Serious point, we're short of money and Mowbray then Venus/Lowe/Johnson etc. Surely one assistant manager is enough, how many do we need? (Needs a clear out of the lot with the possible exception of Johnson imo)

Yet these numpties seemingly wanted to sell half of it off and cram the same thing into half the space!

The first paragraph is the 64m (or 200m) dollar question and whilst they have funded us to date I don't think anyone should be under any illusion that this will automatically last indefinitely, They might just get up one day and decide that funding is to cease. As to why they do it, a) because they can and b) I suspect it's because of the stigma attached to having a business go to the wall in Indian culture. Either way we can't afford to lose any more time failing under the Coventrio. The Club would appear to be at a delicate tipping point as it is.

As far as I'm aware they do put their hands in their pocket, usually by issuing share capital and the vast majority of the debt is not secured against the Club but against the holding Company Venky's London or whatever it is called. Technically the Club will probably owe the money to the Holding Company but I'm assuming there's an understanding it will never be repaid unless something extraordinary happens.

Agreed to look into, would consider, plans will be put in place etc etc. Absolutely pathetic.

Not quite, on researching it, it was £5m plus add ons. They now have a player worth £25m plus. We'll be struggling to net £10m for Armstrong if he goes so who got the better deal?

If you have the vaccine then you're protected (in theory). So then why is it any skin off your nose or anyone else who's double jabbed whether or not anyone else has the vaccine or not? The missus and myself didn't really want the jabs but decided to have them because we didn't want any jobsworths telling us we couldn't go in a Pub or restaurant or (predictably now) a football match. We got Covid anyway, the missus who'd had two jabs was quite a bit worse than myself who'd had one jab at that point. So we feel it's an absolute waste of time from an immunisation standpoint. Having or not having the vaccine should be entirely a matter of personal choice and no-one should be looked down upon or excluded from Society because of it. Anyhow - back to season ticket sales hopefully.

So what's this guy actually doing to earn his corn then? Let me guess, he isn't a fan of Academies either...........

Would be nice if the owners were turning the screws on Waggott and Mowbray to try and get them out without paying any compensation but the appointment of Mowbray's mate Park appears to run contrary to that.

Three wrongs don't make a right though!

Well, yes again, that's the other side of it, for me we should never have agreed to the 40% to start with but once it had been done and knowing it was in place our absolute number one priority should have been to ensure AA always had plenty of time left on his contract. Sheer incompetence all round but like I say no surprise with these bozos running operations.

Ridiculous from our end, savvy from Newcastle's end!

Depends whether you think £3m was a fair price for Armstrong or not. Which at the time I think it was. Newcastle haven't been paying 40% of his wage for the last 3 years have they. They got a fair price and get 40% of any profit. Ridiculous.

Well yes, IF that happened then if I were Newcastle I'd be arguing that the value of any player taken in part exchange should be factored into the deal.

It may happen but under no circumstances SHOULD our prize asset be replaced by anyone on loan. He will just end up not being replaced after that.

There's absolutely no suggestion we wouldn't pay the 40% if we did sell him is there? I have to respectfully disagree on whether Newcastle had us over on the deal, I think they saw us coming and shafted us accordingly but it's our fault for agreeing to it in the first place. No surprise with these buffoons on the ground at Ewood.

Doubt anyone else was queueing up to sign him at the time. If Newcastle wouldn't budge then we should have looked elsewhere notwithstanding he's done well with the benefit of hindsight.

Would you rather we went down and banked (at the very best) a net £10m? Or would you rather keep hold of Armstrong and scrape up on the strength of it? I'd take the latter all day long. I'm a fan and it's not my money admittedly. The only way I'd take the money would be if it was utilised to pot the Coventrio and bring in a top manager. But I think we know that wouldn't happen.

I think that's being a bit melodramatic. Also if we never get "that kind of deal" of a Prem Club again then my reaction would be "Thank god for that". We've been absolutely shafted by Newcastle on this deal. At the time we signed Armstrong I think £3m was a perfectly fair price for him and their end should have been accounted for by the add ons. To then get 40% of any future profit on him as well is absolutely ludicrous. We take all the risk on him and do all the work developing him and they get almost as much profit on him as we do! Not really a surprise with the Coventrio in office but Newcastle certainly saw us coming on that one.

And I could win euro millions next week. But in reality I won't.

No, but........ How often during the course of the season do you think we'll be able to rely upon no injuries whatsoever? At any one time we'll always be likely to be carrying a fee injuries like now I'd have thought. A poster above had it right, we've managed to shed a lot of dross but we need around five players of better quality than those that have left badly.

I'm not so sure, that was the best starting eleven we could field today and I'd say apart from the defence, only two of the others Rothwell and Armstrong could be described as established first team players.

I agree with you on most things but I don't understand your stauch opposition to the Academy. £1.9 m p.a. net, Costs relative peanuts in the overall scheme of things. If not enough youngsters are ending up with the first team then that suggests either the Coaching at Academy level isn't good enough or the first team management aren't willing enough to give our youngsters their head. I've not heard anyone complaining about the coaching and this practice of borrowing youngsters from PL Clubs is ludicrous imo.

That's the worry, especially with Mowbray installing another of his mates as Head of Recruitment.

From memory the Academy costs about £3.2m p.a. to run and that is offset by a grant of £1.9 m so £1.3m net or roughly the same as Ayala's wages. The Academy really is the least of our problems. It should be seen as our one shining beacon of hope. Edit: tomphil beat me to it.