Feedthewolf

Oh yeah I've got him on ignore too, I just saw the topic title on the main board and couldn't resist. Haven't even read the post.

Perhaps, then, there's a case for Hanley being 'club captain' and Kenny or someone else taking on the role of 'team captain'. I think Russell Martin was 'club captain' for a while, if memory serves?

Two yellows always results in a one-match ban (plus one match for any previous reds that season). Also, the panel does not allow for retrospective action against a player to be instigated upon review – which is a shame, because there is definitely a case for Howson receiving a red card for serious foul play.

Unless we sign a new player with specific captain qualities, I'd stick with Hanley. As someone said yesterday (possibly Hoggy?), all of Farke, Smith and Wagner have praised Hanley's leadership qualities and importance in and around the dressing room. If we did decide to shake it up, Kenny is the obvious candidate – he plays every minute of every match and never hides. Always struck me as odd that Kenny got stick for 'pointing' – he's clearly trusted by his fellow pros to help implement the manager's instructions on the pitch, so he'd be a natural successor if Hanley leaves the club, steps down from the captaincy or is removed from the role.

The difference is that in 2024 we have to put up with your interminable bleating about everything.

Yup. Then went to live with his aunt and uncle in Batley, if I remember correctly.

Binner

We've both scored and conceded more than most teams, so it follows that there would be more 'swings' in games involving us.

Look at us, being all civil about our differences of opinion. It's totally unacceptable.

@rock bus be like:

You have watched short videos of him and leapt to conclusions based on confirmation bias. 'Everyone else around him', i.e. the people who matter, get a much richer and more informed view of his behaviours. You may be spot-on in your analysis, or you may be completely wide of the mark. In all likelihood, it's probably somewhere in between the two. Anyway, I'm happy to agree to disagree here, as neither of us benefit from getting into a semantic tít-for-tat.

In broad terms I agree with this, but you're using an extremely limited snapshot of his behaviour and extrapolating upon that to make a confirmation-biased judgement on his suitability as a captain of a football team.

You can't seriously consider short-form, club-produced player intro videos as being enough evidence to make judgements like that? As club captain, I'd imagine he's responsible for meeting new players and helping them integrate with the dressing room, and that process is hardly going to happen in front of the cameras. This is all conjecture based on very limited evidence.

That's going to need some extensive and tangible justification, please.

Okay, fair enough – I withdraw my accusation of 'reactionary' We're not going to sign Ruben Dias any time soon. At this level, all players have more pronounced weaknesses that can be exploited; Hanley is definitely more in the mould of the 'row Z stopper' than the 'ball-playing CB', but for a big lad he's always been very quick and mobile. I think he's definitely helped by having his international teammate Kenny playing alongside him at the back, as Kenny can do more of the distribution while he goes for the high balls and does the simple stuff. Obviously if we did somehow sneak promotion I wouldn't want Grant and Kenny at CB in the Prem, but at this level I think they actually make a really good pairing. I'd be looking to offload Batth, Gibson and Duffy in the summer, then sign a young left-footed CB to play understudy to Kenny, and choose the best of the out-on-loan right-footed CBs (Hills, Warner, Tomkinson, Adegboyega) to join the first-team squad.

Ya reckon? Sh*thousery is part and parcel of the game. Everyone does it. We loved Grant Holt for it, because he was one of us. Football is all about marginal gains and dark arts, whether you like them or not. I genuinely bear Howson no ill will for this.

No way was Ayling's tackle worse than Howson's. Ayling should have got a yellow, and Howson a red.

No, you've just made that up. He was born and raised in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Yep, true. It does happen, just not very often.

If he doesn't have the good grace to admit that he's made a misjudgement here, I'll be really surprised.

It's very hard to get them overturned as they'll always side with the refs where possible, but I agree that it'd be disgraceful if they added an extra game to the ban.

I don't think you can book him for drawing attention to the fact that Sainz has made contact with him. Only he will know how much contact there was and how much it hurt, but anyone who thinks a Norwich player wouldn't do the same thing if the boot were on the other foot is kidding themself. More to the point, though, he shouldn't have been booked for his reactions because he should already have been shown a red card for the initial tackle.

There's definitely raw potential there, but he's not a kid any more, he's 23 now. While he has made some valuable contributions both defensively and offensively, one of my lasting and recurring images of McCallum is getting caught in possession and/or isolated up the field, and then jogging back lazily while midfielders accelerate past him. Not a good look, and probably a factor in him not getting starts (and, presumably, not being offered a new contract).

Well hopefully @SouthwellC has taken note of my rant last night and given @JUBWICKS75 the boot back to binland.

I think that's reactionary nonsense. He's come back extremely strongly from a potentially career-ending injury, and has been playing really well since he came back – coinciding with an excellent run of form in which we'd lost one in 10 (Sargent obviously a big factor in that too, though). He had a poor game last night, as we collectively melted down after the red card. Deep breaths, on to Saturday.