Matt

Appalling first day, even lost a horse on the last race - respects to the owners of Ballyward. Wednesday, if it's on. 13:30 Sams Profile ew 14:10 Delta Work 14:50 Vision Des Flos ew 15:30 Altior 16:10 Urgent De Gregaine 16:50 Naturelle 17:30 Thyme Hill ew

For a long time, I've not let things like that stop me from making choices.

Oldham forward Johan Branger faces a late fitness test. The Gabon international was introduced midway through the second half in the 1-1 draw at Cambridge last weekend but took a knock and is therefore doubtful for the trip to Sincil Bank. Dan Gardner (knee) and Ousmane Fane (leg) remain long-term absentees. But manager Paul Scholes has no other injury or suspension concerns as his side look to end a five-game winless run. Stats: Lincoln have only won one of their last 10 games against Oldham in the Football League (D2 L7), failing to keep a clean sheet in each meeting. Oldham have won three of their last four away league games against Lincoln (L1), however this will be their first such trip since September 1998 (3-1 win). Lincoln City's 14-match unbeaten home league run is their best in the EFL since they went 19 without a defeat in September 2006. Oldham have only lost one of their last eight away league games on a Tuesday (W2 D5), although that was their most recent such contest at MK Dons in January (1-2). 10 of Lincoln's last 11 league goals have been scored by either Bruno Andrade (six) or John Akinde (four).

Day one 13.30 Mister Fisher 14.10 Hardline 14.50 Give Me A Copper 15.30 Laurina 16.10 Benie Des Dieux 16.50 Shady Operator 17.30 Ballyward If I don't get anything from them, I won't be bothering with the rest of the festival. *sulk*

It can't. I think we can all agree that there is absolutely no way of knowing the future values of premise. It's just a fun(!) poll created to debate a football opinion, is it not? :

It makes sense, given the exclusivity of the platforms. We need to also admit that physical attendances aren't turned on to group stages either. The two issues both highlight the over-arching motif of UEFA picking the competition up by the heels and shaking every last copper out of it.

Might be something in that, I'll have to see if that's the case - however away from TV viewing, it's really relatively easy getting a group stage ticket as opposed to a knockout stage ticket. CL is watered down to almost homeopathic potency simply by adding in (in some leagues) 75% of the nations quota that aren't Champions. Sure it's certainly spread its reach far and wide inviting lesser leagues with a path to the finals, Quarabag and Crvena and Plzen aren't really going to pack them in in the groups - and who's going to watch it on TV?

I've found the supporting graphics...

Aston Villa's wage bill vs spending charts are particularly interesting as their wages are sky-high yet only spent about £1.8m on transfers; I'll try and find the graphic later on and add it in. Whilst I was looking for resources on this I found this list which was accurate last summer - however looking down the list I spotted Micah Richards who is still at Villa and who has only completed 26 games since joining them in 2015. I don't know if Villa negotiated a wage reduction considering they didn't go up last year - they were reported to be trying to - however Richards' £50,000 a week is a hard value to justify...

Clubs have to get smarter/savvy with players' contracts. Holding on to players after relegation is a sunk cost, it's easy to forget the reason the club has been relegated is due to the players in the first place - why clubs want/allow players to run the roost is beyond me. Relegation is an ideal opportunity to regenerate and recover. It's not the end.

Started messing about with numbers, manager stats in the 2000's sorted by win percentage. The 3PPW average column, is a point value on all games given that 3 points are for a win and 1 for a draw - regardless of competition or era. I'll do a full list another day.

Please add me as well. Thanks.

Got rid of one fucking tyrannical Stalinist, don't think another would be too welcome.

The Championship has been a two-tier competition within a competition for some time, segregated by ex-Premiership clubs and clubs 'better than L1' - it's hardly a competition when this kind of money has to given to stablise a club that's failed in the Premiership. Post 2013 - when the payments really jumped up - Sunderland pop out like a sore thumb on this chart, but if anyone watched that Netflix thing they'd realise that along with stunningly poor player contact negotiation seasons before (Rodwell), their owner ran the operation into the ground like an rusty old charabanc last season. Apart from them, the payments are perpetuating beyond means spending to fund the clamour to go back up. It's a racket. Solidarity Payments 2017/18

We'll see how it goes...

Yeah I know, I quoted you but it really wasn't about you or anything specific about anybody to be honest! Agreed.

I don't think we should; if there's some good that's emerged from this thread it's that there is a club representative willing to advise on an anonynous independent forum - which is difficult. It looks like he's willing to stick his neck out, and the membership are willing to cut him some slack.

Balearic beats with ACR, Rob Gretton, sexy sax, white shorts, and whistles. Amnesia. Pasha. Warm nights and cool mornings. Smiley t-shirts and happy faces. Feeling saucey instead of sauced. 27Forever.

ben.miles@buryfc.co.uk Bury SLO slo@fsf.org.uk SLO support at FSF I think we've already established the OAFC SLO position is currently vacant, but there's probably no harm in copying a senior official at OAFC as well.

Railings maybe? There might be a song about a gate - and there probably is, but Lazy Line Painter Jane is fucking wild.

This works on all devices, it seems. There should be a snazzy logo on your phones if you've saved a shortcut to the home screen.

Sorry, this doesn't look like anything server side, it may mean something needs to be updated at your end I'm afraid. Oh, for a few years of iron leadership - and don't confuse my wanting a strong Parliament for apparent admiration for Maggie, she could die again for all I care.

Hi, I've not changed any part of the forum navigation, I upgraded to 4.4 yesterday which may have changed a few settings in the background, although these are usually IPB recommended overrides because their analysis suggests nobody uses them. However, there is this at the foot of every page in-thread... Thanks, Matt.

I'm guessing that this is on the iOS platforms, give it a little while and the icon should change to the websites ICO image. I hope.