If it wasn't for bad luck,we'd have no luck at all.

So Skuse is likely to be out for a while.Ive not always been his greatest fan but this latest news isn't going to help our slim chances of survival.

 

Midfield of chalobah Downes bishop and Dozzell.. .with a combined age of 22

 

And now Ward is out for nine months!Not his biggest fan but never like to see a player suffer a bad injury,so best wishes for your recovery Grant.

 

Shame it wasn't one of the loanees so we can send back

 

Blimey. It’s hard to see him coming back from that to a glittering career, but never nice.

 

Get well soon Grant.

Sorry to say.......you won't be missed though

 

Even if that was the case, and it was a season long loan - the other party would have to agree to an early termination so that would be incredibly unlikely to happen.

Get well soon Wardy.

Bishop injured again? Not in the last 2 squads.

 

The other party would have to agree if we said they're not in our plans and won t get any game time...in any case, it's only Donacien and Edun that it affects. Graham has gone, and I believe Walters deal has been terminated.

 

Yeah we can certainly do something with Graham / Walters and I think Edun will return - so think 3 loanees possible!

 

Sad news for Grant Ward. I'm arguably a bit more appreciative / hopeful of Ward's ability than many on here, but we must avoid picking up these long-term injuries to experienced players. His contract is up this summer (albeit with a one year extension option for us) and I wonder if we'll trigger it just to keep him financially secure while he's recovering from injury. Alternatively, if we're down in the third tier and need to reduce the wage budget, then Ward is in a vulnerable position.

 

In no position to trigger that deal really.

If we go down, we'll

1 - Lose around £6.5 million of revenue from tv / media straight off the bat.
2 - Revenue in league 1 is allowed I believe at 60% of turnover. I believe players who are under FIRST YEAR of contract are exempt from this ruling.... however we'd have to trim that wage bill significantly to comply with league 1 rules and regulations.

Really must find a way to survive. I've banged on about judging Lambert at the end of January - and while that very well be the case / unfair to judge him until he's got his own players in -

Next three league games are vital, they take us to the 27 game total with a mere 19 to play.

Boro A = okay a point would be a bonus.....
Millwall + Rotherham H - absolute minimum 4 points required in my opinion.

7 point gap now with a worse goal difference looks tough,,,,,,,, but if that goes out to 9/10/11 points with 19 to play? We'd really be in multiple snookers required.

See what happens but a critical bit of time coming - we'll know a hell of a lot more come January 12 after Rotherham.

 

If you're expecting Lambert to be able to overhaul the squad to any meaningful degree Westy you're living in cloud cuckoo land.I suspect he knew when he took on the job he would have to largely work with what was available (and sold himself to our skinflint owner on that basis and his "positivity").On that score I'm afraid he really hasn't improved our situation

 

You could well be right BigAl, regarding signings.

Over you you Marcus.

 

Boro game is a free hit. Anything would be a bonus. If we are by some miracle going to survive, I think we need 6 points from millwall and Rotherham games

 

I don't get the "free hit" notion....not in the state we are in. No game is a free hit. We could be 10 points from safety after this game. We need to go into EVERY game trying to win, be it Millwall, Rotherham or whoever is top.
Don't get me wrong, i don't we'll get anything out of this game, but we have to start closing the gap to a realistic level of 2-3 points.
If we keep staying at 6-10 points (or worse), then it really does become mission impossible. At the moment though, it's still just manageable, but only just.

 

I'm a cross between Stretchy and Royston on this - While we cannot really afford to be free hits with fixtures like this, WBA away to play, Norwich away.......... are sides us likely to go to grounds like that and pick up much, away to good sides with quality players? Very much unlikely, and not really where our battle lies this season.

What I will say, is be incredibly interesting to see the line up for Boro - considering the fitness of our midfield, Harrison, and the very important Millwall game shortly after this.

 

The points gap at any stage really makes no difference to anything. We need to make 45-50 by May and that’s all that matters.

If we lose to Middlesbrough and then beat Millwall and Rotherham we stay very much in the game, so in that sense Borough is a free hit and if we get any points it’s less that we need to chalk off later.

WDLLWW - 10 points of a possible 18 - would be there or thereabouts good enough form to see us to around the safety mark.

 

We can only dream of back to back wins!!

 

Waghorn just scored a peach fir derby v soton...,(sigh).

 

And we could have had Lampard if the owner had been prepared to back him. It’s a very long list of ifs and buts.