Chez

Meghoma is at a Prem side and will be at a Prem side next season too. He's playing about as often as he did for us. Jimmy Jay Morgan is playing for the u21s of Chelsea, who will be a Prem team next season too. Gomes Rodriguez is playing for Lyon u19s. Lyon first team are currently 6th, 3 points from a CL place.

That's hardly going out of their way to piss him off. They didn't want him to leave and they were very happy to have him back. There were no issues at all. He simply had to play for the u18s first before going into the u21s. Seems logical. I bet they explained to him up front that's what they would do and I imagine he was perfectly fine with it. He may even have been greatful for that. He wouldn't have wanted to come across as some billy big bollocks anyway. He was a shy lad, part of the reason it didn't work out at Chelsea. He'd want to come back as much under the radar as possible, play well for the u18s and then get promoted on merit to the u21s. I'd of thought every club would do that put in the same situation. It's amazing the rod's some will use to beat SR. There is no need - just use the unarguable ones like employing a no mark like Jones. Inexcusable.

In general yes, good results equates to better business. No argument on that. However that is a big picture argument, what about the specifics of the next 17 games. You spend say £3m on loaning Ferguson until the end of the season. Tell me how SFC make that money back? You ain't doing it in ticket sales, sponsorship or any other commercial aspect. We'd have to get the prize money for coming 19th rather than 20th to get close to getting that money back. Tell me how you are monetising the improved atmosphere Ferguson delivers over the next 17 games? It's all very well as a fan wanting owners to spend money so you have a better team to watch, but they are businessmen in it for the money and the long term business aims are best served by not spending good money after bad now, and use those funds, which go a lot further in the championship, to get us promoted. Promotion and the £120m+ income that promotion is what matters from a business sense. Just to add, that I don't like the fact we are shit, winning no points and potentially stealing Derby's horrific record, but I am trying see the situation through the eyes of the owner. This is why I'd be surprised if we loaned players in unless they were trasferring in permanently in the summer.

Can you expand on this. I don't know that story.

SFC is a football business. The club no longer exists to make fans happy. Is there a good business argument for spending several million on a loan?

Sure, you can always negotiate a settlement, but the player has to agree to it. If I was him I'd demand 100% of the wage. Why settle for anything less than that? He hasn't done anything `wrong'.

Playing at a lower level makes it hard to assess what his impact was, but Armstrong was rock bottom when RM joined and was absolutely flying by the end of the championship season. He eventually got a tune out of Aribo too. Downes got better and better as the season went on. RM created an environment that allowed quite a few players to thrive like Smallbone. In contrast, going up and losing games makes it hard to assess whether individuals are `improving' as players.

West Ham and Bournemouth interested. Both might be considered competitors in terms of league position though, which might impact the decision. Not sure Ferguson himself would want to join us. Brighton also might be concerned about lack of supply impacting his performance and value.

Legally, you can't terminate a contract of a player because he got injured.

The speed of departures is dependent on buying clubs. You know that, so why are you claiming such surprise? You are right, the board think are down. They are not alone. They have learned from their errors two years ago and are not wasting/spending money the ties their hands in the summer. Are you surprised at this? The idea that Juric did not discuss recruitment with the board when he was interviewed is unrealistic. His scheduled meeting mentioned to press will have been the `next' meeting, not the first. Player recruitment is a 52 week job with continous meetings and discussions, not just in and around the windows. Again, you know this. The fact is, we have signed two players, recalled some loans, Cornet is gone and the BBD deal all but done. Are any fans excited by this, no, but that's what happens when you get 6 points from half a season.

great minds.

Is Bagpuss getting back into football management like Jordan Belfort deciding not to give up the helm at Stratton Oakmont and thus is "back in the water"?

that's the spirit. We have waited long enough, the time has come for another Saints PL win.

you are missing the `best' one, or at least the one that annoys my brother in law Forest fan, David McGoldrich, whose £1.2m fee helped us afford Sir Rickie.

We obviously have a scout in Brazil and Portugal, so should we be buying for both this season and next, which is hard to imagine, this lad Igor Jesus they are talking about looks like he has something about him. Sadly, that fact alone means he ain't signing for an all but relegated side.

Ferguson at Brighton needs regular games.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24867208.brereton-diaz-sheffield-united-ahead-southampton-exit/ The move seems to have taken awhile to complete, so I wonder of that is an indication that it is more than just a loan and also involves a transfer/fee, perhaps if they go up?

Point accepted. £22m might not be big by today's standards, but it was a lot for us and I think every fan will have hoped for more of both.

In the championship under RM it was often us pressing hard at the death. In the Prem it's hard to say, as towards the end of the 90 minutes the game was usually long over!

The workrate (and amount of pacey running) in the first half must have been pretty high as we went man for man and were at the heals of every single United player when they had the ball. We forced them to lose possession so many times because of this. The press was first class and they couldn't deal with it. I'd say we suffered because of that. At about half way through the second half we weren't getting close enough at all to impact their passing and the subs didn't help revive the press. Not sure why, perhaps they dropped too deep and got caught between two stalls or maybe the players that weren't subbed undermined the team press? It certainly did remind me of a lot of Ralph games where we got murdered in the latter stages as the space opened and double team defenses etc. weren't possible. United did to us what we had been doing to them. The lack of intensity later on invited United to keep the ball and attack and they did it well.

Leylands will always breaking down, so maybe is this Stewart related?

Rich house poor house. That's a new one on me. Is it a Channel 5 show?

It's nitpicking, I know, and I don't want to create the next Gaston, but he's had more than two decent games hasn't he? He did pretty well in the 45 minutes in his very first game against Brentford for example. Certainly not MOTM material mind you. He was good against Chelsea that season and Spurs I think. The Liverpool game of course. To be honest I am not sure about the other games in 2023 - I try to blank that season out of my memory. There were a lot of defeats, so I am sure he wasn't all that in most, but he played 80 minutes in the 1-0 win against Leicester, so maybe did OK then? Last season he was good against Leeds and Birmingham. Think he was pretty dangerous in the Millwall away game too, but I might be mistaken. After the initial injury he started the season quite well, but then was injured and did absolutely jack in the run in. Swansea and United this season...yeah, not terribly impressive.

Got it now. To keep up with the times, you have expanded the CoT to cover the women's game too and we are signing Liv Cooke, the freestyle (keepyupper in old man's language) footballer from Leyland, in Lancashire. I'm right, right?

My brother in law supports them. I always refer to them as Notts Forest. He loves it, although right now, nothing can take the bloody smile off his face. Despite the success of our press and incisive attacks, I suggest we park the bus, give Elanga and Odoi no space behind and try to bore them to death, like we did Fulham.