Tonights games

[Google Bot 3,329]

Luton 1 up at Anfield.  I'd be happy if I didn't dislike Man City so much!

[daz 72]

1 hour ago, Google Bot said:

Luton 1 up at Anfield.  I'd be happy if I didn't dislike Man City so much!

And now 2 1 down.. 

[ricardo 7,402]

3 minutes ago, daz said:

And now 2 1 down.. 

3-1

[sonyc 5,541]

If folk are interested then Jonathan Tomkinson is on Sky now (EFL cup semi final)...Lee Hendrie did comment that his defending was "outstanding" at one point.

A good chance to see him in action.

[Google Bot 3,329]

Just scrolled down on the BBC site to see who else as playing and there's a team called "Always Ready" who won 6-1 tonight.

What a bizarre name!

[cambridgeshire canary 6,811]

13 minutes ago, Google Bot said:

Just scrolled down on the BBC site to see who else as playing and there's a team called "Always Ready" who won 6-1 tonight.

What a bizarre name!

In the same divison as Club Aurora, Club Blooming and the strongest.. No really

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Aurora

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Blooming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strongest

[yellowrider120 790]

26 minutes ago, sonyc said:

If folk are interested then Jonathan Tomkinson is on Sky now (EFL cup semi final)...Lee Hendrie did comment that his defending was "outstanding" at one point.

A good chance to see him in action.

Oh good - another gem to sell in the summer then! You know the phrase........'Jonathan will be a top player one day but not at this football club'!

[cambridgeshire canary 6,811]

13 minutes ago, yellowrider120 said:

Oh good - another gem to sell in the summer then! You know the phrase........'Jonathan will be a top player one day but not at this football club'!

This fanbase sure is a happy and positive one. "Hey you hear a player we sent out is doing well?"

 

"WE MUST BE ABOUT TO SELL HIM!"

[GenerationA47 761]

25 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

In the same divison as Club Aurora, Club Blooming and the strongest.. No really

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Aurora

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Blooming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strongest

Thank you Wikipedia for enlightening us so uniquely 

“Most of the games of Blooming that more fans is (El Clásico Cruceño), Blooming v Oriente. Which the 2 Clubs win a greta amount of Money.”

[Mr Tea 105]

Glad to see Luton get a kicking. I’ve wanted them down from the minute they went up.

 

[Google Bot 3,329]

The Strongest was founded on 8 April 1908 by a group of 12 students and were originally known as "The Strong Football Club", before later becoming "The Strongest Football Club".

You can only admire such thinking really, love it!

[cambridgeshire canary 6,811]

13 minutes ago, Mr Tea said:

Glad to see Luton get a kicking. I’ve wanted them down from the minute they went up.

 

Any reason?

[Thirsty Lizard 3,183]

1 hour ago, yellowrider120 said:

Oh good - another gem to sell in the summer then! You know the phrase........'Jonathan will be a top player one day but not at this football club'!

Jeezus - would you be happier if we didn't have any playes who might command a good fee if we were to sell them?

[Mr Tea 105]

13 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Any reason?

Pretty much they are the media darlings and how great it is that such a small club can get up and give the prem a go.

Yet those same media people give us such a kicking in that we dont invest , dont give it a go and even when we win the championship the previous season we dont have the right to be in the prem. 

Well hang on, Luton didnt so why have they ? 

 

[Google Bot 3,329]

9 minutes ago, Mr Tea said:

Well hang on, Luton didnt so why have they ? 

Luton have though, they've bought in previously experienced players such as Barkley and Townsend in an attempt to stay up, and also players from the domestic leagues.

We just bring in hopefuls who've never played in this country in the hope that we can turn them into £20-30m money spinners, so you can see why media have such an opinion on us. 

Luton, as seen, are giving it a real go.

[king canary 7,679]

20 hours ago, Mr Tea said:

Pretty much they are the media darlings and how great it is that such a small club can get up and give the prem a go.

Yet those same media people give us such a kicking in that we dont invest , dont give it a go and even when we win the championship the previous season we dont have the right to be in the prem. 

Well hang on, Luton didnt so why have they ? 

 

I think its because Luton are considered a much smaller club than us plus they have given it a better go than we managed.

[Matt Juler 156]

Couple of big games tonight at the top of the table:

Leeds v Leicester
Coventry v Preston

I'd like to see Leeds win.  I don't believe they'll catch Leicester, but I'd rather play Saints than Leeds should we make it in to the playoffs.

As for Coventry vs Preston, anything but a home win.

[Mason 47 1,403]

57 minutes ago, Matt Juler said:

Couple of big games tonight at the top of the table:

Leeds v Leicester
Coventry v Preston

I'd like to see Leeds win.  I don't believe they'll catch Leicester, but I'd rather play Saints than Leeds should we make it in to the playoffs.

As for Coventry vs Preston, anything but a home win.

Definitely prefer a Leeds win. Leicester aren't going to get pulled back in at this point regardless, so more points in the chasing pack means less happy Ipswich fans.

 

[Badger 2,412]

On 22/02/2024 at 11:39, Mr Tea said:

Pretty much they are the media darlings and how great it is that such a small club can get up and give the prem a go.

Yet those same media people give us such a kicking in that we dont invest , dont give it a go and even when we win the championship the previous season we dont have the right to be in the prem. 

Well hang on, Luton didnt so why have they ? 

 

It has been a pretty amazing story. From the old first division to dropping out of the league (with a 30, yes, thirty, point deduction) and now back to the back to the premier league. How could a journalist resist it?

https://www.lutontown.co.uk/club/club-history/

 

Edited February 23 by Badger
Inserted link

[It's Character Forming 1,166]

With Luton it just irritates me a bit that they have this media love-in for them, which we never had the season when we were comfortably mid table in the Prem under Lambert.

 

Luton have made a great signing in Barkley, but that sort of signing looks great when it works out, not so good if it doesn't (cough Gilmour).

[Capt. Pants 4,283]

3 hours ago, Matt Juler said:

Couple of big games tonight at the top of the table:

Leeds v Leicester
Coventry v Preston

I'd like to see Leeds win.  I don't believe they'll catch Leicester, but I'd rather play Saints than Leeds should we make it in to the playoffs.

As for Coventry vs Preston, anything but a home win.

Totally. Just noticed Coventry play next Friday as well, away to WBA. Not always clear whether playing first is better or not, but Leeds and Coventry wins tonight's certainly piles the pressure on the chasing pack.

[Barham Blitz 664]

On 22/02/2024 at 11:39, Mr Tea said:

Pretty much they are the media darlings and how great it is that such a small club can get up and give the prem a go.

Yet those same media people give us such a kicking in that we dont invest , dont give it a go and even when we win the championship the previous season we dont have the right to be in the prem. 

Well hang on, Luton didnt so why have they ? 

 

To be fair, in the early part of the first season back under Farke we got lots of positive media coverage - largely about the way that we played.  Second time, not so much - probably because we were no longer a novelty so not so many clicks and we had gone from plucky little Norwich who nearly went bust to parachute payment Norwich unfairly gaming the championship by not spending their premiership money to stay up.  Plus we were awful.

I don't begrudge Luton their time in the limelight - the media spotlight will move on soon enough one way or another.  They've given it a really good go on a limited budget and have certainly ruffled a few feathers along the way - Barkley in particular has been a revelation.

Edited February 23 by Barham Blitz

[It's Character Forming 1,166]

23 minutes ago, Barham Blitz said:

To be fair, in the early part of the first season back under Farke we got lots of positive media coverage - largely about the way that we played.  Second time, not so much - probably because we were no longer a novelty so not so many clicks and we had gone from plucky little Norwich who nearly went bust to parachute payment Norwich unfairly gaming the championship by not spending their premiership money to stay up.  Plus we were awful.

I don't begrudge Luton their time in the limelight - the media spotlight will move on soon enough one way or another.  They've given it a really good go on a limited budget and have certainly ruffled a few feathers along the way - Barkley in particular has been a revelation.

It's true about the first Farke season. 

Second time, there was a level of indignation among some journalists that we were not able to do better having gone down and straight back up, and to a degree I can understand it although it was also partly from ignorance about the squad changes. 

From our perspective there's the whole "sold our best player thing" (although people are happy to also give Webber a hard time about not selling Cantwell when he could have commanded a much higher transfer fee, so there's a lot of hindsight involved with the criticisms).  But IMO the big failing was that Webber spent a lot of that money on wingers which was always a strange piece of thinking.  Having lost your two key players (Buendia and Skipp) was one thing, but you then need to spend the money on players who could at least potentially replace their contribution, and there's no way I can see that the signings Webber made could ever have done that.

 

So I'm firmly of the view that sacking Farke was a response to failings largely by Webber.  And the decision to replace him with Dean Smith was a disastrous and panicked move, because DS was a totally different type of coach from Farke which therefore destroyed the system Farke had built up, and the fact that DS was not available when Farke was sacked shows it was a panic move.

 

 

[Barham Blitz 664]

2 hours ago, It's Character Forming said:

It's true about the first Farke season. 

Second time, there was a level of indignation among some journalists that we were not able to do better having gone down and straight back up, and to a degree I can understand it although it was also partly from ignorance about the squad changes. 

From our perspective there's the whole "sold our best player thing" (although people are happy to also give Webber a hard time about not selling Cantwell when he could have commanded a much higher transfer fee, so there's a lot of hindsight involved with the criticisms).  But IMO the big failing was that Webber spent a lot of that money on wingers which was always a strange piece of thinking.  Having lost your two key players (Buendia and Skipp) was one thing, but you then need to spend the money on players who could at least potentially replace their contribution, and there's no way I can see that the signings Webber made could ever have done that.

So I'm firmly of the view that sacking Farke was a response to failings largely by Webber.  And the decision to replace him with Dean Smith was a disastrous and panicked move, because DS was a totally different type of coach from Farke which therefore destroyed the system Farke had built up, and the fact that DS was not available when Farke was sacked shows it was a panic move.

I'd agree entirely - and have done at probably tedious length on various other threads - but that's a whole different conversation ... 😉

Edited February 23 by Barham Blitz
grammar init

[Robert N. LiM 4,503]

Part of the reason is that the London/NW meeja class hate going to Norwich. Luton is just a short hop up the M1

[shefcanary 2,465]

Just watched Look North; there was a live item from outside Elland Road interviewing Dirty fans who were expressing their love for Farke. I still find that difficult to accept. 🤣

[Mason 47 1,403]

Luton are being heralded because they are playing the role of 'plucky little poor team' as most who follow the PL expect of promoted sides. They want to see little teams come up and put lots of effort in and struggle heroically to keep up like an underdog should.

Initially under Farke we had a bit of that plus something new, we were intriguing because we were trying to play the big teams at their own game. Until Covid, etc, and we went flat and everyone moved on. Second season, there was an almost barbaric glee that we fail, the silly country bumpkins still thinking they were coming to play actual football against real teams. 

I think there's an element of novelty-seeking to it also. No one really cares about Sheff Utd or Burnley this year, they've been relegated recently much like ourselves. They only want to see new teams struggling.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,811]

Leeds 1 down.

[ricardo 7,402]

Leicester score.

[Capt. Pants 4,283]

They'll be getting excited on TWTD.