, complacency our biggest enemy. Let the workrate drop and we will still concede chances.

Stacey is indeed much improved although he had such a dip in the middle of the season I can’t see him as a POTS candidate. He was really, really poor during that spell. Another one who is better attacking than defending which seems to be the way with modern full backs.

I like both of them and they both have different strengths and weaknesses but I’m not unhappy about the prospect of McCallum having a run in the side. I think he gives us added threat with his crossing and aerial ability. I also think there is potentially a really good player there so it will be a shame if we let him go in the summer as I think a bit of decent coaching could see him worth quite a lot of money. we all know his weakness is getting caught up field and being too slow to get back. That can be worked on. I like Dimi also but he has been making quite a few mistakes which have cost us in at least a couple of recent games. Blackburn’s equaliser ultimately flowed from him messing about with the ball and giving it away and I’m not sure quite what he was attempting with Boro’s first goal.

As was always going to be the case if regard was had to what the actual laws say, something that seems beyond most pundits and journalists. good news, doesn’t give us back those three crucial points though as others have mentioned

That is not a sending off offence though as has been explained. I’m not sure there was movement anyway (at least not deliberate movement) but can you honestly say with a straight face that what contact there was involved excessive force or was brutal?

I think the common factor is the intensity of our play. we often play at high intensity but then drop off after going in front, stop pressing and start sitting deeper. We aren’t good enough to do that as our defence is cr*p so we end up making errors and conceding. Similarly we often end up increasing our intensity when chasing the game if the opposition scores or equalises. It’s a bit different when he drops Barnes and plays the extra midfielder as we have a bit more control of midfield but basically this side, set up in his preferred 4-4-2 formation only really works well when we play a high intensity, pressing game and win the ball back up the pitch. As soon as we stop doing that (or when we don’t start doing it) we get into trouble. Even last night we dropped off a bit after we got the goal and had started playing too slowly with some loose passing at the back.