Championship 2021-2022

David Brooks has stage 2 Hodgkin Lymphoma:

https://www.skysports.com/football/...midfielder-david-brooks-diagnosed-with-cancer

Such a shame and I hope he recovers quickly. Sounds like it was picked up by Wales' medical team.

 

Not great news at all, hears hoping he makes a quick and full recovery

 

Awful news, speedy recovery David.

 

Troy on the bench again, Birmingham kitted out like Brazil.

Don Goodman described Troy going to Birmingham as the championship equivalent of Ronaldo going back to Utd, so it will be interesting to hear his take on the current situation.

 

Seriously, what the fuccking hell has Lukas Jutkiewicz EVER DONE to justify the insane, fawning worship that he receives from every Sky commentator, every time Birmingham are on telly?!?!?!!?!

He's scored ONE GOAL this season, NEVER scored above the Championship in the two seasons and 27 appearances totalling fewer than 1000 minutes he mustered with Burnley in the Prem, and yet he's already been described as an 'absolute nightmare whether he's playing well or not' and had it declared that 'if he's involved then there's trouble for the opposing team'.

It's truly inexplicable!

 

They've just said 'Centre backs all around the country know exactly who he is' - WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!!?

 

Some of the mental gymnastics earlier from the commentators for Troy’s poor performance so far were absolutely incredible.

 

'Do not fight with Lukas Jutkiewicz, you will not win... So strong'

 

This is an absolutely abysmal standard of football

 

Losing, into the last 10 minutes and still no sign of him.

But, but, but…..he could still do a job for us the podcasters wailed.

 

It's not like this is surprising or news to us, but this is truly external confirmation of just how much he has fallen off a cliff as a player - totally uncalled upon for a bottom-half-to-relegation-dodging Championship team who play a system that people, including himself, claim would suit him best, and despite a desperate need for a goal from any source.

 

Many people were expressing their delight at Bournemouth's play-off defeat last season but sadly there seems to be no sign of a firesale (or if they have sold many players, they've still managed to put together a strong squad) or play-off hangover.

There've been several cases of smaller clubs that have failed to go back up at the first attempt after reaching the play-offs or falling just short, before falling into midtable obscurity and worse (Birmingham, Wigan, Blackpool, Bolton, us on a few occasions). Doesn't look like Muff will be one of them.

Them going back up will be bad enough, but FFS if they take our place as well...

 

Yes, Cooper's done a really good job at Forest so far, whatever you think of his style/tactics - and in fairness maybe the Swansea players weren't that good on the whole?

Hopefully Forest can carry on where they left off towards the end of 2019/20 before that calamitous collapse to miss out on the play-offs.

 

There’s often a team that starts lightening quick in the first 10-15 games in the Championship but then slowly gets reeled in and drops back into the pack. Doesn’t look like Bournemouth will fit that profile though.

 

The idea that Bournemouth could just maybe be a better run club than us is a killer for many. Got the absolute right coach in after taking their time and are reaping the rewards.

 

I dream of a game where we do something like that. Something a bit dramatic to get the fans back.

Never going to happen.

 

They’re a worse run club but with an owner who has 10x Gino’s wealth. They may have got the right coach in, a season after we definitely did. If he then gets them up, then they’ll have a coach with two premier league relegations on his CV.

 

Is the fact that Bournemouth are still doing well this season despite failing to up last season something to be hopeful for in terms of a possible (well, probable) season in the Championship next year? I did think they'd really struggle having failed to get straight back up, and they have lost some of their key players, although perhaps not as many as you would have expected. Is that because they're better able to weather financial storms because of their rich owner, or is it a sign that the Championship is a **** league that is easy to bounce back from for teams with parachute payments?

 

Swansea had a couple of stars (Ayew, Guehi, Cabango and Roberts), some good Championship players (Grimes, Lowe and others), but I'd say they had a fair few bang average players too, even the weaker players at us, Norwich and Brentford were still (for the most part) able to acquit themselves in the Championship. What I'd say about Forest is that this is the easy part, they definitely aren't the worst team in the division, so they're reverting to the mean (just like Hughton did this time last year), what will be harder for him is when they are pretty clear of the drop and expectations rise

 

I remember being pretty sure that Deeney would be staying until soon before we made that announcement, simply because I didn't think even many Championship clubs would be interested in him. Do clubs like Brum base their transfer policy around vibes like us then?

 

I'd have thought Don Goodman, who had more than a few harsh words to say about That Performance at St Andrews last season, would know more than most people about Deeney's shortcomings!

 

Deenee needs Games at champo lvl

 

Swansea and especially Barnsley showing they overachieved last season. If Barnsley had gone up Derby’s record would have been under severe threat.

 

In fairness Swansea also lost 3 key players in Ayew, Guehi and Roberts (Woodman too, although he's not the same calibre as those three)

 

Well that post didn’t age well!

Back-to-back wins with that big derby win and coming from behind against one of the top teams should give them a lot of confidence and being four points from the play-offs, they can look up rather than down.

 

Quite a comeback from Blackpool, and it sounds like they didn’t rob Reading but absolutely outplayed them - maybe a dark horse for the play-offs?