hypochondriac

We are going to make so much money from Lavia. A cause for celebration for sure!

Yep. I'd be surprised if we don't have a better team in September of this year than we had in September 2022.

Being a championship team may in some ways give us an advantage with certain players. We can offer a starting place and may be more willing to take a chance on decent league one and championship players. I've been wanting us to dip into that market more for ages anyway (I know we did it for Adams which worked out OK and Armstrong which was a failure but we could have been smarter.)

I don't think it's for Schofield to decide if he groomed the lad or not, of course he's going to say it wasn't because it's in his interest to say that. Personally the imbalance of power and the friendly relationship when he was a boy and he was in his 40s and 50s is at the very least extremely creepy and does strongly suggest some form of grooming given that he'd got him a job working closely with him. Even if Schofield is entirely innocent of that charge, I think he's a bit of a narcissist and a scumbag given what he's subjected his wife to after being married to her for so long.

They're a league one team. It will be pretty cheap relatively.

I'd put him in the squad initially as backup and see if he can force his way in.

All this drama occurred because I misused the word firesale during a quick post yesterday. I'm very sorry.

I agree. Either we get 20 million which will give us funds for a similar type of player, or we keep him and watch him tear up the league. Alcaraz, Tella, Piroe and someone like Stuart Armstrong as backup seems like an excellent lineup for the championship. I hope it works out.

I don't think it was always destined to be the case. I'm hoping we play hardball with Alcaraz, tella and maybe Sulemana because those are three we could realistically keep who would be brilliant.

Why is everyone saying it's the Denmark kit? I was told it was out this week so maybe my info is duff.

So if the Athletic article is to be believed, we may have a larger firesale than most were expecting. If it comes to pass, it may be that the only player we'd like to keep who will stay is Alcaraz. Shame that Sulemana wants to go and that Tella will probably end up leaving. Combine that with kwp, jwp, ABK, Lavia, Salisu and possibly Bednarek and Lyanco and we really are going to need some substantial resources in.

I probably know you

I knew him before he was a footballer. Straight A student at school and incredibly intelligent. Has a lovely partner too. Great normal guy.

I'd give it a 1 probably. We did have the top performing teenager in the country playing for us and we prevented city from doing the quadruple. Other than that there were no positives but a 0/10 is Derby County levels.

There hasn't been a leaked kit has there?

It's stripes. I suppose it depends what your definition of back to basics is.

Taking their time. I expect they'll wait to get a new signing in it. I'm glad we're going with stripes and nothing too whacky.

I think the Athletic article suggested he was off too.

Exactly. It's fun to see opinions from people.

So he's gone to the media now to limit the damage. Apparently he was mates with the bloke. I'm not sure that makes it better, I've never been mates with someone 40 years younger than me. Pretty dodgy really.

He's off then clearly. Should hopefully get our money back though or close to it I would have thought.

Particularly if you'd known the person from a young age and subsequently had a position of authority over them. Deeply deeply creepy and morally wrong if not illegal.

Yeah. Like perhaps it's sensible to wait for the outcome of an appeal before labelling someobe a rape apologist.

Which part of my post was pure speculation and assumption? I never used the words could have or might have. There is a 40+ year age gap between the two, Schofield did know him when he was a child and he did subsequently hold a position of authority over him and definitely engaged in a relationship with him shortly after he became an adult. That's all fact.

Which bit? He's admitted to the relationship, there is a 40+ year age gap and he was in a position of authority over him. None of that is speculation. The only bit you could say was an assumption is that he began a relationship shortly after he became an adult. It could have been earlier.