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I teach German for a living (and some French). Depending on where you are vocab-wise, I can recommend as some decent videos to watch, as well as WDR radio, which I get my students to listen to. You could also try Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten - German news read slowly to help you understand. I would agree with the podcasts thing and immersing yourself as much as you feel comfortable. Feel free to message me if you want some grammar resources!
The narrative has been that a 2 division jump has been too much, that we never had a chance, and so on, but we do need a little bit of reflection on gambles that didn't pay off, and some really poor recruitment. If the top brass of the club have genuine bought players for next year's Championship then that's a different discussion, but wow.
1. The goalkeepers: Muric was never good enough, and then we find out that there are off the field issues. Palmer has done adequately, but is no better than Walton, who I think will be first choice next season.
2. Defence: I wouldn't be sorry to see O'Shea go, I think he's overrated, where as Burgess has been our most consistent defender this year. Tuanzebe needed to have been fitter for longer, Greaves made too many errors, and Davis won't be going anywhere in the summer because PL teams worked him out early and he spent most of the season being mauled on MoTD. McKenna obviously didn't fancy Woolfenden, and Godfrey was a shambles of a signing.
3. Midfield: Cajuste a real bright spark this year, would run the show in the Championship next season, but that's highly unlikely. Morsy off the pace in the latter part of the season, and Taylor never really seemed to be able to grasp his chance. Luongo ended up a bit part player, and as for Kalvin Phillips, we'd possibly have been better playing George Weah's cousin. Phillips has been such a let down, and it's hard to work out where he goes from here, unless Leeds offer him a sentimental move.
4. Attack: Delap is still raw, but probably worth £30m. I'm struggling to see who would pay similar for Hutchinson on this season's form. Not good enough to play behind the forward, so gets to play on the right, but has offered no end product for months. Ogbene and Burns have been a real miss, as has Szmodics and alternately Chaplin and Broadhead. I do wonder why Broadhead has had so few minutes this season. Jack Clarke will almost certainly bag 10+ goals next season, and a Hirst/Szmodics partnership is quite exciting at Championship level.
We've massively missed Ogbene/Burns and Szmodics. Enciso has flashes of brilliance, but a bit like Hutch is playing for himself and not the team. Clarke is just out of his depth in the PL. Whilst we've underperformed as a team this year for sure, injuries have really hampered any sort of balance to the side and any rhythm we could have hoped to get. If Hutch gets a move this summer, I can only see it being to a mid-table team. He's not physical enough for a Brentford or a Fulham; he will probably end up at Palace.
History repeated? Burley was given a fair ride in that second season, but I'd forgotten just how bad our start to Division 1 was the year we went down!
"George Burley has been sacked as manager of First Division Ipswich following the club's poor start to the season.
Ipswich are currently 19th in the table after winning just three of their first 10 games, compounding the disappointment of last season's relegation from the Premiership.
David Sheepshanks, Ipswich's chairman, this morning announced: "It is with great sadness that the board of directors have taken the difficult decision to relieve George Burley from his position as manager."
Burley's sacking comes less than 18 months since he led Town to a fifth-placed finish in the Premiership and qualification for Europe. But after that remarkable season Ipswich crashed to relegation with a dismal tally of just nine wins from 38 games. Nine defeats in their last 13 games proved their undoing."
When we got promoted plenty on here were touting Davis for England, even the EADT were doing it; but every knowledgeable fan of any other PL club spent this summer telling me how Davis would get exposed at this level, and so it has proved to be. He is suspect at defending, the evidence is there to see, but I do see that he can improve.
Well we went big on premier league experience with Phillips and he's offered nothing all season. We signed Godfrey because of his experience, and Son tore him a new one in 30 minutes.
It was an interesting model, seeing Forest spend big last year, take the points penalty, spending most of the early part of last season playing as a team of strangers, before doing enough to stay up. We spent big this year, and with the exception of Delap, I would struggle to find any other signings that have been worth the money in terms of contributions to the team. On can question McKenna in terms of tactics and how we've failed to close games out, but the bottom line for me is that we didn't recruit well enough. I understand we were fishing in a smaller pond but bloody hell, most of these players haven't turned up.
Muric, Clarke, Philogene, Hutchinson, Smods, Ogbene, Greaves, O'Shea, Phillips, Godfrey have all been nothing like the players we had hoped they would have been. In theory they should be great against the likes of Preston, Stoke and Cardiff. I'd be interested when the club review their scouting and recruitment methods!
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