bluebruce

Liking the look of Powell as well as the stats. Looks fast, tenacious. Could be one to press on to the first team squad later this season (hopefully not in that way we like where they just sit the bench a lot and don't get the regular minutes at youth level anymore, slows their development IMO)

I think Pratt is considered agricultural in his style, and Litherland more cultured. The latter being more popular in the modern game. But I think there is still a place for the old fashioned no nonsense CB, personally.

They were discussing Litherland and I think you're talking about Pratt?

He was on the bench before wasn't he? And before all the injuries a loan would have made sense. What gets me is we couldn't find interest at higher than Chorley's level, yet he can play 90 in a local Championship derby and not let anybody down. I really think we are awful at finding the right loans.

Who is this Wolsoncroft? Why do we have 20 million youth goalkeepers at u21 level?

We don't do extensions.

Don't Wednesday have money problems too though? Or has that been resolved?

I'm not sure why they're describing Rhodes' arrival as heralding a new approach. It's the same approach they had last season (when it didn't appear to work).

Link won't work for me

Do you not think that those players may have been awful partly because there wasn't really anything on the line? 3 points only matters when they can affect positions, as we have seen at the end of many league seasons.

Exactly why it would have been really stupid to put that clause in. Not a lot of players get to make 5 competitive appearances for England for a club like Palace before they get snapped up by bigger fish.

Did he 'struggle' though or are you just aware he's capable of more? I didn't get to see the game, but the ratings I saw gave him a 7 (Bellingham was a 3 for reference) and apparently the stats say he made the most chances.

Well that was an overreaction and didn't make any sense.

Pretty sure it would be Phil Jones.

How did he play?

Bang on. He doesn't fail. I think part of this is he doesn't feel pressure on a football pitch, not like normal people. He's permanently calm. His interviews have highlighted this in the way he talks about the game. He's a very special boy.

Isn't Sergeant only 16 or 17?

We really are joke negotiators. I've never heard of a caps clause requiring the player to start before.

Are you still accepting new solo participants? I'd be interested.

Even if we did, again, you don't attract bidders on the bench. Not playing someone in order to sell them only works when the player isn't willing to leave otherwise. I doubt we have any players in that category these days, probably not even Scott Wharton.

Maybe, it would be another strange one though as usually a new contract would reset appearances essentially...ie it would be when you make 150 appearances after signing the contract.

Well if that's a strategy keeping him out of the team, it's inordinately stupid even by our standards. Going to be a lot harder to sell someone who is on a good wage if they can't make it into our very average team during a defensive crisis. Who do we think is going to pick up these high wages for us? We might shift him this way but it will be for a minimal fee and with us covering a chunk of his wages.

Blimey, didn't realise he was 26 now! Time flies. Fair enough, still seems strange to drop from 3rd tier to 7th tier just because he missed half a season with injuries (but also the whole season prior I suppose). Would have thought someone around 4th or 5th tier would happily take a chance. A Premiership player in a similar position wouldn't have to drop to the National League typically, which is the same amount of tiers difference as this.

21 appearances in League One last season, to non-contract terms in the 7th tier is a hell of a drop. He must have been utterly dire in League One.

Ordinarily this would be a very valid response, as we sure are a shambles, but we have already demonstrated what our approach to these players is. It would be weird even for us if we were to do that with all the others, then just with Pickering for some reason we choose to devalue the product instead. I'm pretty sure he is out of favour with the manager, whether it's for his playing style/ability or something sort of falling out.