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It’s a logical these these big clubs to argue that the seat costs the same irrespective of who was sat in it. I don’t agree with it, but when you’re a club that can sell a 60-80-thousand seater stadiums several times over, every concession ticket is essentially money lost. These clubs no longer...

Not really, that’s an assumption. There are some long shots that you have no chance of saving if they’re powerful and well placed. Cardiff’s shot was well placed at the weekend and Sunderland’s 2nd goal was a great shot. I didn’t expect the GK to save them necessarily.

It would help if you stated that you were going off PSxG. Presumably, PSxG would weight long range shots lower than close range ones so the logic behind my argument holds still. In any case, Collins performed well on the PSxG metric last season his per 90 stat was marginally lower than...

Not necessarily the case. I’m a big fan of these data metrics but I’ll point out examples of how they’re not infallible. Firstly, Collins had a better goals versus xgA than Johansson last season. In fact, Collins was a top 6 or thereabouts keeper last season. By this logic, Collins is good...

He did have a career year but a good goalkeeper will only add so much. Look at Johansson at Stoke, last season he conceded 89 goals and is considered a solid Championship goalkeeper. Structurally, it’s our defence that has always been the problem since Feb. We can’t keep clean sheets and I...

The opposite problem to Wilson in 22/23. If he can get the golden glove and 22 CS in one season, it tells you that your defence is the most important piece in the jigsaw in relation to clean sheets. I’m happy with Collins as 2nd choice, we’ve signed Dovin for a bit of money and he’s young with...

I can’t recall Dovin dropping a clanger personally. We just need to back him like we did with Collins last season and if he’s not up to standard, we know what we need to do in the summer. The shots on target v goals conceded doesn’t tell the whole story because we’re conceding more goals than...

This is catastrophising. We’re not going to have an exodus on that scale and most of the players listed haven’t hit form warranting a move up to the Prem. There’s a lot of players in this ‘deck’ where the individual and team performances have dropped off a cliff. It’s not probable that all...

It’s a bit drastic. Not many neutrals would agree with that view at all. It’s best to go off the assumption the coaching hasn’t been where it’s needed to be. Now there’s a new setup, a bit of time with the players to show that they’re up to the level required. Leadership is the bedrock of any...

Could be a similar situation to Clough and Taylor, right?

If anyone has any programmes dated for October 3rd, any year and I’d be interested in them.

Take all my money!

This is an opinion piece and not factual unless you believe King and Austin to be liars.

The no loans policy has never been a thing. We signed Ayari and Binks last season. Ayari is a class player as evidenced this season, just not for us or Blackburn. Before then, we used loans to fill holes in our squad. Signing players on a permanent is obviously a good thing. This season, no...

What makes their mentality awful? Sunderland more or less have the same team as last season and are fighting for automatic promotion. They were a young team missing leaders and that’s all they’ve added. Meanwhile, our leadership core has been stripped and not replaced at all and its impact is...

You don’t keep scoring late equalisers (or winners) if the players are disinterested or lacking desire. The first half, I felt there were some promising differences, things seemed a bit more zippy and we tried different things. EMC’s goal was a passage of play we’ve rarely seen this season...

I’m not desperate to play down their role. The first thing you change in a football club is the manager when things go wrong. It’s only when you churn through managers like Man U where the issue seems to be the structure rather than the manager. As it happens, people are desperate for Robins...

What of it? The manager had final say on recruitment of staff and players. Which trumps any weird obsession you have about this Dr Roberts. When I hire a person, I have someone from HR with me, they are a part of the process but they don’t outvote me on who to progress.

Pretty sure Robins, Dean Austin and King are on record saying that the manager (Robins, now FL) identify the profile of players they want, Austin gives a shortlist that the manager agrees on for the owner / Austin to negotiate the deal with the club. There’s been no mention of a selection panel.

I disagree, the players are good but lack experience around them. Robins was trying to sign a CM, a CB and RB/LB before the window closed and we were unsuccessful with that. Sunderland’s team is more or less the same as last season but they added experience. Now they’re near the top of the...