Twisbrogan

All for keeping him as long as his shocking display against Carlisle doesn't become the norm.

I would suspect that, rather than mothball the whole thing, they'd move from category 3 status to category 4. The likes of Hamer & Edmundson only joined the youth system at late stages (Hamer having stayed in grassroots & Edmundson having been at various other clubs). Jamie Stott (u9) and Joel Coleman (u13) had been around longer but the landscape around developing kids in our area is very different and, once cat 3 squads reach u16, there tends to be a cull with players being dropped in from cat 1 or 2 clubs to see who might get offered youth deals. There has been some money generated from selling young (u9-12) players but whether this is enough to fund the whole operation is a different matter.

I believe he was initially rejected by us when looking for a youth deal (but managed to get back in because there were issues with another player) and was then rejected for a pro deal based on a decision made by Johnson/ Corney as to how much was available for that part of the budget. Think Corney's mind was changed when Philliskirk told him that Birmingham were interested in taking him on.

Have the club refuted the figures anywhere or asked for a retraction of the story?

If a customer abuses a cashier, they'd get thrown out and banned. Probable that both parties were looking for an out but I doubt very much that a decent player with a transfer value would have been dismissed in the same way.

I should imagine that unless we give him a huge chunk of money to pay his contract up, he'll just sit tight for a bit.

There's a pub near where I live that was taken over and refurbished to a high standard and expensive new kitchens, etc. A couple of years in, they spent a load more money and did it up again. Thing was, it was never really that busy so there was no way they were going to be getting the money back. It was almost like they were looking at ways of just spending money. Weird...

I've never known any monthly salary be paid like that. Always been on the last working day prior to the weekend and I would think any payroll system or bank would advise and default to that position for obvious reasons.

...for up to a dozen games before he starts gobbing off.

Wasn't it Steve Robinson who edged him out of the running last time? Removing the the pointless criteria of someone who has a connection to the club (which should never be a factor) and just looking at his coaching history alone, it's understandable why people would be feeling underwhelmed and deflated.

Maybe he's the new kit man

Think we got about £40k for the u12 as he was at the time (whilst we were in discussions to sell our first team captain to Scunthorpe for a similar fee, although we kept him in the end)

Are we even looking for a manager? Surely it's a 'head coach' (preferably one that will be an easier sell to the supporters by virtue of already having a photo up in the boardroom) that we'll be appointing who has the remit of working with whoever rocks up to the training ground. Personally, I'd probably prefer a complete unknown chain-smoking coach from somewhere exotic.

Academy set ups, the transition to youth team football and the move to mens football is very different to how it was a few years ago and I'm not sure what would work best for the club and how that does or doesn't fit in with the owner's plans. Yes, there are a host of clubs higher up the ladder (City, United, Liverpool, Everton, Bolton, Rochdale, Accrington, etc) that we're in competition with to try and capture talent at the younger ages but we probably don't get as many players going right through the system as people think. The reality is most that make any kind of transition have stumbled to our club from elsewhere. I think Jamie Stott was with us from a very young age (and maybe Coleman was only a little older at 13ish) but many that progress to the youth team have developed elsewhere. The recent financial benefit of the younger age groups has been the sale of an u10 & u12 last season which, I'm sure was welcome news to Corney but I've had the feeling that Lemsagem's preference would be to move one of his players in rather than to work with a released (Edmundson, Tarky, Mellor) or unattached (Hamer) youth player for a couple of years to try and prepare them for the first team. It's always nice when 'one of your own' makes the breakthrough because then you get to watch them develop for a few months before you can start to pound them into the ground with abuse from a seat in the crowd but with the additional facilities that it takes to do this...let's say it'll be interesting to see where it sits in a list of priorities.

He's not very candid at the best of times which was great for pre-match interviews but not so good for other aspects being a football manager. Had no qualms about throwing players under a bus for mistakes, wanting a move, etc

Doesn't need to come from him. I've heard this to be true separately from the newspaper article.

It's to move associated players into and out of the club (for one reason and another) isn't it?

There's no way he would walk because managing a football team improves his profile which means that he gets more invitations to do his favourite job which is, of course, providing analysis for youth matches on MUTV.

This is true and why I think we need change in players, staff and the losing culture that runs through the club, if we're turn ourselves around.

Wouldn't have kept him and if he doesn't have a good start in the first half dozen games or so, I'll have seen and heard enough, again. I'd be happy for him to prove me wrong but if be surprised if he did.

... And Kyeremeh

Some have been ok in patches, others haven't been up to the required standard. Like Pringle.

Are there many club owners that openly set out their plans in this way, or would they typically leave that to someone else?

How many decent managers are Mancunian?

Shame that he limited himself to a gold brick or everyone could have had fun this bank holiday watching people topple his statue in the car park.