Exiled_Rover

70 minute man. If he knew he was going to be asked to play the full 90 minutes he used to hide for 20 minutes.

You can't count on Szmodics having a season anything like that again - it was a complete aberration (and why a normally run club would be trying to sell him whilst his value is at it's peak). We're woefully short upfront to challenge for the playoffs, even with a good first choice keeper - not unless de Gea misses the North West.

Carter and S. Wharton benefitted massively from going out on loan. They wouldn't have got that experience here. Leonard, Garrett and Gilsenan could all have really benefitted from following suit last season. I hope we recruit well enough in the summer that they get to go on loan this season.

He never got to play in his preferred role (cos Szmodics was there scoring 30+ goals). He also totally bottled it after Christmas. The ability is there.

Moran will go on to have a very good career I think. Every Championship club relies on PL loans - it's how you get your hands on talent that you'd never be able to afford in this day and age. Look at Sunderland, they were lost without Diallo last year - they're often the difference that pushes a team over the top.

The Academy more than washes it's own face. The frustration comes from Premier League clubs cherry picking the exceptional ones at will. Phillips (signed a v favourable deal and Spurs took advantage), Finneran and Tyjon have suitors, Man City stole Chigwada etc etc. The ones that keep the club ticking over in the Championship stay (and we've always produced lots of those). The ones that could help the club kick on leave - and our recruitment isn't good enough to make up the difference.

The Brentford model is incredibly hard to follow now post-Brexit.

Yes then I'd sit him on the bench for 6 months until Spurs recall him in a huff in January.

If you've been at a club since you were 8 and aren't a fan you're a cold blooded individual.

I'd probably give Adam Wharton a call and ask if he regrets sticking around with his home town club for a few years. He might not pick up though, I think he's currently busy training with England.

'His contract up' being incredibly misleading. Intentionally so, no doubt.

He was a year older when he played for Plymouth. At that stage in your development that makes all the difference in the world.

I'm not renewing until I see some genuine ambition from the club with regards to their recruitment. The playing squad was woefully inadequate last year - even for this level. I'm not sitting through another 20+ matches of us being blown away as soon as teams turn to their benches.

Rumours of Lampard being lined up. Don't tease me like that.

The squad they've assembled is not worth the entry fee - it's embarrassingly poor.

Jeez that's a lot of money for a guy that's barely played in the Irish league and will no doubt be buried in the U21s.

It's genuinely pointless investing so much into an Academy if the crown jewels are so easily plucked. The whole football pyramid is rotten to it's very core.

Could the last one to leave please turn off the lights?

I'm so bitter - my dad was a Man City fan (still is in some ways, but he doesn't recognise the club they've become) from the 1960s/70s. I can't believe I was swayed over as a kid by those upstart Blackburn Rovers and their schools outreach programme when I was in primary school in the 1990s. I could be living the high life right now.

I personally think he's a wide player in a front 3. He's too small and not quite quick enough to consistently trouble defenders as the lone striker. However his vision and first touch is good enough to act as a pivot out wide - and he'd be a nightmare to defend against drifting in to the back post, ala Pederson. He could probably play as a 10 too, his link up play is quite good, but there's a long queue for that position.

I've lost count of the number of times I've turned to the fans around me, completely oblivious about the history of the mediocre clogger the Blackburn End is booing relentlessly, and remarked "I assume he played for Burnley at some point, then?"

I don't know who any of those people are.

The Blackburn End would boo him relentlessly.

I gather Leeds are in some serious financial trouble if they don't get promoted.

Are we planning on fielding a team this season?