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I don't hate LJ for his time here. I just look on it as a missed opportunity for the club (collectively). We had a CEO who bought and sold players like second hand cars. But in essence, we had the chance to get into the Playoffs in at least 2 seasons, and eventually on both occasions fell away at the end of the season. Would NP or another experienced manager have failed to get us into the playoffs with the resources available to him. I'm not so sure. The story of the LJ years are like the metaphor of the story of Icarus and the general overreaching of the club at the time. It all came back to bite us over the proceeding 3 seasons.

So basically his wheeler dealings bought £37 million from transfer sales of players not at the club when he got there, and over the same amount again from players that were already here/bought by SOD, Cotts, GJ etc. A classic case of selling the family silver rather than astute transfer trading then.

"Welcome Lee Johnson to Bournemouth AFC" "We had to move quickly to beat Leeds United to the appointment" ?

Julie H isn't the Football liaison officer anymore, It's a guy called Tom Williams nowadays. The gas have their own FLO, Mark Neal. So Henbury Gas could always have contacted him of course as well.

Got ya. Many thanks @Marcus Aurelius Apologies @Davefevs

Those figures for received seem a bit low though aren't they? Reid, Bryan, Flint, Kelly, Pack - that's another £35m+ combined isn't it. All gone during this period.

I've heard that MA only used 1 agent to cover France/Italy, so all the signings in essence came through the same source. It all seems a bit of a cosy arrangement to say the least. I think @Davefevs or someone else shared MA's remuneration package with City before. Like Barry Fry's supposed situation at Peterborough it was quite obviously in his own self interest to continue the recycling of players in order to allegedly boost his own salary (amount of transfers consistent with his large increase in salary during the busiest two seasons). That's never a healthy place to be as a club where change is actively promoted over continuity and stability.

I wonder what the pitch is looking like at the Memorial at present. No doubt, they will get around to it at some stage, and then have to drive lorries across it to build the prefab stand in record time.

Thanks @Marcus Aurelius some really interesting posts today. I think the thing for me is that for all of the mantra around MA's philosophy of buy cheap and sell high, from memory it was only really Webster and Brownhill that fitted this strategy. Of the others Reid, Bryan, Flint, Pack, Kelly and others of course were all here, or part the academy. Yes, he got good prices for the players at a time when our profile was high as a club from playing well against the Manchester clubs. But really the players that we bought to replace these players (90% of whom, left for either free, or minimal amounts) showed the fallacy of his and our lack of guile and foresight. Engvals, Watkins, Duric, Adelakun, Fammy, Palmer, Nagy, ; christ I could go on and on. Having 2-3 clubs in the bag for every position (Why .....?)

Thanks @petehinton. That is woeful on Rover's part isn't it? A family club without any real academy/development pathway for it's young players. No wonder a load of them jump up into the midland's academies, at the first chance of the club getting a fee for them. How the club thinks they will progress on the pitch whilst having to rebuild every single summer is beyond me. Surely you need the ability to build a squad over a number of years, whilst providing continuity and giving opportunities to younger players to step up. If you're having to replace 12-15 players every season, you're relying on luck more than planning in order for it not to go completely wrong. You can imagine whoever follows Barton, will look at the infrastructure of the club, and think this is a cluster####.

I'm pretty sure that the "South Stand" is the new deluxe stand behind the goal that hasn't actually been built yet. It was very nice of Rovers to move a vulnerable 80 year old to a new seat in a stand that doesn't exist. Judging by the seat ticket prices, they probably have made a few more quid out of it as well.?

I know that the Gas don't actually have an Academy as such. But do their development squad actually play in any sort of league? My eldest is in the SGS Football Academy squad (coached by Dave Hockaday) and they play Bristol Rovers throughout the season (as well as other CAT 1, and CAT 2 Academy sides) as well as being in a league (Elite College Football Academy). I can't see that Rover's have a Youth/ development side that plays in any sort of league at all? Any young player seems to get farmed out at the first opportunity to a step 3/4/5 side. Greenslade and Ward were at Hungerford where their "Successful" season ended in Hungerford's relegation from Conference South as the rock bottom team. Not sure Joey has to many dealings with the under 18s of course, as he would probably not pass a DBS check . ??

I think the inability to pay any sort of fees is tied to a UEFA sanction for the next 3 windows over the Sala saga. So much for the wealthy owner spending tens of millions on transfer fees this summer then.?

Great money for Wolves there. Seems like the Saudi clubs are going to start paying the high transfer fees, as well as the high wages now. Not too dissimilar to the Chinese clubs from 5-10 years ago (Oscar for £67m still makes me laugh).

@Carey 6 Louis what's that player valuation software that you showed me that professional clubs use? Would be interesting to see what price they put on Scott?

Christ @Davefevs i need you on my unit. It's has gone a bit mental again unfortunately.

The partnership he had with Webster was probably the best CB partnership I've seen us have since Merrick and Collier. The last few years have not been great form wise as his own game before the injuries was affected by the chaos around him. Leading to the emotional outburst after the Barnsley game, and of course the giving up of the captaincy. He is still a top defender at this level though, and hopefully will be able to put these injuries and move forward with his career again. I would love to see him in a City shirt again, but the reality is, it has to be on our terms and on on a wage in line with our new budgets. If he is able to accept those for whatever reason, I'm sure he will be welcomed back into the squad for next season. If not, we move on. It's simple really, as a club we are moving forward, and as NP has stated over the years, people now need to "be on the bus".

Thanks for the stats @Davefevs This to me points out the areas of his game in which Scott excels. The point I was making around his shooting and set piece delivery was areas where he needs to improve as @Kid in the Riot states. When shooting he needs to develop hitting through the ball ( a good example Haydon Robert's goal for Derby from outside the box). I think Weimann's goal against Blackpool was our only goal from outside the box this season (I stand to be corrected if not). Is Scott an excellent young player, absolutely. Is he the most outstanding young prospect we've had for a long while, without a doubt. But he is still on an upward trajectory(hopefully) and needs to improve in certain areas to continue his journey into the PL, he is of course still only 19. The run he made for the goal against West Brom in the cup was excellent. But we didn't see enough of those this season. For me he was trying so hard at times to get us on the front foot moving forward that it affected his game. Without Naismith in the middle he was having to come deep to get the ball and get us moving forward. I'm sure if he is still here in August, then that's something NP will address. He certainly wasn't at his best after he came back from injury in the last 2 months of the season. Whether the speculation had had an effect, who can say. But Burnley in particular did a job on him in the last game, leading to his uncharacteristic error. The Scott saga has got all the makings of a late transfer for me unfortunately. It would be wonderful to get it done early, but like Bryan's one (that last game against Forest when we knew he was off), I think it'll be late in the window. As an aside, have we ever actually turned down a bid for him? I remember saying Wolves had a £15m 9ne turned do2n unofficially, but unlike Forest's one with Semenyo I don't remember any club officially testing the water with us do far?

Went big on the loan market last year didn't they @Davefevs@Mr Popodopolous A lesson that it doesn't always bring you the success that the fanbase thinks it will do. Some of those released players (Clucas, Powell in particular) would probably have commanded decent transfer fees. Just like us in 21/22 season, a lot of money walking out of the club on a free. Other players like Dwight Gayle aren't going to be exactly cheap either. I'm amazed it a way that the EFL has never really questioned their Covid write offs. Unlike the Derbys and Weds of this world that got hammered, Stoke seem to have breezed through the period of accounts scrutiny.

I think you've hit the nail on the head perfectly @Kid in the Riot. He reminds me a bit of kids that haven't really been trained in Academies when they were younger on how to kick a ball properly. For all his ability, his shooting can be poor, and you would expect more from his set piece delivery as well. He certainly has all of the raw ingredients to get to the top, but anyone buying him would probably view him as huge potential, but until he's worked on those areas that he needs to, not really a starter in a PL team. The price tag is high, as his profile will never be higher than what it is now, but if I was a lower end PL team I would also be looking at Cam Pring, who's trajectory performance wise reminds me of when Jim Brennan's career took off back in the day.

Didn't he start off well there, before getting injured and then having a poor showing at the end of the season. All a bit Groundhog day with City for me there.

Never the same player after those shin injuries for me. Seemed to lose a yard if pace, and attacking endeavour. Technically very very good and you could see why he got into England Under 21s. The injuries also changed the way that he tackled/got involved physically for me. He seemed to be hesitant for a while, demonstrating a lack of confidence that NP picked up on at times.

Good points well made @Davefevs I think other than the Alex Scott one, the other 4 years handed out have come back to bit us somewhat. I think we're probably a bit more circumspect nowadays.

When was the last time we gave a 4 year contract to any player. Normally 3 years + option at a push. Just like Weimann's last contract solution, those extra years make a difference, rather than wages.

Same odds as Plymouth? ? Hmm.... they really don't rate us do they?