RedNachos

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but there seems to have been past interest from clubs more competitive than ours: https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/07/09/report-leeds-want-to-beat-rb-leipzig-to-sign-brightons-haydon-roberts/ Past links to Leipzig (despite them being a cancerous business model) are a pretty good sign, as recruitment of young players there is often very sharp. Wonder why his stock has fallen - if it has?

I don't think the word "punt" is an entirely false description of the transfer. In my mind a punt doesn't necessarily have to be the hit and hope business of an Arnold Garita or more recently Stefan bajic, wherein there is very little risk and a very attractive, yet difficult to obtain, upside, but rather I think we have near certainty in Dickie being an accomplished Champ level centre half, but also the possibility of him reaching levels where previous premier league interest is justified. The club are doing businesses with the safety net of securing a good standard defender, but could also hope to see this 'punt' reap greater rewards and levels than that. I think overall, this is a very sensible but forward-thinking move for both parties and I'm glad this signing hasn't been a "saga", but something from obscurity, yet something with decent levels of thought from the club put into it.

Bad week for people called Phil

A friend of a friend of a friend recently got chatting with Kingy at a wedding, and a bit of news about his club status has been relayed to me with the knowledge that I'm a keen city fan. Apparently he's been offered a 1 year deal by the club but is currently stalling negotiations on the basis that he still lives in Leicester and his wife and himself are unsure about commiting to the city of Bristol. Take that how you will .

In an era of Tv where synthetic personalities are taking over, having a genuine, skilled and passionate guy in a leading role for sky is so refreshing (regardless of how long he's been on the air). Certainly opened my eyes on a serious issue that i've been relatively sheltered on here. Hats off Mr Stelling

Why is Sykes still on the field? Already not looking up to it but growing increasingly more tired. Would’ve kept wells on put cornick on the right

Wells looking nice and sharp but slow days at the office for sykes and james

Not entirely convinced by his figures, but most definitely a player with good quality technical attributes for the league. Would imagine that leaves us playing a 3 up top with him left, Wells through the middle (which has been a long time coming) and Weimann right. Sensible but not awe-inspiring.

Don’t see how Nige gets any credit - dropped him due to a personal vendetta. Then through popular demand recalls him and he peforms.

Seriously frustrating, taking a core rule and element of football out the equation is mad. The throw-in has been a historic part of the game and you only need to look at the liverpool throw-in coach to know it's a complex part of football to those who actually watch the game, as oppose to the 'american soccer fan' who'll tune in to the world cup semi's and tweet about how they should turn it to kick-ins. It's for that extra pay-per-view in America rather than the working class season ticket holder and it's ruining football. What a spineless group of mugs run a game loved by so many.

Always gives a 100% is not what ive heard from an oxford mate, the other two im very encoursged by though.

Am I the only who's feeling mildly sad at this, he came to us with an exciting air around him, and has shown sparks of excellence. However, through injuries and positional problems, he's never reached close to the potential I've longed for him to acheive. By all means the right choice for us to let him go, but leaves me with a 'what could have been' feeling.

Our best kit in a long long while, massive fan of that. good work from Hummel again.

Apprehensive when I saw his age, but should Klose depart this could be an extremely good bit of business. Could bring that leadership and experience Klose had while being versatile and off the peak of his career. Excited to see his run out in re season and where Nige sees him fit (multiple positions or not). happy with that and love the Luton lot’s meltdown!

Takes a lot of bollocks to come forward, especially if you look at some of the morons already giving him social media grief. Nothing but respect for the lad though, inspirational to others in his situation.

god help yeovil

This signing reminds me a tad of Sammie Szmodics. One the club has done their work on early and are hoping to seal the deal before competition come in. Not loving what I'm hearing on the consistency front, as Nige seems to favour consistent hard-working players, over the 'flashes of brilliance' in Massengo and Bakinson. If his wages are low and its a free I'm all for it though - and I'd love a contract where he is rewarded for appearances etc with extensions, so that we can offload easier should it become clear Sykes won't be part of our long term rebuild squad, but tie him down should he become a hit.

Bournemouth can **** off

You sure? I'm sure Huddersfield fans were confused when David Wagner was appointed, and so would we be if Juan Manuel Azconzábal, Fabian Mercidel, Jorgen Isnes or Callum Davidson, but who knows? They might be the answer. The problem with us is we are to small minded, instead of success rate, statistics, play style and recruitment success, we go on the metric of past Championship experience. A manager might have failed at every club they'e been at, but had a good 5 game run at Middlesborough and we'll be foaming at the mouth. Give someone unknown who has excelled elswhere and just change the mindset of the club in general.

Did it? I don't understand the narrative that he is somehow turning shite into gold. He blocked out Dasilva for reasons unknown to anyone who's watched the club and when he comes back in he reveals to Nige he's a championship standard player, he'd shown that already, but NP was too ignorant to use him. And he's now being hailed for 'transforming players'. It makes no sense to me. Similar situations have occurred with players like Bentley, Wells and Atkinson, lads who are good enough for the XI and frozen out with their replacements having subordinate performances. He's also seen as revolutionising our youngsters, not to me. With a player like Scott, the natural ability while shine through, Nige has not turned Scott into a great 2nd Div player, Scott is a great 2nd Div player, and the same can be said for Semenyo. Massengo was the youngest player to play in the Champions League at one point, and it's only through poor management from Pearson's predecessors that he hasn't hit major heights, he then was given a run of games due to injuries to Nige's favourites that he got games and he excelled. Now though, can't get a start, in my view due to poor man management.. So no he hasn't "made the best of a messy situation", he's made sloppy decisions, and our results have been shite. I just don't believe he's the man for this situation anymore.

I understand where you're coming from, but I'd argue this isn't political more addressing obvious injustice. There needs to be a wider range of viewpoints taught in schools that's a fact not a political opinion.

Idehen

I know this may not be the main priority of discussion on the forum with that terrible Barnsley performance still fresh in the memory, but I have a massive negative that no one has pointed out that I've seen which is the situation with Ryley Towler At the start of the season he secured a League 2 loan to Grimsby Town, something I was very happy with, as it was clear from his appearances with us previously he needed game experience against higher standard opponents than National League or u23s and he goes there and the feedback is he's smashing it. He looked a very competent, technical player who was growing in confidence and maturity. Then we pull the plug on that move, blindly expect him (a player doing a sound job in league 2) to come into the side and fix our defensive issues. We realise it's not going to happen and he's been sitting in the reserves since, while we sign 2 centre halfs, and have 2 coming back from injury. With this multiplying number he most certainly won't get a game and if we want him back on loan next season it'll likely have to be League 2 again. In short, we've taken a player from a loan spell he was thriving it in to have him just train with the first team, doing god knows what to his development. I've backed Pearson considering the challenges financially he faces, but you can't bring in two centre halfs and recall Towler, it's a move one might expect Holden to make, not someone with his "experience". Little things can have big consequences considering the restraints on the club and a move like this does leave me wondering if NP is the man for this job.

Huge summer ahead, why are we trusting the man who signed two washed mates of his and a centre half he doesn't trust for all our budget. Recruitment director with Nige , providing we improve between now and May, or he goes, no in-between.