Yes got moved from the Saturday due to the Kings Coronation. No Dennis or TDB. Probably see a few youngsters play - maybe in their right positions?
I really like the honest and positive updates from Clevs on the four who will be missing. It’s much better than the old late fitness test that they never passed. Will be really refreshing to see some fresh faces from the academy as well.
Let’s see if he’s so honest and positive when there’s something riding on a game and a potential tactical advantage of being deliberately ambiguous.
What WAS I thinking? This is the timing for a 3pm kickoff. Just as well I haven’t set the alarm for ‘lie in.’
I thought Ilkley to Middlesbrough in less than half an hour was a tad ambitious, but TBF I have no idea how fast you drive.
Just as well I realised today. I suspect Mrs Ilkley wouldn't have been too pleased if we turned up at Middlesbrough with the match nearly over.
I started to type and then assumed you were from Ilkley but now lived closer so deleted and didn’t send !
We really do live 3 miles from Ilkley and Mrs Ilkley is from Ilkley, but I was born (in 1958) as close to the Vic as is possible, unless you were born at home. The maternity hospital used to be near the Girls Grammar School until it moved to the Rickmansworth Road site (in the 1970s I think). The site right next to the ground never had a maternity wing.
A third successive season that ends with nothing to play for, barely any interest from the majority of supporters, and a season that nobody will be sad to see the back of. We all know who we have to blame for that.
That was the case with the vast majority of seasons 1990s and 2000s. We have just been spoilt with excitement over the last 10 years or so such that treading water in the champ is now seen as underperforming.
Yeah, but, so? For any club, regardless of context, treading water in the Championship is frankly dull and unsatisfactory - it's why everyone except the newly promoted teams are vocally obsessed with the idea of promotion at the start of a new season. As everyone including (of course) you knows, at this point, the reasons that excitement ended are very well-documented and very often quite stupid. So, 'noting' that it's also been shyt and pointless before for the umpteenth time doesn't really mean anything, and at least somewhat deflects from the very real and ongoing issues surrounding our ownership structure.
Again, there were also a fair few on here who stated they found flirting with relegation from the PL while being battered twice a season by Man City "dull and unsatisfactory".
I suspect there will be some disappointment that we were in a decent position to fight for the play-offs but will probably end up 16th and but for a few surprise draws could have been in the relegation scrap. We seem to generally avoid them with the odd exception but one day we might not get so lucky Then again the last time we did get relegated from this league we'd finished 7th the season before so no doubt there was great hope going into that 95/96 season.
Even if VI had stayed, the odds against us going down would of been slim as the current bottom five have been there or thereabouts all season. However what needs to be taken into consideration about this season is the fact we have had a very thin squad of much younger players who in some games have punched above their weight but been found wanting a lot in others. Yes poor tactics, player positions and formations from VI have not helped but the terrible run (again) post Xmas really set the tone. Next season could be a real struggle, more of the same or a massive improvement. A lot depending on how much squeeze we can get in the Summer window with a few departing and hopefully some new faces who can push on onwards up the table. Maybe we can just cancel the boxing day fixture next season. That'll help.
The suggestion was that it was Pozzos fault we are a boring mid table champ side. I was just pointing out that that is what we have been for the 20 years before they came and 20 years before that we’d have given anything to be a boring mid table 2nd tier side. We’ve been so successful over the last decade or so that that seems beneath some of our current fan base. I understand that, and why. I guess you’d think it would be pointless for anyone to support a team in league one or lower given the quality of football there would render it too awful to contemplate ?
nothing to play for yes, but not glad to see the back of the season. I enjoyed many a Roeder type season back in the day going home and away. I remember being chuffed we beat palace last day of one of those seasons and wondering with excitement what the summer would bring (Jamie Moralee as it turned out!). But what excitement counting down the summer days before trips to Sheff Utd, Southend and Swindon before realising he was indeed a dud. Tom Mooney and Miller though eh? What to look forward to this summer? Asprilla being sold and any others who attract a fee, backed up by minimal expenditure while we scratch our heads at the level of agent fees we still manage to pay. Rookie coach trying to turn around a season of abysmal home performances. An owner who is scrabbling around trying to get his £60(?) million back that he’s wazzed up the wall (with zero takers). And zero funds for squad bulding. Duxbury on his premier league package. Scratching our heads why we we owe millions to Udinese. I don’t think there is a more depressing club to follow in the top 2 divisions in terms of optimism for the future. We are just being hollowed out.
I think that was the last game of the season before we got relegated. Ramage scored a free kick I remember after we missed a penalty. Won 2-1 to come 7th. I suppose then you just didn't know what we were going to do whereas now we'll probably sign average and Cleverley gets sacked in a few months.
you are right! It was Palace the season before after they had become champs. Point is those seasons I was always optimistic we’d improve the squad. Never feel that now. We are potless, and any money we do have has other priorities.
Yes i understand your point and we are on a downward trajectory with funds and therefore player quality reducing each season. Compared to what we've been used to, it's miserable. I too remember those times under Roeder. Winning at promoted palace on the last day was also brilliant end for a mid table finish. We hadn't been a prem side for about 7 years nor had we troubled the play off places. We had zero expectations and treading water was an achievement, and felt like it after Perryman, Lee etc where we had diced with the drop (at least we did have something to play for then !). It's all about expectations and recent history. The slide, and the decisions that might have slowed or even prevented are fresh in the memory, but we are going to have to get used to this mid table / fighting to stay up existence again, just like we did in the early 90s such that any promotion challenge in 3-5 years maybe is greeted with wide-eyed excitement like the Aidy promotion season. We all remember how we felt when we won at Oxford to stay up but forget how crap we felt after 8? successive defeats that got us into such a hole.... The win vs Derby was great but we were relegated the next season !
Right now (and Cleverley might make a mug out of me by naming an entirely new first XI in just over an hour's time!), we've used fewer players than any team in the division in the league this season with 25, and we have the 9th youngest squad at just over 26 on average (which I think is notable considering Hamer and Livermore have played important roles in the squad this season)
Just to point out that, when I started watching football in the 70s, there was almost always nothing to play for - for almost all teams - for much of the second half of the season. There were no play-offs and only two teams promoted and very often those two teams were away and gone. I suppose people back then just enjoyed football for its own sake, rather than each game being a potential qualification for next season’s status. I rather regret that that has changed, but perhaps we should celebrate that the play-offs sustain interest for much longer.
If you just want to experience the highs of football then supporting the likes of Watford Brentford Gillingham Bradford etc is not a good choice . Citeh or The Arse are for you . What is funny are those Manure fans ,stranded following a bang average mob of ne'er do wells , who "supported" a team based on success and now the wheel has turned and it is someone else's turn to be dominant. Be patient and our day in the sun will return one day
