bluebruce

So, I found a Peugeot 108 (basically the same car mechanically as the Citroen C1), Allure version, that had only done about 40k miles and was only £2k. Had a Cat N on it though. Did all my research on it for a few days to make sure it was the right decision, was feeling very happy with it, went to call the guy and realised it had been taken off sale within the last half hour before I called! Second time in a week basically that exact same thing had happened. Carried on looking, can't find that car for anything like the same price and mileage. But I've found a Citroen C1 Flair (C1 version of the Allure...basically 1.2 litre instead of the 1 litre entry models and various other add-ons) for the same price...don't like the appearance as much and it's an extra 20k miles, but gonna buy it as I'm sick of scouting and stressing over it, and it's still a good deal. Main concern is it's a Cat S rather than a Cat N, so it's a worse write off bracket and means it's suffered damage to the structural frame or chassis in the past. You can't tell, so it's clearly been fixed...hopefully to a good standard. So yeh I'm gonna be sticking with petrol for a few more years...but the money maths add up. I think I've underestimated the benefit of the better fuel efficiency, having calculated again I think it will save me more like £300-400 a year in fuel (I think I undercalculated the Zoe's too, probably more like 1 to 1.2k savings). Then another £320 on the tax. Probably gonna scrap my Peugeot 308, should be about £300, as I don't want to lie about the problems the car has, and don't see that I'll get much more for it if I'm honest about its problems. So, essentially the C1 will cost me £1,700. Should essentially pay for itself inside 3 years if nothing major goes wrong. They have a very good reliability record too, so hopefully spunk a lot less in maintenance costs. The cam belts are advised to be changed every 60k miles, which it's done, but they only cost £500 when the dealership do them, let alone a garage. In a few years, I'll probably assess the EV situation again. It's slower than my current car, especially in the 50-70mph stretch, but quick enough to do the job, and it's tiny so it's nice and nimble for parking. More modern amenities than mine (I'll miss the automatic headlights though, for some reason it doesn't have them even though its sister model does, and I'll miss the extra storage a bit...also think I'll miss the sensors, it has a camera instead that I'm not used to and think that'll mean I need to watch the sides more as I won't get the beep and can only see the rear in the camera). Picking it up on Thursday from Preston, then hopefully the saga is over for another few years! Looking forward to the cost savings and (fingers crossed) not constantly worrying my car will break!

Because it wouldn't be for less than half the money if we loaned him. And obviously he wouldn't come permanently unless we compensated the wages (which we wouldn't). So he would get just as much money, and get to play for one of his final seasons. Unless he's a right lazy git that should appeal. Where the loan we are allegedly interested in attempting makes no sense whatsoever is from Newcastle's perspective. They signed him to be their backup keeper, why immediately send him out on loan, especially one which they'd have to subsidise? It's odd in the extreme that this is still being discussed here, and even odder if it's still seriously being discussed by ourselves and Newcastle.

Kaminaki...Japanese keeper? I'm in.

It can't have been successful if it didn't get heard.

How could a livestream of the actual courtroom not be fact? Am I missing/misunderstanding something here?

Total piss take. At least I'm learning something - the Indian court system is a joke.

She's just hanging around. She's a spunky lass though.

What would we (on the forum) consider an acceptable fee for Travis? Ignoring the usual boring arguments of how much of it would be reinvested. Just what would we consider a fair price?

A great example of shifting the goalposts, yep.

🤣 Fucking hell you're easier rattled than I thought! Fine, you act like you think you're a businessman, whatever. Bit more embarassing if you're an accountant and you can't do the sums on your own claim though. It's not feck all to do with me, I'd like it to be, but you emblazon it over the board every matchday. Until you lose and never mention it again. Now, get your own facts straight - YOU said the fee, wages and NI came to about 14 million. Now you're adding a bunch of extra things you didn't originally state (including performance related payments which may never be reached), shifting the wage from 20k ish to up to 30k, acting like image rights are really going to be a thing in the Championship and throwing in a 'give or take a million' when you realise it probably doesn't add up to that even with your extras. Maybe lighten up a bit. But I guess you're pissed off because you had to downgrade from a fancy red to a bottle of Budweiser after your money printing license didn't pan out.... 😉

Open to it? That's good of him 😂 Goes without saying he'd be open to it, I assume that's slightly lost in translation. Keen perhaps? Wasn't it said on here that this deal would be another very cheap one for some reason? Can anybody remember how much or why? I feel like there was a clause again like with Ohashi or something, but I may be misremembering.

Tbf, you say you're a businessman and yet you think £6 million plus 4 years of 20k p/w wages (4 million) and NI adds up to £14 million. You also think gambling on the incorrect outcome is a 'license to print money'. So, whilst I don't believe we'll be signing him, stones and glass houses come to mind.

Or ya know. Just boot it.

Think he meant Stoke flushed 1 million down the bog. Which they didn't, unless he's counting wages etc. It was reported to be about 500k (some add ons were mentioned but given, well, he's Ennis, those probably aren't getting met).

Huh? If there's one thing Khadra adds, it's pace down the wings. Are you thinking of someone else?

IMO, undisclosed fees should be banned.

After all the cost cutting it's probably Waggott or Ben Benson.

Not really. We will only know he can handle two tiers below us. We will then have to decide over the course of his last season if he can make it here. If he does well during that, he will likely just run his contract down as has become customary here. When it ends he will be too old for compo.

Lmao, big loan, Chesterfield, ok. I bet that's what he dreamt of when he was coming through at Spurs and when he signed for us. Unless you only mean it's time for him to get lots of game time.

If none of that happens I'd much rather keep him as a fringe player. He probably won't reject it cos he will just want games and probably fancies himself to smash that level to win himself a better move. Most likely for free. With a lil free agent signing bonus. I'm not trying to look out for Markanday, I'm trying to look out for the club.

It was a bit too gentle for a penalty but it was enough to distract him.

Who knows? But if none are interested now, wait til later in the window. This loan is unlikely to be good enough for us.

Those predictions haven't translated into reality yet, only drew their opening game. Yes I know, it's early days. He should be able to attract a reasonable League One side. For comparison, how many Championship clubs would be happy to loan a player with 21 appearances in the Prem last season? Quite a few I'd wager. He got shafted at Aberdeen. Manager changed immediately. That was what, a couple of years ago anyway? He's too late in his development, at 23 in a week, for a League Two loan just to get games into him. We have to decide on his future in the summer, contract is up and a one year extension needs to be triggered or let him go for nowt. What are we going to learn about him in that time, even if the loan goes well? It's two whole levels below ours. The best case scenario is probably that he gets recalled in Jan to go to a League One side anyway. Scored against West Brom and Cardiff last season, so, nope.

Just seen Markanday is in talks to join Chesterfield on loan... I'm sorry, what?! Fucking Chesterfield? A League Two side, freshly promoted from the NLN? That's a fucking joke of a loan. He might not be a world beater, but he's definitely a cut above League Two. It's a very poor do if that's the best loan we can find for someone who has been a squad player for us, made 21 Championship appearances last season, cost us 500k, and in League Cup games against that type of opposition has scored 4 in 8. He's also one of our only wide players (probably our only one actually) that does have a bit of pace. Supposedly Eustace likes a pacey winger.

So I've had a bit of a rethink and I'm now also considering ICE cars for under 2k, to get me by for another 2-3 years or so, until I can hopefully afford a better EV, which I think should be very possible by then both from a personal perspective and the changes expected in the market. It will also just save me the hassle of overthinking the purchase, as I tend to do with expensive items, and kick the can down the road. Something reasonably efficient (like a Citroen C1 from 2013 that I found, but I don't trust the dealer based on reviews) could save me about £200 a year in fuel. Not the £800 that an EV would save me, but still helpful at a much lower purchase cost and with no worry about longer distances if they come up. Again after a few years it could have almost paid for itself. Especially since road taxes seem to be far lower on fuel efficient models (in fact it's free this year on that model, vs the £320 I'm paying this year! Not sure what it'll be next year after the changes). And probably the insurance would be slightly cheaper than the Zoes I was looking at, as it's older. So if anybody has any advice on finding an ICE car for under 2k, with decent fuel economy and good reliability records for that model, I'd be very appreciative. Maybe would stretch to 2.5k if it was good enough. I need something that's not painfully slow, but doesn't need to be a beast. I'd say I can live with anything that's 0-60 in about 13 seconds or less. Anything at 14 seconds or longer and I fear for one particular merge lane I use a fair bit that has shit visibility and often has a lorry coming from the main lanes! I'm not too fussed what it looks like, even if it's scratched up, as I just want to save money and get to work, but can't really be bigger than my Peugeot 308 due to the tight parking at home. Doesn't have to be 5 doors. One thing I've noticed in this category is virtually everything has a Cat S, Cat D, whatever category, marker (means it's been written off, for those who don't know, but to varying extents...might be something as simple as airbags having deployed and it costing more to replace them than the car is worth). I'm not sure how concerned to be by the categories that don't involve structural damage. I'm also not sure how much they affect insurance costs. Though I've been setting the mileage to 70k or less and the manufacture year to 2012 or later (my Peugeot is 91k miles and 2008, so I want something a bit fresher - purely to increase the chances of good reliability), so maybe older models in this range might not have Cat markers. The best deals popping up tend to be from private sellers, not dealers. This gives me a bit of anxiety, as I feel like there's less recourse if something goes wrong, and maybe more chance that defects are being hidden (perhaps I'm naive in thinking most dealers will have given the car a proper look over and fix anything serious before selling?). How do other people feel about buying direct from private sellers? Also, I've only really been checking Auto Trader, with a quick glance at Ebay. Any other good sites I should be using? Still looking for Zoes too btw, just need a better deal than the ones I'm currently finding.