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It’s football it’s how all clubs now operate look at Newcastle having to part ways with Isak brentford Mbuemo and wissa when the bigger clubs come calling there’s not much can be done

Elliott Jackson has seemingly managed to shut down his own exclusive story. Ismael said nothing is agreed with Leonard.

It looks like the players have given up on him and are just treading water until the new mug comes in. A great time to play them ! When we used to play them in the “ Fergietime “ era you had to win there to get a draw !

Maybe. Palace will end up doing a Southampton if they keep selling their best players.

Good comparison. The scale of the clear out is very Furphylike. The distinctions Id make are a) Furphy was a young up and coming "tracksuit" manager which was still a bit of a departure in those days. Ismael is a seasoned manager who's been round the block a few times without any particular success. b) Many of the players we've lost this summer were our best performers last season not players who'd been worn down and needed shipping out. Incidentally didn't we get off to a bad start under Furphy in his first half season? I seem to remember us hovering around the bottom 2 (two up and two down in those days) until just before Christmas. He might have been lucky to survive in these more trigger happy/ social media/ Internet days.

3 million definitely doesn't pay for the Academy for the next 3 years, if you meant the JRC, Buckley and Leonard sales. If you're adding Travis too, it's (possibly, up to) 6 million, which also doesn't pay for it for 3 years. Last I recall, the Academy cost 3.5 million a year to run, but we get a grant of 1 million by being Category 1, so it costs 7.5 million to run it for 3 years. The number is probably higher now as those figures are a good few years old. It absolutely pays for itself, especially with the Wharton and Raya money, and the savings from no fees and cheap wages for squad players over the years, but I just wanted to correct that point. That's before considering that Travis especially is a seasoned first teamer who absolutely needs to be replaced, at cost.

For what? League position? (We let it go that 3 of those named aren't here yet)

Joe South - Walk A Mile In My Shoes

I mean, you really have taken stuff out of context and twisted it to continue to be able to suggest that I am just being overly negative and miserable. The Swansea stuff was about the timing of their deals, making signings early and also that they had paid £7m for a player I didnt pass comment on. The one signing I did say was a good one was Burgess. Overall, I certainly havent said that our business has been rubbish either. Some of our signings I have been encouraged with. I like the look of Morishita and I not only liked the signing of McLoughlin but went out of my way to question 1 or 2 who did call him a bad signing. Of none of our signings did I instantly write off as not good enough. Most of the new players have shown signs of being useful additions to the squad. Regarding these 2 links, my first point was that I am skeptical about either coming, certainly not both. Neither does have an overly encouraging record on paper, one scored quite a lot in a very weak Dutch second division (including quite a few penalties) and hasnt really scored in the top league. The other is a player who wasnt prolific even before he went to Belgium where he has rarely scored. They both are young, might potentially push on, I dont know. I am not saying that they are shit if they sign. But I will say that all of our signings are really shit if it helps to conform to your narrative. You seem keen to create an environment whereby you cant question any of the new signings.

Are you sure? It’s the first I’ve heard of established players not counting. At what point does a player become established? I thought it was any player who had come through our academy or even another English academy??

I think that underplays his pace a bit. He's not lightning, but he's sharp and clever enough to get into scoring positions. Thinking back to the Boro cup game last year, he missed a couple of sitters but the thing I took away was that he was getting in the right areas. In fact over the course of his time here the ball seems to find him in good areas, and plenty of strikers with decent careers obviously never develop that knack. I'm in two minds about letting him go. He's not that young anymore, so a million quid for an unproven player with a shocking injury record isn't bad business. At the same time, once he's given a run I can see him banging them in at that level (*if* he stays fit). All of a sudden a seven figure sum doesn't seem that great for his position and age. I agree that his all round game is unlikely to ever be that impressive. He's a poacher or nothing, off what I've seen. But then again teams pay the big money for goal scorers.

WillyNilly TimmyJimmy

Traffic - Hole In My Shoe

Didn't know the gentleman but incredibly sad news for his family and the Rovers family, will certainly applaud on the 70th minute 👏

Chelsea are unstable they just buy and sell players for instant success a run of bad form and the manager normally gets the boot and the players normally gets dropped Adam can and should be looking higher than Chelsea or a club with less turnover

So: sson = son dottir = daughter Those vikings have a lot to answer for. Thought we spoke mainly Anglo Saxon, obviously the Danelaw had some influence. WillyNilly is another nice one, will he won't he! Etymology rules :-) I love learning new stuff. Thanks.

Toth Alebiosu Hyam McLoughlin Ribeiro Tronstad Browne Morishita Cantwell Kargbo Gudjohnsen NEW GK Miller Carter Wharton Pickering Tavares Baradji Hedges Henrickson De Neve Ohashi I would say that would make a successful transfer window. Add Forshaw Gueye Montgomery and Tyjon to that and I think we're sorted

This one interests me more than the African or Dutch lad. 6ft2, 23 years old, playing in the top division in the country (and won the league), came through Madrid ranks (how much of that is nepotism who knows, but looks like he flourished there to be fair). Either way, it certainly feels like a good gamble. Born in England too so imagine no issues with qualifying as a signing. 5 goals last season from 16 starts (and 12 off the bench). 13 in 27 the season before in the Danish top division. Also 9 goals for his country, including 1 against the Scots the other month.

I agree. However I remember that Luton Town centre half putting one on Gallagher that ended up with Gally going to hospital. I’m not even sure he got booked.

Established players like Carter and Wharton won't count towards that figure, just like Travis didn't count towards last year's. It's a target figure for giving a pathway from the academy to the first team. Why would you count players in their mid 20s?

Indeed!

I’m old enough to remember having to clear the dinosaur shit off the pitch before we could kick off. The recent events reminds me of the time when Ken Furphy came in. We’d had years of treading water before eventually being relegated to the old Div 3. Furphy came in and began a massive clear out of players who’d been at the club a while who’d obviously become disenchanted with football. Some were fans favourites - Eamon Rogers, who was like Travis only he could play football as well. Billy Wilson - a really good tenacious full back, Malcolm Darling , a decent striker. All of these were good players but they’d become jaded by being at a club that was in the doldrums for years. They were treading water and weren’t playing to the best of their ability. There were others that I forget now that left the club but players were coming in and going out on a daily basis. The famous Bobby Bell deal being just one. Some of these deals worked out, some didn’t. Some young players were brought back in that went on to be household names like Faz and Mecky. But at the end of all the upheaval we had a team that looked like they wanted to play for Blackburn Rovers and they wanted to be out there. He laid the seeds for the eventual promotion out of the dungeons of Div 3 and back to the relatively sunny uplands of Div 2. Let’s hope this turmoil results in a similar period of success ! Come on you Blues !

Eh? This is how the academy should work, right? We develop players in the hope of finding a Wharton. When we don't, we sell them to lesser teams for pure profit. In the meantime the players that are good enough come into the first team and challenge or provide depth. It seems a mad stance to take to being annoyed at selling academy players for profit. What that profit is used for is an entirely different argument.

First part, of course. Went on running costs. Second part, agreed too. Let's hope the conveyor belt is still running.

I guess it makes sense in a "we have taken them as far as we can" perspective. Whether they are backing the academy will come down to if the younger lads do get game time.