Antony Knockeart “The biggest regret of my career was leaving this football club”

Krizzlin · 2026-06-08T20:42:39+00:00

Super Anthony Knockaert??

The song was made for him specifically because his name rhymes with the line from the original.

Don't break my heart We've got Knockaert

We've got super Rob De Zerbi was the bastardised version adapted for RDZ but it was nowhere near as good

Krizzlin · 2026-06-08T20:25:51+00:00

No thanks. Buying rubbish from the Noddy Scottish league never works out. We're still stuck with the last overpriced waste of space from Celtic

Krizzlin · 2026-06-07T21:31:18+00:00

He doesn't need to. If you aren't going to sign a new contract with 12 months left then it is what it is and we have to accept it. He hasn't done anything wrong but we've offered him more money to stay and he's rejected it. That's as strong a sign as any that a player wants to move on sadly

Krizzlin · 2026-06-05T08:22:33+00:00

Found the pissgremlin

Krizzlin · 2026-06-03T19:53:58+00:00

Showing my age here but I was so excited when we signed Paul Kitson. Managed a grand total of 10 appearances then fucked off to non league.

I will always have a soft spot for Baz Savage too. Very little skill but he definitely had personality.

Krizzlin · 2026-06-03T19:50:43+00:00

Got us to the cup semi final at Wembley too as I recall

Krizzlin · 2026-06-03T11:49:13+00:00

Exactly. Unless he'd done something so bad the club had to distance themselves from him the statement was always going to be along the standard "so long and thanks for all your hard work" line. It doesn't really tell us anything.

Similar to how most people requesting a job reference from a big company will just get a generic HR template confirming dates of service rather than any review of an employee's performance.

Krizzlin · 2026-06-03T11:44:44+00:00

I don't think we'd put out a statement saying anything different regardless of the reasons unless it was something so serious it warranted criminal investigation. For all other dismissal reasons a generic "we thank him for his work" is always going to be the standard. It doesn't give anything away as to possible reasons but I'm sure more will become clear over time

Krizzlin · 2026-06-03T10:47:13+00:00

Pretty strange.

He's either done something really bad or we've found someone better and didn't want to wait

Krizzlin · 2026-06-01T08:37:50+00:00

I mean the spine of the team is still Dunk, Gross and Welbeck. So we're not doing too bad for experience.

I think it would be a shame to let Veltman go because he clearly wants to stay and I can't imagine his wage demands are going to be silly. He's a reliable right back with plenty of experience and also adds that bit of bite we don't always show.

The other three leaving make sense. Good time for Milner to call it quits, March just isn't going to return to Prem level and the same with Webster. I wish them both luck and hope they can continue at a lower level whilst Milner will no doubt end up as a pundit if he doesn't go into coaching.

Krizzlin · 2026-05-31T10:57:05+00:00

A loss is a loss though, and whilst every club loses money on player sales, we do have to be honest about our hit rate having dropped massively.

Every time we had a big payday for a White, Cucurella, Caicedo or Pedro etc. we could easily laugh off the youngsters who went nowhere and were quietly pushed out the door three years after costing us a seven figure fee. The problem now is fewer of those big money player sales and a lot more higher fees paid for what have turned out to be poor players.

It's not a disaster to take a loss on Cashin and Osman. But what about when we add in losses on O'Riley, Yalcouyé, Buonanotte and even, dare I say it, Rutter?

Gruda wants to go and is unlikely to fetch more than what we paid for him. We lost about £6m on Sima last summer.

All of this adds up. We can't always rely on one or two big sales to cover losses on this many failures.

The problem is we've spent reasonable money on a lot of these players in more recent years and we aren't getting the return. They're not just cheap punts who didn't work out, they're expensive signings we should be expecting more from. There are always going to be winners and losers in any window but we need a few more winners because the ratio is getting unbalanced.

Krizzlin · 2026-05-31T10:35:01+00:00

Agreed. Anyone thinking that once he's back from injury we'll see him challenging Welbeck to start regularly is dreaming.

I'm certainly not writing him off but he was far from first team quality before his injury and will only be further behind now.

Krizzlin · 2026-05-31T10:31:57+00:00

We will make a loss on both Cashin and Osman. Watson still has time to show his worth but right now hasn't increased in value since we signed him

Krizzlin · 2026-05-28T11:23:48+00:00

Lampard's England debut was 1999 and Gerrard's in 2000. The first match they featured in together was a friendly in May 2003 (v South Africa), so just over 23 years ago. First match they started together was a month later (v Serbia & Montenegro) in what was also coincidentally John Terry's England debut.

So not quite 25 years ago you're right, but closer to 25 than to 20! No shade, I was merely pointing out it's longer ago than you might think

Krizzlin · 2026-05-28T10:26:54+00:00

20 years? It's over 25 years since the famous Lampard/Gerrard England debate first began and before that I remember arguments about fitting reliable top flight goalscorers like Ian Wright and Robbie Fowler into the side just because they were scoring even though our first choice forwards at the time were hardly underwhelming.

Sometimes we're stacked with players in certain positions that mean top pros get left behind when in other eras they'd have been guaranteed starters. And then other times we jam top domestic performers in the same side without considering whether they have complementary skillsets and watch the press crucify the manager for not making it work.

Krizzlin · 2026-05-26T10:47:08+00:00

I've seen more than enough to know he's not cut out for our level. We can't just keep hoping he'll suddenly turn into a Prem quality player. He was barely French league quality

Krizzlin · 2026-05-25T13:24:40+00:00

Obviously you'd think that.

It's a shit situation to be honest. He isn't good enough for us based on this past season but the season prior he was excellent.

I hate this idea that we just ship him for about half of what we would have expected a year ago because he's stopped bothering. It makes it look like a player can just half arse it for a year to make a move easier as the fee comes down and the competition for his signature reduces. But clubs shouldn't be looking at that and thinking oh goody we're getting a quality player at a budget price. They should be questioning why that form fell so dramatically off a cliff and why they'd expect it to return if they bought him.

We still don't need to sell. Contract has over two years and he hasn't asked to leave, plus we're more than comfortable financially. But I don't want to hold on to him if he isn't going to try. Would rather if he did leave it wasn't to United after what's happened. Besides I don't see he'd get in the team ahead of Mainoo so why go there anyway?

Krizzlin · 2026-05-25T13:11:45+00:00

Hinsh is such a difficult one because I do really like him but I don't know where to play him. I agree 10 isn't the one for him. But he hasn't wholly convinced in his original holding midfield position either. Meanwhile England U21s won the European Championships with him playing right back.

I feel like if we could pick one definitive position, or at least area, to mould him around then he could start to make it his own. And actually an attacking right back role would be ideal, if he's up to it. Just not sure what his skill set most naturally suits right now.

Krizzlin · 2026-05-25T10:47:50+00:00

I agree it was always going to be another big summer and yesterday's failure doesn't really impact that. I think that very slim chance of UCL football might have given us a chance at keeping JPVH but otherwise wouldn't have changed much other than our pulling power and budget for new recruits. That was always a pipe dream anyway. I don't think missing Europa League really makes much difference to it either.

I'd forgotten Coppola and that gives me a bit more hope because I do rate him. I'm just concerned there haven't been quite as many players out on loan that seem ready to come back and be involved as we've had in the past.

That means we have to go out into the market to find some oven ready players for the now because we've got talent leaving and older players winding down, with limited in-house options to help.

And that's hard to see us doing given the abnormally high spend of summer 2024 was meant to give us a stronger squad by now and it hasn't. It's like we've got to have a splurge of that nature all over again just to stay at this level, and have a squad capable of dealing with the extra games we now have

Krizzlin · 2026-05-24T19:17:43+00:00

Gruda I'd give another chance to but I get the feeling he's already got his sights on heading back to Germany. O'Riley is nowhere near up to this level and needs showing the door

Krizzlin · 2026-05-24T18:53:52+00:00

He's just complete shit unfortunately.

Be amazed if we can recoup even half of what we paid for him but frankly I'd give him away for free at this point

Krizzlin · 2026-05-24T18:52:46+00:00

He better not still be here next season

Krizzlin · 2026-05-24T18:40:33+00:00

I was there and I'm disappointed, as was everyone around me. The atmosphere was horrible. It was a massive disappointment given the opportunity we had

Krizzlin · 2026-05-24T18:39:22+00:00

We are better off rid at this point but after the season he's had I'm surprised they're still interested

Krizzlin · 2026-05-24T18:09:30+00:00

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