Though It did burn down in a day.

A lot of lows. Any highs either won’t last long or will be followed y long lows. I don’t expect anything else. I just don’t want too much expected by the manager too soon. FDB lied with his ‘‘evolution, not revolution.’’ I expect Parish to make the danger of that clear to PV this time.

COYP

I think it's going to be a really tough start and we are going to have to hold our nerve in terms of backing the manager. We can't take the brave step of moving in a new direction and then resorting to Allardyce/Warnock when it stumbles.

16th will be success. I think we'll get higher, but given the gamble, being able to play in the Premier League in 22/23 will be a success, regardless of whether we are 11th or 17th.

No Eze, question marks over fitness of Olise, a new defence, a new manager, a new coaching staff... There is so much work to do.

We could take a few pastings.

But over the next 18 months, if we can survive, we will start to progress.

I feel we have been hamstrung by some heavy contracts over the last few years, and it's unfair to blame Hodgson for a squad creeping into decline given that we were unable to invest in fresh players. It's only now becoming evident how much some of this squad held us back. I was delighted when we signed Meier, Benteke, and Sakho, but it turns out there wasn't really much value there.

A lot of clubs are re-evaluating their spending, we are fortunate that we shifted a lot of our big earners. Sakho and Meier both could have been great, but they weren't, and cost us £200k a week for years. Now we have room to manoeuvre with only Wilf on real big money.

When you're panicking over your own squad, it's always worth a quick look here to see who's doing what:

[Link]

Everton, Newcastle and Chelsea strike me as clubs who have spent their money (although Chelsea have brought in a lot of cash this summer). Burnley haven't bought anyone of any significance for at least 2 years - not sure how long they can keep up in the way that they do. Even Liverpool have just the one signing, and reports are their inability to offload reserves is limiting their recruitment.

Perhaps clubs are waiting for the market to drive itself down, but I suspect most clubs are just skint. We are fortunate that so many contracts ended when they did given the global climate. It freed some cash, and allowed us redefine the squad pay hierarchy in one go. How many clubs are stuck with players on Ozil/Sanchez-type contracts that they just cannot get rid of?

Pant wetter brigade in full flow by Christmas. If PV survives that then we'll pull out of the bottom and finish 15th.

Back to the roller coaster after the stability of Roy.

I haven't been so excited about a season since Frank de Boer took over