The Rolling Footbal Thread: Season 2026/27

[DuncinToffee]

New season, new thread

All things football ⚽

Late FIL was a toffee.

I am already bored with the international break

I have been bored for a week already!

Huddersfield are playing tomorrow without Joe Taylor because he's in the Wales squad but he hasn't even made the bench yet which is frustrating considering he's so important for us and has started the season well.

So I'm over the international break too even though we only didn't play last weekend.

Yes. Same here.

I was until about fifteen seconds into the second half when a Norwegian defender was sent off.

The win for Wales was unexpected, home it continues against Denmark.

Particularly with the extra added injuries we now have...

Yes, that is the other issue.

No first choice goalkeeper, no wingback, no manager.
I don't expect you to pray for us but just a tiny bit of sympathy maybe?

I just wish you were playing us tomorrow. 😆

In all seriousness, definitely have some sympathy. It's beyond silly that only 3 games are going ahead tomorrow.

The UAE are threatening to withdraw billions of pounds worth of investments from the UK because of the Man City charges.

Then they need to be told to fuck off to the far side of fuck, and then keep fucking off until they reach a sign telling them that they can't fuck off beyond that point. And then they need to keep fucking off.

But we need their investment.

No one else is investing.

Well there's a UK tax evading bloke living in Monaco who is a billionaire...

And some Yankee bros who are also billionaires...

For the purposes of doubt, forever Manchester United.

That's what they'd like us to believe.

And if we're going to sell out our country to them then what's the fucking point.

and then they need to come back and repeat the process

Yes, threatening the UK government will go down well

And I thought they were claiming they don't own Man City?

The threat to the government is appalling, we'll have to wait and see what happens. I thought Andy Burnham's intervention the other day was dreadful, and I'm glad that Downing Street rowed back on it.

I'm also fed up with the international break, and there are still two matches to go for England. The long break has only one redeeming feature: we might have a lot of our injured players back.

Well, we do need their investment, so we will lose out as we cannot be held to blackmail.

What a mess.

Yes, but he knows first hand how important their investment is which is why he said it. And of course they had to row back.

Burton did you a few favours today though. 🤣 I'm not sure they'd do that nicely for you on another day!
I'm reasonably happy, a point probably fair and I'd have snapped your hand off for one at 2.30 but we did have chances to win at the end.

PS. Talk to me about Michael Duff if you have the time and/or inclination please. 😊

Christmas came early today with their gifts. I have no idea what their goalkeeper was thinking playing the ball to his feet on the line like that, Ashley Fletcher hasn't had the best start for us but even he couldn't miss that. 😂

I thought it was a mistake for us to sack Michael Duff, we had lost 7 games out of the previous 11 but we were also still 7th in the league at the time and still had a shot at playoffs when he was dismissed. We also went 16 matches undefeated with him.

He's a good manager. He can be a bit dull at times, can keep the shackles on more creative players which I think can cause frustration for the fans (our fans called it ''Duff ball'') but overall, I was happy with him when he was at Town.

I think he'll do a good job at Bradford.

Thank you 😊 That's really helpful. Did he commute from Cheltenham with you? I'm reading that he lives in Cheltenham during the week and would work remotely and travel to wherever he's working at the weekend? I'm a bit concerned about that for the continuity but I'm actually feeling more positive about it than I was. I think he plays a similar style to what is already set up for us and he is quite adaptable from what I've read. He's been sacked a lot but from what you say and from what I understand from Barnsley and Wycombe, they were all premature. He left all three teams in a better place than when he started.
There's no big names that really stand out and all the people that have been mentioned have good and bad points. Nobody is going to please 20,000 people!

There is an Arsenal social media guy-twitter/tiktok etc (Rory talks football) and he did a very interesting piece on the foreign investment from other countries into the UK and that their percentage is actually very small.

We absolutely can not be held to ransom over this.
Another reason why the "fit and proper" owner criteria vital.

He did and from what I understand, he's quite set on that as his children are settled in schools etc. It did bother me slightly but he does seem to generally make it work. He did outstanding at Barnsley especially and actually left for Swansea rather than getting dismissed which I think was a mistake as Swansea just wasn't his style at all but I suppose he wanted a shot in the Championship. He turned Wycombe around last season too.

I think it will be a good fit for Bradford. Oh yeah, absolutely and sometimes you can be surprised too, I had high hopes with Darren Moore for example and was so disappointed but have been overall pleasantly surprised with Martin Drury so far. I just want consistency with us now, I don't want us to become the League 1 Watford with a different manager every 5 minutes.