And Its Smith

My sharpener is still in the drawer. He’s got till Xmas unless we start becoming adrift at the bottom to show that he can (a) get a team defending well and (b) get his team performing more consistently on the whole. I know you are big fan of Nige but even you have admitted to being surprised at the start to the season (I’m paraphrasing). Will certainly be interesting to see the end of the transfer window.

Big game for Nige this one. If we lose you will be able to hear the sounds of knives being sharpened

COD playing well again….cough cough

Costs are going up but mostly due to their factory costs/materials rising. A bit of it is increased labour costs but the labour costs are still miles behind anywhere else. Still a long way off any changes in regards to country of production

Their new stadium is being made of wood. That’s quite a big statement. You have the vegan and shirts (might be bamboo….I had coffee beans in my head for some reason) and I believe their coaches are electric. Not sure what else.

Sorry my example was for something much cheaper. It is made in China AND transported to the Uk for a cost of 90p. The public buy it for £2.00. If we manufactured in the UK then the cost would be at least £2.50 so would need to be sold for at least £3.50-4.00 and nobody would buy it as it’s not worth that. The same principle works for any price point. A UK manufactured football shirt would be at least £100 I reckon if not more. Unfortunately there isn’t an answer right now. Some things once produced in China are now produced in Vietnam, India and Mexico but only because those companies don’t want to deal with the Chinese, it’s not (as far as i know) for any environmental reason. It’s just the next cheapest place to get things made

I agree wholeheartedly with your whole post apart from the last bit. I don’t have an answer unfortunately but I suspect if they were manufactured in this country the price for fans would be at least treble and nobody would buy one. The cost of producing stuff in this country compared to China is insane. My employers can produce a toy in China and get it to this country for as little as 90p per piece in some cases. Would be at least £2.50 in this country. I’m sure the same would apply to football shirts

We are scoring goals so that’s good. We are conceding which is bad. Conway is a striker You’re welcome. Nobody left behind

With Massengo, I’ve said before that if he was from the academy fans would adore him. Because we signed him some expect a lot more than they would. I say that players should be judged on their performances and not how they got to the club. With Martin, people focus on what he cannot do rather than what he can do.

If you’ve seen them both play I’d say there’s no comparison. Conway far better player

Coventry were awful last night. Martin, Weimann and Scott would have had a field day as well. Zero point in disrupting what is working in the league against better opposition than last night. Coventry defending was under 23s level

Conway will get plenty of game time this season as he can cover for a couple of positions. First choice for the 3 attacking positions will be Semenyo, Martin, Weimann Scott will cover for any of those when they aren’t playing (Semenyo to move into middle if Martin out) and he will also get games in midfield If any more than one player from those 3 is injured/rested then Conway comes in and he is versatile too. I would expect Conway to start 10-15 league matches this season and feature in 30+. I am sure if he was offered that now he’d bite your hand off! However, there is no need to start him on Saturday. Martin is better than some see. Pearson knows what he is doing when it comes to the top of the pitch.

Can’t agree. Not starting with Scott would be madness and can’t see King being fit enough to start again on Saturday.

Massengo assist. Lovely job. Good pass

Coventry 11/8 seems big to me!

I really like the league cup. Good chance for squad players and/or youngsters to get valuable game time and stake a claim for a first team spot. I like watching players I don’t normally get to watch. The league cup has produced some great memories and I don’t really understand the negativity. If teams want to rest their first teamers then that’s absolutely fine

If Pring could last 90 mins it would help his case for selection

Benn-Eubank, Usyk-Joshua II, Canelo-GGG III, Shields-Marshall, Mayer-Baumgarner, Ruiz-Ortiz, Joyce-Parker, Stevenson-Conceicao all happening in the next few weeks. Which one messes up my 21/1 7-fold? Benn Usyk Marshall Mayer Ruiz Parker Stevenson Backing each fave, which won’t come in as never does, is 9/1

Absolutely. People can moan about roof heights, seating positions, wind direction…..but it comes down to how many people sing.

There’s always an excuse why the atmosphere is crap!

And bloody Brexit on top! Blooming heck

I’m not making excuses for him at all. He’s got his squad now so over the next 10 games I’m expecting to see a rapid improvement. He cannot slag off the ability or mentality of people he signed

Only way we will keep a clean sheet though

I would like to see this team Bajic/O’Leary Wilson. Klose. Atkinson. Dasilva Massengo. Naismith. Scott Weimann. Conway. Sykes Gives 4 at the back a chance See if Naismith can be our DM we so need if James isn’t playing Gives Conway a chance to impress Has enough first teamers in the line up to be a worthwhile experiment

Many many people in football say that the captains job is an overrated one on the pitch. It’s more of an off field job as a link between players and manager. Whether it’s Bentley or James or Williams or Klose, I don’t think it matters at all on the pitch