thebigfeller

This. It's absurd. The original looks WAY more modern, weird lion excepted. The new one looks like something a 6-year-old could design on Paint. And in the original, the Canary is cute, happy, relaxed, merrily chirping away. In the new one, it's serious and bordering on angry. It's bizarre!

Both these teams are far too attacking. We've had such a huge list of creative and attacking midfielders and forwards throughout our modern history, but far fewer central defenders and especially defensive midfielders (I genuinely considered Safri for the second team, just to give it some balance!) - but that fits with the club's ethos, so hey ho. I even considered Steen Nedergaard instead of Aarons, just because the latter is so good offensively, so questionable defensively. These teams both date from the mid-80s onwards. I just don't know enough about the players before that time to include them, so apologies to the likes of Ashman, Peters, Keelan, Stringer, MacDougall, Fashanu etc. All time First XI GK Robert GREEN RB Ian CULVERHOUSE CB Steve BRUCE CB Dave WATSON LB Mark BOWEN DM Jeremy GOSS CM Ian CROOK AM Wesley HOOLAHAN RW/F Ruel FOX LW/AM/F Emiliano BUENDIA CF Chris SUTTON Manager: Mike WALKER All time Second XI GK Bryan GUNN RB Maximillian AARONS CB Jon NEWSOME CB Craig FLEMING LB Adam DRURY CM Andy TOWNSEND AM/F Darren HUCKERBY RW Dale GORDON LW Darren EADIE F Craig BELLAMY CF Dean ASHTON Manager: Dave STRINGER Oh, and my favourite ever? 3rd Gordon 2nd Robins (who I've not even included in either team!)... and 1st, the one and only Ian Culverhouse. Years and years ahead of his time, and a fantastic sweeper as well as right back or wing back. Probably the brains behind our rise through the divisions under Lambert too.

Pressing. Total commitment. Controlled passion. Real belief. A manager who's fit straight in and made a decisive change which transformed the match. Crowd roaring the team on. Quality, but also BALANCE: no passing out from the back for its own sake, we mixed it up but remained true to ourselves. Delia and Michael in the stands watching on and beaming. Having shown the immense humility to keep right out of the way of running the football side of the club, they've continued to protect and nurture it in a way so many owners have not. Pukki suddenly looking really sharp. Sargent absolutely astonishing. Rashica coming onto a game. Normann providing the toughness we desperately need. Gilmour looking like a gem who can only get better. Krul cajoling and leading. Hanley never-say-die. Deano emanating calm and equanimity from the sideline. Squeezing the opponents from side to side near the end; nobody racing out and panicking. A set piece goal! A comeback from behind! A home win! And yes, it's only one win - swallows, summers and all that - but cor blimey, that was encouraging. I'm not worried about other sides down the bottom now; I'm focused on us. Show that level of teamplay, that sort of commitment, that kind of response to in-game adversity, and we can absolutely do this. Does anyone on here truly believe we can't? It felt like we belonged yesterday. Truly belonged in the world's best, wealthiest league. And I'll tell you: if we pull this off, all the brickbats we had from the national media will turn into bouquets. We'd become a true model club in its eyes given the football we play, enlightened openness we show as a club, and our self-funding approach at a time clubs in the Championship and further down are falling apart completely. We've made such a superb decision. It feels seamless and completely right. And that precious symbiosis between the team and the fans was there for all to see. It drove us on; it helped us win those priceless three points. And there's so, so much it can do if we're all together as one. What we do as a football club is so difficult in this day and age, so against the odds. But maybe the recruitment wasn't wrong. Maybe we are good enough, under the right manager, to stay up, build and prosper. So no: we've not 'sold our soul'. We've not suddenly turned into 'ruthless bastards'. We've given ourselves a chance; a very real one. And there is all the hope in the world that we can seize it. OTBC

Norway are to exciting football what King Herod was to child welfare.

I think he's on a dial-up connection 😀

Watch with Mother would do for me. Flobadob. Flobadobadobadob. WEEEEDDDD!

Don't agree. I got the references immediately and I'm a Luddite par extraordinaire.

We're bloody incredible in promotion chases. We've not failed in one since 2002 and that was the only time we'd failed in one since 1959! We're absolutely shocking at relegation battles. 2013 barely counts given we'd been 7th before Xmas - and if you exclude it, that only leaves 1992 (which was like 1995, only the slide started later, thank heavens), 1988 (an extraordinary turnaround, and the straw I'm clutching at this season), and the legendary 1973. Of course, there have been a decent number of borderline relegation battles in the second tier. With 2008 our most remarkable escape really. 2001 was very creditable too.

I know. And he was right!

Yes. Not least because we can't afford them now. We'll need two or three unexpected bonus wins from somewhere. I wonder if, for example, Smith could win twice at Old Trafford in the same season?! That's the sort of huge boost we'll need if we're to get out of this.

I refer the OP to the apocryphal words of Zhou Enlai, who was reported (probably wrongly!) to have been asked the following sometime in the early 1970s. Q: What do you think about the French Revolution? A: It's too soon to tell.

I agree - but with the caveat that Smith's best work at Villa was during lockdown. When they returned, he'd earmarked particular games as 'must win' or 'must not lose' too!

This. I've never heard anyone do that either. I thought it was fabulous that he mentioned that. And here's the thing: he'll know an absolute ton about us during that time because, of course, Villa were one of our two title rivals! I took it as just another sign of what an ideal fit he is for our club - and if he succeeds, it's fantastic that the Boys of '93 would've played a part in it in a roundabout sort of way. He looks hungry, raring to go, and clearly wants to be straight back in football: with a major point to prove. By contrast, I'm not sure Farke would even be human if he hadn't lost faith and belief during such an interminably appalling run. But that always spreads to the dressing room too. Him probably not believing fully in the new acquisitions is ultimately what sealed his fate; Smith clearly does believe in them, especially as he's been very interested in Cantwell and tried to sign Rashica. The perfect fit, as I say. I am so happy with this decision; I think we're in for some hugely exciting times ahead.

Very good question. All those polls insisting that working class people now mostly vote Tory are laughably out of date in how they define 'working class'. Whereby homeowners or those with a mortgage but without university education are treated as 'working class'... and young people in 50K plus of student debt on poverty wages and with no hope of ever owning a home or obtaining a mortgage are, apparently, 'middle class'. 😐 Assets, not income, is the real dividing line nowadays. UK politics still somehow hasn't caught up with that. But capitalism cannot work without access to capital; most people under 40 (even, under 50) don't have it.

"Those mining communities had good working class values and a sense of family values. The men did real men's heavy work going down the pit. There were also some very close-knit communities which were able to deal with the few troublesome kids. If they had any problems they would take the kid round the back and give them a good clip round the ear and that would be the end of that. Many of these communities were completely devastated, with people out of work turning to drugs and no real man's work because all the jobs had gone. There is no doubt that this led to a breakdown in these communities with families breaking up and youths going out of control. The scale of the closures went too far". - Norman Tebbit But y'know, as it appears not to have affected YOU, who cares eh? 🙄