Neil's part of the furniture on here. We've all been bickering away at each for well over a decade, there's often been banter/ humour but there's always been a line and I'd have no problem buying the guy a pint. The issue I've noticed is there's been a gradual increase in cynicism in various quarters including from Neil, which I'm sure he won't mind me saying. People react to Neils posts, Neil reacts and then we have a spiral of negativity as demonstrated on this thread.
Taken in isolation the thread title would ordinarily seem pretty innocuous. However because many of us actively read Neils posts, we've seen the so called monetary value of the squad used recently as some kind of leverage over JT which is understandable but isn't that straightforward. Take the proceeding posts, history and author away and its actually a thread that would get a few comments and just slide away. Perhaps Neil should be proud that he holds sway over the forum when it comes to some of his views.
So when people react ( including me ) its not just a reaction to the thread content, its the months of 'discussion' that's come before it . Lets be brutally honest to start a thread on the value of the squad four minutes before KO on a Friday night was a bit of a fishing trip from Neil and deep down he probably knows it
. I mention Friday because perhaps a few people were on the ale and suddenly that keyboard is banging out stuff that wouldn't happen on a Monday morning. There are plenty of long standing and usually quite sensible posters who reacted but it wasn't a one off. People can only react to what they read and it's not pretty reading at the moment from several quarters and its been kind of building with the 'Evangelicals' / 'famous four' / 'Your Jason' stuff thrown back. As they say it takes two to tango.
I was going to ask a cheeky question last week but didn't because it's all getting a bit tetchy. Was the Neil who wrote the Norwich match report (lauding the defensive display and the early season result ) the same Neil who then went and ripped into the performance on the very same thread ? The Everton match report was excellent and as a forum we all acknowledged it but then subsequent posts seemed to contradict it. Perhaps I'm missing something or guilty of taking certain posts a little to literally, probably the latter. One thing for sure is that I read Neils posts and he knows how to command an audience, good or bad.
Good posters have come and gone over the years and many of us have a love / hate relationship with the place. No post or poster is immune to criticism but quite often its best to do a 'system reset' and come back with a clear head. That can be days, weeks or months. Hopefully Neil will have a rethink and pop back soon.