Silvio Dante

To be fair, at their normal rate of development they’re probably looking into investing in RAAC as we speak

I’m actually bloody disappointed that nobody picked up on the gag!

Well… No shocks here. Having seen the BMF and Tavistock games had all the hallmarks of a relegation battle, shame it didn’t work out but fair play to the board for acting quickly

There surely has to come a point soon when they realise Wally and his new friends are absolute charlatans, and all they are is a property deal gone wrong with owners playing for time ever since. No serious club has the amount of cock ups they have, and no serious businessmen would allow that level of cock ups. Theres being gullible but their fanbase just abuse the privilege

This is my favourite comment on their forum so far: “Yes Susan I didn’t take you to Spain but we’ve got a caravan. And it’s not a motor home, it’s a proper static one”

Considering I had to explain “gamble” six months ago I don’t hold out much hope!

What’d be interesting to see is how that compares to what he got at Shalke. I’m not of the mind that we made necessarily a bad offer in view of TKs age and he hadn’t really played for a year, but it does feel like a starting figure. You wonder whether we used his “Bristol ties” to try and get him cheap - and I would imagine he would have signed for less than Shalke offered him, but it’s the differential. The major oddity from what TK says (and NPs press conference when he said he’d not heard from Kalas) is that neither side seems to have contacted the other - at least officially - post the original offer. It can’t have been so far off that it wasn’t even in the realms of possibility (we must have had an idea what TK was looking for) and as @GrahamC says, if it was, why even offer?

Kalas interview on SOTC tonight. The clip here suggests it was a fairly lowball offer we gave him…

Haven’t heard anything yet.

I think it really depends on the ethos. One thing I really don’t like is when teams at AYL (and even HML!) try and poach players from other teams - we’re all part time coaches and I think “coaching not poaching” is how you prove your ability and build a more enduring team. However I do think that it’s totally appropriate for teams to attempt to play at as high a level as possible based on their ability, and try and win that league. Generally the ethos I have is that the players I have will (all things being well) be with me for 10 years by the time we finish. As a coach, you’re probably the most stable influence on those boys outside of their parents as they grow up. That’s a hell of a lot of responsibility so I see the first job as pastoral and to grow them as people, and grow their personal qualities and teamwork. However, there is a balance. They want to win games, so it doesn’t become equal playing time and the better players don’t miss time that much. I totally agree that being honest is key. I’ve said to parents where their child sits as I can’t guarantee every player games (and in some cases in certain games playing them will ruin their confidence and that helps nobody). I don’t necessarily see at AYL the mission is to produce adult footballers - I think they’ll progress that way through love of the game and we aren’t talking kids who’ll become pros at U16 AYL 1/2. Bottom line for me is develop them as people first and foremost. But absolutely try and win every game, and compete at a level where you are testing yourself and play at the maximum of your ability and effort every week.

Yep, start tomorrow. Well I say start, been training through the summer, sorting booking pitches, signing on fees, distributing handbooks, league meetings, development meetings etc etc. If it was as simple as turning up and coaching it’d be easy but it’s so much more. And totally worth it.

Nige is a very stoic man but I’d be surprised if even he wasn’t moved by the reception I think he’ll get at Leicester from both sets of fans

Indeed, was going to post similar - if you go to Tins Twitter it shows the full clip which I think you’ve seen and the whole move is excellent, mainly from Yeboah - well worth watching

Another ex player has also been watching:

He’s coming home…

Yeah I’ve picked up Max on a lot but didn’t see a huge amount wrong with what he did there. It’s a percentage movement and there might be more than one way to skin a cat vis rushing out, but he’s made a reasonable decision there. Not a move to criticise for me.

James Anderson on the bench. Should move the ball nicely.

Used it with the two kids. Arrived at Temple Meads at about 8:30 and was told by the policewoman “Go in there (small first class section) - there’s loads of soon to be drunk football fans in that bit” Train journey was good. There was a trainspotter on board who was having words with every city fan who used the toilet and he thought was drinking under age. At one point he insulted a few city fans by proclaiming “You’re worse than the 22:32 from Paddington” Escaped from the police escort and made our own way to the ground, probably got there 30 minutes before those who were escorted - a few trying to also escape from the cordon but unsuccessfully as they were more trying to barge through than walking round the outside with kids. Similar on the way back - police asked if we were going back to the station and we started in the cordon but there were a couple wanting to fight the Heddlu so swiftly turned back towards the ground and walked back to the station, got there at 3 for the scheduled 3:15 special which went about 3:40 after the cordon had got back to the station. Those of us who made our own way had the benefit of stopping in the Tesco opposite and stocking up on drinks as needed but water was provided on the train itself. The straight through special was good for both getting there and I’d imagine for management of the crowd. Should be done again.

I remember seeing them at Man Utd’s ground

Not really sadly for me as I want the team to win. However on the two incidents noted, I think it was Naismith made the tackle after the Pring error and it was a poor header from Cabango on the second. Certainly neither incident was a game saving save of quality, and again, although I’ve said he was generally fine (no chance for the goal), on Saturday he did the base of what he had to do for most of the game but still made two significant errors. It’s not “sadly” for a city fan that we won. What is “sad” is that you appear to be conflating reasonable criticism and a noted area for improvement with an agenda, which I can assure you it isn’t. I can bet you a pound to a penny that Max, Pat Mountain and Nige will all be reviewing the incidents as well with a view to improving in the future.

To be fair, I think Mrs Bell probably did most of the work so we should be singing her name if we’re thanking someone. Mickeys role in Sams production was probably over in seconds….

True. He should Stop making sense with his song suggestions though.

Dave, you suggest this one every time. It’s not happening. In fact, you’re on a Road to Nowhere with this suggestion…

I’d love to give you a like here but think several people have made this point before, and therefore doing so would ignore the history of the forum and indicate anything raised on this issue prior to today never happened. Tough decision.

Generally yes. But there were still two pretty big ricks, that were in line with his weaknesses. When Pring got caught just before the goal, it was because the ball to him was never on and Max played him into trouble. We got out of jail thanks to a good tackle. In the second half when Swansea hit the post, his positioning was horrible. Came a long way for a ball that was never there and had to backpedal. Swansea should have probably scored there. Apologies if I sound like a broken record here, but it’s the same issues every game - distribution and decisions. I agree he generally looked confident, and an error by a Gk is always magnified, but on another day those two errors lead to goals.