NcnsBcfc

@GrahamC would love to see the breakdown of how many under 12 STs are in the South stand. At £50 a go (with free shirt), i reckon quite a few of the kids only go to 50% of the games, as the cost per game is what £2.10ish? No point anybody selling there seat back to the club for that. it's noticeable that when we had non ST games (cup against West Ham and Forest) the South stand is rammed again as people have obviously paid out for that particular match. I know it was half term and that would have some impact, but generally most league games that stand is at least 20-25% empty and it is of course bar about 20 seats, completely sold out to STs. I can see either the club making pricing the same as the Dolman for under 12s (£99, rather than £50); or limiting the number of child STs in that stand altogether. The club hierarchy sees ground at pretty much 85% capacity now (Atyeo is 4400, but limited to 3400. The new disabled sections have also taken some off the 27k capacity) and so many empty spaces they will start to do the maths again pretty sharpish over then loss of match by match punters and associated concourse purchases. Not saying this is the right course of action, just something that a growing business (customer wise) would look to expand on.

Good old "Tim" @TomSutton

From my son, who's at the game. "Atkinson has just gone off injured, does not look a good one"

Sammie Szmodics is our version of Adam Webster for Ipswich. I'm sure Blackburn fans are probably completely confused how we jettisoned the top scorer in the Championship after such a short period of time. Albeit we did make some money off the Peterborough deal through initial fee and sell on, it'll be Blackburn that will reap the big rewards. Sometimes things work out at one club and not another, bizarre isn't it. Must admit though there's not too many young players that have been released from City over the last 20 /30 years that have gone on to play at a higher level.

For me, it was the physique and presence of Bellingham at only 16 years of age that was so impressive. He had an aura about him, even at that age. Not seen that again, until watching Gray last friday.

There was times with Semenyo when he was a differential player. Would create something out of nothing through sheer speed and strength. Scott just did the basics really well and that initial 3-4 burst of speed to create the forward space for him to run into created so many assists to the assisters and got us up the pitch. He would have been perfect in LM's preferred pattern of play now. I really liked Ogbene for Rotherham last year as well, one of the only players that I saw Pring in the 2nd half of the season really struggle against. We of course tried to get that over the line and then lost him to Luton in the PL. I think the Ogbene episode is one of the reasons behind the transfer/loan backs of Stokes and Bird. We won't leave it until the summer again to try to get anyone that goes into the open market.

Yep, unusual for our leadership team to misrepresent things, very out of character....

@Fordy62 Well according to various recent programmes and announcements a racist, homophobic, corrupt, sexual deviant apparently.

Although I generally hate playing in the Championship due to the inequalities and advantages that Parachute payments and FFP afford relegated teams, there are times that you do get to see young quality talents before they disappear either to Germany or into PL team's reserve squads. For a 17 year, I thought he had an exceptional game against us at right back. Tall, strong, physical, quick but with an ability to glide across the pitch from right back to left wing and then back into a disciplined position again. Reminds me of some of the other young players we've seen down the gate, Bellingham (Jude) for Birmingham, Eze for QPR, Reece James for Wigan (what a goal he scored). I'm sure some of the other teams felt the same way about Scott and Semenyo playing for us. Moving forward it'll be interesting to see how Murphy and Stokes kick on next season. It'll be asking a lot for them to develop straight away into impact players within the first team fold. The pace and physicality of the Champ takes a while to get used and some players never get up to speed. Mehmeti looked an exceptional player in L1, but in my eyes a year on, is struggling to make that leap. He may well have reached his level at L1 and will slowly drift back there.

Thanks @cidercity1987 Been doing them off and on for about 18 months. Due to my work same as @Fordy62 i can't always commit to them unfortunately. i'm also not a big fan of doing them when i haven't watched the game live from E32 or the away games we go to. @TomSutton has a really good perspective from the youth team as he's in the SGS Academy team that quite a few pros have come from. He brings that understanding of how Academy's actually work, rather than conjecture that people spout sometimes.

Great season with Super Bob. Fair to say he lived up to his nickname of Trigger, not too much going on in his head..

The only thing that bugs me about this deal is that we're probably bunging 5k (or something like that) on top of his current Derby deal, for him to play for Derby for the rest of the season. Fingers crossed he doesn't get injured. It's one thing getting injured in one of our games, another thing all together getting done playing for another side. I get that like the Stokes deal, it was a pragmatic way of getting the deals over the line, it just feels wrong when we are so low on numbers now.

I think that means the likes of OTC and Francois won't be here in 12 months time (OOC I think). As @TomSutton went through in the FBC pod the club see the Academy in 3 year cycles. As such anybody in the under 21s not currently in the first team frame is pretty much surplus to requirements (Other than Seb at Newport). The Academy will be focusing on the Under 18s (5th round of Fa youth cup) as the new kids in the block and be looking to push them through into the first team fold.

Perfectly understand the concept of the club buying back tickets from non-attending supporters and then putting them back on sale, I've been party to that through friends at PL games over the years. The issue here is that the buy back would be pro-rata per game. Thus an under 12 ticket in the SS would be around £2.20 per game (over 23 games) and an under 19 ticket £4.10. Amazingly low prices of course, but I reckon people just won't bother getting into the transactions for such a low refund. Next season in the Dolman is the last one for my eldest under his under 19 ticket. The price for the same seat he's been in for years jumps from £150 to £560 (375% increase). That'll mean for my 3 then adult tickets and 1 under 19, I'll be paying just under £2,000 per season for tickets in the Dolman... . A hell of a lot of money, in these challenging financial times.

@NcnsBcfc @TomSutton

@Davefevs covered this in the FBC pod this morning. For all of LM calling out the lack if "bravery" in some of the players the coaching team have been equally gutless in certwin recent games over their game management. Preston away and yesterday being good examples. But the reluctance of inability to effect change in game is a worry.

@REDOXO have a listen mate. I think it was pretty balanced, with @TomSutton adding some insight to the young players, as well as some challenges going in over the random assertions.

Yep, BT was full of "we agreed a fee of £2.5m for Azaz and wages, but he went elsewhere" Hmm... would that money be from the same pot that NP was told "Budget full, no money available" Ultimately why they didn't just say "working relationship breakdown/want different things" etc etc. They came up with a load of rubbish, that is going to be used repeatedly now for them to be accountable for.

And it got worse as the game went on. Ultimately (and I say this with 4 STs, including 2 kids ones in the Dolman), the concept of £50 kids STs on the South Stand, while we already have a designated family stand is unsustainable. I realise kids miss x amount of games during the season (as do adults of course), but people are buying multiple seats and getting transfers into other stands as well. Having a seat empty for 50% of the games and the loss of revenue in the concourses and from pay on the day, is something that we as a club will I'm sure look to address. @phantom is that something along the lines of the issue bout up by the S&T?

Completely @GrahamC "So in the summer we're looking for a big strong, quick forward to play as a number 9" ie not Tommy "But we would still love Tommy to sign a new contract" "We need to improve our forward options". Read everyone is going from our current forwards (Conway, Cornick and dare I say it Wells?) "There are funds available from Alex, Antoine deals and..." BT was gagging to say the money we'll get for Conway.

Is that last night @Davefevs or the Coventry game? Is that last night @Davefevs or the Coventry game?

I'm sorry but Thomas and I had to call him out on some of the things he was saying. Particularly on the injury front and the young players in the Under 18s and 21s. Ian and I will be going to couples counselling later this week...

I'm trying to get my head around this transfer window. Tinnion described it as "excellent" or words to that effect. Well let's break it down. We are operating on a really small squad and Manning spoke last week about 7 games in 23 days. We signed TGH on a perm (was already here anyhow) Stokes and Bird were signed and then loaned straight back to their clubs as part of the deal. Murphy was signed and then we were told he would need a pre season to get up to first team level. Dire arrived yesterday a 19 year old with a grand total of 3 senior appearances. Twine of course, is unfortunate as picking up an injury after 1 game (the curse of the 1 game loanee Vedika, Elobi, and Sam Vokes spring to mind) I'm struggling to see how the squad is in anyway stronger in February, than it was a month ago. God knows when Twine will be back. I'm still waiting on the Sykes "few weeks" or the Atkinson "training with the 1st team again for months" to even make it onto our bench. Still want to ask LM as well why he feels the wing back system is the one for us, as we haven't won in the league since implementing it (was a 442 at Watford) And don't get me started on Tinnion talking about a "great summer ahead" is basically saying "this season is over". Well only 16 games to go and we've literally given up already in a way.

Today's game between Wolves and WBA was only the second game at the Hawthorns between the clubs since 2011. It demonstrated to me, the absolute carnage that would occur the next competitive game between us and Rovers. We haven't played them in the league in 23 years and in the cup for 11. The scenes before, during and after would be reminiscent of Apocalypse now in my eyes, absolute chaos. That's why I say to both my ST sons that haven't ever seen a Derby that there is nothing to be gained by ever playing them again. Every year that goes by just enflames the cauldron just that little bit more. When we played them twice pretty much every year in the 80s and 90s, you could deal with the build up, atmosphere and game itself. Not now I'm afraid, it's gone too long. A whole generation of fans waiting for an opportunity to let loose all the pent up misdirected angst. Shame, it was a game I always used to look forward to. Now I just dread every cup draw when we could possibly draw them.

I think some of them are starting to doubt the new regime there in a major way. Certainly things aren't turning out how they initially thought:-