highlandcityfan

Ahhh, Dave, you make a great point! Hands up, hadn't thought of it that way! Ohhh dont get me started on the Pearson sacking debacle - I imagine our thoughts are reasonably aligned!

I'm not sure if this is worthy of it's own thread, though since I don't post often and I've a vast amount of respect for the posters on this board, plus invest a lot of time reading others' comments with enthusiasm, I hope I'll be humoured / spared! Two key players being out today triggered my thoughts. If we think about for example, a sales team, an office team, production, ANother - 18% of your 'usual' workforce being unavailable would surely create a big gap. Especially when considering how crucial team work, and familiarity with roles and responsibilities are. When I worked in Honda for example, we couldn't operate with a far smaller % out, and would simply have to stop production for a day. Even if a tiny fraction of the staff were off sick and production could continue, supervisors etc could step in to cover, though weren't quite as proficient as the people who did the roles all day every day and production slowed. In my current business, I work as half of a duo as part of a wider team. I know that if I'm tied up doing one thing, my buddy will pull out the stops with the other stuff we need to get done, and vice versa. If one of us is out, we have help to call upon, but it's apples and oranges due to the team ethic and understanding the two of us have built. Can football be compared to 'mainstream' business? In some respects no - customer loyalty for example is incomparable. On the other hand, human beings, emotions, knowing you can completely trust the person to the left or right of you to do their role - unequivocally. Additionally, if we think about a production or sales environment - sometimes we have a rush on, or an extreme week, and really pull one out of the bag. This isn't a sign that people can keep that up every day on an ongoing basis, it's simply not feasible, and can easily result in burnout after a while. I'm not saying that we smashed Blackburn as a result of players running themselves into the ground (given the opposition errors) thus should be allowed an off day today. That said, all human performance is surely peaks and troughs impacted by anything and everything. And 18% off the workforce out is bound to have a large impact /upset the equilibrium. Naturally another difference between 'normal' business and football is that in football there is a team in front of you directly trying to stop you achieve your goals, and Huddersfield were playing for their lives, as to be honest, we were expecting blackburn to. Why am I posing this? I suppose to try to give (and possible foster) a little understanding to the quite different experience for fans over the last two games. Also, no, I'm not Bristol sport My word, what an essay. Thank you for reading. Any thoughts welcome. Have another apology (I'm sorry). And a potato (those who know, will know). Cheers all, have a good Saturday night. Tom

Putting aside for a moment, the incredulity and disdain I felt and still feel about the change that has been instigated at BS3 by the powers that be - In isolation, that interview sounds to me like a relegation battle interview. Regrettably, I fear these may become more frequent over the coming weeks and months, as our situation further warrants them.

Given the current weather, we could use someone who can walk on water

In light of Porto Red's thread the other night, I feel it's worth reiterating the info from my post, plus a little more in this thread. Apologies for some duplication. Some support services that could be of use for those struggling with mental health / wellbeing / in crisis; Samaritans - Contact Us | Samaritans 24/7, 365 days per year. Speak to someone by phone (116 123), online chat (still a pilot) and/or email. Shout - Free 24/7 text support service Shout - UK's 24/7 Crisis Text Service for Mental Health Support | Shout 85258 (giveusashout.org) Text 'SHOUT' to 85258 to start a text chat with a trained volunteer (some phones can send a warning you may be charged - you will not) Mind in Somerset - 24/7 Mental Health Charity Mind in Somerset 24/7, 7 days per week, phone 01823 276892 or 0800 138 1692 Bristol Mind - Mind Bristol - (bristolmind.org.uk) 0117 203 4419 - open 7pm to 11pm, Wednesday to Sunday Bristol Mental Health Support Mental Health Services (bristol.gov.uk) Please reach out to your GP if you require support. And always, in an emergency, please call 999. For non-emergency support (or if you don't have a GP), please call NHS 111 There is wealth of mental health and wellbeing support out there, loads of it free. Online, apps, phone based, face to face. The important thing is to reach out. If anyone on here wishes to message me, I tend to browse OTIB most days so will pick your message up, and will always try to help - we can chat stuff through, we can look together for the best support service out there that matches what you need. Take care all Tom Dimambro

I often say, the strongest people are the ones who know when to ask for help. Thank you so much for getting back to us. And everyone's reasons for reaching out for support are all the best reasons, yours is no smaller or less worthy than others. If you need to, please see above for numbers. Or message us on here. And sorry, I missed the Samaritans number, it's 116123, it's free. Much love xx

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ And Samaritans, another 24/7 free number, this one national, ran by people who genuinely want to help. Always there to listen. As are many of us here. Thank you so much for reaching out, please continue to do so and we'll help xx

Mate, please message one or any of us on here. Plenty of ppl who will be here to listen. If you need additional support, please see below SHOUT - text support service, 24/7 https://giveusashout.org/ Just text 'SHOUT' to 85258, to start a chat with a trained volunteer. Totally free. Mind in Somerset, 01823 276 892, again 24/7 https://www.mindinsomerset.org.uk/our-services/adult-one-to-one-support/mindline/ I'm sure some of our friends here can share Bristol support services too. Please don't be alone Friend, plenty of us out there want to help. Sending love xx

My friend, thank you.... I've put a fiver on each way! I never normally do a season long bet, I'm too impatient ? But looking at the odds, I thought that could add a bit of extra spice in the final stages....!

And also, assuming PSG can really be beaten down, what plans do we have with the potential Alex Scott money? Do you think it will cover Mbappe, and a new PA system in the ground?

Really true, and that begs the question, what's the lowest bid they'd accept, do you think? Or where should Real etc 'anchor in' at?

Ah yes, I think you're right on all counts! You've reminded me, I'm sure there was an article where the CEO or whoever at PSG had said to him if he leaves on a free, it will need them needing to sell players. So maybe another weird type of attempted strong arming? :laugh:, yeah.... I don't know why, but I'd also find it amusing! Now you mention about pre-contracts, I'd say even more that the clubs comments in my first post smack a bit of desperation.

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi speaking in early July: "My position is very clear. I don't want to repeat it every time: if Kylian wants to stay, we want him to stay. But he needs to sign a new contract. "We don't want to lose the best player in the world for free. We can't do that. This is a French club." Is anyone else a little perplexed by this approach? It comes across to me like he's trying to play hardball with the player to encourage signing a new contract, but in doing so, it feels like he's put himself over a barrel with buying clubs. If he wants to sell this summer (or Jan perhaps), because in no way will he allow the player to leave on a free, surely potential suitors would come in and offer relative peanuts, e.g. £20m? If they know they can get him for free next summer anyway - especially if it's Real Madrid which seems to be his preferred destination, why not? They've bided their time before, so now they seem to be holding all the trump cards in my eyes. It's almost like he's invited that, and since he's said catagorically he won't lose him on a free, does that not encourage an extremely aggressive approach from bidders? Unless I'm misunderstanding, it just seems rather a naive approach.

It's been alluded to by a few on here, how well City have done. Also a couple of mentions about how Scott could agitate. Such is the confidence I have in the club in their business dealings now that the only Ego to rival Ronaldo has disappeared off to Ipswich, that I think they will have conducted proper talks with Alex and his agent. We've demonstrated that we won't stand in players' way, so I can imagine that those talks have taken place - eg. "AS, we all agree your value is 'x', we assure you that we won't stand in your way, and if its not met, we'll continue to do out best by you, the fans love you, we've got the HPC bla bla bla." And so hopefully that will negate any danger of agitating for a move, as all parties will be on the same page.

Apologies if this has been mentioned.... There's a good possibility given that the ton is up, congrats folks! IF Scott needs to leave us (of course would be amazing to have him spearhead us to promotion then stick around another year or so), but if he did, the candidates currently seem to be the smaller prem clubs. Chances are he'd get games, but feasibly given the nature of the division, he could comfortably find himself in a team getting dubbed every week and related bottom. Move to a top 10 club - and the danger is he doesn't get a look in. Djed Spencer - thought he looked awesome in the championship, and not had a sniff at spurs. Here's my thoughts (tho balanced against the fact that football players are human beings susceptible to the same emotions as everyone else).... What about Germany? I think that German teams do great things bringing youngsters through. And we know what happens after they've set bundesliga on fire for a year or two... But it could really help him further his game, but bring a different culture to it. Play highly competitive football. And if he's set for the very top, any move he could get now in the top German league could ignite interest from their biggest teams, and Europe's a year or two down the line. The difficulty is, being that much further from friends and family at that age, though I've no doubt clubs have great support in place to help mitigate that. And also, there has to be a bid / interest, which to my knowledge isn't there. I was just thinking, Scott playing for Bournemouth in a relation battle, or starting for a top 10 German league side....that could be awesome for the observers, and could be a very intelligent career move for him.