To the level we are seeing now very much is a change from twenty years ago, I.e even after winning a semi final, that means bugger all in itself. You rarely saw them from the mid 90s until the last few years. I.e why didn’t we end up on the pitch after going up at Deepdale? Winning the League Cup semi final? After winning the bloody Premier League! Yet ended up on the pitch twice in one week after Doncaster and Oxford in League 1 of all places? Smart phones and social media are very much a major reason to why they have come back in a big way.

A Yorkshire Dales villages in Cumbria… go figure!

Indeed, don’t recall anyone charging on the pitch at Deepdale… or Anfield and it didn’t stop me from having ‘one of the best nights of my life’.

To be fair, the FA Cup generally has died on its arse as a big event. It really was massive when I was a kid, alas league football has become the be-all and end-all the last twenty odd years. All about those 4th and 17th place trophies!

I’m sure the top tickets for the League Cup final were a fair wedge too and as you say a long time ago…

The club likes to give the impression that it’s now normal, I.e a board and a Chief Exec making decisions locally, but TM let the cat out of the bag that nowt’s really changed when it comes to who holds the power…

Sorry, but any club should be able to see the difference from an Elliot, known in the game to be going to the very top, and a Clarkson, a run of the mill kid, in which there will be countless examples of in every academy and U23 side. We are supposedly a Championship side, not a L2 club just happy for bodies, we need players that can make a difference in what is a decent level, I expect your standard churned out Academy product to be sent to a Barrow, a Fleetwood. The actual discussion centred on how these run of the mill 18 year olds get chucked straight in the side, whilst our own go on a magical mystery tour until they are about 21. I don’t think we should be bringing in teenagers from other clubs unless they are better than our own products - and that’s what scouts and loan managers are for, yes sometimes even they won’t work out, that’s football, but for me there is a lack of due diligence with these signings and it’s simply a case of, ‘well he’s from Liverpool’s 🤩academy, so we’ll have him..’ But Ok. We’ll leave it there, as we obviously won’t agree, so I can see arguments being repeated all day here.

Like everything else, it’s down to social media and smart phones. ‘Look at me’ and general follow the leader once one invasion goes viral. In the 90s and 2000s pitch invasions had pretty much gone out of the game, you’d see it an odd time in the lower leagues and think ‘wow, old school’. Like you said, all our great days prior to social media you never saw a Rovers fan on the pitch… then in 2018 two invasions in a week after the mighty achievement of finishing second in the third division… with phones in hand for most of them charging on.

Not sure we are on the same page here, you are talking about loans in general, which is fair enough, the way it is at his level. Khadra and JPVH are obviously better than what we would be plucking out of the U23s. I’m talking about out of their depth teenagers, you don’t invest heavily in a Cat 1 Academy so you can bring in a raw, not ready teenager each window, we have enough of our own without taking them from other academies too thanks very much.

I’m talking about teenagers, not loans in general, the loan market is what oils the wheels at this level. However, fair number of raw teenagers are brought in that are poorer/no better than what we already have, a waste of a wage and a squad place. Unless they are a considerable improvement, I.e Elliot, they shouldn’t be anywhere near the club.

Because he plays the fabled ‘football the right way’, unlike Dinosaur Woy, simple as that.

That’s what I said about five posts up, but that was a dozen years ago and we all know Phillips will play second (third?) fiddle to loanees…

Branthwaite was 18 and was chucked straight in, nowhere near ready. Clarkson, 19, nowhere near ready, but still chucked straight in until it was quickly clear he was miles off. Not a chance they’d have been in the side if from our own Acacemy. It’s bizarre the pedestal these PL academies and ergo their graduates are put on , but there you go.

I enjoy a good ITK-er as much as anyone, livens the place up. And of course we are all desperate for some, indeed any news. But after 10 years I can’t believe that some folk still don’t get that Merce is purely on the wind up, he’s been at it for years! 😁 But obviously not, as he still hooks a load of you every time!

We’ve thrown in much poorer 17/18 year old PL academy loanees too. But it just doesn’t happen with our own (Phil Jones in a former incarnation of Blackburn Rovers aside).

Of course there are those rare superstar 16/17 year olds that play regularly at a high level, but we both know he won’t be one of them…

Yes.

I just expect to see prices like that now. I suppose they seem almost reasonable when you consider JWU tickets for the thankfully now retired ‘Cat A+ ‘ games at Ewood were £45 in the JWU.

I was more talking about loans of teenagers from other clubs, I don’t get excited just because they are big lads from big clubs. I am very excited about him, but let’s not get carried away, wonder kids have often not kicked on, but of course he may well do so, but either way he will obviously be eased in over the next couple of years, he’s not going to be starting Championship games on a regular basis next season.

Of course the majority of the staff are staying, they are under contract. Just like TM was never going anywhere on that horror run last season, when even he sounded like he expected to be sacked - because he was under contract. Indeed he’d still he here now if his deal had been 12 months longer…

I’m never ‘delighted’ to bringing in teenagers on loan, as much of a chance as miss as hit, as we’ve seen in recent years. Being a ‘big unit’ is only half the battle when it comes to being ready for centre half at a decent level; you also need decision making, composure, not giving away soft fouls to canny forwards, just general game nous, case in point - Branthwaite. Now they will get that with game time obviously, but it’s unlikely a raw 18 year old on loan from a PL academy is going to accrue it in 6 months or so with us…

And £500- £550 in the JWU… ‘cheap as chips’, I keep getting told. It’s the old boiled frog analogy, they’ve relentlessly increased in price since Swag arrived and plenty of fans haven’t realised that we’ve gone from one of the cheapest to most expensive in the league. And that’s for a club with a limited fanbase with poor demographics, at a ground with far more supply than demand. A ridiculous way to do business.

… with additional real estate responsibilities.

I didn’t say it doesn’t need to be cold, however lager doesn’t have to be served at almost frozen, many German and Czech lagers, for example, have lots of flavour and would lose much of it at that temperature, American macro lager (I.e Coors, Bud, Miller etc) on the other hand is served that way, literally in frozen glasses half the time, to hide the fact it tastes of nothing!

And beers like domestic American lagers have to be served at freezing point to hide the fact they taste of feck all!