I’m sure some will argue the point but after today’s Southend v Oldham game I’d say the domestic season was done and so here’s the thread for the next. Sorry to see you Leeds fans go but feel free to discuss your FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Vertu Trophy exploits here.
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I’m taking that as a warm welcome to Saints, Ipswich and Leicester fans! 
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It’s Sunday morning. I can’t be expected to remember everything 
An especially warm welcome to all three as I’m hoping to make it to all three grounds this season.
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Well, thanks a lot Mike!
Just when I thought I could put thoughts of a nightmare season away for a couple of months you sow thoughts of another nightmare season that probably awaits…
Just because you have something to look forward to!
Aw come on. By tomorrow we’re officially into pre-season and we all have something to look forward to whether rational or otherwise.
We have something to look forward to in that we’ve not been at this level for 43 years and we’re the only team in there who have never been in the EPL. Outside of that though it’s a season full of potentially huge negatives and, honestly, I’d rather be in your position than ours in many respects.
One only has to look at the ambition of our owners versus the real world outcomes for those teams who fly too close to that particular sun. The parallels with our last experience are also interesting and relevant.
We spent big on (the wrong bits of) the ground and spent big on the team. We lost key players to long term and career ending injury and the one star we bought at great cost never really took off due to lack of form and injury. It gently lit a decline and then free fall which started in 79 and lasted until 93.
This time around we’re going in with the lowest crowd capacity in the division because we’re dropping the temporary stand to finally build the Kop. We have no training ground with which to be able to attract talent and our academy is playing catch up after 20 years of being non-existent. We have an Inter like top heavy squad who will cost us dearly to pay off, a squad limit of 25 which will remove some players we’d have ideally kept and arguably 7 players of Championship standard. More likely, taking into account fitness etc., we have 3 or 4.
Having lots of money isn’t going to move the dial on lots of these issues. Most just take time and we may find ourselves relegated and having less money to complete the infrastructure projects etc. before we have even blinked.
If we’re really going to even survive then it’s likely Reynolds goes to generate money etc. Mcilhenney is the hot head of the two so that won’t be good either.
Very much looking forward to the challenges but, yeah, overall I’d rather be you.
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If we can find a manager I’ll be reasonably optimistic!
I don’t believe that for a second John
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Very much looking forward to the 25/26 season. Transfer window now opens and Pompey will probably sign six or seven players. Obviously prospects for the season will be influenced by those signings but I’m optimistic. At the start of the 23/24 season I was hopeful that Mousinho would get us into the playoffs, and we won the division. At the start of the 24/25 season I just hoped for survival and would have settled for finishing 21st, but despite some worrying spells and an endless string of injuries we finished in 16th. So I think it fair to say that Mousinho has over-achieved. For 25/26 I hoping we can settle into a solid mid-table team, avoiding the scares of the 24/25. 
PUP
I think he’s an excellent young manager and you did well to hold your nerve during that tricky start and keep him there when others would have happily pressed the ejector seat.
You’re on my list of grounds I must visit this season. Very much looking forward to it.
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Finally confirmed Liam Manning is our new manager.
I’m happy as long as we get away from tip tap football in our own penalty area.
I’m sure he’ll improve our fitness and make us more competitive having seen his Bristol team last season.
Much unhappiness at Brizzle about the style of play; poor buys who didn’t deliver and a commitment to players who have been loyal to him.
Then again, talk to Wrexham fans prior to Blackpool away and you’d hear two of those three complaints very loudly.
From your first paragraph he will feel completely at home at Carrow Road from the off.
It sounds like the perfect fit.
On a serious note, I am keeping an open mind at the moment, not bubbling with enthusiasm. However, this is exactly what I felt when Lambert & Farke (oh dear, sounds like a cigarette brand) were appointed.
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Oh dear, the merry go round starts again as the Boro sack Michael Carrick, after conducting their end of season review. A hugely popular figure in the club on a personal level, but has come up short on the footballing side. Over the last couple of seasons he has had to deal with horrendous injury lists and key players being sold in the January transfer windows. The latter point he knew too well as that was part of the “model” the club was implementing. However, he seemed to overcome these two issues and have the club in the playoff positions or thereabouts. Where he struggled was not having a plan B with the playing style, plus a perceived lack of in game management to affect the outcome of a game. Too many games took on a groundhog day feel as the same lack of activity from the sidelines increased fans frustrations. I actually don’t think that Steve Gibson wanted to sack Carrick, more that MC could not agree on some of the clubs recommendations for moving forward. Shame.
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Has been pretty unlucky with injuries and, talking to my mate and wife, who travel up from Manchester to watch all Boro home games, they share your frustration with the in game management side. Will be interesting to see who comes in next. Always get the sense Gibson appoints people he likes on a personal level so he probably struggles to sack any of them.
Not sure I have ever bought the Plan B argument. Klopp and Guardiola have no plan B. A vanishingly small number of managers do because it doesn’t really work. If it did then they’d all be at it. Fans are obsessed with it as a concept though.
Boro very much on my radar as a ground to visit. Not been since it was Ayresome and John Neal was in charge.
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Okay then… Gulp…
“Wrexham AFC, the Welsh football club owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, is considering selling a stake for a valuation of up to £350 million ($475 million), people familiar with the matter said.
The club is working with investment bank advisers to canvas demand from potential investors, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Reynolds and McElhenney bought Wrexham for about £2 million in 2021. Since then, the club’s profile has been raised significantly thanks to a documentary chronicling the actors’ ownership. Earlier this year, Wrexham’s valuation hit roughly £100 million after the Allyn family from New York acquired a near-15% stake.
Internal talks are focused on how to raise capital to help Wrexham compete in the EFL Championship, the division to which it has just been promoted for the first time in more than 40 years. The Championship sits one tier below the Premier League in English football.
A new valuation of around $475 million would easily make Wrexham the most expensive team in the Championship; Sheffield United FC, which just missed out on promotion to the Premier League, was recently bought by a US consortium at a valuation of roughly £111 million.
Wrexham’s promotion to the Championship has been a rare example of well-known US investors succeeding in turning around the fortunes of a British football club. Wrexham’s last reported accounts showed revenue of more than £26 million in League Two.
The team’s next results are expected to be £30 million to £40 million for its latest season in League One, one person said. Wrexham expects sales of about £50 million in the Championship thanks to increased revenue from broadcasting, sponsorship and publicity tied to its star owners, the person said.
It’s unclear if Wrexham will be able to convince investors to buy in at such an increased valuation. Talks are at an early stage and no final decisions have been taken, the people said. A spokesman for Wrexham declined to comment.
The club not only needs capital to add new talent to compete in the Championship, often seen as one of the hardest leagues in which to achieve promotion, but also funds for a new, roughly 7,000-seater stand that will boost capacity at its stadium.”
& for me a fond farewell to Saints, Ipswich, Leicester & everyone else in the Championship. I am still in shock & mourning and currently processing the rumours of the players we will be losing: a mixture of those that don’t fancy our drop to Div1 and the meagre talent we have that will likely be snapped up. Bouncing back is looking very unlikely.
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For me this is exactly the reason our fans should fear a tilt at the EPL.
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In related news…
Watch this space.