Saint Mikey

Players to play for both clubs. As mentioned above: - Charlie Austin - Colin Clarke - Ronnie Edwards Plus: - John Burridge - Nigel Quashie - Peter Crouch - Dexter Blackstock Any more? Must be??

I was also interested in this, so asked ChatGPT to give me a short summary with an SFC focus: Serbian election result could be significant for Dragan Šolak Interesting developments in Serbia, where Aleksandar Vučić has conceded defeat after 14 years in power following a landslide victory for the student-led opposition. This could have implications for Saints owner Dragan Šolak, who has been involved in a long-running conflict with Vučić's government over his media and telecoms interests. Šolak was removed from the leadership of United Group in 2025 and has since been involved in legal disputes with its majority shareholder, BC Partners. There have also been allegations of political interference in the group's independent Serbian media operations. The change of government could reduce political pressure on Šolak and potentially lead to investigations into past dealings. It might also strengthen his wider commercial position, although his ongoing legal disputes won't automatically be resolved. As for Saints, there's no immediate financial impact, but if Šolak's business circumstances improve, it could have positive implications for his wider investment capacity, including Sport Republic. Still very early days, but potentially a significant development for our owner.

I heard that anecdotally but I can’t find evidence of who voted for and against. Seems like Utd and City voted against which you’d expect.

I agree, but at least 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs voted for it. There was an additional proposal which was anchoring spend against the lowest income but this didn't get through. This would have limited the spending power of all clubs but I think even clubs like B'mouth, Brighton and Palace voted against it.

Waiting for @Wade Garrett's rational and considered response to this post...

Or Vegard Forren and Stig Johansen!

Sigh. Year after year it seems that people suffer from amnesia and forget that this happens EVERY SINGLE YEAR. If, we could control when we sold players (even ones we didn't want to lose) we would. This has a direct impact on players we can bring in. No clubs have no control over that. It's the way the window works and it's not going to change. Other clubs will lose players they don't want to close to the window. Do you think 'Boro wanted to lose Azaz as late as they did, for example? We also don't see the majority of the planning the club does. We would have planned for this scenario and started previous seasons in Championship with players like JWP, Tella, Dibling and Fernandes getting minutes before being sold. We see so little of this and have to rely on rumours and bullshit, but the club are never going to show their hand - it would be terrible business strategy to do so. We also don't know the exact financial pressures, again for good reason. If THB doesn't play today then the timing is poor, but again out of our control when a team like Villa put a serious bid in. That's what we have a squad for. I'm confident we'll get someone in to replace him, whether he's as good will be down to the quality of the recruitment.

Even if we were promoted last year, THB would have gone to Villa. He would have wanted the move and we would have wanted the sale given he has 2 years left on his deal. Just have to hope we get in a decent replacement.

It was nice to see Norwich on the end of this after the handball goal last season. Clement furious apparently. Norwich City boss Philippe Clement told BBC Radio Norfolk: [On West Brom's opening goal] "It was a decisive moment in the game. I think this is a clear-cut goal that should be disallowed.” Maybe he should take a more pragmatic view like his striker last season? Norwich striker Jovon Makama told BBC Radio Norfolk: "A goal is a goal. It went in and I ran away and celebrated. I can't quite remember how it went in.“

Plays for Rapid Vienna?

Yeah, he would have been on more at City.

Not convinced by these stats? Tough crowd. 3 Golden Boots in there. 2013–14[414] Premier League 10 3 0 0 2 1 7[c] 0 — 19 4 2014–15[415] Premier League 34 21 2 0 6 3 9[c] 7 — 51 31 2015–16[416] Premier League 38 25 4 1 1 0 7[c] 2 — 50 28 2016–17[417] Premier League 30 29 3 4 0 0 5[d] 2 — 38 35 2017–18[418] Premier League 37 30 4 4 0 0 7[e] 7 — 48 41 2018–19[419] Premier League 28 17 1 1 2 1 9[e] 5 — 40 24 2019–20[420] Premier League 29 18 0 0 0 0 5[e] 6 — 34 24 2020–21[421] Premier League 35 23 2 1 4 1 8[c] 8 — 49 33 2021–22[422] Premier League 37 17 3 3 5 1 5[f] 6 — 50 27 2022–23[423] Premier League 38 30 2 1 1 0 8[e] 1 — 49 32 Total 317 213 21 15 21 7 76 45 — 435 280

Wiki says £7m on a 4-year deal. So, £3.5m left on amortisation. Plus, we have to consider his wages. If he doesn’t hand in a transfer request (highly unlikely) we’ll also have to pay up his contract. Deadwood can be expensive to get rid of…

Think that we'd want £3.5m minimum. Otherwise it could be an accountancy loss. Although we would have recouped two loan fees as well.

Jordan James is an interesting shout. Had a very good season last year in a terrible Leicester team. 34 apps, 11 goals. According to Wiki they had agreed a €5 million option to buy, but the player isn't going to play in League One. So you'd think he would be available for sub-£10m given that he had a good season. I'm sure we've looked at him, as it's a pretty obvious one. But maybe Dan Neil is the type of midfielder we want and the finances work better. Maybe we'd move if we lost another midfielder like Jander. Or, maybe he's destined for West Ham like any decent Championship player, it seems!