Dan

Bloke is mental but he's clearly very capable at that level.

This may be what saves them then!

didn't know that. I can only conclude he went to Stoke because of geography. That club is a black hole for anything good these days. I've got a mate who supports them who has seen them score as many goals this season in about 15-20 games watching them (9 goals) as I've seen us score in 2 games past their manager.

I think Stoke are bang in the shit. They're just awful. I thought it before yesterday as well.

I will confess, I've been watching guidance so I think I'm quite well informed (though I find this as good information beyond just FPL) but even still I seem to be nailing pretty much 90% of what I do. Really does feel like it keeps falling my way.

I'm having the most absurdly good season I've ever had. I'm up to 13k overall.

Fucking hell

I'm delighted with that. Said in this thread I thought our price was absurd and really wish I'd stuck a few on the handicaps. That had all the ingredients for a battering - they're a disjointed side who are currently trying to get going under a quite attacking manager. He's lost 4-0 and 5-0 to us this season. Class above from us and frankly after some of the talk this week this is the perfect tonic. We needed a heavy win like this. Nobody can ever call winning 5-0 boring.

You've actually won. Happened to spot this now by pure chance - I'll give you the same chance I gave to Stan. You can either cash in your winner as a single or you can pick something else to become a double.

We haven't just not strengthened though, we have weakened. The Sensi fiasco, which is yet another circus to be overseen by this regime, has distracted people including lots of our own fans that we are considerably down on where we entered the window. These things all happened in January: - Iversen was loaned out to Stoke. That's no loss despite the fact I think he's perfectly capable at this level, but we have a very good goalkeeper and a backup that looks increasingly impressive too. A shame for me that we couldn't sell him when for example Cardiff would go on to buy Horvath this very month. Opportunity for some money missed, unless he's sold in the summer. - Thomas was sent back by Sheffield United and then loaned to Middlesbrough. - Ndidi got injured until April. - Casadei was recalled by Chelsea. My issue is less about Sensi, although the way it's come about is embarrassing for the club, but it's more that we are two midfielders down on where we were until April. If we get a loanee in, essentially a Casadei like for like - great. This should've been the preferred option when it appeared that Sensi wasn't a done deal, which many of us assumed it was. Now I know most of the league will have the tiniest violin out for us here but it's besides the point. This is a four horse race, one we are winning, but one we have not yet won, and there is no doubt in my eyes we're the only one of the four to not only not go forwards, but go backwards. We've just got to hope Maresca doesn't down tools like Rodgers did. I don't think that's what he's about, but I think we've broken trust with him now and he's really not too enamoured by us. I'm quite confident having spoken to a bit of an FFP whizz that Dewsbury-Hall goes early in the summer too. He's our most sellable asset by a mile and it increasingly appears we're going to have to sell one. It's just too many cockups under this lot.

I'm going to take a slightly different angle for my other. So Cheltenham at 2.55 (31/20) is my first (that's come down). The other is Burton v Lincoln to end in a draw at 3.25 (9/4). Part of this comes from something I've been doing lately, a process that I'm putting to the rest in picking games to end in draws. While it's obviously not flawless, I am finding a bit of an edge in backing draws if the odds imply there is both a little between the two teams and that there aren't likely to be many goals. This game ticks both boxes, with both being pretty impressively dour in recent weeks. Draws are risky, but the prices are fairly good on the whole, and I need some decent priced winners now so I think I'm going to be going up this route a bit. £10 returns £82.88.

A banker they are not, I agree, but being priced as slight underdogs at home is crazy to me. You've got to remember that Cheltenham under Elliott got 1 point and 0 goals in their first 11 games yet have in Clarke's time had I think the 10th best record in the league while Wycombe are pretty clearly one of the worst sides in the division on the road. Cheltenham's upturn under Clarke has been borderline miraclous. They are likely to survive this season despite the worst first quarter of a season on record. If any Cheltenham fan reads this, I would like to apologise for tomorrow.

Cheltenham are my first. Absurd price.

Context: We fucked up the Sensi deal and left ourselves with no alternative. So to sum up our window... In: Thomas (Returned from loan) Out: Iversen (Stoke, loan), Thomas (Middlesbrough, loan), Smithies (retired), Casadei (recalled) With Ndidi out until April as well. There's a part of me that thinks we fuck this. We've managed to successfully fuck Maresca over so he'll be livid now. I'm not quite at the point of thinking we won't go up, but we're leaving this more to chance than we needed to and it really didn't need anything major. Just get a fucking loanee in for fuck sake if Sensi is too complicated a deal. We flew him over, did the announcement videos, the medical and everything, and tomorrow he's on his way back to Milan. Really have had enough of this clown director of football who can do literally no wrong in the owners eyes. It's pathetic.

It tallies up. Just a really poor player and miles off it for me.

With the greatest of respect he looked about a League Two, possibly even National League player to me. I've no idea how he got a deal here.

Another absolute embarrassment from this ownership and director of football. When are our fans going to wake up to these lot.

I know what you mean. It's not a fixture we tend to win often. It's usually always a draw.

I'm going to regret this. Torino.

@Stan we're so overpriced to win this game but I can't do 'it', it's too risky.

Luton genuinely might do this. They're no joke at home at all. Brighton really aren't all that this season. Don't know if it's as simple as them struggling to juggle Europe but they've been really off it for most of the season. I'm actually quite surprised they're in the top half still. Had a feeling Newcastle were going to get a result at Villa but bottled having them to actually win and just went for a draw. I think they're going to upturn again. I believe there is something in the theory in that they were very fatigued and that having a couple of weeks break has done them the world of good. Two good away wins since coming back.

WEEK 26 - SIX LOSERS FROM FIVE BETS! WEEK 26 STATS Winning bets: 0/5 Winning selections: 2/10 Weekly forum position: -£50.00 (Ranked 21/26) --- OVERALL STATS Winning bets: 44/176 Winning selections: 151/332 Total forum position: -£354.91 This really was an absolute shocker of a week with an astoundingly low number of selections landing, not a single player winning a bet and to really rub salt into the wound, I've discovered another accounting fault which has penalised one player in particular. I'll get that bit out of the way. @RandoEFC is £20 down on last week rather than the £10 the table says, and moves down to 8th, as I've missed off a previous loss unfortunately. To really rub salt in the wound, I can't seem to land anything where I put my money where my mouth is, and yet; The corners pick was one of only two single selections to land this weekend, but the Serie B game that promised goals actually delivered a Serie B game. A double whammy. @CaaC (John) continues his poor form with a sixth straight loss, no magic of the cup this time as neither Villa or Spurs managed even a goal, let alone a win in their ties. Starting to wonder if the ultra long shots are worth a return! @Stan's winning run is over following a double blank. Devante Cole blanking for Barnsley in their loss to Exeter, and Juventus remarkably failing to beat an abject Empoli at home, though two things of note from that game - Arkadiusz Milik was sent off in the first half for Juventus, and Empoli have just appointed the man who is supposedly the survival specialist of Italy and in truth, his record stacks up. In 2016/17 he kept Crotone up from a position of having just 9 points from their opening 19 games, and in 2021/22 he did similarly at Salternitana. He's taken over Empoli in similarly dire straits, so they may well be a team to keep an eye on now - even if this result was probably a bit lucky. Then we come to the slightly more controversial. I've decided due to fairness that I agree with @Lucas in that we won't include things such as acca boost or 2 goal payout, as we had our first instance all season this weekend of a bet that would've lost in a regular form, but won on Bet365's early payout. It was settled however when Senegal blew it against Ivory Coast, a result that also sank myself. It was written, but in truth, Senegal really didn't turn up at all and despite taking a very early lead they just didn't really do anything, they sat in and hoped to never be broken down, a risky strategy that backfired. In the twist of twists, Ivory Coast are now the second favourites to win the whole thing! So yeah, a really rubbish week on the whole, unfortunately.

They're the definition of soft-centred. The ease of our goal within three minutes was laughable.

Cakewalk. We weren't at our best tonight and we could've very conceivably hit 5. Some of Swansea's play was nice but some of it was just absolutely brain-dead.