nzlatic

Who sees it as a step up? Maybe it's as simple as them offering more money? We haven't sunk anywhere - we've been at this level for a long time now and lost out on players like this before. By the sounds of it LJ has a budget and is sticking to it, and feels that that budget is better spent elsewhere. Fair play to him. Let's see how the summer pans out before toys start flying out of the pram.

Don't really get why people get a kick out of getting others to believe a fairly plausible rumour. It's not like he's convinced people we're signing lampard. Nice one mate.

Account settled - pounds for points for March, April and May and my £20 staying up pledge all paid at last! Great initiative. Looking forward to more of the same next year.

On the other hand, if it's public knowledge then opens it up for agents to demand more money if they know we've had a couple of million come in. Is there a reason fans need to know every detail other than curiosity?

Those payments may not be public knowledge. So this thread will probably run and run with rumours and FACTs from those "in the know" even after he's sold!

SSN saying cut price fee maybe based on appearances. How would that work with our cut? It'll be "undisclosed" all over again!

He played 2 games, has no medal and missed out on a World Cup in Brazil. He should have pushed for a move in January at the latest.

Don't get this about him - it's World Cup year. Surely he would have known he wasn't going to play. A move last summer could have seen him playing regularly and in the World Cup squad. Instead he chose to sit on a bench and pick up a wage.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. 15 years ago I used to stand in pubs and sing the national anthem for :censored:ty midweek friendlies. Now I don't even watch qualifiers properly on the tv. I'm partly putting that down to being mid 30s now, but a lot of it is to do with the players. To go from Butcher, Pearce, Gazza, Platt, Lineker, Ince, Adams, Shearer etc who you could really get behind to Ferdinand, Lampard, Cole, Rooney - all precious wankers who earn far too much. Plus out of all the players of the last 10 years or so, how many played overseas? How many want to better themselves as footballers and people and how many just want to negiotiate the biggest possible contract whilst their wags can concentrate on being papped for OK? I've no idea what society is like in other countries, but England is all about fame and fortune, not achievement. How many of our champions in any sport go on to be multiple champions? They get to a certain level and they're happy with their lot. It's just so hard to get behind the team when they don't seem to care whether they win or not. The difference in class between the players from the 90s I've mentioned and those from the 00s is massive, but the 90s lot got to 2 semi finals. The "better footballers" of the 00s and 10s have done nothing.

Mills brought up the overhaul of the loan system, Claridge asked what was wrong with it and Mills gave the Barkley example. He didn't elaborate on it. Claridge went on to raise the real issues with the loan system - namely it's hard for teams to afford to loan the quality players because they earn so much. Mills also championed the feeder team idea, seemingly saying that part of the problem is that young english players go out on loan and don't get coached properly. So with the feeder system the Prem teams would be able to "control that". Claridge kicked off saying that you can't have prem teams taking over the running of league teams.

Had a listen to the Mills v Claridge debate. It started with Dyke being interviewed and when challenged about the proposals his answer was along the lines of "well, if people don't want the england team to do well then we won't bother". Terrible, childish reaction. Claridge absolutely destroyed Mills. The coaching point was raised and that's apparently being looked at as well later in the year. It's baffling to think that the B team proposal is the first thing to suggest over the lack of coaches. Mills also talks about how the loan system is failing. His example is Ross Barkley who went to Leeds on loan but didn't get played. Yep, cos it's really gone to :censored: for him since then hasn't it Mills? The people they've got to argue the case for this haven't put forward one point yet that can't be shot down.

May have missed it but has there been any talk of how they plan to price matches? They won't need the money so could charge £10 or £5 even. League 1, 2 and conference teams couldn't afford to drop prices so would naturally lose floating fans to prem b teams.

The FA should look closer to home when it comes to the national team. The hotel where they're staying for the World Cup is 93rd on Tripadvisor and is 9 miles across town from the training base. The traffic is so bad in Rio they could be spending hours a day on the bus. The airport is further. Compare that to Holland who are staying in Rio but only a couple of miles from their training base and Germany who have built their own private beach resort. Granted this info has come from some pretty dirty daily rags but having spoken to someone who has lived in Brazil they're pretty accurate about the traffic.

Came away today having seen this new look defence for the first time and thought its key that we retain Wilson, Rachubka and Brown. All outstanding. Grounds has always been steady but if he is one of the higher earners it won't be a disaster if he left.

The article also mentions their attacking play and their 13 goals in 7 games. 8 came in the last 2 against Shrewsbury and Carlisle, 5 in the previous 5.

All their games were against teams near the bottom. Except wolves away, which they lost. They also lost at Bradford.

This is the key for me. I just don't see how we have the budget to be defensively sound, maintain a lengthy unbeaten run and at the same time play free-flowing entertaining football. I've not seen us since the run started but it doesn't sound like it's 10 men in defence hoof ball tactics, we seem to be playing decent stuff. The most important thing is we're picking up points. I agree - keep the majority of this team, add more quality and experience up front and in creative roles and we'll have a real chance of competing toward the top. Which will in turn get the fans back.

There's a difference between pinching a few quid and the possibility of shifting another 1000 tickets. What's your answer to it then? If you don't think fans should be moved then either the small or the large section of the RRE would never be open to away fans. So in this case, for the sake of moving what a few hundred season ticket holders (who knew and accepted it would happen), you'd turn away 1000 paying customers?

What else can we do though? Turn them away so they don't outnumber us? If we were selling out the home end then yeah of course, but we can't turn away money.

They can have him for a couple of million in January after he's banged in 20 goals.

Who is releasing that information? The deal isn't even done yet but supposedly people at the club who know all the details of the deal are telling others who are spreading it found on messageboards.

If it's for number 1, then no. If it's as back up then I'd rather we either use a youth teamer on the bench (short term loan if necessary) or an older keeper who doubles up as GK coach. So, no.

Exactly, a quality experienced goal scorer to put away these half decent chances would make a massive difference. JCH to play sparingly or as impact sub as he continues his development. I'd be happy with us continuing with the same side for the rest of the season to try and keep the momentum going, with a few summer additions rather than wholesale changes. Start of August will no doubt see me convincing myself this is the year for promotion and sticking a fiver on 33/1 again!

Ridiculous thing to do for a professional sportsman. With a manager seemingly into marginal gains this really needs to be stubbed out. :censored: pun intended.

Police costs and/or recommendation. Much more potential for trouble when everyone comes out of the same stand at the same time if the 3000 Bradford or Preston fans had had a section of our fans flagging them off all game. And vica/versa.