1. Where on earth to start with Saturday’s appalling spectacle? City and Reading served up about us dismally tepid a fixture as you could ever want not to see. If we’ve seen a worse game of football in the past decade, then mercifully our minds have erased it. It was truly, almost memorably awful.
2. City did show at least a modicum of attacking intent, unlike Reading. They should be absolutely ashamed of turning up to a side as poor and off-form as ours and sitting back for a draw – and no, two first-half injuries aren’t an excuse for that. They were pathetic, and if that negativity comes back to bite them on the arse in May, good. It deserves to.
3. That City couldn’t break down a side – a poor side – with no particular interest in moving forward is damning. Nigel Adkins may have sorted out the defence, as two successive clean sheets indicates, but it’s coming at a high price. We need wins, quite a few of them, and rather quickly; but this cautious approach doesn’t suggest they’re coming any time soon.
4. We go to Sunderland this weekend, and if they beat us, we could end the day joint bottom of the Championship, spared the immeasurable ignominy of 24th place only by our deceptively superior goal difference. This is a worst case scenario, as both Burton and Birmingham have to visit sides in the top ten of the Championship, but let’s not rely alone on City to actively avoid it – after all, Sunderland were bottom of the table when they all too comfortably beat us twice in the Premier League last season and for all their troubles, are equipped enough to do it again.
5. Meanwhile, there were almost certainly fewer than 12,000 in attendance on Saturday. How long before our first 11,000 crowd? And relegation or not, could 2018 see the Circle’s first four-figure home attendance for a League game?
6. Sky Sports – who may be regretting this decision in light of the Reading non-event – have chosen to televise our home game with Sheffield United next month. The Nottingham Forest fixture earlier this season saw many take the opportunity to broadcast our distaste for the Allams’ abysmal behaviour to the nation. If they refuse to act properly during the present transfer window and refuse to restore the club’s name and concessions, it’s easy to imagine a repeat, and very possibly on a larger scale. Their move.
7. City have tabled a bid for Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna to the tune of £800,000, which the Scottish side has turned down. Reports now say that City’s follow-up offer is valued at, er, £800,000. Presumably while stifling laughter and shrugging shoulders, Aberdeen have not surprisingly rejected this too. In what world does Ehab Allam live in whereby he thinks he can persuade any party to give him what he wants without actually spending the requisite cash? Aberdeen must think we’re run by an idiot. And maybe, just maybe…
8. What odds on him offering one final bid of £400,000? How long before Nigel Adkins realises he’s been taken for a mug?
9. Forest at home in the FA Cup. It’s often the case that an unexciting draw leaves one scrabbling for positives. And here’s ours: it’s winnable, and means we’ve a chance of making the fifth round. That’s about it though.
10. Have you seen the state of the ‘branding guidelines‘ supplied to HCST by the club? One page of hopelessly amateurish nonsense dated 2014/15, that has taken them months to provide. It does confirm a few things we already suspected though: 1) The now departed Tom Rowell’s assertion that there was no standing directive to not use Hull City AFC was a flat out lie. 2) The current round of fan consultation is an exercise in futility. 3) Ehab Allam’s self image does not correspond to reality. He clearly thinks he’s a brilliant, leftfield thinker, yet has no insight into how stupid he looks with each action or utterance. When you acknowledge that the ‘Governing Bodies and Media’ don’t use your inconsistent preferred branding, you’re acknowledging your own failure and lack of business nous.
http://www.ambernectar.org/blog/2018/01/things-we-think-we-think-288/
2. City did show at least a modicum of attacking intent, unlike Reading. They should be absolutely ashamed of turning up to a side as poor and off-form as ours and sitting back for a draw – and no, two first-half injuries aren’t an excuse for that. They were pathetic, and if that negativity comes back to bite them on the arse in May, good. It deserves to.
3. That City couldn’t break down a side – a poor side – with no particular interest in moving forward is damning. Nigel Adkins may have sorted out the defence, as two successive clean sheets indicates, but it’s coming at a high price. We need wins, quite a few of them, and rather quickly; but this cautious approach doesn’t suggest they’re coming any time soon.
4. We go to Sunderland this weekend, and if they beat us, we could end the day joint bottom of the Championship, spared the immeasurable ignominy of 24th place only by our deceptively superior goal difference. This is a worst case scenario, as both Burton and Birmingham have to visit sides in the top ten of the Championship, but let’s not rely alone on City to actively avoid it – after all, Sunderland were bottom of the table when they all too comfortably beat us twice in the Premier League last season and for all their troubles, are equipped enough to do it again.
5. Meanwhile, there were almost certainly fewer than 12,000 in attendance on Saturday. How long before our first 11,000 crowd? And relegation or not, could 2018 see the Circle’s first four-figure home attendance for a League game?
6. Sky Sports – who may be regretting this decision in light of the Reading non-event – have chosen to televise our home game with Sheffield United next month. The Nottingham Forest fixture earlier this season saw many take the opportunity to broadcast our distaste for the Allams’ abysmal behaviour to the nation. If they refuse to act properly during the present transfer window and refuse to restore the club’s name and concessions, it’s easy to imagine a repeat, and very possibly on a larger scale. Their move.
7. City have tabled a bid for Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna to the tune of £800,000, which the Scottish side has turned down. Reports now say that City’s follow-up offer is valued at, er, £800,000. Presumably while stifling laughter and shrugging shoulders, Aberdeen have not surprisingly rejected this too. In what world does Ehab Allam live in whereby he thinks he can persuade any party to give him what he wants without actually spending the requisite cash? Aberdeen must think we’re run by an idiot. And maybe, just maybe…
8. What odds on him offering one final bid of £400,000? How long before Nigel Adkins realises he’s been taken for a mug?
9. Forest at home in the FA Cup. It’s often the case that an unexciting draw leaves one scrabbling for positives. And here’s ours: it’s winnable, and means we’ve a chance of making the fifth round. That’s about it though.
10. Have you seen the state of the ‘branding guidelines‘ supplied to HCST by the club? One page of hopelessly amateurish nonsense dated 2014/15, that has taken them months to provide. It does confirm a few things we already suspected though: 1) The now departed Tom Rowell’s assertion that there was no standing directive to not use Hull City AFC was a flat out lie. 2) The current round of fan consultation is an exercise in futility. 3) Ehab Allam’s self image does not correspond to reality. He clearly thinks he’s a brilliant, leftfield thinker, yet has no insight into how stupid he looks with each action or utterance. When you acknowledge that the ‘Governing Bodies and Media’ don’t use your inconsistent preferred branding, you’re acknowledging your own failure and lack of business nous.
http://www.ambernectar.org/blog/2018/01/things-we-think-we-think-288/
