Yellow&Blue&Red

I love Craven Cottage. My second favourite. Loved it when it was still terraces for away fans, with a walk down the river and the cottage in the corner. Building the stands still hasn't spoilled that - it's still great.

It's not just the stadium itself that's great. It's the area around the stadium, the view FROM the stadium and the approach. Great bars and places to eat on North Street, North Street itself, the bridge, the gorge, the suspension bridge. Ashton Court. Ashton Gate is the best located stadium I know - and not just because I can walk to it!

He's just signed for my team, AFC Wimbledon. What can we expect please? Edit: Cancel that, I've just seen the other thread.

Weird and wonderful!

I slightly (and politely) disagree @Silvio Dante. People have kids or leave to go to work in another city or go to Uni... or whatever - stage of life stuff as you say. But I think that churn is quite a big number each year (10-20%? I really don't know, I'm speculating), with the club needing to make new season ticket sales each year to fill the gap and that those new sales do depend on the quality of the product on offer. Add to that the fact that people really do stop coming as a club sinks through the divisions - it's not just stage of life - AND the cost of living squeeze we're all experiencing and I think there's scope for the club to see quite a big drop in attendances from one season to the next.

Wikipedia: "In Germany, the 3. Liga is also the highest division that a club's reserve team can play in."

Regionalisation does of course reduce travel time but it's no panacea. Gloucester City are in National League North which seems crazy and illustrates the difficulty you get when it comes to drawing the boundary. Their longest journey is to Blythe Spartans which is more than 500 miles round trip. And they never get to play Chippenham Town, who might otherwise be a local rival and a good local day out for supporters, but who are in National League South. Some problems solved, some new problems introduced. If the key problem is financial sustainabiity, regionalisation might help a little but it's fiddling at the edges. The real solution is better cost control - which will follow from independent regulation - and a small enhancment in redistribution from the Prem. Those small changes will allow the underlying strength of L2 to show through again. After all average attendances of 5k / week at this level is unique in world football. We've had four national leagues for over 50 years and whilst I certainly respect other perspectives it would feel like a massive shame - to me - to throw this out now because of the distorting effects that Premier League wealth has on our game.... just as we've got a solution in sight.

I think the Crouch Review (or Fan Led Review or whatever it's called) is really encouraging. On PPs it makes clear that these have to go. If the EFL and Premier League can't develop a replacement to PPs then an alternative approach will be imposed based on independent advice to the new regulator. And whatever is introduced will be focussed on avoiding the distortions created by the current system. On funding for the lower leagues the review discusses the possibility that a 10% levy on Premier League teams for the costs of overseas player purchases would be enough to fund the whole thing.

Interesting idea. Are you thinking that this would be a different route for Championship clubs to share in premier league tv rights? If so I can see why it's appealing, but is it realistic? I can't think why Premier League would vote for it but perhaps I'm missing something, or perhaps it's somthing that could be imposed. Instinctively I don't like the idea of making L2 regional. I feel proud of the richness and depth of the English Football League and wider pyramid and this feels like it takes something away, relegates L2 to a lower status than it has currently. And for what purpose, it's not travel costs that L2 clubs are struggling with. I wonder whether you're thinking that this would allow less of the premier league wealth to be distributed down to that level and more to be retained at the Championship level, in which case I'd definitely be opposed.

It's like an arms treaty. Every club in the championship loses millions of pounds. This was the best mutually acceptable compromise they could find to cap their losses.

That feels harsh to me. And it's punishing the wrong people. Morris and the administrators are the culprits here but this wouldn't hurt them much. This would just hit employees and fans. And would mean NONE of the debts being repaid. I don't think they should get gifted a place in L2 if they go bust, that's not fair either. But I'm not HOPING they go bust. I hope that they get relegated, they find a buyer at a price that makes sense for L1, that as much of their debt as possible is repaid and they start next season with a hefty points deduction. That feels proportionate to the crime of fiddling FFP.

I think they've obliged to take the best bid they can. If they can get creditors 25p in the pound, and that's the best they can do, then they've got a legal duty to get that. If they publicly turn that down and they've got NOTHING... then I'd imagine their creditors including HMRC have recourse to take action against them. I'd be interested to hear different from anyone who actually knows how it works!

I find it hard to believe that even Quantuma would turn away the only bid they've got. I can imagine them publicly turning down a bid to show other bidders that 'they mean business'. At the same time briefing the BBC (?) that they're looking for £50m. I can imagine them clumsily making a meal of that. But overall I think the fact that they've turned this bid down surely must mean they've got better offers on the table.

I grew up in West London. I don't know about the 70s and I know there's a mix of good and bad in every fan base, but in the 80s and early 90s they were - in general - very bad news. They had far more than their fair share of NF psychos. The wrong kind of skinhead for mile around, whether or not they actually stood in the shed end - they all called themselves Chelea. Chelsea were synonymous with the UK far right in my part of the world. And they've not done enough in my opinion in the years since to shed that label. And lo and behold, here they are again cheering on a fascist cause. I grew up in West London. I don't know about the 70s and I know there's a mix of good and bad in every fan base, but in the 80s and early 90s they were - in general - very bad news. They had far more than their fair share of NF psychos. The wrong kind of skinhead for mile around, whether or not they actually stood in the shed end - they all called themselves Chelea. Chelsea were synonymous with the UK far right in my part of the world. And they've not done enough in my opinion in the years since to shed that label. And lo and behold, here they are again cheering on a fascist cause.

I guess what I was really trying to say is that I'm pleased they're doing this.

It's not realistic to imagine this act might be misused in that way. Firstly the optics would be impossibly bad. And secondly any such ministerial decision would be subject to JR. They can't just go round saying you or I have links to Putin - it's just not doable.

Most of the time I want football fans to be less bitter about their rivals / other teams. With Chelsea I find myself feeling very hypocritical.

It may not be worth much financially but there's still plenty of glory attached. And it's another precious opportunity for lower league clubs to go toe to toe against the game's aristocrats.

Dasilva was often quite advanced. That meant the pass from Klose had to be accurate to avoid being intercepted and that Klose had to trust JD to control the ball in a tight space between the touch line and a couple of players - the forward dropping back and their right sided midfielder / full-back. Basically the pass was slightly riskier. As well as not passing out to Dasilva, it also meant that often when the pass did come, it was behind him which meant the ball getting recycled back. With more games like last night, Klose is going to increasingly trust that Dasilva can look after the ball reliably in small pockets and may choose to play to him more often. And if he doesn't, Jay will have to drop deeper to make the pass feel less risky to Klose.

Good write up. Best players for Middlesbrough over the years definitely include Ravanelli who joined Boro straight after (??) winning the Champions League.

The way that Pearson blasted Bakinson was puzzling. As above, if he wants to get rid of him, I couldn't understand why he'd undermine his resale value. One possibility that occurred to me was that Bakinson had been argumentative and / or undermining of other players or more likely someone on the coaching team and Pearson wanted to very publicly and forcefully give his backing to whoever had been on the receiving end of Bakinson's 'negative' behaviour. At the time he described Bakinson as 'sapping people's energy' (or something - can't remember the exact quote. If that were the reason Pearson gave him both barrels as he shipped him out, then I think that could be well judged.

If you threaten to sue me for... whatever. And a friend offers to pay you to go away and sign documents promising not to never sue me for that, then you may choose to sign those documents. The lack of a legal relationship between me and my friend is irrelevant.

This is definitely a good point. Derby have a bigger support than Wimbledon had. For the record though we took more than 3000 to most games in our first season. Separated only from the pitch by a railing or in some case a rope. Here's a picture of Chessington and Hook's ground which was typical.

It was fun though. Derby fans will enjoy it. If they buy it and do it themselves, they'll never get mistreated again.

Who would even take the EFL to court? I don't understand what people mean about this going to court. Even if there was a case, and there blatantly isn't, who would sue the EFL? Mel Morris is out of it. New buyers won't. Administrators can't/wouldn't. Am I missing or misunderstanding something?