Crazy Diamond

Sorry Mr. Bear, I'm saying that the footballing authorities can say they'll do this or do that, but in the past, they've set an example - fining teams for certain actions - and it's not stopped those actions happening again. I'm not talking about audits or whatever ******** that the maths teacher is prattling on about.

Well at the time, he was working with a small, not very talented squad, wasn't allowed to sign players and the club was yet to pay off its debts. At the same time he had to field a team, keep it competitive, avoid relegation. I think a lot of their players were injured as well - Howe himself couldn't kick a ball properly because of a long standing injury, but amazingly played on for longer than he was advised to. I'm not sure you can blame someone for taking it badly when suddenly the opposition is given an advantage over you when all that's happening. Of course, Bournemouth should never have been allowed to get into that situation in the first place, I grant you.

If Jay Spearing signs I'll be on the Morgans Spiced.

Did I say it was their fault? All I'm saying is it's a flawed concept. Someone comes along and says 'this will give youth a chance' when in reality it's quite unlikely. Here we go again... The two situations are not comparable because you either don't want to understand what I'm saying or do, but can't accept it. It was about whether or not it can be enforced. I've given three examples of how the authorities attempting to enforce something hasn't worked.

They're not examples of the football authorities not trying and failing to enforce the rules? I think you'll find that's exactly what they are. Was I talking about auditing? No I was not.

When I worked at AFC Bournemouth, Eddie Howe was spitting feathers about the introduction of seven substitutes in the Football League. It actually did more harm than good, according to him, and he had a point. It's been brought back on the basis that it allows youngsters to have a better chance of getting first team football, but back when it was introduced no one saw it like that. Bournemouth had such a **** poor squad in terms of quality and numbers, Howe ended up naming Jayden Stockley as a substitute, and had to get permission from his parents as he had a lot of homework to do - I think he was about 16, maybe even younger. Half the time, Bournemouth didn't name seven subs because they couldn't, whilst their opponents could, and not only could they make the numbers up, they had better players and therefore more options to bring on and change games. As I say, it's now been reintroduced with some bright spark saying 'hang on, it's a chance for youngsters'. I doubt it will be used like that in the real world.

Wolves changed nearly their entire 11 to play Manchester United and were fined. Did it stop there? No. Blackpool made ten changes and lost 3 - 2 to Aston Villa, were fined £25,000. Stuart McCall got it in the neck for fielding what was deemed a 'weakened team' in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. An entire dossier was compiled on the incident and a punishment followed. If they're not examples then I don't know what is.

And you've made a fine contribution there yourself, if I may say so. Turkish has a very good point. How will the FA make managers pick a team? They've tried and failed in the past.

I've only seen it retweeted about 600 times. Poor form from the Twitter massive.

Most of Rangers' squad are represented by supersonic, hence why we're bringing them in. He showed them the season ticket DVDs and how excited the fans were on Twitter. We'll have Davis, Naismith and Ness in midfield next season.

I didn't mean it like that. I mean that if say Middlesbrough, Charlton or Watford, who have superb records in producing players, are ranked lower than someone like Burton, are people really going to think their academies are worse? No. Reputation will still play a big part as it does now. And thank you, my tiny feeble brain wouldn't possibly have worked out that more coaching on the whole makes players better. Someone once told me you're a maths teacher, wouldn't surprise me. Belittling other people, taking everything literally, obsessed with detail.

I went for a job interview with the Premier League a couple of months ago, and happened to be waiting in the reception area when a load of youth coaches came out of a board meeting. They were studying handbooks on what the EPPP will do and what it means. It's pretty complex. I also know for certain that the league are doing all they can to get the positives of the EPPP out there - at the moment it's overwhelmingly negative. I don't think categorisation particularly matters, I have to say.

Good job Tommy Hajto isn't around.

Supersonic lost a few clients over it which is a shame, I think he wants to be reimbursed, hence the legal action.

I really can't see it coming to that. I think it's impatient to say the least that just about two months until that fixture and it's already something you're worried about.

I agree, and I'm not suggesting anything other than the fact that the definition of a successful academy is open to debate. We've raised a lot of money from ours - okay that's great. Equally, to my mind, an academy that produces nothing but professional players is also pretty damn good. The famous West Ham academy produces just as many non-league players as it does professional players. I don't know the actual statistics, but I think it's a fair guess. One Harry Redknapp said just one successful graduate is fantastic, anything more than that is an absolute triumph.

Given the tenuous nature of the link, there is just as much chance of that being the case!

Whilst I'd hope that we do have someone lined up (and I'm convinced that is the case - scouts will have identified someone and it's a case of getting them), is there any point in keeping someone who wants first team football whose abilities we have doubts over? No, I don't think so. For that reason I'd say letting him go and leaving us with one goalkeeper isn't such a terrible idea - especially when there are still two months until the season starts, which is plenty of time to bring someone in.

There are a lot of very good academies that don't get talked about. Middlesbrough, Watford and Charlton spring to mind. Whilst it's not a case of ours being spoken out every day, we're certainly talked about more than them. It also depends on your definition of a successful academy. We've had some high profile graduates, it's true. But an academy that produces players that play professionally for their entire career, regardless of what tier they play in, is still surely a success story, is it not? How many of our players that came up with the likes of Bale and Walcott are now out of the professional game? Jake Thomson, Jamie White, Josh Dutton-Black, Kyle Critchell are all non-league. An academy we've perhaps never heard of might have produced players that play their entire careers in the Football League, but never get a mention because there were no superstars.

Still nothing better to do with your life then?

20 goals doesn't sound a great deal - I think Rasiak managed that before Christmas in 06/07, but better players than Guly have failed to do it. Despite the fact we continued to win games and score enough goals, I always felt we looked far, far better when Lee was in the side. He really added something a bit special, I'm really looking forward to his return.

Quite a bold statement. I think you've already mentioned what would have stood in the way of him achieving that given the opportunity - one game he might score two and look like getting a hat-trick (Boro) but the next game his first touch would desert him and he'd be huffing and puffing, throwing his hands about because he couldn't escape his marker.

Wycombe, who have a decent record when it comes to producing young players, decided that they'd close their academy due to the new system. I think it's fair to say it's already had an impact.

Well, there IS that, but I was more thinking that there is a strong possibility that him being at an international airport has nothing to do with him signing for us. How many players pass through an international airport in the off season? Thousands, probably. Are they all headed down to speak to us? Here's a thought. Maybe, just maybe, he was going on holiday. Oh and that's if it WAS him. Far be it from me to question Dean Cox, but...

A Leyton Orient player spots him at Gatwick. Sorry but I'm going to need a lot more convincing than that. As you say, that really doesn't mean anything. It means less than anything.