chicken

They missed off keeping opponents physios in work by trampling over their prized defensive assets.

Bradford. Almost twice the population of Norwich. They had an 8 season stretch in the top two tiers peaking with two seasons in the prem in 98-99 and 99-00. Relegation in the last season of the old Division One in 04-05 has seen them bobble around the 3rd and 4th tier ever since. Their highest finish in that time was 5th in League One. In 22/23 they had the highest average attendances in league two with over 18,000. To put that into perspective, only three clubs in League One can boast as good or better attendances this season according to https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/league-one/besucherzahlen/wettbewerb/GB3/saison_id/2023. Even nine teams in the championship are the same or worse. Other than the two seasons in the prem, there really isn't much to write about before that. Until the '85-86 season they'd never been higher than the 3rd tier.

It's not a 'take-over' though... just sayin.

It hasn't taken four years though... especially as there is yet to be a takeover... which is rather the point. May as well say, 'Nice to see someone complete a marathon, the statue of liberty has still not completed one in nearly 140yrs!'

And they only did well in the prem with dodgy checkbook Harry at the helm... Overspent, crashed and burned. Not the fans fault but like Bournemouth, bought their way there in a bit of a shady way.

He's played two seasons at this level for Coventry and QPR... including with us it's 75-80appearances.

Any relation to home/away there? Just Alf? Grumpy old geeza!

This is rather untrue. Idah turned 23 in February. He is still a young player. Sargent turned 24 in the same month, also young. Hugill essentially didn't play for Norwich much since the 2020-21 season. Idah was 18-19 that season. Very young to be suggesting he had been told he would be starting ahead of a seasoned pro. He wasn't getting ahead of Pukki either. And this is exactly why some folks have suggested, myself included, that a loan then could have served him better. However, every season since the 2020-21 season he has made more appearances than Hugill. Both at Norwich and after Hugill left. Sargent is his direct competition, but even Sargent has had to bide his time to play up front. Idah, like Sargent, spent much of the last premier league season, as well as much of last season, as a wide option with Pukki being impossible to dislodge. However, when one of them had the opportunity to start as a forward, the last two head coaches at least, have preferred Sargent there, and his stats are undeniable. Barnes is a different sort of player and is played for different reasons. He plays for us, much in the same way he did for Burnley. Behind the main striker, coming from deep. What he brings is experience, leadership, physicality and almost as importantly, gamesmanship and game management. A head to head with Idah and Barnes is interesting. In all competitions for us, Idah has made 34 appearances, scored 7 goals and created one assist. Barnes has made 37 appearances, has scored 7 goals and created 5 assists. Idah has 1,567 minutes to his name, Barnes has 2,557. I do agree though, Barnes is not a like for like replacement for Sargent, but then are we really arguing that Idah is? A lot of people on here would suggest that Idah is not the same player starting a game Vs the one that comes off the bench. It could be a psychological thing, or it could be something that backs up the rumour that Wagner felt he wasn't applying himself enough in training etc. Hwang made 18 appearances for us in the same time that Idah made those 34. Hwang started 8 times, Idah 14. I would suggest that Idah has been given the opportunity. In fact many said it at the time, the position was his to take with both hands and make it very difficult for Sargent to take back off him. I do agree it is quite possible that this season has impacted upon his desire to find football somewhere else, but I don't think it is for being messed around. It's quite possibly because it just hasn't clicked for him here yet. And at 23, he still has plenty of time, just ask Holt and Pukki.

If the two main rumours/suggestions are true he wanted to go due to a possible falling out with Wagner or lack of playing time or both. Easy to criticise with maybe half the information. VH might still be half decent, but again, a player coming from abroad to hit the ground running in his first 6months is unusual. Which again, may well be why we brought him in now. We may never know all of the reasons, but at the start of the season and over the summer, there were some folks on here very vocal about how they thought he was a donkey that couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from 10yrds. There are always those that will deny that. I suggested he needed a loan to get regular first team footy and ideally starts. Even folks now are still saying he was the best player off the bench in the Champs and not denying he was better coming off the bench. Was he happy with that? Either way, despite his 8 goal involvements in 9 appearances, he's completed 90mins twice. Gone past 60mins a further two times and completed under 45mins for the remaining games, averaging about 25mins. Also, I was right about Sargent, but you know...

He wasn't fully fit barely a week ago, ran his socks off on Saturday too. In fact, people on this very forum were questioning whether he had 90 in him after Saturday. And it was a draw. A draw where bar two set pieces, we played well and Wednesday barely threatened in open play for 85mins+ and even then, only because they got dirty and the ref did nothing.

'The guy from Forest' had an impending court case didn't he? And he was injured.

I don't think it was tombola, but just because people don't know all of the information and we didn't win apparently he's all kinds of wrong and the usual suspects on here all think they are Knapper... or his successor.

Despite the fact that after doing that, we still could have scored a 3rd. Somehow playing Barnes up front alone meant that Sargent wasn't able to stop two goals from set pieces?

We can shift this to being about the whole season if you want, but then you'd have to admit that you've changed the goalposts.

Easy to make 4 subs at half time when you are getting pushed all over the place and barely laying a glove.

Which one? I prefer celebrations to roses personally...

If I am looking at things correctly, the last time Everton were not in the top tier of English football was the 1953-54 season. So should they go down, it will be 70yrs of top flight football as they were promoted at the end of that season. Not only that, "just doing enough to survive"... 00-01: 16th 01-02: 15th 02-03: 7th 03-04: 17th 04-05: 4th 05-06: 11th 06-07: 6th 07-08: 5th 08-09: 5th 09-10: 8th 10-11: 7th 11-12: 7th 12-13: 6th 13-14: 5th 14-15: 11th 15-16: 11th 16-17: 7th 17-18: 8th 18-19: 8th 19-20: 12th 20-21: 10th 21-22: 16th 22-23: 17th Basically, pretty much a top half of the prem, regular top 8 finisher before 19-20 with the biggest drop off being the last couple of seasons. Rather than circling the plughole, they have been well above it really. Quite a down turn. If you look back over the last 70yrs the above isn't that dissimilar a cycle to be fair - won the top tier 4 times in that time too, the last being 86-87 I believe. This represents as close as you will get to a traditionally big team, as in a regular top at finisher or challenger, being relegated for a long, long time. Villa was the last of the never to have been relegated from the premier league teams to fall out of it. And in many ways, they pale in comparison.

One of them has something to do with one of the veterans footy teams I have played against. I believe they have additional needs. Away from footy talk they are quite mild. I think most folks my age or older (lets say 40) will remember them from their time working on the flower stall on the corner of the market. One of them used to be a glass collector at Jumping Jacks, a bar with a dance floor situated where Waterstone's is now, but before they rebuilt that area. It's funny, I am pretty certain they are smiling and laughing and meaning it in jest too.

Felixstowe?

Funny isn't it? The people that say stats and tables can be misleading are suddenly saying how the stats support their point of view.

The club has been nominated for an award for innovation... which will no doubt upset the folks who think the club is badly run.

I think it's worth pointing out that it's just one perception that the arrangement is to check Attanasio out. We're years into this relationship now and you'd think they trust in their judgement. I think the best thing to consider in this is when Fernandez considered buying a stake in us, before doing so with QPR, but went in bigger. People who have not been involved in football before can be hoodwinked. Fernandez admitted relatively recently that he had been ripped off by agents etc and his naivity when it came to football had cost him money and success with QPR. Rather than just 'checking' MA out, they can also help hand-over the lessons they've learnt as well as give MA time to speak to senior club figures and get a feel and understanding of how things work in the EFL etc. Basically, he gets all of the advice Fernandez said he could have done with.

He did change things, Baldy said the subs were wrong. Equally, if you set a team up to play on the break then pass it into their players in our own half... you can't get out of your own half without the ball. You can't surrender space in the hope that the ball will find you. Without the ball, when the opponent is in your half you have to push them back, if you can't, you can't advance.

So you are arguing the 'midtable' bit of 'lower to midtable'. In the prem, thats 20th to maybe 12th. Key word is 'to'. Do I think they are good enough for 8th? No. Better than Luton, Shef Utd, Burnley, yes.

More that we were sloppy in possession giving it away before we'd crossed half way.