once_bitterne

Chelsea 'C' team.

We've replaced one of the top PL strikers with a top Championship one. Our LB will struggle to play to the level of Bertrand. And we 've signed 3 kids from the Chelsea academy. If that's 8/10......

Indeed. Apart from the Big 6 and Everton we're the team with the longest current run in the PL which shows it will be our turn soon. We are now in a mini-league with the 3 promoted clubs, Burnley, Palace, Brighton and Newcastle where the aim is to finish above 3 of the others. So come on boys, pay your s/t money to watch that.....

No probs. The major US sports are massively unionised compared to sports over here. It's why they have actual strikes over there in sports. In '87 about half of the NFL season was lost and owners bought in replacement players to play games while the actual players formed picket lines outside the training grounds. In 1994 the baseball season was cancelled mid way through due to a strike and the current agreement between baseball players and owners expires at the end of this season and it's highly likely that there will be no season at all next year given how far the two sides are apart in negotiations.

I think you are thinking about the 'sport' of Pro Wrestling. They have famously been denied a Union for decades as owners are able to view them as 'independent contractors'. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1110575-wwe-news-wrestlings-risks-warrant-a-labor-unions-rewards

Eh? NFL players are heavily unionised and have been for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_Players_Association

Ralph's main target? That's a sad indictment of how far we've fallen from the Europe days of Koeman to where we are now and just trying to get what is effectively a loan of one of Chelsea's youth team players for a couple of years.

He can't be worse than KWP. He looks as if can barely lift the ball, let alone throw it. They had one of the PL refs on Talksport recently and he said that they have pretty much been told not to call any foul throws if they can avoid it.

It's very difficult to 'shift people out' when said people have no intention of being shifted due to earning wages of which they will never see the like of again.

F'king Ralph lumbering us with the transfer fees of Lemina, Hoedt, Elywotsit, Carrillo, Boufal, etc, etc, etc which are the reason we are financially f'ked now. The choices we have made so far are to bring in a LB which is understandable as we didn't have a single one in our squad beforehand.

Not really a weird one. He's got a year left on his contract, had publicly handed in a transfer request, reportedly had a bad attitude and was sent off after a couple of mins of his debut. Would have been a massive surprise if he hadn't left.

Tyldsley lost the job of top ITV commentator to the awful Matt Sammerface there's zero chance he'll be commentating on Sunday.

What do you mean by top clubs? There are a handful of huge clubs like Barca and Bayern but apart from those none of the other clubs in La Liga, or the French and German leagues can compete with the wages that PL clubs can pay, even ones like lil ol Saints.

He already has hasn't he? Brazil only does a couple of days a week on the Talksport Breakfast show, the rest are done by McCoist and Laura Woods.

I agree. But giving it an extra year gives us more time to recover from the legacy/hangover of the Reed error as we rid ourselves of more of his donkey sanctuary of Lemina, Elywotsit and the huge contract absurdly given to FF.

That's not comparing like for like though is it? If he leaves next Summer then we won't be spending c.£12m on a LB in that window and it's fair to assume that keeping a striker of his level will be worth around 5 places in the league which is worth about another £12m. So we would have pretty much the same to spend on a replacement then as now.

Staying for one more season benefits both parties. With his average and injury prone last season, Ings stock is way lower than it was 12 months ago. If he does well next season his options/wage levels will be much better and he can expect a massive signing bonus as his new club will be getting an out of contract player.

I doubt it's Ralph's decision to make. Getting relegated is far more risky and with the club getting £2m for every place higher up the table it finishes the risk of him staying isn't all that great.

It's difficult to defend the club's transfer business going back as far as when Koeman left. Yes, last season was better than the abject windows that brought us Hoedt, Lemina, Carrillo, Lemina, Elywotsit and the rest of Les Reed's Donkey sanctuary but even that wasn't all that amazing. KWP is an obvious success but was low risk as we had him on loan prior to signing. Salisu did ok but was no more than a squad player/fill-in FB and Diallo was dropped for a lot of games towards the end of the season by RH.

If you chuck him an extra fiver he will give the greeting while wearing his tin-foil hat.

Replacing old plastic, cleaning the roof and generally cleaning things up would prob cost less than £100k. A 2nd choice LB would prob cost around £8m + £50k per week wages so don't think cleaning the stadium up will impact transfers too much.

You're not the world's smartest businessman are you. Even if it was 'just' two week's of FF wages that would equate to around £150k. Given we are trying to claw back as much money as we can by trying to squeeze a bit of extra cash out of Kingsland s/t holders, in what world do yo think the club is able to turn down that sort of money? (and for the barking mad reason of another club who plays in red and white has the same sponsor).

Indeed. Well, unless you live in the loony world of @JRM

F'king hell you're thick! So the rules are we can't put a gambling logo on our kids kit. Fair enough. Well we can't change our main sponsor as they offered the highest amount for the role. So the choices are. Leave the kit blank which will lose the club money. Or find another sponsor for the kids shirt. The club took the latter option which meant the club got more £££. But you are saying when looking for a sponsor for the kids kit, the club should have refused to do business with any company that already sponsors a club which has a red and white strip shirt? You utter loon!

We had the same kit and sponsor as Exeter when in L1......