Samuel reverted to the mean after a couple of ok 20 minute sub appearances. Be very worried if he’s given a new deal...

For me part of BB’s issues here has been an element of immaturity. You see it in his demeanour, the way he warms up, last night was another example of it. TM’s reaction tells me he has the same view. Of course, he’s still a young lad (but 21, not 18) but he doesn’t seem to have the strength of character (yet - will he ever?) to deal with a big price tag - a Kevin Davies-esque feel, who visibly shrunk from the player he was at Southampton.

Will he make it? I don’t think he will here, but as a centre half he has time on his side to carve out a good career. . It’s not as simple as just listing players ages and Championships appearances. BB has been largely crap in his for us, but has been persevered with because of the price tag, if he was out of our own academy he would have been loaned out to the lower leagues without question. Lewis Travis was a Smallwood sending off away from spending half of last season in League 1. Would he have developed to the player he is now if he had? There’s a big element of luck and sliding doors for young players...

We do from time to time, and often look pretty effective at it. Yet, it’s never sustained week to week - not fit enough?

Sounds like he just doesn’t rate him, ‘not big enough’ doesn’t really wash in the modern game. Lenihan and Williams aren’t exactly man mountains...

So is pretty much every other club in the league being insensitive?

Come on JH, we don’t even know what league we are going to be in! I know Forest, Fulham, Brentford, Leeds, Derby, Bristol City, Swansea and Millwall top end. Barnsley, Charlton, Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, Stoke, Hull and Luton bottom end all have them on sale and our club is very worried about lack of cash flow currently, but it would be a daft idea to follow the lead of these clubs, wouldn’t it Chaddy?

‘Most of our season ticket holders subscribing to the offer’. Hmm, I’d like to see the data there. Though I suppose 50% of ST holders plus one person is ‘most’. As an example, two ST holders in my house; 1 code unused, same at my dad’s house, and my father in laws and most of the crowd I go away games with. I know some OAP couples who haven’t used either code - no internet. Now some of those multiple ST holder households or other non subscribers won’t be particularly bothered about refunds, but it is encouraging that the club does seem to be putting some thought into ‘recompensing’ such fans.

‘Burnley, sign him up...’

Even the idea that our best players would make a ‘big move’ to the mighty Crystal Palace, what a depressing decade we’ve had...

Why would 200k have been refunded? Only a small proportion of the ST base would have requested a partial refund, so it wouldn’t have been close to that figure. I certainly wouldn’t have asked for £40 back, neither would most fans I know. But it was still a pisstake laying the sob story on thick that it would be loyal fans on the bones of their arse risking the ‘survival of the club’, whilst we have and continue to piss money up the wall...

Amazing how many managers who have an up and coming/growing reputation in the game risk it all at freshly relegated, nosediving Championship clubs. Chris Coleman after taking Wales to the European Championship semi finals - Sunderland. Cowley - Huddersfield, O’Neill - Stoke. As we know it’s bloody hard to turn these tanking clubs around, but a combination of ego and a fat pay packet means they take the jobs time and again.

Where’s Bell? After he didn’t play at Liverpool, Mowbray said he wasn’t risked as he had a ‘slight knock’. Nearly 3 weeks will have passed from then to Barnsley. Don’t particularly rate the lad, but he’s still a better option than Bennett, as he actually resembles a left back (a third division standard left back is preferable to whatever Bennett is masquerading as).

Did make me laugh when Walton cheerleaders were trying to make out that he was going to be first choice in the Premier League at Brighton next season, spouting ‘the data’ from some teenage statto’s Twitter account, and we were honoured to even have him.

PNE looked dreadful, let’s hope they now fade away... And they call us ‘entitled plastics’... https://www.pne-online.net/forum/index.php?threads/neil-out.3430952/

Game of opinions and all that, but I’ve honestly not seen a part of Bell’s game that is good enough for a side that want to be a contender for PL promotion on a consistent basis.

And half of those will be under *cough Ke*n * cough in August/September 2012. Very little time in the second half of seasons, I’d wager...

‘Here’, being ‘in the mix’, of course. Our natural state under Bowyer re-born. The actual top 6?! Let’s not get giddy!

You are obviously easily fascinated! Didn’t think it was just about my post, but I disagreed with your analysis, so said so. Kind of the point of this place, no?

Ha we used to have all this ‘must win’ talk every week in the old world... we often didn’t, but here we still are!

I literally said it’s a good policy. But you still need to look after the financial well being of the club. There was a chance AA flopped too, but a £1.7m initial fee for a player that had already scored goals and provided a plethora of assists was much less of a risk than £7million on a teenager that had showed relatively little for Forest. And who says we get anywhere near £15/£20 million for AA anyway (to ensure break even or a profit overall from all 3 signings) in this new world? Of course a club of our means can’t say ‘oh well’ if BB ends up being released or sold for a pittance.

It’s a good policy. But you need to find value when initially purchasing the players. £7million was a panic price for such a raw young lad and ever getting that money back will be difficult. The fact AA will probably make us a good profit doesn’t mean we just go ‘ah well’ over BB. Every signing needs to be looked at on its merits. We are a middling second tier club with a low income, that was a hell of an outlay.

No chance we are catching this Brentford team.

Hart just has this extended month left, thankfully (well for now )

Very damming of Nixon, you could say...