S-Clarke

On paper yeah, given his experience, but I personally think his legs have gone. I don't think he has top level in his locker anymore if I'm honest. 3-4 years ago he was top, quick, powerful, but he's not the same anymore. Feels a bit Micah Richards to Villa. We'll see how it pans out.

Skates hopefully.

Yeah the owner is a bit mental, he did come in with a big fanfare and promise them PL football etc - I don't think Rosenior was perfect though, I think he should have done a bit more with the squad he had (especially the 2nd half of that season). They should have at least got Top 6 IMO, certainly when the likes of WBA and Norwich got in there, and they didn't have Tyler Morton, Carvahlo or Delap. Not sure he deserved sacking, but he should have done better that year with the squad he had imo.

Yep, I thought it was really well written.

I think their 'almost' season when we got promoted killed them. I thought they were a good watch, they had stacks of good players of which they did spend a fair whack on with loan fees, and wages - they built a strong squad for that level. Feels a bit like our Burley playoff season, gambled a bit too much, failed and that was that. They'll probably be L1 soon.

I think Abu will be a good player at that level, it'll give him the chance to develop. He was seriously highly rated at Chelsea, similar to that Simeu lad we had - neither made it with us, but I think both will have good lower level careers. We fought off some PL interest to get Abu on a free if I remember rightly. He's a good pickup for the French National league, no doubts.

Yeah, this is my feel. It's the story of the points deduction which never comes. Lots of chatter, but ultimately never happens. It won't happen this time round either. I don't think they'll be able to spend a great deal or have much flexibility on that front though, I think they'll be quite skint...but they do have a decent level squad if they keep it together. As proven last time, way too good for this league. Still a long time to go in the window though, we've got some PL players who will leave and I'm certain they will have departures too. It'll be interesting to see how both squads stack up in September.

I quite like it. I had a fear that the sponsor would be contained within a 'box', but they've done quite a good job to incorporate that into the shirt without spoiling it. £65 is too much though, wouldn't be going near it at that price. £30 was about the max I'd ever pay.

I think East Kent Saint got it in the end though

Saw this on Twitter, felt poignant and shows how quickly life can take you from a high, to the worst of lows. May - Won the PL with Liverpool 1st Half of June - Won the Nations League with Portugal 2nd Half of June - Got Married July - Passed away. Life is just fragile, take every day as it comes and make the absolute most of it. You just never know.

And that has created a very lazy generation of motorists I think, sitting and waiting for their car to tell them if something is wrong. I think everyone should do at least a visual check every few weeks, maybe check pressures every month. Tech is great and all, but use it as a guide and not an absolute - it's a bit complacent to sit and rely on it (it's like waiting for the oil light to come on until you top up).

Good idea to keep a track, even if not for 'PSR' purposes it's nice to see what sort of profit/loss we're operating at. We've got to win that net spend table at the end of the season I honestly cannot see KWP being on 20k though, surely not. I'd have estimated at least 60 on his most recent renewal. If he's been playing for us on 20k whilst the likes of Jack Stephens ponce around on 60k per week then fuck me, he's deserves a medal.

Holy shit, that's a shocker. He was a proper player. RIP

In case anyone was wondering if this fella was going to be joining us:

Marquee signings is a bit of a floated term nowadays, what does it mean in reality? Is it a case of just spending a massively inflated fee on a player who is in demand? There is still value to be had without spending silly money. Judging the 'coup' level of a signing shouldn't be based upon the transfer fee alone, but it feels like modern football has gone that way sadly.

P&O cruises and ferries are distinctly different companies. What P&O Ferries did to their staff has no connection what so ever with P&O cruises, as they are separately owned companies without any connection to one an other. P&O Cruises is thoroughly embedded into Carnival as their overall owner. It's kinda like kicking up a fuss if Microsoft took us over, because you didn't like what Apple had done. P&O Cruises are the proper boats which leave Southampton and go all over Europe and the world, P&O ferries are the noddy lot who base themselves out of skatesville.

I think it's the right strategy for clubs like ourselves, enough of the focus on tippy tappy players, more of a focus on genuine power, strength and pace. That's what will get us success longer term, it shouldn't be about focusing on having a higher average possession percentage. I'll always stand by that! I'm much more comfortable with this profile of player as they've already got a bigger chance of being able to succeed at PL level due to their physical profiles.

Juric was the only manager who kinda put 100% in him, playing him every week, and he still didn't really do anything for us. I guess he looks at a player like him as a great 'get out' option for how he approaches the game, at the end of the day his teams are built on defensive stability in low blocks and fast breaks. What we got for him $$ wise is a great deal, funds Downs with change to spare.

In the old days, maybe, but £6m is relatively loose change in the modern world of football. I think you have to be able to spend those levels to even be competitive in the Championship nowadays. We're in a time where Birmingham City put down £18m for Jay Stansfield as a League 1 club.

To counter that, I'd say that if Armstrong, BBD and Archer were Championship players last season and we were targeting them on the back of goal-scoring campaigns, that would fill that void you state. They'd certainly be valued at that as well. Last season BBD looked like a carthorse, but he can and has scored goals at this level. Ditto Armstrong, and ditto Archer. On paper we have 'Championship proven goal scorers' in the door already, so we somewhat have a risk free move available for an 'up and coming' sort. If we sell BBD/Armstrong/Archer then it's a different story however.

Reads like a massive guess-work article to me.

Yes, that's quite scary. Let's hope he's nowhere near involved come August!

I think that's a very fair assessment. I don't have a problem with Solak personally, more so the morons he put to run the show and then the subsequent show they spun up. I guess the proof will be in the pudding now though, we need to see an uplift now he's fully involved. He could have been a worse owner, that's for sure. At least our players are paid.

This one is clearly a Spors driven signing, him and Quarshie have both been targeted and moved on pretty quickly by Spors and the new Chief Scout. Our new Chief Scout has obviously got some knowledge of both of these, especially Quarshie as he was at Hoffenheim Yep, they're young, somewhat unknown and we've all been here before so I get the apprehension. I think we'll still target some more proven players though, we'd be nuts not to. The problem comes when your strategy is based on just young and up and coming, as we've all seen.

I'm with you, I think Brooks is a very classy player. Technically gifted, similar in ways to Dibling in his playing style. Not particularly quick, but a good brain and close control. I felt we should have got more out of him when we had him, I saw it as a huge coup when we got him on loan. I didn't think our rigid retain the ball approach helped him, he's more of a maverick - much in the same way as Charly was, you need to let them express themselves and not tie them int a rigid ''keep the ball at all costs, and pass backwards'' approach. Whoever gets him in the Championship will undeniably be getting one of the most technically gifted players in the league.