Crazy Diamond

Yeah the Northam one does that as well from time to time. There were also a lot of temporary fixes made to the box that distributes the pictures and a few things have been broken for some time - exposed circuit boards etc. Hopefully that will all be cleared up. I seem to recall Paul Telfer whacking one of the screens with a shot.

Hmm. The academy thing is interesting, wonder if that's actually true. I suppose with all the applying for category whatever status it could be true, then again it might just be an excuse. Maybe if we pay them £10 million for Jarvis we'll help out eh. Reading to me are a bit of a joke, I've rarely come across fans anymore fickle than them. Nowhere to be seen when the season kicked off, as soon as they put a few wins together they were suddenly emerging out the woodwork. I can't remember fans that were so quiet unless they were winning - the game at St. Mary's redefined what poor support was for me. They actually call the Madejski 'the library' because it is that quiet.

You're welcome, I hope it made sense. Basically it's not a necessity to improve the screens but they are showing signs of falling behind the times and are already not at their best. Last I heard the Wolves expansion was in some doubt - a lot of it relied on Premier League cash. As for Reading, I can't understand that for the life of me. A few bad results and they'll all go back to supporting Chelsea and Arsenal anyway.

I worked at the club last season for the Beeb and there were one or two moments when the screens were a problem, and with new technology coming in, I can kind of see the logic in upgrading them - but there were just one or two moments where we had problems, they weren't constant and huge problems. It's probably a luxury more than a necessity, certainly. The picture quality of the current screens isn't very good anyway. Basically the pictures you saw on the screens last season was a feed from a BBC camera that was primarily there to record the game for match highlights on the Football League Show. The format that the BBC used for covering football matches last season in the Football League was digi-beta, which isn't exactly new. Even so, the quality going out from the camera to the screen had to be adjusted, because at its highest setting the pictures looked burnt out on the screen. This season it'll be HD cameras covering the games, so rather than having poor quality pictures put up on the screens, we'll have nice shiny new ones that will offer a better picture to go with the better cameras, a perfect match. Again, it's not a necessity, but a luxury, because you can get by without maximum quality - we did fine last season for example. Hopefully there will also be work done on the camera gantry as last season it quickly became hectic up there, and with bigger crews coming in to do live games etc it'll only get worse.

It's not as simple as that. This is a sign that we are up there with the big boys. I'm just waiting for the announcement regarding toilet paper - if we go to double quilted, we know we've made it.

Are you certain? I seem to recall we won an award for the best food, announced on the day of our relegation.

I also said the improvements we are making indicate that last time it wasn't good enough - referring to the stadium, which is the subject of this thread, as it is about LED screens from YOUR title. You're quite clearly mentally ill. Stick to sitting in the dark and working on Football Manager and stop communicating with people.

Oh so our stadium was the reason we were relegated was it? There was me thinking it was results and the team. Silly me.

The number of improvements we're making is quite interesting. We seemed to do okay last time we were in the Premier League - in hindsight was it not good enough? Apparently so.

Barely played from what I can remember.

Glad you agree Mr. Lungs - it's like Graham Carr said he'd scouted Cisse at Newcastle for SEVEN YEARS. I can't imagine he'd go to his manager and say the same vague things every single time. If you're at a lower league club you can't afford a decent scout anyway - they won't even talk to you! In real life it's not like that, a lower league scout might be just as good at finding very good players as a top flight scout. And yes, how often do you see a kid that has been at a club for a matter of seconds after entering the game and he's gone to United or some club like that? You'll never have heard of him until he's gone. We all knew about Nick Powell, Jordan Ibe or Raheem Sterling before they'd gone. Well, I did anyway.

Well I remember reading a thread on it and it was billed as their 'promotion party'. I could be wrong though. I'm just jealous we didn't organise something. I've always wanted to meet you all.

I get what you're saying, I think though that it's a fact that more goes into planning fixtures these days, and that's not a criticism of the system before or anything - these days everyone has to be thought of, rail companies etc.

I should say that I've no objections to having a get together at the end of the season, there's no reason not to, but this was planned at the start of the season for 'when' they got promoted. I've got an issue with that...

Sorry to be blunt on that one chap! I use the Genie Scout, personally I don't find it to be cheating as scouts are too slow and don't provide enough information. Not particularly true to real life. It's not as if the more times you scout one player that you find out more about them either. Others may have a different view on that one but to me Genie Scout isn't cheating, as I say. I looked Eriksen up and he's got a bad injury proneness rating, and there's just no point in signing someone who's going to be like that, especially if they've got a lot to do in order to improve, as they'll be injured most of the time instead of improving. Cheap, reliable, consistent midfielders that come good quickly: Marco Verratti (in real life he's just agreed something with Juventus) and Guido Pizarro. I never got many goals out of Marco but he was good for 20 assists every season which is remarkable. Cost me £1.5m, soon gets international recognition and big Serie A clubs sniffing and he doesn't care. Pizarro I actually missed out on because Anzhi wanted to give him outrageous wages to get him to play with their team of legends in Russia. Get in there quickly and he's a bargain, I think he may even be as cheap as £2m.

Not sure it even matters that much really. Plus if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

We could spend hours analysing it, much like we did last year, but there isn't a lot of point. If we're going to stay up an established name has to go down, but again there's no point in speculating on who it might be because so many different things happen during the course of the season. I don't think it'll be quite as unpredictable as the Championship was last season though.

The aforementioned boat party... They're a classy bunch aren't they? http://www.kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=140164&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

I seem to remember when Wigan came up a Sky Sports News team was sent to the DW or the JJB as it was back then, and they filmed the reaction that the club officials had when they found out they had Chelsea on the opening day. They found out by email on the same morning that everyone else found out, and the first to know was the club secretary. There could be a sense of playing to the camera or it being staged etc, but it seemed pretty genuine. So in order for this to be true, it's going to be passed on from someone who is dealing with the fixtures at its source. Anyway - we'll find out tomorrow.

I must admit I have a similar feeling, but it's more because they will definitely splurge whereas we're likely to be more cautious. In the long run I know what I'd prefer. But for one of their lot to say outright they can't wait to 'batter' us straight away given what their club is currently like and previous performances, I just think they're woefully out of touch.

To be honest, I can't say I'm all that bothered about who we play on the opening day. First thing I do when I see a new fixture list is identify key points of the season. I just hope we avoid a run-in in which we play teams like United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool etc in a row. Christmas is also one to look at, given the ridiculous amount of games in a row. We may even take a small amount of comfort in the fact we've no players at the EUROs this season, everyone ought to be fully recharged and refreshed compared to other clubs who will have guys back after a lengthy season.

Wonder how their boat party went. Also I wonder how long they give Allardyce when he's playing hoof ball for the rest of the world to see and they go through an inevitable bad patch.

I'd like to send a message to whoever it is that keeps making Twitter accounts, claiming to be a transfer rumours website or an agent. The message is as follows: Stop it. Get a life.

West Ham fan on form as always "wouldn't mind going to Reading or Southampton and absolutely battering them." They've learnt nothing from last season. Nothing at all. They were relegated for a reason, they spent more than most teams combined and came third, yet they're still so incredibly arrogant. Makes me sick.

Get used to that. He's very, very injury prone. Doesn't even become that great a player.