Championship 2021-2022

Yeah, as a19 said, they're two completely distinct things - at no point did we say we wanted him to stay.

And wow, a prize rosette for Troy, then.

 

Went to both. The Dell was a dreadful view. Don't think Highfield Road was any different in closeness to the pitch than any other grounds to be honest

 

Zink being played as a central striker tonight by the Florests, and scored.

 

Also got an assist, if I am reading that correctly.

 

Financially it won't have cost him anything to move to Brum - we will have paid up the majority of his contract.
However if he continues to flop there, it may have been better for the Deeney brand and his ego not to have let down the club he's supported all his life.

 

Yes I agree, he did say in an interview on sky before his first game that he took a big pay cut to join Birmingham. Technically that is probably true in terms of his weekly wage, but I’ve no doubt as you say we actually paid the difference to him.

Where it might go a bit sour for him (not withstanding potentially stinking the place out this season as it is) is that he signed a two year deal with them. You’d expect that if he’s had a nightmare this season, he will decline even more by the time he’s hit 34 at the start next season. So it could end in a bad way for both him and the Birmingham fans, much like it did here with him, but without the incredible legacy to fall back on.

 

The trouble is, at no point has Deeney really been the right fit for the Birmingham team, leaving aside his love for the club.

Earlier, I submitted a post questioning why he didn’t join Brum (or more pertinently, why Brum weren’t interested in him) when they were much better than us with a lot more money, before deleting it having realised that even when back in the Championship there was no way back then they’d go for a 23-year-old unproven at this level with a rate of barely more than one goal in five games for a mid table League 1 team. But since then, they’ve been mostly crap, and Deeney’s profile rose phenomenally, so either they’ve been too good for him or vice versa, or sadly as of now he’s been too poor even for them. If his trajectory had gone the way many of us predicted (or hoped in the case of some of his bigger critics), he would have been a solid player last season back to fitness, banging in 10-15 goals, and he would have been no more than average this season but still a good player for the Brum team. But not even his strongest critics could have predicted the nosedive his form would take.

 

Interesting fact: in 2017, I had exactly the same hairstyle that Wilmot (playing against West Brom as we speak) does now. The only difference is that I wasn't about 6 months from going bald, so it looked a bit better, frankly (sorry Ben, no judgement)

 

Surprised Adam Davies didn't get sent off for that. But Stoke are now deservedly ahead, been much the better side this half - WBA have created nothing outside lucky set pieces.

 

Entertaining game, but comparing this with even our game vs Newcastle shows the clear gap in quality between the Championship and the Prem. One thing is clear which you don't notice so much when you're down there is how much slower the games are.

Will be happy enough if Stoke go up, a poor away trip but they have a likable manager and rather them than WBA yet again.

 

I'd be surprised if Stoke go up, but you never know. WBA don't look anywhere near as good as they did 2 seasons ago. Pereira's a big loss.

 

I didn't watch the game until 42 minutes in and wasn't especially looking out for him, but he was Sky's man of the match and Stoke fans rated him as one of their best performers.

https://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/thread/301739/player-ratings-wba-albert

 

What's Forest Green Rovers got to do with anything?

 

Wasn't shared equally for league games....was it 85% to the home side or something? But yes, getting 15% on ManUre's 60k attendance receipts certainly helped the smaller clubs.

 

Lay off the dodgy teas mate

 

Yep, that record takes the biscuit.

 

I went to that as well...utter mayhem in the away end where they'd penned us into an area about 65% of the required size and then OB started to physically push people back into the crowd when they attempted to stand on the top row of the terracing to avoid the crush. I haven't often seen police officers climbing the fencing to get out...Hillsborough was a long time in the brewing.

 

Hahahaha absolute fraud!

 

Everyone gets a good start under Marco

 

Troy's on the bench today.

 

Yes,I remember that.
Very true what you say about Hillsborough.
Signs were there for all to see, regrettably.

 

Two more assists for Zinckernagel

 

An interesting comment from a Fulham fan on Reddit...

 

Derby appealing against their 12pt deduction

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58868575

I get that on the one hand the administrators probably think legal fees asides it's a free shot at an appeal. But on the other, there are 71 EFL clubs that didn't go into administration because of the economic effects of the Covid pandemic and so I hope they get whacked with an even bigger points deduction.

 

Can’t see it flying, weren’t loans and deferments made available? No doubt Covid hammered EFL club finances but there were measures out in place to make administration avoidable.