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Into the Lion's Den D2 2017-18

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    Into the Lion's Den D2 2017-18

    I couldn't see a thread for the new season, if i've missed one a thousand apologies.

    These seemed a good way to start, especially as they are so nice to us, I've always liked Sunderland as an away trip.

    23 to 11
    https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/201...awaydays-23-11

    10 to 1
    https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/201...-awaydays-10-1
    Last edited by Glass Half Empty; 24-06-2017, 16:07.

    #2
    Nice to see them very complimentary about Norwich. We've had a good rapport with the Mackems for a long time though.

    Annoyingly, and for the umpteenth time in recent years, both our North East away fixtures are in midweek. Given that I'm in the area during a number of weekends a year, that's hugely disappointing.

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      #3
      On a separate note, our local rag had no
      less than EIGHT separate stories on their website about the fixtures being released, including the "five things" angle that seems obligatory in every publication these days. They really are desperate to fill column inches until August comes along.

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        #4
        Is the "LI" in "LIons" a gag I'm not getting? Is the whole thing a Millwall reference?

        I've had a long day, sorry.

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          #5
          There are other lions returning to Div2, but my guess is a typo.

          Amusing to see that Mackem Report is still pretending it's not a derby...

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            #6
            Five good pubs in Barnsley is four more than I can think of.

            Wednesday are having a rather familiar summer, we've not done any transfer business at all. This early lack of action is starting to get a bit of a joke, does everyone go into hibernation in June or something? Forestieri might be on his way out, last week he posted a photo on Instagram of a Watford shopping centre with a smiley face (which must make him the only person over the age of 12 ever to do so) and the club are apparently willing to listen to offers in the region of £10m.

            Anyway, can guess how the season will go, we'll spend a lot of money on a number 10 type player then not use him properly, piss early points away while we work out what the best side is, be out of contention for automatic by the November international break, then we'll balls up the play offs again.

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              #7
              Originally posted by sw2bureau View Post
              There are other lions returning to Div2...
              Boro? Nobody call them that though, surely?

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                #8
                Yeah sorry typo, if I can work out how to I'll edit it in fact if anyone can suggest a better tag line I'll edit the lot.

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                  #9
                  You can just edit the original message and it gives you a box to edit the title too.

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                    #10
                    I thank you - hmmmm, shows as edited in my preview but hasn't changed on the board, any ideas?

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                      #11
                      Ah, it changes the thread title within your message only - not on the forum page. Lawd knows then, maybe Snake will pop in and tell us or you can ask him on the new forum thread in World.

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                        #12
                        No, but both MFCs (in England) have leisure wear that can lead to confusion. I had the occasional 'Millwall, are you son?' when I lived in London.

                        Our local rag will sometimes use Men of Steel, but not often.

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                          #13
                          Birmingham City have spent the close season appointing Harry Redknapp as manager with Kevin Bond replacing Steve Cotterill as assistant. We've been chasing John Terry too.

                          It's 2011 down at the Blues, you know. Spending your money to get out of the Championship is rather passe now. And frankly the quick way to disaster.

                          Of course, this can only end in tears...of laughter for all Villa fans.

                          Way to run a club. Oh yeah, our fans have fallen for it hook line and sinker, and you cannot dispute the appointments lest you are a traitor or "Vile in disguise". Misguided fools.

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                            #14
                            Ah, yes, it's back to this thread again for little me.

                            I think it's common knowledge that we've once again endured a comical pre-season as Ehab "We're not a selling club" Allam has done his utmost to flog anything with a pulse, and while it was obvious that Harry Maguire was going, there's been a fair bit of unhappiness about how others have been allowed to leave for buttons. Davies and Huddlestone might well be yesterday's men, but would have been more than useful in this league, Jakupovic is an odd one, having forced his way into the Number 1 spot, he's now opted for more bench dwelling at Leicester, but it's been laughable the way some of our fans have mourned the leaving of a 'legend' (half a decent season, and a fair bit of comic ineptitude before that). Robertson will go with blessing, he's only going to get better. Some of the players left have openly mocked the owners on social media, and for most of the pre-season build up, fans have been consulting the bookies for relegation odds.

                            And yet..........

                            Fraizer Campbell on a free? Well, he was brilliant for us as a young loanee 10 years ago, and if he stays fit for enough games he's a 15-20 goals a season striker at this level. We're hearing good reports about Kevin Stewart coming in from Liverpool, and there's rumours of quite a few others ready to come in, including Loic Remy and Ahmed Musa. Crikey.

                            The new gaffer seems to be conducting himself well so far, although it was rumoured he was getting a bit miffed with the outgoings and was ready to fly home from Portugal to speak to the chairman face to face. That seems to have passed, fortunately.

                            It could be an interesting season. Or we could finish 14th, just above Barnsley.

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                              #15
                              Since my last contribution to this thread Wednesday's summer has gone from frustrating to shambolic.

                              - We've only made one signing so far, the previously discussed George Boyd on a Bosman from Burnley. We only have two central defenders, we've been linked with a few but no deal has been done. Carlos has bleated a couple of times about how they cost money. We've also removed little of the dead wood the squad is carrying.
                              - We still haven't released the new kit. The club is producing it themselves, though some Portuguese company may be involved. One local hack said last week "I don't think even the club know when it'll be ready". We've played friendlies in last season's kit and there's rumours we may be starting the league in it.
                              - The club promised a big glamour friendly for our 150th anniversary. We had Benfica last summer which set the bar quite high. As it is they sat on it for ages then last week proudly announced our only home friendly would be against a club who got knocked out of Europe by Progres Niederkorn.
                              - Our matchday ticket prices are abhorrent again, though not quite as bad as £49 tickets for away fans as the FSF misinterpreted last week. We still haven't given details of any individual home matches, so if you're a QPR fan planning to come on August 12th then details are non-existent.
                              - Said QPR game is a Saturday 3pm kick off. This is the fault of Sky and South Yorkshire Police rather than the club, but after that we don't have another home game on a Saturday at 3pm until November 18th.

                              Clusterfuck.

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                                #16
                                The phrase "on a Bosman" seems almost nostalgic now, doesn't it? Haven't heard it in ages.

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                                  #17
                                  55 hours to go.

                                  Norwich aren't the first team on everyone's list this season, and the WSC Season Preview bears that out too. But I've been impressed with how well Farke seems to have got a handle on things in preseason, and while we have lost some of the bigger names over the summer, it's been clear for some time that we're in need of refreshing. So, cautious optimism from me, chastened by last season's under-achievement.

                                  2017-18 Championship prediction:
                                  01 Fulham (C)
                                  02 Villa (P)
                                  03 Boro
                                  04 Reading
                                  05 Sheff Wed
                                  06 Norwich (P; and why not?)
                                  07 Wolves
                                  08 'Cardiff'
                                  09 Derby
                                  10 Leeds
                                  11 Brentford
                                  12 Sunderland
                                  13 Forest
                                  14 QPR
                                  15 Preston
                                  16 Hull
                                  17 Birmingham
                                  18 Ipswich
                                  19 Sheff Utd
                                  20 Millwall
                                  21 Bristol C
                                  22 Burton
                                  23 Barnsley
                                  24 Bolton

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                                    #18
                                    But it seems a really open division again this season. There are a lot of teams you could make a case for as potential winners. Fulham finished last season very strongly, with six wins in their last ten (and five of their last six). I've not heard much in the way of preseason chaos, so they seem as well placed as anyone to win the thing.

                                    And they've signed a £5 million striker. And it won't look so bad when they beat us on Saturday if I've bigged them up.
                                    Last edited by Kevin S; 02-08-2017, 12:08.

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                                      #19
                                      First manager to leave: Leonid Slutsky, Hull City
                                      Top scorer: Aboubakar Kamara, Fulham

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                                        #20
                                        Wednesday's abject mess of a summer hasn't improved much.

                                        Off the pitch the club seems to have more or less given up. We've only launched the kit half an hour ago and there's no firm details when anyone can actually buy it, season cards have only gone out this week, there have been virtually no corporate announcements, the club shop is still diabolical, there has been absolutely no communication about anything. There's a fan steering group meeting with the chairman tonight which is expected to be lively.

                                        This is all important because FFP is clearly a massive problem, our only signing has been Boyd and the club have admitted they wouldn't have bought him if we'd had to pay money. We've got two central defenders, of which Glenn Loovens has missed a large chunk of pre-season with injury. Said pre-season went generally OK until the big dress rehearsal against Rangers on Sunday where we played pretty much our first choice side and were dreadful, very slow and ponderous build up and a leaky defence, all the worst parts from last season again. Carvalhal blamed it on "nerves" (!) and then said the performance was "milky" which as usual got the local press feeding out of his hand. Have a feeling that at some point this campaign I'll end up typing something along the lines of "in retrospect we should have got rid of Carlos last summer".

                                        We'll finish about 8th. Middlesbrough have a good squad and manager, think they'll walk the division.
                                        Last edited by longeared; 02-08-2017, 12:49.

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                                          #21
                                          If hope is what gets you then I'm safe. Ipswich's season is going to be a train wreck.

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                                            #22
                                            Barnsley have two players left from the 2015-16 promotion team - Adam Davies and Adam 'Form Fallen From A Cliff' Hammill. Anyone who was playing decently was sold for basically the first offer we received (Winnall, Hourihane, Bree, Roberts, Mawson, Holgate), or they left at the end of their contract for more money elsewhere (Scowen, Watkins etc).

                                            This has been the plan for the last two or three years - buy cheap young players, make them better and then sell them for a profit. While the plan has worked fantastically well in making the club not go into debt, there has been the realisation that we will never be able to progress higher than we are now (lower midtable). We were in third at one point last season but then cashed in during January. If our current players manage to do well we know they will be sold on making us start from scratch again. A potential major problem this season though is that instead of building a team we've bought a set of individuals who might come good in the future. Attacking midfielders seem to be sold for lots of money so we've gone out and filled our squad with them (Mallan, Moncur, Mowatt, McGeehan). Midfielders who can tackle don't go for as much so we've not bothered with them.

                                            This approach led to us losing 4-0 at Rotherham in our final friendly in a performance that Paul Heckingbottom said reminded him of watching a five a side team. He is also becoming vocal about the difficulties working in a job where every good player he produces is immediately sold on, which is ominous...

                                            On a more positive note though, at least we don't have to play in Wednesday's latest kits.

                                            A long season of struggle ahead I'm afraid.

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                                              #23
                                              One of those you mention (Watkins, who has come to Norwich on a free) has been starting out on the right in preseason according to the team sheets. But he has said he's keen to play centrally and I suppose this goal from the weekend shows why. With Alex Pritchard injured by Cambridge in a friendly, Watkins could stake a claim at the start of the season.

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                                                #24
                                                Gus - stupid question, but are you Uncle Ethan, or am I getting in a muddle over Australia-based Town-supporting OTFers?

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                                                  #25
                                                  Hello OTF. Not very long time no see.

                                                  I expect Middlesbrough to go up, everything else is up in the air. Fulham were the best footballing team I saw last season by a long way, but the manager is moaning about the business not done in the transfer window. Less surprisingly, so is Harry Redknapp.

                                                  Typical pre season for Villa with a lot of excitement about a couple of young players, in this case Jake Doyle-Hayes and Callum O'Hare. Suggestions they should be put straight into the first team squad are based on hope, not hype. At least they might be good enough, we already have ample proof their elders aren't and never will be.

                                                  Despite Bruce talking them up I can see loan moves for both in the next month. He has never been a manager to turn to youth when there's a veteran available who will cover half the ground in double the time for ten times the wages

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