stevegrant

New Football League insolvency event rules have been agreed at their AGM. Headlines: 12-point deduction instead of the current 10 Administrator obliged to market the club for at least 21 days (to lessen the risk of pre-pack admin), and must engage with the supporters trust if one exists CVA not required, as they take ages to agree and cost a fortune in fees Upon exiting administration, the club is required to pay creditors at least 35p in the pound for three years, or face a further 15-point deduction.

Intrigued as to why Owais Shah is only with us for the T20 - is that his choice or ours? Still looks a class player, albeit getting on a bit.

QPR is terrible on pretty much every criteria. At least at Palace you usually get a half-decent atmosphere, even if the prices are pretty steep.

I can only assume Sunderland scored so highly because a load of Villa and Palace fans rated them really highly on the back of sticking 4 past them up there. I'd put Sunderland right down near the bottom, the away section is among the worst in the country.

Even ****ing Leicestershire have won a game, their first since September 2012

As if Pompey are going to get through two rounds in either competition

I've not seen any of our 4-day games, but purely on the figures Berg looks like he's been pretty good. Wonder if there's an argument to throw him into the T20 side instead of Edwards, or are we banking on Bird eventually being fit enough to play? As you say, our recruitment has been bizarre. Whatever went on with Matt Coles was obviously serious enough for him to be told to sling his hook, but his performances for Kent so far this year (admittedly in D2) have been excellent, and with Edwards tossing it all over the place, we lack that bit of genuine hostility in our bowling. While Berg and Smith have been good signings, they're both very much the wrong side of 30 - that's going to catch up with us sooner rather than later, we don't have that much youth and energy in the side anymore. 6 of the 11 playing in this game are comfortably over 30, 4 now into their mid-20s and only Wheal bringing the average age down, this must be the oldest Hampshire team in living memory, and yet we're trying to get by in what is now a pretty competitive top flight. If we've not got players coming through from the academy and seconds, we should be recruiting young players with potential and something to prove rather than loads of old-timers coming here for one last payday.

It seems to me that Worcestershire made the most of the bowler-friendly conditions when they bowled, but we've bowled some absolute ****e and let them pile on the runs. We should have a bowling attack capable of beating Worcestershire, but we've had a bad day. Looks like the signing of Fidel Edwards isn't working out, not taking wickets and haemorrhaging runs isn't a good combination, and being dropped in order to keep a rookie in the side is a bad sign.

No, but that'll be because we never had a CVA to pay off in the first place.

Apologies, I'd forgotten to run the points update after the City game. All done now, a remarkably close finish in the end, with only 2 points separating the top 3. Congratulations to the winner, Weston Saint, who pipped cadesupfront by a point, with Saint Johnno a further point back in third.

Not sure it really makes any difference to the sponsors. They're not paying for association with FIFA, per se, they're paying for association with the World Cup. It just so happens that the deal covers the intervening years, but hardly anyone takes any notice during those times. Their stance will be that if they didn't continue their sponsorship, their direct rivals would happily take their place and get the exposure that entails. I don't think anyone would really notice if their headline sponsors were Mastercard, Burger King and Pepsi instead of Visa, McDonalds and Coca-Cola, to be honest.

It seems to be a commonly-held belief, but I'm not entirely sure it's that accurate. He's got no real need to go to the US, he doesn't need to bribe them with development cash. And anyway, the US has a pretty strong extradition agreement, hence the individuals arrested this morning could be extradited within days.

Well United had to give Falcao something to do this season...

I imagine it's a combination of factors. Firstly, Liverpool have regressed significantly from last season when they were obviously genuine title contenders, which gives the impression that last season was the anomaly rather than this season's subsequent slump. For a player who was described by his manager earlier in the season as "one of the best young talents in Europe", that's not good enough and he should be playing for a team who will challenge on a regular basis. Secondly, he's on a salary you or I would be more than happy with, but given his status as "one of the best young talents in Europe" and seeing the likes of Glen Johnson pocketing nearly four times more money than him to warm the bench for most of the season, no wonder he's been a bit put out by the relatively late interest in tying him down to a new extended deal. Why didn't they offer him this new contract last season when they were riding the crest of the wave and he'd have almost certainly signed? So for me, it's about both success and money. He wants to win things, and he wants to be paid a fair rate in a squad of highly-paid players, of which he's arguably not one at the moment. £35k a week at Liverpool is peanuts.

Glorious. :lol: :lol:

He is still under contract for 2 years, but if they keep him to that contract and fail to strengthen the team sufficiently so as to make a genuine attempt at getting back into the top 4 on a regular basis (rather than the one season in six they're currently going at), or they keep him to that contract and let him "rot in the reserves", his value diminishes significantly, even between two transfer windows.

It strikes me that a player and agent who don't want to sign a new contract having negotiations for said contract cancelled by the club have won.

Precisely £0.00

Jed Wallace to Wolves. Done deal. Shame for them

I think the original quotes are from the Evening Standard. Seems as though the agent is backtracking somewhat on the bit where he called Carragher a knob, but suspect that's more a case of him saying something that he thought would be obviously assumed to be off-the-record.

Whatever they've done, it will definitely be "outstanding", according to Brenda.

Absolutely extraordinary quotes from the agent there

This is the Liverpool fanbase you're talking about. Surely THE most deluded of the lot, and I include the blue few down the road in that. Apparently because they were quite good before Sterling was born, he should stay put. They've qualified for the Champions League once in the past six years, off the back of a season where everything came together for them but has since disintegrated. Why would he stay when he could actually win something somewhere else?

Sturridge is relatively meaningless as he's made of biscuits. Last season was the exception for him in that he remained fit for most of the season. Every other season in his career has been blighted with fitness problems.

Glorious