Off topic but those “pushover” newly promoted sides Derby and Oxford both got good results today. We’ve had a cracking start to the season and significantly strengthened our side in the last couple of days. No reason it can’t continue.

They are the worst of the lot. Can’t function without VAR.

Oasis tickets and a point against the Dingles has made me very happy! The officiating was a disgrace, and we win that with 11 men or a competent ref. Didn’t look to be anything wrong with Dolan’s goal from the away end. That rule for imaginary card waving seems optional, though this prick had a right spring in his step once he realised he could get his red out. It discriminates against foreign player cos Burnley players were constantly verbally persuading him to continue his mission to book our entire team, not to mention their rat of a manager who looks like a smelly, noncey secondary school teacher. Gueye speaks little to no English, and it would’ve been immaterial if the ref had booked their man like he should’ve. He gave one foul throw all game despite the dingle taking the exact same throw every time, we only got that one cos of Buckley’s appealing. I was worried when we went a goal down. Brittain, Hyam and Pears were the three players I was most worried about and all could’ve done better, but I was impressed with all three of them overall. No criticism for any of the lads in blue and white today. Big praise for Owen Beck with a real debut to remember, also really enjoyed McFadzean down the touch line… he put in some serious yards encouraging those on the pitch. Massive credit to Eustace though. Surely he’s gone a hell of a long way to proving any of his lingering doubters wrong.

I was thinking the same. He will have to set off very soon if he is.

Pears 😡 JRC Carter Batth Pickering Brittain Travis Tronstad Cantwell Ohashi Gueye

Rankin-Costello certainly hasn’t been at his best so far this season, but some of the criticism is well over the top. He’s scored one already from this more advanced position where he looked our best player in preseason. He was one of very few players to come away with any credit last year, primarily when playing in midfield, in fact he’s been consistently very good since his resurgence started under JDT. There are definite worries around fitness and durability, and questions about what his best position is, but calls for him to be sold and claims he is a bad player seem silly and knee jerk. Yes he had a shocking last half hour against Blackpool, but contrast that with Millwall away on the final day of JDT’s first season - putting him in midfield in place of Travis turned that game around. And while he probably does need dropping on current form I’d be loathed to leave him out on Saturday given that he is one of the few players we have with a bit of a nasty edge.

Is there anything in this right back link? If we do get a right back in today I’m predicting a swap deal tomorrow, Brittain for Dembele and cash our way.

🤞🤞

Problem is they will loan in at least that many. Players on massive wages who aren’t quite breaking in to top half Premier League teams but will get a full season at Burnley then a £20 million transfer to a bottom half Premier League team in 12 months.

Venky’s need a No Objection Certificate every time they want to send money. They don’t have to go to court to get this, but they have previously taken the Indian Government Department responsible to court to challenge their decision not to allow one. It stands to reason that if the ED has objected once, they will continue to do so. It also stands to reason that it would be absolutely bonkers for the same process (apply, reject, appeal to high court, be allowed with conditions) to be repeated time after time. We’ve been told about the precedent, which would suggest that Venky’s apply for the No Objection Certificate, get rejected, but the ED grudgingly give permission with attached conditions (so not without objection) as set out in the earlier ruling. Precedent is a cornerstone of law, and you’d expect there to be consistency in decisions. Perpetual, repetitive court cases surely wouldn’t happen. I suppose the ED might dig their heels in, but if a judge felt they were being unreasonable or flouting previous judgements I think they would eventually come unstuck. All this is pure speculation on my part by the way. If any of the above is true, Venky’s should be saying “Steve, here’s £20 million. Get those forms filled in and account for every penny for the next 6-12 months. Wages, tax, agents fees, stadium upkeep, lawnmowers, stock for the shop, a new PA system, bills for cleaning, advertising, petrol for the bus, hotel bills, flights, balls, bibs, grass seed etc etc. We’ve set aside the same as a bond. Then with the transfer fees you’ve recouped buy some new players and have a crack at getting promoted while P&S and FFP aren’t an issue.”

The case that was supposed to be heard today is one which Venky’s are the petitioner and the Government department is the respondent. In other words, this is a case brought about by Venky’s against the Indian Ministry of Finance, so any hopes of them being “found guilty” and being forced to sell were absolutely miles off. It relates purely to them (VENKATESHWARA HATCHERIES PRIVATE LIMITED) wanting to be able to freely remit funds to Venky’s London Ltd. Without going over old ground too much… Venkateshwara Hatcheries Private Ltd have been under investigation since 2021. At some point in 2023 they were denied the no objection certificate they had previously been granted - this is required for any Indian company or individual who is under investigation to send any money abroad. On August 16 2023 it was stated the full investigation would be concluded in 15 days - it wasn’t, and none of the documents on this case are linked to the investigation. They may be online somewhere but I don’t think so, and I’ve never seen them. Venky’s lawyers also stated on this day that the investigation was entirely separate to this case. The court eventually allowed remittances with the constraints we all know about. Waggott says that he has been told by Venky’s lawyers the precedent has been set and they can now remit funds whenever they want. The relevant wording is inconclusive to me, I don’t think it’s clear whether this refers just to that one 11 million remittance, or other ongoing amounts too, but I’m no legal expert… The official line is they want the guarantee removed, not that they can’t send money. I don’t know if they have to go through the rigmarole of applying for and being denied an NOC, then requesting a court date, then fulfilling the previously agreed actions… or whether they can just send money providing it is guaranteed and costed. I’m rushing a bit here. But all the available court docs are here: https://delhihighcourt.nic.in/court/judegment_orders?pno=1148363 Theres quite a few bits that I’d like more clarity on, but we’d probably need the judge or Venky’s lawyers to provide it.

It’s good is best the drop. My best result was just shy of £200 on the standard free game

If it’s option C I don’t think that would be the punishment. If the final outcome goes against them I expect the result will more likely be an enormous fine and then crack on and do what you want again. I also think if they’d just held their hands up and coughed up a fine months/years ago this draw out saga could’ve been avoided.

Any player can and will make a mistake, unfortunately we have 3 players who are prone to having games where their head completely falls off. Pears has looked like a disaster waiting to happen in these first 2 games, no doubt he will save the really massive clangers for Burnley. Hyam and Brittain both had more than one 0/10 performance last season and generally make more errors than is forgivable, irrespective of other upsides to their games. All three have questionable mentalities in my opinion, and the resilience which was apparently a big target in our recruitment this summer is something the two outfield players certainly lack. Our defence will never be solid with these three making up the majority of our back 5.

Yep. Clever player, but slow.

We’d instantly become a better side if we switched JRC and Brittain round. JRC not quick enough for the wing and drifts inside, Brittain woefully bad defensively.

Yeah, nobody to blame but ourselves there. Hopefully with all the blood pouring out of his nose it won’t be rushing to Pears head quite so much in the second half. Keep it tight for now and there’s a breakaway goal or two in this for Yuki when he comes on.

It’s really refreshing seeing two proper centre forwards. They are both different but they both seem to understand what their job is. After years of Gallagher running away from goal and wanting to be a winger it really is a sight for sore eyes. Despite their goals Brereton (played wide) and Armstrong (get ball, shoot on sight) weren’t really it. I think we’d definitely see the best of Gueye with an old school crossing winger. Mightn’t be the most natural finisher, but he’s an absolute animal in the air.

These early league cup games have become really enjoyable over the last few years. Was good to see more of the two new forwards, both look very useful in different ways. Batth was immense defensively, could’ve used the ball a bit more bravely but that will probably come soon enough. Buckley absolutely superb, doesn’t matter about the level of opposition, his level of intensity and commitment was great - we need from him every time he plays. Similar thoughts in Sigurdsson. Weimann looks a real shrewd bit of business. Nice to see Duru make his debut, it’s easy to see what he offers. Still not sure Vale has any future at Rovers, but that goal was fantastic and I’d love to be proven wrong.

Burnley with a very dominant and ruthless performance. They will be right up there again. Luton on the other hand have looked dreadful. Derby would’ve beaten them tonight.

Believe me, they were. Some of “Greg’s boys” were very chatty about what a good job they were doing to anyone who would listen at any given opportunity.

I think most players do have a market value, unfortunately it’s dictated by two things: Idiots who obsessively pour over poorly quantified data, and the youth system the player progressed through. One thing I think the club have got massively right this summer is binning off almost the entire previous recruitment team - The ones who were massively patting themselves on the back for getting Telalovic whose “numbers mean he’s a £2 million pound player”. It’s common knowledge that teams other than Palace were reluctant to come in for Wharton because “the data” didn’t support what anyone with eyes and a little bit of football knowledge could see - that 18 million was an absolute steal. Broughton was more self congratulatory than anyone regarding that particular fee. In a world where James Trafford, after solid but unspectacular spells in League one with Stanley and Bolton and an absolute disaster in the Premier league, is worth nearly twice what Sammie Szmodics is, we need to disregard the status quo completely. We’ve obviously done this in terms of incomings, we need to buck the trend with sales too. Szmodics should only be going if the offer is too good for us to turn down.

Massively agree with this. They have also spent £15 million on a crap goalkeeper from Burnley, purely because he came through City’s youth ranks. We got badly taken to the cleaners on the Wharton deal because of the stupid, formulaic, arbitrary habits the football recruitment industry. Letting the likes of Ipswich and Palace steamroll us and nick our best players for a song is completely unacceptable. We need to aspire to being more than a Cat 1 Crewe. If we’ve doubled our asking price, good.

Or to placate Barry Fry cos Sammie is staying and he won’t get any sell on 🤞🤞

In the vast majority of cases step one of a professional footballers starter kit will be an incredibly expensive watch, probably even before a really flash motor. With all due respect to Peter Jackson I doubt he was dishing out a Rolex or Audemars Piguet every other week. I expect they will be just as happy/underwhelmed with a token bottle of Vodka as they were a watch they wouldn’t dream of wearing. Of course the biggest issue appears to be how this was communicated to Peter Jackson, which doesn’t sound great by their account and seems really avoidable. Perhaps a bit pedantic but the timeline in their account doesn’t add up. I distinctly remember hearing “Your McEwan’s MOTM is Alan Shearer” a great many times, and in David Batty’s book he mentions how he got so many crates of lager in his first season he had to ask them for a case of bitter for a change. 35 years seems a bit out.