Whitey Grandad

Along with others I raised my suspicions but I must admit that I didn't expect it all to go belly-up quite so soon.

That's the system at the 'big' clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal. The club has a system that it likes to play to and every player is schooled into playing a role within that system. Then when they come into the team it minimises disruption.

You could build a stack of 'em. There was that fellow who built a house that looked like a castle behind a giant wall of hay. He was trying to get round the planning laws but he was found out in the end.

There speaks the voice of youth!

It's just a concern at the moment. He obviously is not up to two games a week at present. He looked a bit off the pace against Blackpool but that is only to be expected

Hence the new rules. Ipswich was one that went into admin before the new penalties. There were complaints from other clubs that it would be possible to spend all your money on players and then have the slate wiped clean. They considered this an unfair advantage.

I'm beginning to see some strange logic in this suggestion. Killer has just been given a one-year contract so we are committed to paying him anyway. If his knee has gone then he would effectively come at zero net cost.

The first leads to the second.

Then he is a very poor coach

Forecast was certainly part of the 'settlement' so there was a 'cost' involved, but we definitely need 3 keepers on the books - especially after last night. The other incidental payments that you quite rightly identify illustrate the effect that a large turnover of players has on the cost of running the club.

So who has been injured since Saturday? There's and old saying in football: 'nothing beats a settled team'

The chairman should never dabble in the detail. Having chosen a manager and appointed him then he should leave him to manage and not meddle in the details. The captain of a ship should be in his chair on the bridge, always available, and not rushing around trying to do other people's jobs for them. Think John-Luc Picard saying 'make it so'

You are right to rant. The only positive thing to come out of last Saturday was a clean sheet. Once you have stopped the rot then it is time to stabilise and the one thing that you must have is continuity.

Does anybody think that it helps in any way if he does?

I think you'll find that the second statement is the reason for the first.

Forecast came as part of the early settlement for Gareth Bale. The rest I agree with.

How much to buy himself out of this contract, do you think?

You're either very brave or very stupid posting here after tonight's performance.

To be fair to him, in the first half he did make a run to the goal-line and put a good ball across the face of the goal but nobody got near it. Was it after that that he went into a sulk?

You're asking the wrong person. 'player trading' showed a profit of £5m, £7.5m on disposal less £2.5m amortisation - writing down of player's values over the length of their contracts.

That is their prerogative. The same thing happens at a general election and it's called 'democracy'

Ta for that. I've just had a quick scan through the 2007 figures but there is precious little detail in the figures for operating costs. Basically, as I see it, on a turnover of £23.27m we had total costs of £27.2m (including £5.658 for 'admin') and players'/coaches' wages of £10.5m. Total staff salaries were £15m on 212 employees, which presumably includes the players, giving an average employee 'salary' of over £70k p.a. From what I can see interest payments were about £2m and we had more than that in the bank. We come back to this figure for 'cost of sales' at £21.35m of which over £11m is not player-related and does not include admin costs of £5.66m. The resulting small losss for the year was mainly because of the profit from player sales. Interestingly the loss amounted to 2.44 pence per share. I look forward to the figures for 2008 with interest.

Can anyone publish a detailed copy of these? All that I have seen has been mainly speculation. There is still the question of the big imbalance between first-team and non first-team spending.

The defining question is: 'Where has all the money gone?' From what we can gather we have been spending less than 50% on the playing and coaching staff.