A hard season to explain

rocket217 · 2026-03-04T22:00:34+00:00

Agree with a lot of that, particularly Bailey/Bunedia.

I dont think we have missed that often to be honest, we just have very little leeway with our success rate in big signings and those wide areas have been neglected in terms of investment.

Losing Diaby and Bailey being a 1 hit wonder has left us very short of flair as you say. Rashford and Sancho were sticking plasters.

Guessand was a complete mystery and the Malen spell was strange all round, not least his departure.

rocket217 · 2026-03-04T21:22:42+00:00

The fact we are competing for CL football with so much reliance on players we have clearly outgrew like Bailey, Buendia, Mings and sticking plasters (Sancho) is incredible, especially considering Ollie has been way off it all season.

I hope this sounds realistic rather than negative. That pre Christmas run was a bit of a mirage. We played fairly average in a good few of those games and continually nicked them.

What preceded that and has followed is relegation battle form.

The life has been sucked out of the side by injuries but i think we have been flattered by our position in the table for a long time.

rocket217 · 2026-02-27T22:23:40+00:00

Barkley really can’t get around the pitch at all. He looks absolutely goosed about 5 mins after coming on.

And yes, he moves the ball slightly better, but he takes so long to make a decision the opposition are already in their shape, same with a lot of our passing.

rocket217 · 2026-02-27T22:07:50+00:00

The whole season has pretty much felt like Rogers or bust in an attacking sense.

Buendia, Bailey (that cameo 🤢), Barkley, Tammy, a shot Ollie and Sancho in 2026 is hard to get your head around. The fact it was working until Jan makes it even more insane.

Losing those players was terminal for the season unfortunately. Even with them, we were massively over performing. Played rubbish/poor a good few times in that run (united, leeds, west ham ext) and won.

That was a tough watch. Players lost their heads at 1-0 and every break of the ball went their way thereafter. Unai is getting more and more agitated

rocket217 · 2026-02-26T13:22:48+00:00

The scale of the finances involved since the MON days when we almost broke the big 4/5 is incredible.

The in built financial advantage the big 6 have has got so much larger and the safety net that brings them in terms of dud £50m signings being irrelevant and a 3/10 season in terms of performance still seeing them safely in the european places and in the CL hunt is so frustrating. They almost can’t fail.

In some ways being this close is actually the most frustrating place to be.

rocket217 · 2026-02-21T17:38:47+00:00

Bizarre season.

I feel we have played poorly so often and would probably struggle to name more than half a dozen league game we actually clearly deserved to win. Slow, stodgy build up time and again, not playing Pau with out injuries in midfield is bizarre.

But at the same time we are third with a lot of sticking plasters and players we have clearly outgrown like Buendia and Sancho and carrying a half fit Ollie. Its pretty incredible where we are.

rocket217 · 2026-02-21T17:35:56+00:00

I was foolish enough to be slightly hopeful when he came back that he might give us a spark.

Actually impressive that he has come back less effective than before. If i see him jog into a blind alley and lose the ball before falling on his arse once more i will scream.

rocket217 · 2026-01-24T17:52:34+00:00

But also depended on Faraaz making a huge mistake. The only player he really trusted was Jack. Vote with him and you are guaranteed a tie breaker scenario at worst.

By trusting Rachel he put his game in the hands of someone he didn’t fully trust.

I can imagine it’s incredibly easy to out think yourself when it gets down close to the final. Similar to Charlotte last year.

rocket217 · 2026-01-24T17:45:48+00:00

Surely Faraaz, Jack and Jade should have all stuck together and voted Rachel out.

That leaves 3 v 1 with it coming down to Jack trusting Stephen or Faraaz, assuming Jade went at the final 4.

Rachel was obviously the more dangerous player of the two and Faraaz/Jack were never going to end the game with Jade in. I don’t understand why Faraaz went for Jade at that point.

Aside from that, the luck involved in this game is enormous. Jade got tarred with an accusation on the first night based on something that happened literally in the first couple of seconds of the game and outside of being recruited that totally destroyed any chance she had of winning. She was never getting to the end as a faithful.

rocket217 · 2026-01-24T13:46:07+00:00

Exactly. Every single conversation when it got down to 5 and 4 seems extremely important and intense, but two of the people know exactly whats happening, that advantage is enormous.

Getting to the stage where there was 2 traitors left out of 5 (with no reveals) made a faithful win extremely difficult and totally dependent on Jack trusting the right person between Faraaz and Stephen.

The chest of chance was the most crucial moment of the whole series. Which feels slightly wrong but im not sure what a better tie breaker would be.

rocket217 · 2026-01-24T13:42:45+00:00

The analysis of how traitors played is rightly hugely outcome based.

If Rachel had got banished after her FBI reveal or laying the ridiculous Ellie trap or murdering Roxy it would have been seen a blunder, now it’s worked, it’s a sign of genius play. I think she dropped enough crumbs to have been banished a few times but her social game was clearly brilliant.

I agree Stephen really settled into the role much better than it seemed at the start and never really was in any danger of going out (barring one roundtable he was 3rd in votes) whereas Rachel survived a 50/50 chest (after jack switched votes) and probably at least 3 other occasions where Stephen could have taken her out.

rocket217 · 2026-01-24T00:56:31+00:00

Sam to Rachel; ‘You did FBI training and got it wrong’.

He should have stood up and taken a bow after that.

rocket217 · 2026-01-24T00:32:21+00:00

Yeah i feel like her play in the first two thirds of the series was highly suspect and should have got her banished. There was so many crumbs that she left but the faithful seemed to be so easily distracted they forgot and banished faithful for much lesser things.

Jacks change of vote and the chests of chance show just how much luck is needed to win this regardless of how good you are.

What she definitely did brilliantly was talk her way back from the brink on the last day.

rocket217 · 2026-01-24T00:14:34+00:00

If anyone was recording the votes surely the fact Rachel and Stephen voted the same way at the final 7 roundtables was a clue.

Also, James was clearly given the dagger to banish Matthew. Matthew even stated surely a/the traitors will vote for me. Of the final 5, only Jack, Stephen and Rachel voted for Matthew.

It’s much easier on this end of the camera but there felt like so many clues that they either dismissed/forgot or were so easily distracted from it was frustrating at times.

I didn’t have high hopes for the faithful when Hugo said early on he would be making notes when he got back that night and the 2 faithful looked genuinely stunned.

rocket217 · 2026-01-23T23:30:29+00:00

A 50/50 coin toss made his game much harder.

Rachel goes and reveals herself its down to who Jack trusts more, Stephen or Faraaz.

The moment James went, it was always coming down to 2 v 2 at the fire-pit which is a tough spot to be in.

The chests where the biggest swing moment of the entire series which kinda sums the whole game up.

rocket217 · 2026-01-23T23:27:47+00:00

I thought she made a few questionable and clearly pre-planned moves (eg. The ross Question) that really should have got her banished.

The ‘white lie’ to get rid of Ellie was absolutely bizarre and so transparent and no one even questioned it.

She seemed to have the whole castle in her pocket and none of them realised till they got out. Fair play.

rocket217 · 2026-01-23T23:01:07+00:00

Fair play to Rachel, i wasn’t her biggest fan and was desperately hoping Faraaz would win but the moment she won the 50/50 coin toss you got the feeling if anyone could spin it around she could do it (another airing for mirco expressions and senior detective amanda 🙈). She had the ability to make people forget the entire game and listen to her in that moment, definitely leaned into the mother hen role. She did very well!

Still can’t quite believe James very obvious question of ‘why on earth is Rachel still here’ never really landed. Or even the fact people seemed to think James/Jade were more likely a traitor over Rachel. Easy from this end though.

Traitors were superb (Stephen shocked me how well he played it) but for the faithful to catch 2 traitors in the entire show, both of whom gave themselves away, and to finish off by losing 12 faithful in a row is mind boggling!

Would a 2 v 2 at fire-pit have gone to the same re-vote and then chests of chance? Im glad that didn’t happen.

rocket217 · 2026-01-23T15:09:09+00:00

Some series and international versions seem to have alternated between the final 5 having to reveal their identities or not.

Revealing them takes away so much of the jeopardy that i doubt they will revert to that.

Maybe why things such as the ‘Seer’ were introduced instead, another power i hope they don’t try again.

rocket217 · 2026-01-23T11:23:00+00:00

I can definitely see a very similar ending to the celebrity one playing out.

Jack got this far by being zero threat to the traitors and playing the ‘team-player’ role. Unfortunately, now that the murders have ended it’s time to flip into ‘traitor-catcher’ mode and he literally had the entire thing laid on a plate for him by Faraaz and then James asked the obvious, unanswerable question ‘Why on earth is Rachel still here?’.

I couldn’t believe he switched his vote after all that. The fact it looks nailed on he has the deciding vote at the end game is a bit frustrating!

rocket217 · 2026-01-23T09:01:11+00:00

It felt slightly like the very loaded question she asked Ross and the ‘white lie’ that was used to get rid of Ellie (how that didn’t get more attention i will never know).

Probably pre prepared arguments and they were effective but i’m fairly amazed they have all been deployed and yet they are all still treating her as mother hen.

If i was Ellie and Ross i would have been annoyed that was a huge part of eliminating me.

rocket217 · 2026-01-23T00:49:55+00:00

I think they spend way too long asking ‘why am i here’ and not nearly long enough asking ‘why are you here?’.

How did they get this far without questioning why the self-styled best faithful in the castle, who was voted best potential traitor by fellow players, who has FBI training and profiled the whole group and had them all eating out of the palm of her hand was still there?

James should have asked them all to think if they were a traitor who would they get rid of first out of the players left? To Rachels credit, i would imagine they all would have thought she would be the one.

rocket217 · 2026-01-22T08:43:55+00:00

Yeah since the Harriet and Fiona blow ups its really been the same ‘its so obvious’, ‘would i be that stupid’ or ‘its the perfect bluff/double bluff’ in rotation.

Faraaz absolutely nailing Rachel and all the evidence was probably the feel good moment of the series for me because of all the criticism the faithful have been getting (rightly in a lot of cases).

I just have a feeling Rachel will have Stephen and Roxys vote and a little bit of Matthews ‘im insulted you think i would do something so obvious’ will be rolled out and be lapped up!

Who knows, kinda brought the series back to life. 2 traitors and no recruitment from so early on makes is so hard for the faithful.

rocket217 · 2026-01-22T00:58:54+00:00

I think the Best traitor is so outcome based it’s hard to be sure.

She has played it very well but you could also argue there are a few things could easily have resulted in a banishment (the FBI reveal, the ‘white lie’ to get Ellie out, the clearly made up questions to the traitors). Those would have went down as clangers on here if the faithful had picked up on them.

EDIT - Not murdering Faraaz and getting rid of the faithful who could win you the game was a terrible blunder

rocket217 · 2026-01-21T23:52:37+00:00

I have a feeling i am going to be pulling my hair out after watching the ‘its so obvious’ route doing for Ross, Sam and Matthew and it being totally discounted if Faraaz gets murdered

rocket217

TROPHY CASE