S-Clarke

That's a quote from the video just put up on Youtube. He was also asked if a striker is often the 'hardest' one to bring in, and Ralph says yes if we're talking about money!

I don't think this debate is about what country we should copy, it's about making what we have better and I think it's pretty obvious what we can do to make it better. There are a lot of good things about our model and why countries do look envious at it, but it also creates it's own problems in terms of bloated organisations and a lack of accountability. As I said above, ICB's are a sign that more joined up care is in the thinking again as immediately it has removed a ton of duplication of roles and services done by commissioners. Still a lot of work to do, but I think the next 18 months - 2 years will see some fundamental changes to the way the 'back office' commissioning arms of the NHS is run, and not before time imo. Until that side is sorted out, care will always suffer.

I don't think people are saying ''cut all non-clinical staff'', but I think there needs to be a realisation that there is simply too much middle management and a hell of a lot of duplication. That isn't cheap to fund and that money could be directed elsewhere. Read up on CSU's, NHS funded organisations packed to the rafters with Band 8a and above management (50k+ salaries) and tell me exactly what their purpose is, and why their jobs cannot be done by an 'ICB' as it is now? (or a CCG back in the day). There is a need for middle managers and non-clinical staff, absolutely, but there is simply too much as of today - but I'm somewhat hopeful, maybe naively, that ICB's will be the start of some sense being re-applied by removing some of that duplication. (CCG's were a ridiculous duplication at the time)

To be honest the only clubs who can sign proven PL players are the likes of Spurs, Arsenal, Man Utd, City, Chelsea etc. The 'PL' experience comes with a premium which is usually in excess of £35m. The only other way we can sign 'PL' experience is to get some older players at the end of their careers, like Ben Mee or Theo - but less said about that approach the better. Our only option is to sign younger players who we can then provide PL experience to, after which we can then ask for the premium when clubs come sniffing. That's our place, that's not going to change.

I've never been able to work out how the hell Martin Braithwaite ever became a Barcelona player, it's unreal.

It's clear that if we wanted to, we have the money to put down £25-30m on a player. But because we have so much to do (full back, goal keeper, cb, cm, number 10's, striker etc) we cannot afford to use an enormous chunk of our budget on just one position. If we get ourselves a settled team in a year that doesn't require as much work, then we will probably break out transfer record. We need to get ourselves a decent team first though.

This is my argument. If it was Winks and still money for a striker It wouldn't be too bad, but I just don't think we have the money for both? Unless we are actually loaded.

The prob with GP's, is whilst they brand themselves NHS, they are just private companies in their own right and run themselves exactly as they want. They are bound to certain rules stipulated by NHSE/CCG's, but in the main the running processes they employ are individually managed. That's why responses from different GP's vary so much. They also do what they want with their budgets, so they can spend money on phone systems if they want to without being accountable to anyone.

This is true, once you can 'get' to where you need to get to the care is pretty good. But it's getting the referral, getting seen, the delays, waiting lists etc - that's the problem. And that all steams from cruddy management. Nothing wrong with the care in the NHS, there's just too much stopping people getting the right access.

The articles I saw a few months ago were talking of £20-25m, which would be horrible. Their stance may have changed now.

I guess the negativity around Winks is a little more subdued because we signed Lavia, so he won't be our only midfield signing. Plus, whilst he's pretty average, it's easy to say that he's better than Diallo and certainly has more experience at this level than Diallo. My only concern would be the fee. The priority, in my eyes, needs to be a striker - that's where our budget needs to go. If we spend £20m on Winks and miss out on a striker then we've done it wrong.

It's a half way house at the moment, parts are being privatised by stealth and parts aren't. Nothing is joined up in the middle. If we're going to privitaise it then just do it, that's my view. I'm not precious about 'my NHS' or bollocks like that, all I know is from being on both the inside and the outside is that it's currently not working. The 'public' ownership of the NHS is actually making it worse, as like Turkish said above it encourages entitlement. Not just from patients, but also those who work in it. I have worked with people who have left the NHS and went into the private sector, they lasted a matter of months before they came crawling back to the NHS and into another cushy job. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all NHS jobs are cushy at all - there are some amazing people that work in the NHS, but there is a hidden cohort of absolute nobodies who are paid extortionate amounts for doing very little.

The NHS is a bit of a sore subject for me, as I'm very close to it and have been for almost 15/16 years. To cut a long story short, there is way, way, way too much middle management. Back in 2012 the Torries abolished 'PCT's to do away with middle management, but actually the extreme opposite happened. - PCT's were abolished. The staff who were part of PCT's moved into CCG's (clinical commissioning groups), CSU's (pointless organisations that provided support to CCG's), NHS England, NHS Property Services. In most cases in 2013, when this all kicked off, there were at least 6/7 CCG's per region. So from single PCT's with single boards of directors, you ended up with 10+ additional organisations per region each with their own levels of directorship and management. Absolute nonsense. - Guess what's happening now? CCG's are being abolished and are moving into what is being called an 'ICB' (integrated care board). In all purposes this is just a new name for a PCT, as they've brought all the CCG's and local authority services back under a single organisation per region. I don't know if this latest re organisation will work or not, but there's still a hell of a lot of nonsense in the NHS before you even get to the 'care' side of it. I know people clamor for money needing to be spent on the NHS, but a lot don't realise how much is wasted on middle management nonsense and re-organisations. Taking a tiny thing into isolation from a few years ago, 'NHS England' put pressure on all the CCG's to ensure 'Patient Wifi' was available at all GP Practices. This lead to lots of organisations such as Daisy, Virgin Media, BT etc smelling the $$$$ and offering massively overpriced solutions to the NHS which they paid for, and are now struggling to get out of the contracts as they're not fit for purpose - and no one uses them. Who'd have thought it, patients use their own mobile data when in GP practices...not patient wifi! So, there's a lot of money that goes into the NHS. Lots and lots and lots of waste, until the waste is sorted the and the nonsense 'looking after themselves' middle management is done away with then there shouldn't be anymore money pumped in, as it never gets to where it needs to as there are too many hoops for it to cross.

You always seem to get the completely wrong end of the stick.

Theo isn't fit? Who'd have thought it.

Leicester are looking to reunite that 9-0 defense aren't they? Bertrand - Vestergaard - Bednarek. Can we throw in Valery as part of the deal? Then they have the set.

Do we often announce kids leaving? Wouldn't be unusual for this to have already happened and the first we'd know about it would be Chelsea's or Newcastle's U18 team sheet next season.

Potentially another club out of the race for Broja?

I can only assume that in the striker position we're looking for someone more proven, so with those sorts of transfers you need to wait for all sorts to fall into place with regards the selling clubs replacements/or the clubs waiting for other teams to show an interest etc. All sorts of things need to happen. And in relation to Delap, if it's him we are also interested in, he's still away on holiday after the U19 Euro's I believe. Man City prob want a look at him.

He had one season hitting those sorts of levels in the Championship, but he benefited from being able to bully defenders a bit at that level and make space for himself.

We were interested in him as well, at the time we were also interested in Jay. I think Leiecter at the time (under Sven) were a bit more flashy with their cash and got him in the end, although to say he flopped would be an understatement. We bide our time and got Jay the following summer and reaped the rewards on that one.

Or Brett Ormerod! Those types of players are priceless. They often get pelters for their lack of goals, but they do bring a lot to the team 'IF' they are partnered with the right player. If they're not then the pressure builds on them and people point the finger at them, but at the end of the day that's unfair as it was never their game.

Ah yes, I know the one you mean. Liam Fontaine, really highly rated at the time. Never progressed though, ended up pissing around in the SPL for the last 8 years. Not sure if he's retired now.

I get this is a strange thing to say, but I don't think people should base Adam's influence on just goals. He'll never score loads of goals, it's just the way it is. He's not a clinical finisher and I don't see that ever changing. What he does bring to the attack is power, strength and legs. He stretches defenses and can create space for other players to run into. He works his absolute arse off which is priceless when we base most of our game on counter pressing. This is why it's absolutely critical to find a player who can work with Adams and be the 'goal scorer' in that partnership, someone who can take advantage of the space he creates through his unselfish running. Adams can still be an influential member of the team, but relying on him for goal scoring will lead us to the Championship rather swiftly.

Something like that, I remember him being quite upset by the situation (and Cov too). Bit of a Cortese special that one.