Who are they? When did it happen?

Who are they? Do you have any names?

Who are they? When did this happen?

The best footie management game: [Link]

We have Zaha. No one in the bottom half has a player near that quality. Our league finish has more to do with him than anything else.

Also I'm quite happy with championship players, young and with potential, looking to step up. Good coaches will make them better, and while they are getting more expensive, I feel they're generally a safer investment than an imported player.

No attacking players have a chance in this team.

Mateta's agent at some point has told him that a mid table premier league team was interested. He must have been so excited at the opportunity. He probably went on YouTube and saw videos of Zaha and was buzzing his tits off, showing his wife, telling his family that all the years of hard work had got him an incredible life experience. "We can all relocate to another country, it'll be fine."

Then the stench-ridden underwhelming reality flops out in front of everyone. That all the flair and goal scoring ability is irrelevant if you can't 'hold the ball up' facing 9 of your team mates in a defensive formation.

I don't really have a problem with any of our players. I'm not sure what they are supposed to be doing to actually get the goal that wins a game, yet I don't blame them for it.

We have Zaha is a s*** argument. We had Andy Johnson who won the best scorer trophy 2004-05, guess where we ended up, yah Championship.

Yeah, there is the Zaha-factor, where you need to specifically play against him. Fair enough I was wrong.

I completely blame the board for the state of the squad. The money argument is a crap one - we're in a better financial position spending £15m on a Championship player who ends up being worth £30m than you are signing a player for free on £60k a week who is 35 by the end of their contract.

Watkins, Godfrey, Maddison, Benrahma, Bellingham, Bowen, Eze, Dan James ... it's shrewd. Only Brighton (Webster and Maupay for £40m) have stuffed it up.

What I blame Hodgson for is the belief that the 11 players we started with today are apparently so far below the level of the 11 that 18th place started with that we had to play with that little ambition. With the exception of Zaha, how different really was that from our first choice 11? Tomkins and McArthur probably play, Schlupp might, but these aren't big margins.

I hear the 'highest points record' statement, but that is highest points AT THIS STAGE. Our fixtures have been so kind - we all said at the start of the season we had to be safe by the start of March and we've arguably just about done it.

We've got Tottenham, United, Everton, Chelsea, Leicester and City in our next 8. 40 points for the season looks tough from here. Somehow, after 8 seasons in the PL, the team is in no better shape than any newly promoted side which is the failure of progress that gets everyone frustrated.

Edited by ambrose7 (28 Feb 2021 6.14pm)

26th January 2010 - Enter Administration
2nd May 2010 - D-Day 1 - Survival at Hillsborough
1st June 2010 - D-Day 2 - Survival at Lloyds
7th June 2010 - CPFC2010 exchange contracts.

We have had Zaha. He has been in our team since 2014 and for the first 3 years, we scraped survival. He was also part of the team that had lowest points per game of the 92 teams in the football league in 2016. Under Roy, he is having his best season with regards to goal involvement (goals + assists) of his career.

The biggest point you have made is that we are a mid-table premier league team. Prior Roy, we were relegation fodder. We spend the least year on year and we are a mid table team. Just imagine where we could be if we spent the sums Villa, Wolves and Fulham spend?

I’m all up for championship players if they improve our team. 2 of the 3 we have signed, don’t play.

Also, in 2021 only 6 teams have won more games than us this year. Everyone is saying how Fulham are playing well and Parker has turned it around. We have achieved the same points tally in the last 6 games.