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Reply | Madsen hamstring
at 19:38 26 Feb 2026
Yes Tanganga could have come to us in theory but we don’t know the arrangement if it was a loan to permanent transfer, plus you’re more likely to stay where you are if it’s going well, and maybe his wages were too high? It’s a decent price for Esse and Tanganga but I don’t think Dykes, Kelman and Armstrong were worth what we sold them for so that happens but none of them were going to attract what those players were sold for. I’m not sure who we had in the DS who could have gone for anything like those sums.
I agree with keeping Stephan. He’s doing a good job on the face of it with bare bones at the moment.
I also agree with in depth review of the medical/fitness and training teams to find out where the issues are, which is exactly what I said in my original post.
I’m not a subscriber to the dark arts view of our structures. As I said earlier it makes sense to me for both the manager and the fitness/medical teams to report through to the CEO. Whether he is managing this well enough is another question and I think the answer is almost certainly no given the outcomes in terms of our injuries.
And I don’t think it’s just you. You have many supporters. |
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Reply | Madsen hamstring
at 19:25 26 Feb 2026
Well TBF I did say he’d done a good job with the money he had but he has had a decent amount of cash which helps.
And we’re doing without two of our big summer signings for a large part of the season: Burrell and Poku as well as Chair, JCS (I know), Varane and Dembele the deputy of our deputy. Which is why I didn’t understand why my post about injuries became a post about transfers. Because until you sort out the injuries, it doesn’t matter who you bring in. |
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Reply | Madsen hamstring
at 19:15 26 Feb 2026
Hunter I didn’t say the injuries were just down to luck. If you read my previous post it was saying entirely the opposite, that we need to find out exactly what is going wrong. I have never defended the injury situation. We need to look at all aspects from medical, training methods, fitness assessment - and as you say recruitment - although as far as I know Madsen and Burrell are not known for hamstring issues previously. I’m not sure what Varane’s injury record was or Dembele’s but I don’t think he’s had a prior ACL nor Larkeche? And Chair has previously had an excellent fitness record.
I was just replying to TK1’s post replying to my post and bringing in the question of Gallen and transfers. |
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Reply | Walsh
at 18:33 26 Feb 2026
Gavin Ward was our old goalkeeping coach. Now at Cardiff City.
Walsh is hampered by lack of playing time at this level. I’m sure development and non-league football doesn’t provide the quality of crosses you get in the Championship. Sometimes he does seem to collect high balls and crosses. But he’s very inconsistent, like a lot of our younger players. Is it down to a lack of playing time? |
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Reply | Madsen hamstring
at 18:09 26 Feb 2026
I’m not sure while you’re quoting my post about injuries and fitness just to shoe-horn another post about transfers and Steve Gallen but okay.
As for not being ahead of our schedule, I would say there is an argument for this given that three big money transfers: Esse (€14 million, youth product), Fleming (€8.3 million) and Tanganga (€7 million) were all identified before Gallen came in. So that’s quite a war chest to buy in new players and to spend on wages. That being said he does seem to be doing a good job with the money he had at his disposal.
However, it’s the usual looking back thing that’s so pervasive here. What do you suggest we should be doing now? Apart from getting rid of Nourry and Stephan? Because we have had lots of managers and none of them since Warnock have really had much success. We had a long time with football man Ferdinand as DoF but Eze aside had as many duds as successes and often had an unbalanced, aging squad. Stephan seems to be making some progress but hampered by injuries. Nourry has had some success with Madsen, Burrell and Kone notable but also hampered by injuries and fitness issues. A fully fit team with all three of these plus Poku, Varane and Chair would be a different prospect to the team that played on Tuesday.
If you took six of Gallen’s best players out of their team for months would they look as good? Maybe they would but maybe not? |
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Reply | Madsen hamstring
at 16:42 26 Feb 2026
A good summary.
I hope it is the former. I’d be very disappointed in Stephan if he’s ignoring medical advice in player fitness.
As for Williams Nourry has to see that the fitness and conditioning departments are not working. We seem to be simultaneously unfit and ravaged by injuries. I agree with the poster about our style of player being quite attritional so harder on players but I’m sure we’re not the only team with less possession but we seem an outlier in terms of injury records.
Sometimes as CEO you have to take the tough decisions, friends or not. If he won’t take that decision maybe the Board need to step in. I wonder if it’s telling that Williams did not keep his other job he had at the same time as ours last season?
I also wonder if other teams’ fitness departments have an input into training methods? Is that also an issue? Did we prepare players well enough for pre-season as we were getting injuries even then? Do we look at player loads across the season to make sure players are not over-played? Managers should not be able to overrule the medical staff, which is why it makes sense to me for them not to report into the manager. One season might be bad luck but two consecutive seasons with a youngish squad yet terrible injury performance is unacceptable. |
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Reply | Stephan
at 08:57 25 Feb 2026
It’s nothing to do with having characters on the Board and everything to do with having wily old pros with no resale value and massive sponsorships to cover that. We were only four minutes from being above Wrexham and beating them twice in the season. It was only a brain fart from Mbengue that changed that.
Yes it’s bloody disappointing and lessons have to be learned but you can’t say we SHOULD be as good as Premiership parachute side Southampton with their actual, literal Premiership quality players.
Yes our injury record is unacceptable. Yes we need to learn quickly how to manage games and not leak goals. But throwing everything under the bus because we aren’t as good as recent Premiership sides. OTT. |
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Reply | Broken Chair?
at 20:24 23 Feb 2026
If he actually had a full training session as was reported then he might have been expected to come back soon but then felt a reaction afterwards.
I agree some of the stuff coming from the club has been less than accurate but DM’s reports are usually pretty solid. |
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Reply | What can we learn from Millwall?
at 12:04 23 Feb 2026
They did manage to sell youth product Romain Esse two seasons ago for £13 million and they re-invested that with a load of youngish players with potential, including Tangangs on a free who they managed to sell for £8 million last season which they re-invested in a lot of younger players with potential.
It’s what we’re trying to do but we’re a couple of seasons behind them (if it comes off obviously).
They have been very canny in the transfer market admittedly. |
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Reply | Most irritating and mutable commentaror
at 21:28 22 Feb 2026
Was that the ridiculous praise for the five yard pass from Foden and the minimising of Eze’s twenty yard tap in screamer? Farcical and embarrassing. |
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Reply | Extended highlights Hull 1 QPR 3
at 20:54 22 Feb 2026
Pretty sure it was the failure to give him a free kick at the end just outside the penalty area when the Hull player just seemed to take him out from the back when he was driving forward in a good position to take a shot or pass into the box. It looked a pretty nailed-on free kick and booking but nothing. |
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Reply | No.1 FAN
at 10:12 22 Feb 2026
We’ve had quite a few of these against us over the last couple of seasons, where it seemingly comes out of nowhere. So lovely to see one chalked up in our favour.
What I like about him is he is quite tall and physically sturdy so he provides a change from our small and slight wide men. A different challenge for the other team’s defence to manage. He’s also not afraid to make a pass or take a shot. He’s also good at finding the right place on the pitch to be and finding pockets of space which you can’t really teach. Like most younger players he needs to improve his decision-making and also sometimes play the ball a bit quicker but he’s shown enough to not look out of place in the first team squad. |
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Reply | A Hulluva Hard Game Match Thread
at 00:26 22 Feb 2026
I agree and with the Burrell situation as a warning. He looked absolutely knackered but worked so hard both with and without the ball and I think it’s probably a knock AND being exhausted. |
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Reply | Just back (To my hotel)
at 22:38 21 Feb 2026
Delighted for the fans that went. It’s not an easy trip to get there for an early kick off. |
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Reply | A Hulluva Hard Game Match Thread
at 15:04 21 Feb 2026
Do we always have to be fair. FFS we spend enough time being borderline suicidal. Can’t we just enjoy the win and think we played well for at least five minutes before the Derek-downers start up.
We only scored three goals away from home against a team they’ve been claiming as decent chance for promotion. Nothing to see here really…. |
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Reply | A Hulluva Hard Game Match Thread
at 14:45 21 Feb 2026
14 points above Leicester and 13 above WBA.
Don’t think we’d have predicted that at the beginning of the season, even with the points deduction.
Only three points from the magic 50 points. In Feb. Surely we should be happy with that after the previous two seasons. |
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Reply | A Hulluva Hard Game Match Thread
at 14:35 21 Feb 2026
He was shocking. It takes quite a lot for our cultured manager and creative midfielder to get riled and both of them had a go at the ref at full time for not giving Madsen a free kick at the end when a player came in at him from behind when just outside the pen at the end of the match. |
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