| What’s been most surprising to you this season? 12:33 - Mar 17 with 12554 views | Illinoisblue |
On or off the pitch?
1. The fact that members of the press/media are counted in attendance figures. (This will never make any sense)
2. Finding out the head analyst at goalkeeper,com - who convinced us to buy Muric - has zero experience in professional football and only job since leaving university was at Tesco. This is all on LinkedIn if it sounds too far fetched to be true.
3. Just how much better the ground looks now. [Post edited 17 Mar 12:35]
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:40 - Mar 17 with 1917 views | FrimleyBlue |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:25 - Mar 17 by textbackup |
On 2, that really is something I’d never have MA getting done over by. That is embarrassing and he will be hurting bad from that |
You'd imagine he'd have known though surely. |  |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:42 - Mar 17 with 1919 views | mellowblue |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 12:40 - Mar 17 by MattinLondon |
Always surprises me how many people pour onto the pitch at the end of the match from the dugouts and its immediate area. Years ago, it was just a few people and the subs, now it so many more. |
yes , back in the 70's it was just the 2 managers, 2 trainers and 2 subs or players who had been subbed. I remember at Watford the "dugout" for the away team was three unmatched brown wood dining chairs. Seems bizarre now. |  | | |
| 4. Phil Ham's wooly hat. (n/t) on 13:44 - Mar 17 with 1905 views | Bloots |
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| "The sooner he comes back the better, this place has been a disaster without him" - TWTD User (July 2025) |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:45 - Mar 17 with 1889 views | Churchman |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:37 - Mar 17 by homer_123 |
Def are a few empty around us. |
I’ve used resale three times and the seat has been snapped up every time. Once it went on at 10.30 on the Saturday and confirmation of its resale was given an hour later. If people choose not to bother like the miserable git that normally sits next to me grumbling about Harry Clarke, that’s a shame. |  | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:47 - Mar 17 with 1894 views | J2BLUE |
How disappointing life in the Prem is.
Dreamt for 20+ years for Town to get back there but it's just...I don't know...not very good?
I know some will say it's because of results but I started feeling this way less than 2 months in.
I want us to stay up because I will always want the club to be in the highest spot possible but if we did manage the impossible it would almost be tinged with a little sadness at not going back to the Championship. I remember saying this to my Norwich mate near the start of the season and he said I told you that's how it is. And he did, but I thought it was sour grapes.
To sum it up, the saying all that glitters isn't gold comes to mind. As does several lines of that review of Tim Lovejoy's book. |  |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:53 - Mar 17 with 1860 views | homer_123 |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:45 - Mar 17 by Churchman |
I’ve used resale three times and the seat has been snapped up every time. Once it went on at 10.30 on the Saturday and confirmation of its resale was given an hour later. If people choose not to bother like the miserable git that normally sits next to me grumbling about Harry Clarke, that’s a shame. |
I hear ya! |  |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:01 - Mar 17 with 1823 views | Blue_In_Boston |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:45 - Mar 17 by Churchman |
I’ve used resale three times and the seat has been snapped up every time. Once it went on at 10.30 on the Saturday and confirmation of its resale was given an hour later. If people choose not to bother like the miserable git that normally sits next to me grumbling about Harry Clarke, that’s a shame. |
So if a seat sold to a season ticket holder that remains empty counts towards the attendance, does yours count as two? The absent season ticket holder + the new purchaser. | | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:03 - Mar 17 with 1820 views | bsw72 |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:47 - Mar 17 by J2BLUE |
How disappointing life in the Prem is.
Dreamt for 20+ years for Town to get back there but it's just...I don't know...not very good?
I know some will say it's because of results but I started feeling this way less than 2 months in.
I want us to stay up because I will always want the club to be in the highest spot possible but if we did manage the impossible it would almost be tinged with a little sadness at not going back to the Championship. I remember saying this to my Norwich mate near the start of the season and he said I told you that's how it is. And he did, but I thought it was sour grapes.
To sum it up, the saying all that glitters isn't gold comes to mind. As does several lines of that review of Tim Lovejoy's book. |
But it's the best league in the world isn't it?!? |  | | |
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| 4. Phil Ham's wooly hat. (n/t) on 14:08 - Mar 17 with 1801 views | blueasfook |
| 4. Phil Ham's wooly hat. (n/t) on 13:44 - Mar 17 by Bloots |
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The smurfs called, They want their hat back. |  |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:12 - Mar 17 with 1775 views | FrimleyBlue |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:47 - Mar 17 by J2BLUE |
How disappointing life in the Prem is.
Dreamt for 20+ years for Town to get back there but it's just...I don't know...not very good?
I know some will say it's because of results but I started feeling this way less than 2 months in.
I want us to stay up because I will always want the club to be in the highest spot possible but if we did manage the impossible it would almost be tinged with a little sadness at not going back to the Championship. I remember saying this to my Norwich mate near the start of the season and he said I told you that's how it is. And he did, but I thought it was sour grapes.
To sum it up, the saying all that glitters isn't gold comes to mind. As does several lines of that review of Tim Lovejoy's book. |
I felt that way probably inside the first 2 months
It's not about the town results, but when you look at prem football and being part of it, it's actually quite sht football
Sure some of the skill, movement etc is amazing to watch, but the antics of players is just another level, it's worse because you want your players to do it so it becomes a balanced game, but I don't like my players doing that.
So much about prem football for me is painful
The Prem theme tune before games
The constant need for players to go down for 2 hours when they get a slight brush with a leg,
referees clearly whether intentional or not, but allowing certain things to be done by big clubs but clearly not the 'smaller ones'
VAR is a shambles and takes so much joy away from football, every goal we score is met with wait, is it, what could stop it being a goal.... when they score, is it, come on please be something that stops it.
I almost wish there was a level between Prem and Championship. EFL rules, so no VAR etc | |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:18 - Mar 17 with 1766 views | soupytwist |
The amount of Premier League branded rubbish that they feel is required. The arch thing that the teams parade past while doing the handshakes, the plinth the ball sits on, there's probably more. Most of it looks single use too, because it has the badges of both clubs on it. Unnecessary rubbish.
And the fact that unheralded Premier League players, like Will Hughes, are just a lot better than 99% of players coming up from the Championship. |  | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:20 - Mar 17 with 1743 views | gringoblue |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:27 - Mar 17 by stringy |
that's such a good point; I think it was the Fulham game at home that totally shocked me - they were all like running backs, enormous, fast *and* skillful - where do they come from, is this what Category A academies are now aimed at producing? |
I've often wondered how widespread doping is in football. The game now is so fast and the specimens that play at the top level so big. It is the richest game in the world, it surely must be more prevalent than the very odd occasion when someone high profile is caught (e.g. Pogba).
For years it seemed no-one was caught doping in Tennis. As the matches got longer and more brutally physical it just didn't seem plausible... and now more recently there have been bans for top players.
Do rumours of this sort thing going on circulate among players and clubs?
I do want to stress that I am not casting aspersions on any particular team or using this as an excuse for our position. |  | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:35 - Mar 17 with 1677 views | SitfcB |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:18 - Mar 17 by soupytwist |
The amount of Premier League branded rubbish that they feel is required. The arch thing that the teams parade past while doing the handshakes, the plinth the ball sits on, there's probably more. Most of it looks single use too, because it has the badges of both clubs on it. Unnecessary rubbish.
And the fact that unheralded Premier League players, like Will Hughes, are just a lot better than 99% of players coming up from the Championship. |
The badges stick on and off with velcro. |  |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:37 - Mar 17 with 1670 views | flykickingbybgunn |
Arf an' arf scarves. What sane individual wants one of them ? |  | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:37 - Mar 17 with 1667 views | soupytwist |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:35 - Mar 17 by SitfcB |
The badges stick on and off with velcro. |
Fair enough, that's slightly better then. Can't see that detail from the SAR upper. | | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:43 - Mar 17 with 1638 views | Blueschev |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:37 - Mar 17 by flykickingbybgunn |
Arf an' arf scarves. What sane individual wants one of them ? |
I saw somebody buy one before the Southampton game and was tempted to ask why they wanted it? |  | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:48 - Mar 17 with 1628 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 13:25 - Mar 17 by textbackup |
On 2, that really is something I’d never have MA getting done over by. That is embarrassing and he will be hurting bad from that |
People keep rolling out this potential meme that our recruitment of Muric was based on the expertise of a Tesco employee.
I checked it out at the time. The founder did indeed work at Tesco as a data analyst, but it appears to have been a 'fill-in' job as a result of COVID, in parallel to continuing to operate goalkeeper.com. Like many employments, it's not unreasonable to assume that recruitment of goalkeepers during COVID and 20/21 was in low demand, and it was necessary to find gainful employment elsewhere to pay the bills.
Added to that, the guy is an expert in data analysis methodologies, and may only be responsible for setting up the backend framework. CEOs rarely 'do the horse work', but employ people to run the technical side of any business. There may well be other people who have the practical professional playing experience who undertake the analysis and reporting/recommendations - just using the tools developed by him from is academic expertise.
Now I'm only speculating how goalkeeper.com might be set up, but there are far too many assumptions being made about how goalkeeper.com operates, and who does what. Only a fool would jump to these conclusions based on the limited information one can view on LinkedIn. | | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:51 - Mar 17 with 1611 views | baxterbasics |
That a seat up in the Gods with a pillar in your face obscuring half the pitch still costs £48! |  |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:51 - Mar 17 with 1610 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 12:43 - Mar 17 by Blueschev |
The huge step up in Physicality in the top division. Every team seems much bigger than us. Palace for example aren't very nice to watch, I certainly wouldn't want a season ticket, they're a team of giant athletes who are boringly effective. |
As opposed to a number of smaller, Championship players, who are excitingly ineffective?
If we ever have a crack of staying up, we'll have to start signing players with those attributes as well. That's modern football. |  |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 15:00 - Mar 17 with 1582 views | Steve_M |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:48 - Mar 17 by SuffolkPunchFC |
People keep rolling out this potential meme that our recruitment of Muric was based on the expertise of a Tesco employee.
I checked it out at the time. The founder did indeed work at Tesco as a data analyst, but it appears to have been a 'fill-in' job as a result of COVID, in parallel to continuing to operate goalkeeper.com. Like many employments, it's not unreasonable to assume that recruitment of goalkeepers during COVID and 20/21 was in low demand, and it was necessary to find gainful employment elsewhere to pay the bills.
Added to that, the guy is an expert in data analysis methodologies, and may only be responsible for setting up the backend framework. CEOs rarely 'do the horse work', but employ people to run the technical side of any business. There may well be other people who have the practical professional playing experience who undertake the analysis and reporting/recommendations - just using the tools developed by him from is academic expertise.
Now I'm only speculating how goalkeeper.com might be set up, but there are far too many assumptions being made about how goalkeeper.com operates, and who does what. Only a fool would jump to these conclusions based on the limited information one can view on LinkedIn. |
Yeah, and to add to which, the idea that we hadn't at least seen highlights of Muric's time at Burnley - the good and the bad - is for the birds. |  |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 15:00 - Mar 17 with 1572 views | BseaBlue |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:12 - Mar 17 by FrimleyBlue |
I felt that way probably inside the first 2 months
It's not about the town results, but when you look at prem football and being part of it, it's actually quite sht football
Sure some of the skill, movement etc is amazing to watch, but the antics of players is just another level, it's worse because you want your players to do it so it becomes a balanced game, but I don't like my players doing that.
So much about prem football for me is painful
The Prem theme tune before games
The constant need for players to go down for 2 hours when they get a slight brush with a leg,
referees clearly whether intentional or not, but allowing certain things to be done by big clubs but clearly not the 'smaller ones'
VAR is a shambles and takes so much joy away from football, every goal we score is met with wait, is it, what could stop it being a goal.... when they score, is it, come on please be something that stops it.
I almost wish there was a level between Prem and Championship. EFL rules, so no VAR etc |
I've seen a few times recently where people have said that the technical, flair players are a dying breed due to the physical requirements being more important. It's quite a valid take isnt it?
Someone made a great point on here recently about goal of the month being a bit of a non-starter these days as most teams want to walk it into the net, rather than wasting possession for a half-chance. |  | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 15:01 - Mar 17 with 1567 views | Blueschev |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:51 - Mar 17 by SaffronWaldenBlues |
As opposed to a number of smaller, Championship players, who are excitingly ineffective?
If we ever have a crack of staying up, we'll have to start signing players with those attributes as well. That's modern football. |
Oh absolutely, it's probably been our biggest mistake in the transfer window since promotion. But it did take me by surprise. It used to be the case that the big lumps played lower down the pyramid whilst those more slight players could express themselves more freely in the top division. It's changed massively since we were last at this level. | | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 15:10 - Mar 17 with 1544 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 15:01 - Mar 17 by Blueschev |
Oh absolutely, it's probably been our biggest mistake in the transfer window since promotion. But it did take me by surprise. It used to be the case that the big lumps played lower down the pyramid whilst those more slight players could express themselves more freely in the top division. It's changed massively since we were last at this level. |
Sports science has changed, look at Fulham, absolute tanks with buckets of technical ability in the team. Thats exactly what we needed. | |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
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| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 15:17 - Mar 17 with 1529 views | portmanroadblue |
In no particular order
Spending the money we did, I thought we would compete (how wrong I was)
Poor refereeing
VAR being run by poor referees
Not having a plan B
clinical finishing/speed on the break
Play acting/conning refs/linesmen
Athleticism of teams |  | | |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 15:22 - Mar 17 with 1511 views | Illinoisblue |
| What’s been most surprising to you this season? on 14:48 - Mar 17 by SuffolkPunchFC |
People keep rolling out this potential meme that our recruitment of Muric was based on the expertise of a Tesco employee.
I checked it out at the time. The founder did indeed work at Tesco as a data analyst, but it appears to have been a 'fill-in' job as a result of COVID, in parallel to continuing to operate goalkeeper.com. Like many employments, it's not unreasonable to assume that recruitment of goalkeepers during COVID and 20/21 was in low demand, and it was necessary to find gainful employment elsewhere to pay the bills.
Added to that, the guy is an expert in data analysis methodologies, and may only be responsible for setting up the backend framework. CEOs rarely 'do the horse work', but employ people to run the technical side of any business. There may well be other people who have the practical professional playing experience who undertake the analysis and reporting/recommendations - just using the tools developed by him from is academic expertise.
Now I'm only speculating how goalkeeper.com might be set up, but there are far too many assumptions being made about how goalkeeper.com operates, and who does what. Only a fool would jump to these conclusions based on the limited information one can view on LinkedIn. |
Who’s the bigger fool? Fans asking questions, or the club paying 9million pounds for a keeper who’s been discarded after six months and multiple errors? | |
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