Since I left Ainthorpe I joined the RN and lived elsewhere until landing in Brid in 2007. I have not been a Mad Forum member unfortunately. Wherever I lived be it abroad or in the Uk I had the Sports Mail posted to me. My Mrs birthday is on the 15th Feb, mine on the 21st so for 6 days I’m 4 years younger than her which is something I always remind her about.
Why are you limiting it to Turks? Is Shota a Turk? ... And why limit to full internationals? 21's and 23's would get a work permit too. You say that 'it's harder now' to get a work permit. It's not, just EU nationals now need one also. Non-EU citizens is the same rules as always. Turkey and Georgia, several states under the UEFA and CONCAF umbrella are, and never have been and never will be EU. Its the same rules as always, if not now a tad easier - if you have a profession and reasonable expectation of a 80k + income.
I can't quite believe we've now won 4 games on the bounce. And, for now, pulled ourselves out of trouble. I still think GM is for the chop as I assume Acun already has plans in place. GM is doing his prospects for getting his next job no harm though. Lets hope it continues and he has a 100% record for however long it takes for the takeover to be finalised.
Did Acun say that he already has four people on the ground watching every game? Surely they are seeing the transition, based on a forced change of set-up, and players who heretofore hardly ever made an appearance (e.g. McLoughlin) putting in excellent shifts. To me, that doesn't bode well for Grant - the success seems to be down to enforced changes in set-up and personnel. Also, if Wilks is picked every game, yet shows limited enthusiasm, does this not also suggest that Grant may be intimidated by some of his more senior players? Who or what is controling this new found success - the Manager or the fickleness of fate?
Why can't it be both? We were very unlucky to lose as many in a row as we did, but McCann didn't help things, and we're now seeing that variance turn in our favour to string some wins together, helped by a change of formation implemented by the manager (not necessarily by choice).
Technically it's a win, win, win win, for the Club and McCann. If he (probably) goes his record might not look as bad at this level and sets him up for a new job elsewhere if his exit terms have been agreed. For the (probably) new manager it gives a breathing space which we did not have 5 games ago, shows which players and system works best with what we have in the short term. Nb, 'probably' does not denote any ITK - just 'guessing' like most of us
The requirements to get a work permit to play football in the UK are pretty tricky to negotiate. Before, because of the EU rules, many players (such as Tijani Belaid), didn't need one because they had French or some other nationality as well. Players outside the EU were pretty much a write off unless they played for a nation in the top 75 consistently. Now, the same rules apply to EU players, but that has made it harder because the nations in the top 75 mostly comprise players who wouldn't drop to the Championship, or they play in leagues that aren't good enough to make the step up (China, Nigeria etc). Gone are the days when the EFL could just cherry pick players, there's now a lot more involved. You have to offer silly money (relative to us) in order to get around work permit issues. You can get something called an exceptional talent visa (paraphrasing, could be called something else), but they usually go to your special talents that are under 21.
No doubt there are fine margins which play a big part. Last 4 games we've scored the first goal which helps enormously, and before this run we barely ever scored first (just the Boro game in fact?). That's something that could easily go either way and change the whole story of a game. It isn't necessarily as black and white as we were bad and now we're good, although there is an obvious increase in confidence now that we're on this run, on the pitch and in the stands too. Couldn't have seen us scoring yesterday's second goal a few weeks ago, if that makes sense.
never a shortage of what? fuel?... agree Still shortages of drivers though. Not as bad as it was, but I know someone with lorries sat idle as he can't get anyone to drive them, despite increasing wages
It isn't luck to win a few but the injuries have forced him into adopting a different formation which has helped. Whatever the reason and no matter how good or bad or indifferent he is we need the change. And he most probably does. I for one hope he goes out having won all of his final games.
Fully agree. If I had faith that he has learnt harsh lessons and grown accordingly, I'd be more inclined to wish he stays on. But that sentence is (near enough) exactly the same comment I made back in summer. Even now he isn't coming out and saying anything to acknowledge that he made massive mistakes in sticking so stubbornly to tactics that week after week, month after month weren't working in the Championship, and to acknowledge that the change in set up is a, maybe even the, major factor in the upturn. If he says it after the Allams have gone, then for me it shows he isn't sufficiently strong, as in his own man, to be a successful manager and is not what our club needs. Sorry but he blew it a long time ago for me.
We've still only scored 16 all season... 4 on the first day.... thankfully as the learned Ern' has said we have at least defended (especially the last few games) ok... only 7 teams have conceded less than us... time for this team to take the step up... without the current manager..