The EFL ‘rules’ seem to be more flexible than most, however...

To double down on that, of the first choice 40% left - Lenihan and Nyambe, they came through the academy ranks.

Well just be thankful Corporal Vinners wasn’t in charge of the club back then!

One was quality, one got injured almost immediately, one is *at best* on a par with who we sold... all 3 will be gone in a few weeks. Big risk having 60% of your defensive unit as loanees.

No married men either, though, I remember you saying? They lose their edge too! (Can anybody in parochial towns be edgy, anyway? ?). ‘Roll up, roll up! Birth and marriage certificates in hand please or no entry!’

This summer. Good, looking forward to seeing it. So not a few seasons then, the club sounded incompetent and dysfunctional for a second there...

How do you think you’ll attract the next generation of support? Or stop the entire child population of England supporting a glory club (even Man Utd, gasp!) without letting children into grounds? ‘Earth to planet Vinners!’

‘We see in the next few seasons’ ?! We’ve been working on this new network for 18 months already, and you think it will be a few seasons more until we see some actual fruit with it? Bloody hell, wish I could work for you!

I don’t really give Mowbray much thought either way. What’s the point getting wound up over the manager, potential replacements and all the rest of it. A decade of these owners tells me that normal managerial position rules don’t seem to apply here. He’ll go, probably out of the blue, but it won’t be anytime soon. He’s one of the few powerful people in the whole club, on a par with, if not more powerful than his own ‘boss’. So I don’t get wound up wasting energy over it... oh for a normal football club!

I would still hate it and probably egg it, but at least if they were putting on buses from Northern towns like Blackburn to Old Trafford and Anfield you could at least say they are choosing to still watch live football. Instead they just watch an odd game on TV and think they garner some reflective glory, yet it’s them losing so much by not being part of their local club.

Administrators believe they have a case to avoid a points deduction. ‘Force majeure’. https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/football/points-appeal-hope-wigan-athletic-2901223

So why do you think he wasn’t given a place on a 9 man subs bench when he is the only fit left back (not counting academy) at the club? Doesn’t seem to me that he’s knocking on the door...

Some Sheff Wed players not paid for June... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/football/news/sheffield-wednesday-wages-dejphon-chansiri-18518956.amp

Well yes, but structural problems are amplified in that area, for me the only reason clubs like Bury, with a great history going back to the dawn of the game, 130 years of league football, a big town, could only muster crowds of 2,000 is purely due to a fan drain down the road.

Is it a coincidence that most of the clubs in the orbit of the Manchester two are really struggling/already gone - Bolton, Bury, Oldham and Wigan? Big towns, but unfortunately teaming with glory fans (plus RL in Wigan, of course).

All a bit strange as they announced a big investment in their academy facilities less than a week ago...

I like it Masher, play dumb so you get a response, then you can go: ’Well what’s wrong with getting behind your club!?’

Wouldn’t surprise me if Sky just blurted it out without checking the EFL rules. However, considering the EFL seemed to make it up as they went along with Bolton, who knows what they’ll do...

The LT ‘below the line’ comments seem to be turning too...

Sky seem to think it will be an immediate deduction...

Because he has decent technique and is fairly quick, pulls a lot of wool over folks’ eyes as there is absolutely no end product.

The apathy factor would be ringing alarm bells at normal clubs. A petered out season alongside a still circulating pandemic and an incoming serious recession tells me that ST sales will collapse - many clubs had thousands signed up before lockdown for next season, so are relatively well buffered both in terms of cash flow and retained supporters, but as always we will be attempting to flog STs from a standing start, but with the added unprecedented external factors. Yet does anyone at Ewood (or Pune) see this? Or even care?

Surely nobody takes Mercer seriously? He’s been a wind up merchant since he first joined and kept telling us how much of a fantastic club Burnley were...

‘Coyley’ if you don’t mind!

Jack Rodwell came here after years of mega contracts and he comes across generally as not someone particularly arsed about playing every week. I actually could see Hart turning out in the Championship as he does seem desperate to play.