[Rene Artois]

MK Iron wrote:

ironfromafar wrote:

Speculate all you want one line ups but Butler is arrogant and more clueless ..

I have to ask why the feck he started with 3 of his back 4 out of position?

Does he pick the team using a dice?

Magic Robot picks the team :-)

[Rene Artois]

BigLeftToe wrote:

Parker’s header to steer it goalwards was pretty impressive.

He’s done naff all other than that mind!

Does he look like there may be a player in there?

Touch, pace, technical ability, game understanding, guile / spatial awareness etc.

[Rene Artois]

I’ve being saying it for years – make it EFL L3 … 4 up (to L2], 4 down [from L2].

It’s a bottle neck as it is and stops the development and progression of ambitious teams.

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Northumbiron

[Rene Artois]

£106 donated in the last 11 days

£50k target
£46k short
If it were to continue at £300 a month … it’ll take 153 months to hit the target.

153/12=12.75

More or less 13 years (May 2040) to hit the magical £50k

It’s derailed. A train crash.

Refund the money to the donors.

[Rene Artois]

Awaywego wrote:

Rene did get it right, 4 home wins in the national league, tuthers were fa trophy and playoff semi.

Of course I did :-)

I love stats!

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Awaywego

[Rene Artois]

BigLeftToe wrote:

Don’t listen to Rene, our home record in 2026 is as follows:

P: 15
W: 6
D: 5
L: 4

Not a great record but at least get the facts right.

Re-read my original post.
Recheck.
NL regular season fixtures.
No Trophy or Play offs.
Now… how many wins in the NL at home in 2026 – 1st January to today Tuesday 18th Aug 2026?

Here are the Fantastic Four:

[Rene Artois]

I have to put this out?

Which fixture do you think will be our next NL away win?

[Rene Artois]

SouthYorksIron wrote:

lesgeo wrote:

I’m not driving over from Sheffield for the Stoke game.
Any TV anywhere? – No. Probably not.
Commentary would be nice though.

Not on YouTube after all, but looks like it’ll be on the National League website (though no explicit confirmation that every game is being covered); details at the bottom of this link:

https://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/news/2026/august/11/the-2026-27-national-league-cup-campaign-begins-today-/

I wouldn’t watch it even if you paid me.
Meaningless ‘competition’.
Utterly pointless – other than to put a few kilometres in to the stiffs legs.

[Rene Artois]

MK Iron wrote:

Altrincham probably cheat NI and try to get the ball to him in goal scoring positions.

Cracking idea!
It won’t catch on here though.
Because…

[Rene Artois]

WonderGoals wrote:

Barrows should never have been offered a fresh contract. It wasn’t needed. Ogle is even more baffling as Butler’s gone out of his way to sign him, which was nonsensical. Fair enough Starbuck has problems with injuries but JB from what I gather is fit, we could have signed a short term cheap loan to tie us over for a month or two if needed.

JB, Starbuck, Rose, Ogle and Barrows is absolute madness. Barrows and Ogle money should have been spent on a capable GK and a good CM player. I understand he see’s Rose as a CM player, but he could still cover there if needs be.

This squad is an absolute shambles.

Crying out for a capable GK, but Butler’s stubbornness has put that to bed. Replaced Ewing with Richards who looks way worse than Rose and Rowley and still light up top.

Even Matt Dean was commenting and laughing about our collection of right back. It’s farcical. This squad is as unbalanced as it has been for quite a while.

I have no idea how a half decent manager, or shall I say one with an ounce of managerial ability signs players relatively early, mostly on permanent contracts and has a full pre season and yet they have zero team cohesion, team bonding and look like they’ve been randomly picked from the PFA training camp the day before the season started and have lined up on match day.

No familiarity between them whatsoever.

How the hell has this been allowed to happen ?. This is the whole point of having a pre season. Some questions needs asking and they need answering internally because I fail to understand how you can draft in your own players and have a whole pre season and end up like this.

This needs to be studied.

Bang on the button again WG.
Another great post.

A squad that is the most unbalanced, over loaded in some areas; yet deficient in others, in living memory?

Shambolic recruitment, careless retention, Scrooge like departures(?), elephantine squad.

Sometimes; less is more.
Less dross allows you to invest in and pay better players more.

Sadly, I think another defeat is on the cards on Saturday.

[Rene Artois]

lesgeo wrote:

May I, once again, raise an obvious question?
WHY oh WHY did we only have one proper pre-season game? We are certainly paying a price now for such laxity.

Our preseason games have been pathetic for a number of years now!

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alcazar

[Rene Artois]

Win away?

We’ve only won 4 National League games at the New Show Ground in 2026!

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alcazar

[Rene Artois]

alcazar wrote:

Awaywego wrote:

All Butler was interested in was getting distance into them didn’t matter about results (correct) the only thing that mattered was the 8th of August season start.
Maybe a change of tack next season needed.

Why did you spell manager t a c k?

FAF

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alcazar

[Rene Artois]

I wouldn’t have an appearances bonus.

I’d have a team bonus for every goal scored – as opposed to an individual bonus for the actual scorer of the goal.

I’d have a team bonus for every clean sheet kept.

Attack & Defend as one / as a unit.
Team game – team bonus.

[Rene Artois]

lesgeo wrote:

Is it too early to try moving three or four players on?
I have long argued the need for a Bishop-type CM – indeed, since he left, we’ve rarely been able to command midfield.
Personally, I would have let three players’ wages be removed and spent it all on a big, commanding, midfield general.

Agreed. Every team needs a player out of that mold.

Ours currently seems to be more mould than mold.

[Rene Artois]

Northumbiron wrote:

By now we all know where IFA’s happy place is!

Has he gone MIA?
Not seen anything from him for a while.

[Rene Artois]

WonderGoals wrote:

What’s the most worrying the complete lack of team cohesion. Butler got all the players in relatively early and most “nearly all” on permanent contracts in a bid to get them bedded in. Two games in and it looks like he’s picked 11 players at random and their all strangers.

No patterns of play and looks disjointed. Not sure what he’s been doing with them during pre season, but whatever it is, it clearly hasn’t worked.

The squad is a jumbled mess. GK problem hasn’t been solved due to Butler’s stubbornness. A raft of RB’s and natural left wingers, when we’re short of a quality CM playerm striker and obviously GK. Jones is a fantastic shot stopper but falls way short in all the other goalkeeping areas, distrubution, claiming high balls e.t.c.

Butler was asked during a DAZN interview whether he has a preferred style of play, which he resonded “No. I just like winning football”. When you actually think about it, we never have had a style of play since he’s been at the club. We basically pass around the back countless times and hoof it forward in an attempt to play off the scraps.

Only problem is we haven’t got a Callum Roberts playing 2/3 levels below his ability level who’s going to drift into spaces. pick the scraps up and do the unthinkable. Butler is playing in the same manner without the magic on the pitch which get’s us out of trouble.

Only way really to circumvent the lack of Roberts would be to play two up front. If Butler thinks he can keep playing in the same way in the hope of a player coming up with a moment of magic game in game out, he’s in for a rude awakening. Brennan came up with one against Yeovil, but he’s not Roberts, we can’t be hanging our hat on him every week.

I’ll make a prediction even from this early on that Butler will be found out and he’ll end up getting sacked. We are still witnessing odd team selections, so not sure he’s really learnt much. Howe out wide against Yeovil despite having 4 wide options and leaves Rowley out against Southend for the anonymous Richards, who has looked absolutely abysmal so far.

Spent most of the budget and we’ve ended up with the same basic problems of last season as nothing has been addressed. Only now we don’t have star players who are able to paper over the cracks. This squad is the most unbalanced it’s been in distant memory.

Why he re-signed Barrows and went for Ogle when we have Jb, Starbuck is odd the say the least. Jb and Starbuck are miles ahead of those two. Completely wasted the budget.

Granted it’s very early on in the season, but it’s not looking good at all. After watching us in the last two games, something certainly isn’t right. Team Cohesion/ bonding should have been fostered in pre season. I haven’t seen any evidence whatsoever of us having either.

Great post WG.

[Rene Artois]

How many left hookers are there in the squad?

[Rene Artois]

Probably Rowley rather than Brennan?
I accidentally hit submit… and it threw me.
We’ve too many round pegs and square holes.

[Rene Artois]

Balance – we have none!
Insufficient lefties in the squad.
It’s going to be a long hard season.

[Rene Artois]

Gk – Campbell

Rb – Ogle
RCb – Big Howe
LCb – Evans
Lb – Denton

RW / WRM – Brennan
CM – Beestin
CM – Butterfield
LW WLM – Pat Jones

CF1 – Little Howe
CF2 – Whitehall

[Rene Artois]

Is it available on Netflix?

[Rene Artois]

Awaywego wrote:

Always looks bad though when you just push it for an easy tap in.
Bang on with ogle wrong side of his man.
Both Whitehall and Barrow’s played the full 90 mins against Yeovil and then he drops them!

Tired boys?

[Rene Artois]

“ The Commons code of conduct states that new MPs “must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election within one month of their election”.

What will the outcome be?

“Don’t do that again Nigel” – perhaps?

[Rene Artois]

BigLeftToe wrote:

Rene Artois wrote:

Everything is upside down on a spoon.

Not if you’re looking at the convex side.

Insiders v Outsiders

[Rene Artois]

Everything is upside down on a spoon.

[Rene Artois]

Iron-awe wrote:

Rene Artois wrote:

Oops… too many hop & barley juices.

I think, I’m sure I meant… Carlisle :-)

Can always tell when you’ve had a few Rene, first you can’t find the team sheet then you mix your teams up, better have another beer mate

I’m just going for a couple now :-)

Happy days.
We won’t be promoted – but we won’t be relegated.

Mid table ish – 10th

[Rene Artois]

Iron-awe wrote:

Same points after two games as nailed on certs Carlisle, chill out FFS.

Yup. We’re right up… I mean right down there.

[Rene Artois]

Oops… too many hop & barley juices.

I think, I’m sure I meant… Carlisle :-)

[Rene Artois]

Rene Artois wrote:

alcazar wrote:

Flashscore has us with only 19% possession

Please don’t tell me he’s trying to sit on a 0-0 ???

Trying to hold on to a Shrimp 1-0 Iron
:-(

Phew… job done:
1-0

Didn’t we do well !

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Iron-awe

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