I’m talking about home fans. As an away fan, going to Turf Moor will end up being a full day job for a game down the road. Frog marched to the turnstiles, kept on coaches, kept in the ground. Massive disruption for any away fan. As a home fan, early kick off aside (Sky will probably pick it anyway, that’s life), my day won’t be impacted one bit. Ok, £32 to £36. Ergo a shed load of empty seats for what has a reputation as an arch rivalry.

They are looking after their colleague. What do your think they are going to say to the media? ‘He’s not up to it, Athers’.

Well obviously kick off times, but they get changed all the time, Sky are very likely to pick this anyway. I’m more talking about the absolute palava that away fans have to go through. Home fans can just go about their usual routine, usual parking etc.

Of course, we saw last season that floating fans will pay Cat A in decent numbers if the team is flying. But even if so, with only say c8k ST holders and that lot presumably restricted to 5k like previous years, you are going to have to flog a lot of £35+ tickets to even get past 20k.

In what way does the police operation impact home fans? £40 tickets is what will ensure a relatively low home turnout at Ewood.

You kept saying everybody was wrong the other week when we said he didn’t have the technique to open the batting. Of course he isn’t a Test opener, and I actually feel for him, looked at all at sea at Headingley.

Empty seats galore, and casual football fans everywhere… ‘thought this was supposed to be a massive derby? 🤷‍♂️‘

Good to know that this fella and Darren are two of the main fan conduits with Swag 🤦‍♂️

Great, so with a new manager in situ, obviously that means the cash will flow from now on then…

What’s the issue in discussing contracts in a transfer threads? It obviously relates to the playing budget, so is relevant.

Owners that have to be talked into delaying a thirty quid rise in ST prices, but seem totally sanguine with letting millions of pounds worth of players walk out the door…

No, facts are facts, a proven truth, and as you have no actual insight into what occurred with that signing, your *opinion* is no more a fact than those saying that he was a jobs for the boys signing.

If Pickering and bloody Edun are pushing 10k a week then this new fabled wage structure looks to be built on dubious foundations already.

Diaz is on substantially less than Pickering and Edun? Two nondescript young lads brought in from the lower leagues. Hmmm. But obviously a totally legit site to have accurate salaries of every player in the division.

What’s all this I’ve read today all on the likes of… ‘well, the forum would have gone mad if we had sold/signed x, y and z’ ? So bloody what! The club should do whatever it needs to do to protect its assets, the opinion of anonymous posters on here doesn’t even come into it, and it shows how weak the arguments are if that’s all you can think of as a defence of the club’s approach to contracts.

Then we all need to ‘get real’ to turn a phrase. And that includes some honest speaking from the club hierarchy. If the new wage structure and a drive to 70% means we can’t compete with run of the mill Championship clubs, for run of the mill Championships players, how long do we have left even as a run of the mill Championship club?

He was a recent top England international when we bought him. He then improved from that whilst here? Did he buggery!

Unless your pal was involved in the negotiations, he obviously is hearing it second hand, or third hand. Even if your mate is the most trustworthy bloke you know, he’s still only passing on what he’s been told, even if what he’s being told is a load of tripe. So it all ends up very Chinese whispers, especially when the ‘first hand’ will be agents, or certain club employees with their own agendas - as everybody will have, that’s just a typical negotiation.

Even if that’s true (it isn’t), the fella could hardly dive by 2012 and he was only 32, a bloke with 40 odd England caps no less, so doesn’t exactly say much about either of them. Rather have Benson.

Chaddy - don’t take up professional poker! 😁

Must be joking! PR got worse every season. I didn’t say it did, I was just using post-Brad 2008 until 2012 as context, as that was the Mimms spell as coach.

So you just take at face value anything you get told? Don’t take anything with a pinch of salt? You don’t try reading between the lines? You don’t look at somebody’s track record of being economical with the truth? Certainly a novel way to approach life.

Did our keepers improve under him between 2008 and 2012? I.e from Brad leaving to relegation?

In what way are Stoke ‘a shithouse club’? They are a historic, founder member, just like us. You are obviously of ‘mature’ age, due to mentions of the 70s and 80s, but you really don’t post like it.

Didn’t you keep asking for Bobby Mimms to come back?