The way things have gone for us lately we are lucky to end this season without a relegation battle. We have the Yankee Doodles itching to get all their money out of the club and a shortfall in income due to Covid so I can't see where funds are coming from to rebuild the team. They didn't spend much, if indeed any, of the Wan Bissaka windfall last year so if Wilf goes I wonder how much of that fee would be reinvested? Roy surely can't start the new season without some fresh faces so he may use the club's reticence to spend as a get out rather than he team being on the back of 8 straight defeats by then. Not an ideal way to start a new season but we really don't look like a club that's planning for a future in the Premiership.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt

it indeed seems like that. The only faint silver lining is an upgraded academy that might just produce a 'team of the thirties' long after many of us will be gone beyond this life.

But you also know that what a 72 year old manager with media training thinks, and what he says in a weekly press conference are unlikely to be the same. A cynic would suggest even the opposite.

I suppose whether you take Hodgson’s utterances literally or not depends if you are a fan of his or not .
I’m not a fan so believe his comments that he was happy with the squad at the beginning of the season, and am not prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt if he’s let off the hook if the squad is now supposed not to be good enough.
Those who are fans of his will take a contrary view and give him the benefit of the doubt.
One assumes he’s not that unhappy or he will would not have signed a new deal.

Fella, you crack on with it. Absolutely right to say that a messageboard is pointless without discussions. Carry on! That’s what it’s for. But you’ll forgive me for finding it amusing to hear the analyses endlessly trotted out by folks who’ve never ever done the job themselves, who honestly believe that they can see things the manager can’t and whose opinions are thus merely wind-pissing.

This isn’t aimed at anyone in particular - it’s the same with fans of every club and the absurdity of it makes me chuckle.

I chuckle a lot too. The amount of posters who "know" what is happening in the minds of players, managers, directors, etc, is endlessly amusing.

Then there's the amusing phenomenon of posters latching on to words or phrases. Like sheep, they blindly repeat. The most recent key word is 'turgid'. It is used daily, and by posters who I thought were more educated. None of them even bothered to find the meaning. "That sounds good, I'll use that!"

But hey! No worries, it keeps me chuckling.

Systematically dragged down by the lawmakers