• 4 Dec 2023, 10:41 a.m.

    I don't think you can manage the expectations of this owner and managing the squad is easier if the squad doesn't completely change every few months and there is an evolution to it. He probably has done his limit under this ownership and he probably will go before long, and he might find Palace a more suitable home, should he end up there.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 11:47 a.m.

    ...and he'll do well. We, on the other hand, probably wont.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 11:53 a.m.

    Ref Watch on SSN - Dermot Gallagher, Steven Warnock and Sue Smith all think we should've had a penalty for the shirt pull on Yates at 0-0.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 12:08 p.m.

    Totally agree with this. Of the 20 in the squad on Saturday, how many have played 50 times for Nottingham Forest? Gibbs-White and Yates? Putting that down to 25 probably only adds 2 or three more. It's no wonder they look like strangers half the time.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 3:41 p.m.

    You've triggered me now. If you go down to 25 it adds Mangala, Williams and Boly.

    For the 14 players who appeared in that game the average number of Forest appearances, including as a substitute, was 31 (including the Everton game) and if you remove Ryan Yates from the numbers it drops to 20.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 3:51 p.m.

    If you exclude Yates, MGW, Mangala and Williams, the remaining 10 players who featured in the game have average appearances, including substitute appearances, of 12.3.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 5:43 p.m.

    This is is the issue, I think. Last season we weren't supposed to stay up and the fanbase absolutely bought into the upstart/underdog/siege mentality. We mostly wrote off the away games but fancied the atmosphere to create a few upsets at home. It did and everyone went home happy.

    Problem at a club like ours is that when you do survive and throw some more money around over the summer, the expectation levels rise unrealistically and with it, sadly, the predictable sense of entitlement.

    We're not even halfway through our second season at a level we'd not been at for a quarter of a century. It's madness to be demanding champagne football and mid-table mediocrity - as has been pointed out already, many of these players haven't even played 15 games in a red shirt yet. I enjoy watching it evolve under Cooper - highs and lows - but am increasingly aware I'm in the minority.

    Of course, none of this matters if the big Greek decides he's had enough of the Welsh fella. Just seems a shame, is all.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 5:52 p.m.

    I think the nature of all football fans is that they eventually reach a point where something happens that fundamentally fractures their relationship with the club. Of course its really about them/us/you.....years of unrequited love and then, one day, they cut their hair and you stop loving them.

    It's not the barnet.

    The bits not on the pitch were always shit.

  • 4 Dec 2023, 6:07 p.m.

    100%.

    There are 8 clubs in this league who are basically untouchable save for the intervention of a corrupt state.
    There are 8 clubs much further down the development road than us.
    There are 2 clubs who should be satisfied with 17th - us and Burnley - anything else is a bonus.
    There are 2 clubs who are utter gash and should be relegated now to save everyone else the grief.

    Anyone who thinks otherwise is a prat.