MATCHWATCH : Stoke City (a)

[Snowflake Royal]

Agreed. They must be drinking/smoking something very strong. If they want to go for the culprits they should be targeting the EFL for leaving us in a situation where we can only realistically name 5 subs.

Yes it’s the EFL’s fault we broke the rules.

Most of this is certainly on us for our overspending but the EFL rules over squad size and what constitutes a senior player is quite frankly ridiculous.

Everyone knows the rules.

We chose not to name two of our 'senior' players on the bench when we could have done.

[tidus_mi2]

Out of the relegation zone, sweet.

[Orion1871]

2-1 down with a full hour to go in the very first game of the season and you're saying "game over", saying relegation is inevitable and calling for the manager's head

Idiots

Agreed. They must be drinking/smoking something very strong. If they want to go for the culprits they should be targeting the EFL for leaving us in a situation where we can only realistically name 5 subs.

Yes it’s the EFL’s fault we broke the rules.

Agreed.

However, if you've placed a club under a soft embargo for two Summers running and that club still break your rules then it doesn't exactly reflect well on the EFL either.

[Snowflake Royal]

Agreed. They must be drinking/smoking something very strong. If they want to go for the culprits they should be targeting the EFL for leaving us in a situation where we can only realistically name 5 subs.

Yes it’s the EFL’s fault we broke the rules.

Agreed.

However, if you've placed a club under a soft embargo for two Summers running and that club still break your rules then it doesn't exactly reflect well on the EFL either.

That's because we've done the minimum to resolve the issue having massively broken them. And it's based on three year periods.

We knew where our accounts were and that not taking drastic action would mean a prolonged problem.

[Snowflake Royal]

Honestly think refusing £8m for Moore and giving him a PL wage on a 3 / 4 year contract is one of the worst transfer decisions the club has ever made.

Only real other contenders are signing Aluko for £7m on top wages for 3/4 years at 28 and Pogrebnyak for 4 years on huge PL wages.

No surprises one under Zingaravich and two under Gourlay and Dai.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

2-1 down with a full hour to go in the very first game of the season and you're saying "game over", saying relegation is inevitable and calling for the manager's head

Idiots

This.

[Zip]

We should have gotten our accounts in order two summers ago. Gomes was supposedly appointed to bring on Academy players. Instead we smashed our transfer record bringing in Joao and Puscas plus a host of others.
Frankly we are lucky not to have had a points deduction.
Having said that we really need clarity on what transfer business we can do.

Ultimately we have been a basket case these past few years and now we are paying for it.

[Hound]

Entertaining half. Both sides could have scored more. We look ropey from set pieces and poor from Rafael for the second. Moore and Morrison not been great

Positives - some nice stuff going forward, some good moves. Azeez, Laurent and especially Swift have impressed. Bristow done ok so far

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Is the season over already? I thought we were half way through the first game?

[Simmops]

2-1 down with a full hour to go in the very first game of the season and you're saying "game over", saying relegation is inevitable and calling for the manager's head

Idiots

This.

-1

[Hound]

Suspect we’ll lose this 3 or 4-1 though. Just too open at the back

[Jagermesiter1871]

Lb

[NathStPaul]

Seen enough to suggest we can be a threat going forward. Worry about us defensively. Desperately need an experienced left back.

[Snowflake Royal]

Entertaining half. Both sides could have scored more. We look ropey from set pieces and poor from Rafael for the second. Moore and Morrison not been great

Positives - some nice stuff going forward, some good moves. Azeez, Laurent and especially Swift have impressed. Bristow done ok so far

Agree with this.

Lolacaine of goals aside its been fairly even. Some promising stuff. Look very vulnerable at the back, which is a big worry given its our strongest area on paper, with only McIntyre slightly out of position and not an obviously first pick in the back 5.

Joao not really looking involved which is a worry. Looks like tail end of last season's player still.

[Hound]

Seen enough to suggest we can be a threat going forward. Worry about us defensively. Desperately need an experienced left back.

Add Harris and ejaria and we’ll have good options

Big gap between midfield and the CBs though and not been impressed with the 3 CBs so far

[genome]

Honestly think refusing £8m for Moore and giving him a PL wage on a 3 / 4 year contract is one of the worst transfer decisions the club has ever made.

I dunno, that's very Captain Hindsight. At the time, Moore had just had a great season and had won POTS. And other similarly-aged Championship players were going for £10m+.

[Jackson Corner]

This will be one win in 12 and we didn’t win any pre season games. The last time Stoke scored two goals in 45 minutes Stanley Mathews was playing.

[tidus_mi2]

This will be one win in 12 and we didn’t win any pre season games. The last time Stoke scored two goals in 45 minutes Stanley Mathews was playing.

Reading 1-0 Lincoln
Brighton 1-2 Reading

[NathStPaul]

This will be one win in 12 and we didn’t win any pre season games. The last time Stoke scored two goals in 45 minutes Stanley Mathews was playing.

We won 2 pre season games.......

[Simmops]

This will be one win in 12 and we didn’t win any pre season games. The last time Stoke scored two goals in 45 minutes Stanley Mathews was playing.

disgraceful