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Reply | Hoops and dreams Forum and youtube
at 22:31 1 Feb 2026
I really like Hoops and Dreams. James and Dave satisfy my need for stats. They are also generally pretty calm and insightful.George usually spots something I’ve missed from previous matches and Brian is always fair and yes he mispronounces everyone’s name but I find it endearing.
I also like Jarrod (sp?) and Michael which is another YouTube effort, the highlights show from the young lad and of course Hoopsa.
Just a shame they don’t all have more followers as they’re great content and clearly take a lot of time and effort to produce. |
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Reply | Sent to Coventry (hopefully not again) QPR vs Coventry Match Thread
at 22:23 1 Feb 2026
Thank f?ck there is someone who has a balanced and well-reasoned perspective Dorse. We need more of this from your colleague/friend/associate.
Surely he must also have a view on why our U20 players are not playing like seasoned professionals and our old timers don’t run around like rabbits? We need more
from him along those lines. Also some criticism for the manager for being French in charge of a football team and for smiling too much.
Your associate is letting the fan base and this Board down by not ranting incoherently a lot more. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 12:52 31 Jan 2026
I agree Hunter. But I didn’t say we were paupers or paying peanuts. I was responding to Simmos’s post which seemed to be saying we should be doing better than we are performance wise because we were spending more than other teams (given the correlation between high-spend and quality of player). I was pointing out that just looking at one season in isolation is misleading because it other teams spent huge amounts in the previous two seasons then they would be more than comparable to us. And actually Hull has spent a lot more than we have over that time and the teams that have spent similar amounts to us may have spent more on players that are at their peak now whereas we have spent more for the future.
We are also gambling on these players coming good. Wrexham are gambling on instant success. It was adding some context not disagreeing totally with what Simmo was saying. Not providing the whole picture seems misleading. I previously looked at other clubs and how much they had spent on transfers and it’s not just Hull but I’m abroad on my phone so can’t easily do that now but while we have spent a lot, it’s only to stay in touch with most other clubs not exceeding them and other clubs have spent a lot more than us, not just the parachute tears (Preston from memory was the outlier) .
I am also a bit worried about how much we are spending on salaries too as I don’t want us to be sliding towards PSR unsustainability. Also some of the teams
I mentioned who’ve spent a lot more have done so because they have already sold players for a lot so we could be in trouble if we don’t manage to do that. But that doesn’t change my point that we are not spending vast sums compared to most clubs in the Championship so we shouldn’t be better than them based on tbat metric alone. |
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Reply | Christian Nourry - Two Year Anniversary
at 08:10 31 Jan 2026
Not really fair to compare two seasons net spend with team performance when we’ve hardly had time to unearth the next Eze, develop and sell him over the last two years in order to fund our current squad. Hull has spent over £50 million in transfers over the last three seasons and I’m guessing a lot more on Oli McBurnie on a free and Joe Gelherdt on loan from Leeds in wages than we are on Kone and Burrell. Now this was funded over selling players like Philogene but you have to have a system that unearths them and be patient enough to do that.
We’re also competing against Wrexham who are spending on gnarly old pros like Moore, Rathbone and Windass. No resale value, big wages, but won’t blow up in the last four minutes of matches and probably good at conning refs. But what happens in two seasons time if they don’t go up and Disney stops funding them.
We could probably look at other teams who’ve also got more expensive squads across the division too in Ipswich, Leicester, Southampton, Sheffield Utd, Norwich, Bristol City, Cov (sold Gyokeres for tens of millions), Middlesbrough, Stoke, WBA. I’m guessing they’ve all spent more than us over the last three seasons and therefore have a more expensively put together squad, many of which will now be on their prime. So we’re performing pretty much on track on the pitch and to some extent above our potential given the age profile of our squad compared to some of these teams.
So some of our assessment has to be guesswork. Will our current squad have the upside to bring transfer fees in and then fund the next Toney or Mitrovic? I have some beiief that we will get money for Burrell and at least one other of our squad. If we
can do that and then buy the next Burrell then we could be Hull or even Cov in two seasons time. I have no idea if it will happen and can’t judge Nourry favourably or unfavourably on guesswork. But I would say I prefer our strategy in terms of squad building to Wrexham’s even though their financial strategy is working well it’s not really something anyone could replicate what with having film stars owning it etc |
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Reply | Rest of the Championship thread 25/26
at 09:18 29 Jan 2026
https://www.besoccer.com/team/
Does make you think.
Makes me think is this really true. According to this website they have seven players out including two hamstring injuries, two muscle injuries and two ACLs.
I know our injury situation hasn’t been satisfactory for the last two seasons but other teams aren’t all perfect. |
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Reply | Four minutes of madness – Report
at 06:54 27 Jan 2026
Yes they are but managed to bring in Oli McBurnie on a free (4 year contract though on a big salary I’m guessing so it’s a gamble on a 29 year old) and Joe Gelherdt from Leeds on loan. The former has got 11 goals and six assists and the latter ten goals and two assists. They also spent £31 million last season (largely funded by selling Philogene and Greaves) and £11 million the season before so not exactly bare bones.
Transfer embargoes are not always the punishment they first appear. |
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Reply | Frey
at 06:11 27 Jan 2026
Always trust what David Mc says. Pretty sure it must be true. |
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Reply | Frey
at 06:07 27 Jan 2026
Spot on Myke. I think he’s been pretty much the model professional and the right sort whatever his limitations for the kind of football we want to play in the Championship. He trained on his own to get fit for pre-season, never caused trouble when he wasn’t picked and absolutely did his best on the pitch. Always noticed him celebrating our goals and wins even when on the bench and then he is happy to go when it suits the club and we even get a fee for him.
Similar to Lyndon Dykes who gets similar stick despite a similar profile of limited but whole hearted contributions to the club. Always have a soft spot for Lyndon too.
He also scored some vital goals for us last season despite being injured for quite a lot of it. [Post edited 27 Jan 6:14]
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Reply | Marti gone...
at 20:41 25 Jan 2026
For me he did a decent job with us. He kept us in the league which was fantastic given the previous useless three managers without surpassing our potential.
He is probably better than many Leicester fans think but not as good as many QPR fans think he is (tippy tappy at the back and delayed subs too).
Given the choice I’d rather keep Stephan than have Marti back even if it was an option. I think he will develop players more over time. |
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Reply | Just back
at 02:33 25 Jan 2026
Very disappointing but I’m not devastated in one way. I thought we played much better in the first half than we have since before Christmas. Madsen was unplayable for the first half hence them practically beating him up a couple of times (no card of course), same with Mbengue nearly having his leg chopped off.
How the f*ck did they only end up with two yellow cards though? Absolutely disgraceful performance from another ref. And Kabore could have murdered someone and not got even a yellow card.
That aside it was largely naivety that lost us that match. Probably down to them having an average age of 27 and us 24. They played us basically in that second half (and Mbengue and Smyth were targeted all match). That’s why they’ve got older players - more expensive but huge amount of guile in Moore, Windass and Rathbone. We had a 19 year old and 20 year old to bring on up front in contrast.
Lots of lessons need to be learned of course but I’m encouraged that we can play really well despite not having a lot of our first team available against a side near us in the table on a good run. Absolutely don’t get why we’d want to sack the manager. Are our memories of Beale, Ainsworth, Critchley et al fading so quickly. Yes he’s got some much better players than we had last season but many of them are raw and atm injured. He’s not perfect but we’ve made progress and really don’t want to tear that up and start again halfway through the season. |
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Reply | Would a newby be a booby ? Match thread
at 10:22 24 Jan 2026
Like that idea but doesn’t get round the issue of the CDs playing so deeply but does add am extra ball playing DM who can bring the ball out from deep.
Moore may not start as Smith has scored quite a few goals too.
I’m going for 2-2. Can’t see them not scoring but at home with the crowd may spur us on a bit. |
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Reply | Sam field
at 09:56 23 Jan 2026
Except that Varane has done almost double the number of tackles, clearances and interceptions per 90 minutes compared to either of the other two (according to Sofascore). I’m sure that’s why he gets picked ahead of them.
We have to sell him if a decent offer comes in to keep up the plans to develop and build over time. But certainly defensively we would miss JV from the team. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 15:09 22 Jan 2026
Yes I agree we had a poor injury situation then too.
That would be a big downer. Having said that we’ve got a couple of players who’ve come in and with a bit of luck some players due to come back in well before April so hopefully we’ll steady the ship.
Also we’ve got no midweek matches until February 24th now so we’ve got more time on the training pitch and more rest in between matches for our players that have been flogged like Kone, Madsen, Dunne and Cook. We’ve got a couple of tough matches at home with Wrexham and Cov but then hopefully a bit easier/players coming back with Charlton and Blackburn. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 10:40 22 Jan 2026
Yes just checked Dave we had 35 points after 27 matches last season having had a really good run from November until January and 38 points after 28 - spot on. We then went into a big slump and lost eight out of the next twelve from the 25th January until April. We only won two matches and drew two.
Let’s hope we don’t go into one of those spirals. [Post edited 22 Jan 10:42]
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Reply | Hoopsa on Oxford point and Wrexham preview
at 09:56 22 Jan 2026
Yes that’s my theory. Largely based on the difference it made when JCS was able to play for us for a few matches. It definitely seemed to me that we were less hemmed into in and around our box. I also think it was similar with RE last season. Other teams press us because we struggle with Cook and Jimmy to get past the first press and because our DMs have to drop back further because of the CDs lack of pace.
Will be interesting to see whether this comes to pass! |
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Reply | Hoopsa on Oxford point and Wrexham preview
at 08:33 22 Jan 2026
I think part of the answer is Ronnie. Not sure how whether at CD paired with JD or defensive mid with Madsen but I think he’s going to improve our passing and mobility out of our own third. |
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