Have you forgotten about Buckley, or has he picked up an injury? That's a lot of talking about CM options without mentioning probably our best (fit) one.

Just seen that Michalski has only just turned 17 today. Whilst it's great for him to have been on our bench lately and hopefully he's one for the future, it seems pretty damning of our situation that a 16 year old keeper was sat on our bench. Of all the positions, that's the one that matures latest. It's probably the equivalent of having a 14 year old outfield player on the bench Hopefully he becomes something special.

If that's true, the irony is that by withholding funding and thereby preventing any effective trading (as players get sold cheaply due to our weak position, we have no chance of ever buying a Szmodics/Armstrong etc again, and inevitably get relegated this or next season, potentially resulting in administration) hugely increases the chances of the SBI having to write it off as a bad debt.

I definitely wasn't taught it until high school. If it's changed, fair enough.

Well now they're incapable of doing 'the honourable thing' so that fan needs to change his mind, get a lobotomy or shut the fuck up.

That seems strange to me, as I don't see why that matters to an accountant and surely there need to be accounts for the authorities to go over regardless. But I'll take your word for it.

There's a chance that will change after this latest news. If not, that's their problem, chant it anyway. Fuck those fools, the club is at stake.

That's the worst case scenario. The best case scenario is they sell the club. I'd take administration before the scenario above.

Didn't think about that. If we can't even offer Dolan the same terms we will lose him on a free rather than getting compensation. Don't the accounts get signed off if they're accurate and not suspicious, rather than because the club is financially secure going forward?

The only positive contribution Venkys were able to make to this club was to send us funding. If they can't even do that, they're precisely zero use to us, yet still the enormous cancerous liability they've always been. Surely even those who bizarrely wanted them to stay, and even Venkys themselves, must admit that now. They were going to go crawling to the Indian courts every 3 months or so it seems, but by the time the January one is dealt with there'll have been an additional 7 months passed. Utterly unsustainable, and we'd have to sell an Adam Wharton a season just to tread water in the same inadequate way we have been doing for years. The only chant at Ewood now should be 'we want Venkys out' or variations on the theme.

We got battered 1-1? Don't be daft yourself. Failing to beat anyone doesn't mean you're odds on to get beaten by more goals than you've been beaten by so far, when only 2 out of 8 teams have beaten you at all lately (9 if we include Stoke) and a strong Prem team couldn't beat us over 120 minutes. As for haven't played anyone, Newcastle aside, Norwich are 5 points clear of Boro and Cardiff and Preston are tied with them on points. So by that logic, Boro aren't anyone either. We also drew with all 3 of those. I'm not saying we definitely won't get pasted, absolutely that may happen, but there's nothing daft about pointing out the concrete fact it would be against recent form if it happened. Form suggests a draw or a slim defeat.

You had just said British people are shit at learning languages, implying an actual lack of skill. I think saying we can't be bothered to learn them because there isn't as much need is an improvement on that. I'm also British, so reckon I'm alright to give an opinion on a people I belong to. But you do you.

And got downvoted for my troubles, for some reason! 😂

I agree, he could get injured for the rest of the season tomorrow and he'd still be my pick by some distance.

I'm a bit confused, you said no hint of a transfer story, then posted a link that mentions a transfer story?

Some predictions of an absolute drubbing here. Keep in mind that since the managerial change, we haven't lost by more than a goal, and that's only happened twice in eight games. If we do get turned over like that it will be a sign of further regression and I'd imagine a hammer blow to the team's confidence. But form doesn't suggest it. The one saving grace of Eustace's start to life here is we've proven fairly hard to beat for whatever reasons.

British people aren't shite at learning languages, they're lazy at it because English is so widely spoken that there's less need. And Ben is indeed being very lazy, it's no excuse. Also they haven't said he's not being picked because of this, the coach has been clear on it not being the cause. So clearly it's because of his poor form.

Not sure what you mean, the common convention is that transfer fees are amortised in the accounts over the length of the contract. I've also never heard of Venkys taking anything out of the club as 'management charges' in previous accounts, though I stand to be corrected. That said I do suspect some dodgy accounting has happened, we seem to make losses no matter what according to the accounts.

I'm highly confident that if I had a Chilean mother I'd already have been at least intermediate level with Spanish before the callup came through. Surely you'd be sufficiently interested in where you came from and maybe even speaking to your relatives out there to have picked up a foundation to build on. 2 years later and playing for the national team with 6 months spent living in Spain? It's pretty pathetic tbh. Hell, a B in GCSE French 23 years ago and a casual bit of fannying around on Duolingo in the pandemic has gotten me close to intermediate in French and I have zero connections to the place nor real plans to use it. All the time he has and the ability to hire a personal Spanish tutor, with all the incentives he has to learn it...it's a really poor show if he's not at least semi-fluent now. It should be pointed out the Chilean coach has stated that this is not why he hasn't picked him though. I expect it's a factor, mind.

Given he was a freebie, I bet they make a profit on him. I'd imagine the Sheff U loan will have already written off all or most of their costs so far. If he more or less continues his form so far (2 goals in 4 games) they'll be able to sell him for the decent fee we should have got. Their scout will likely have paid off his own wages and those of most of his colleagues for the next decade.

Given that we lose 20 million most seasons (apparently...though I do think this looks suspicious in itself given we constantly slash the wage bill and rarely spend whilst selling a fair few assets), that 23 million, minus about a million spent on acquisitions, would theoretically change the picture to about 2 million profit, not 10 mill plus. Ignoring any loan, signing on and agent fees. When you factor in that the money received from sales won't come all at once and will be drizzled over at least 3 seasons...if the slim possibility of Venkys being refused the right to send us money in this hearing transpires, we will probably end up declaring a loss! Which is sickening.

In fairness, a factor in that may be that he hasn't earned the vast sums many have. Until he came here he was probably never on more than about 5k per week, and that would have been relatively recently too. It's great money to the man in the street, but if he's become a millionaire yet it will have been inside the last year I expect. Short career, and already coming into the last few years or so of it on a good wedge (relative to the footballer life), with a family to raise...yes other footballers might still feel the need to be silly and flash with it, but a bit of financial prudence is to be expected of someone with a brain. If they're still keeping it low-key after his inevitable big move then it'll be more of a testament to character. That said, I do agree he seems the type to focus and work hard without getting distracted by all the other trappings of the footballer life. Big fan of the guy's ability and application. It's scary to think where we'd be without him this season, probably in Rotherham's position. Which is a real shame because we do have other talented players. We just lack proper depth and a cohesive unit (largely stemming from having a manager who was fed up followed by a manager who seems to be shit, but also just characteristics we lack as a squad such as height, bottle and enough pace).

I think Szmodics is probably the best all-round player we've had since we came down under Venkys tbh.

You could certainly question it by the end, where he was just taking stupid pot shots instead of playing people in. A lot easier to score 28 when you rarely pass. Szmodics has a decent chance of hitting the same figure in a worse team, often from a deeper position, but doesn't have that failing. Armstrong was still very valuable to us, and we weren't better off without him as some suggested, but it was a definite weak point of his game. Good for him if he's moved past that. Probably been forced to, playing in a better side and spending time in the Prem where he couldn't just do what he wanted.

I was about to talk about him too. I've only seen him in highlights I think, but his contributions recently seem to have improved, at least at the top end of the pitch. Hopefully one that's developing well.