He does strike me as the kind of man who wouldn't last 30 seconds.

It's a bad idea, because the fee may be correct at the time, but too low in the future. Szmodics has definitely become more valuable since his contract was signed. Asking too much would still get us offers above the release clause. The release clause is never going to be the exact maximum we are able to get. They're a terrible idea for a club unless they're necessary to secure a player who is almost out of contract, or if they're set at a stupidly high level (as most are in Spain, where minimum fee clauses are mandatory).

We can't afford any Charlie. Might be able to scrape some remnants off Balaji's coffee table I guess.

Ah yeh, that journalist whose name sounds like he wants you to steal his toilet. I forgot about him.

It's a bad idea because we lose negotiating power if our valuation changes.

We're often of a mind, but I completely disagree. He won't be scoring 27 goals in the Prem obviously, but I don't think any player since we came down has been as impressive as Szmodics this season. The only question is whether the form was temporary or he has permanent class because he's now peaking. I think he would need to be fitted into a team up there in a similar role to what he has played here, but he's already shown even playing for our shabby lot that he can score against Prem sides. He is clinical as hell, full-hearted, works his absolute ass off, pressing like a madman, reads the game well and is a decent player technically. He has much more to his game than Rhodes, and is a more all-round player than Armstrong, who was lightning fast but had absolutely nothing else on Szmodics. One of Armstrong's main flaws was sheer selfishness, shooting at every opportunity from stupid distances. Sammi on the other hand is a real team player, balanced with that dash of selfishness and ruthlessness that a high scorer needs. Like I say, I don't think he'd tear the league up, but I think he'd be a good signing for anyone up to mid-level in the Prem. Well, not necessarily anyone, as I said, like most players he needs to go to a club where he will suit the system. However, he'd be better going to a side like Ipswich, where he's less likely to find himself benched if he doesn't light the league up after three games (if I recall, that's kinda what happened to Armstrong, I think he got a few starts and because he hadn't impressed other than scoring on his debut, he found himself in and out of the team...momentum is crucial in football).

We wouldn't be over any kind of barrel if he hadn't extended. There would still have been two years to go on his existing contract. Also, inserting a release clause in the contract is never a positive for the owning club, why would it be? It can only ever lower your negotiating position as there is a maximum you can ask for. The only way this could be seen as a positive is if his existing contract had a release clause and a new contract raised it.

What French lad?

What measure have you used to decide it doesn't quite work?

And none of them really matter.

He has already practically admitted he is more invested in his local u10s.

That's not how it works. Undav gets his wages paid regardless, as they're his contracted wages. The only question is who pays them, in what proportions. Brighton were happy enough with our contribution to accept our bid, the player simply decided to stay and fight for a place in a Prem team. Whether we paid 0% or 100% of his wages made no difference to Undav.

Might be a cup game, or Michalski I'm thinking of, and perhaps Khan is in my head because I was surprised he appeared in an u21 game or something.

I got the impression that Khan is ahead of Honor. Didn't Khan make the first team bench at one point last season? I may be misremembering. Either way, we have far too many young goalies and I'm stunned we signed another in Barrett unless we're planning to jettison some. The Doherty signing gives me Brad Lyons vibes. Spending a bit of money on an Irish development prospect who goes on to be ok but not at the level we're at, so ultimately proves a waste of time.

'Inspired by Champions'....worn by relegation fodder. Also thought the last line in the video was ironic - 'it gets better and better for Blackburn'. If only. Maybe if this is the season we're rid of Venkys.

Sadly, the now customary supply issues will likely render the level of demand pointless.

Yeh I did also mention in the prior post that 2.Bundesliga clubs also appear to be in far less debt than Championship clubs, so their spending power is greater. The flipside of that being that it means Championship clubs are deeper invested into their squads, which in theory should raise the average quality. But many of us have been in debt for ages and not been able to spend much...most of it just goes on over-inflated wages. Point is, it's a financially comparable league, so should be on a par. The figures are from 2022/23, before the Euros. It's also a season that Schalke weren't in it. There are occasionally very big clubs with big revenue in the Championship too. Either way, clubs like that competing in it (Hamburger have spent at least the last six seasons there and failed to escape it) suggests it's not that weak a league.

I very much doubted it too. But then if you look at my earlier post, I showed that clubs in the German second tier actually have more revenue per club than those in the Championship. Without either of us having watched it, I don't see what reasonable reasons remain to doubt that it will be roughly on par.

As far as he's concerned, if Nixon says it, it's fact. If someone else says it but he wants it to be true, it's fact.

Still, if he took the same goals haul to the Championship (there are more games here but we'll account for adjusting to a new league and say he gets the same), 10 goals is still only an extra 7 from Gallagher's tally last season (only played 24 games though), and only 1 to 2 more than Gallagher has contributed in each of the three seasons before that. It would help, but it's not going to make a sea of difference. And if we lose Szmodics we've another 20 goals remaining to replace just to break even with last year's dismal effort.

This is a very good point I don't believe anyone has considered. And I don't think it's a simple hearing, as it has already been postponed twice, and I'm sure one time it was mentioned it was due to the complexity of the case or more information being needed or something. The other time I think they said it was due to the court having a backlog of cases and no time to hear it.

I thought this was extremely unlikely (them being truly on par) as my understanding was the Championship had by far the most revenue of any second tier league. But having looked it up, Championship clubs' revenue was £749 million in 2022/23, and 2.Bundesliga revenue was 785 million Euros (£659 million) in 2022/23, so there's not as much in it as I thought. When you then account for the Championship having 24 clubs and the 2.Bundesliga only having 18, it becomes £31.2 million per club in the Championship, and £36.6 million per club in the 2.Bundesliga. Of course, money doesn't tell the whole story, but 2.Bundesliga clubs actually averaging more spending power than Championship clubs (plus 11 clubs were in the black financially, which I'm sure is more proportionally than the Championship, a quick search suggests only 2 Championship clubs have no debt, only 5 made any profit, and debt totals over 1.5 billion, so they'll have even more spending power) tells me the leagues very likely are on par. I feel mildly more encouraged by the link now, though hardly pulse pounding. If we were linked to a 26-year old, 10 goal striker from the Championship I'd still have concerns, but in this case he'd also need to adapt to the country and league.

He wasn't frustrated or unhappy, he'd just had the best season of his life. He was greedy, selfish and impatient is what he was.

You don't seem to be giving any actual reason to hire Lampard though. Unless you're saying that because he has failed at club level he will make a good international manager??

Then surely you're also aware that we absolutely don't need a u21 keeper because we have a fuckton of them.