Merrick's Marvels

What is Hull's pay structure compared to ours? What is their FFP position? Who knows. A good player but the wages he's got used to at Burnley may mean he's out of our reach, never mind the sort of loan fees Premier League teams ask for these days.

Don't get your hopes up. Acey is the same age as Scott. In round figures - the population of Guernsey is 60,000, 7% are aged 18 to 24 and assuming a 50/50 male/female split, that's 2,000 lads. Round figures. So I'd say the chances of Guernsey producing another player as good as Scott, in the same year, from a gene pool that small, are infinitesimal. The last top class player they produced was born 35 years before Scott, and is in fact the only other one they've ever produced, so it's statistically improbable that another one will be along any time soon, never mind be at Bristol City right now. We can only hope that, once he retires after a successful career, Scott doesn't turn into the dribbling, sh!t for brains mess that is Matt Le Tissier.

Wrong club, mate - that's Wolves.

Agree with all that, plus another CB. But I read it that we don't have enough headroom in the wage structure for all of those, all at once, right now. Irrespective of FFP, we've set ourselves a wage structure and will be sticking to it. So we pprobably need a few of the higher wages to drop off first, meaning the positions you mention will have to be strengthened gradually. James, Williams, Weimann, King all ooc at end of the season. Vyner too I think if we can't come to an agreement. I reckon there might be room for just 1 or 2 more, wage-wise, before this window closes.

I agree. Even if he'd stayed, we're not strong enough in midfield or wide forwards to be promoted. So we wish him well, take the money and use it to strengthen the squad as a whole - which will take time. Whether there's the patience for steady, incremental progress is another thing altogether, though.

Was with you, right up until you said "especially Brighton". Cos that's nonsense.

Well that's a cut above the usual platitudes and cliches.

Who's the manager of Chelsea these days?

The best GK and CM we can lay our hands on - and with a view to them being first choice starters, not back up. Summer 24, when the Alex Scott hype has blown over, we can refurbish midfield at sensible prices (King, Williams, James all ooc) - selling clubs are going to view us as stavros loadsamoney at the minute. Summer 25, upgrade the forwards - we need proper quality to support Conway, who will fire us to promotion (if he hasn't been flogged!). Rome wasn't built in a day. Not by us, at any rate.

True but he still makes bad decisions about when to come out and when to stay, almost every game. There was a completely unnecessary rush right to the edge of his area against Preston, 2nd half. Why any keeper needs to go beyond the penalty spot for high lofted crosses that are extremely unlikely to result in a direct attempt at goal is beyond me.

37 league games, 6 cup games - I can't add up!

He played 46 games that season.

Not the pitches they train on though?

Very well written but unlistenable. Needs to hire a narrator or is he deliberately trying to sound like some Alan Partridge type?

From a Bristol Football Club supporter of 40+ years standing... it's appalling. Just because his dad's money has kept them alive, doesn't mean CrayonBoy can desecrate the team's kit. You'd like to think.

Me too and it takes me all week! I've taken to leaving all the supplements with the newsagent and just buying the news/sports bits. And it still takes all week!

Sideways is generous!

That shouldn't have come as a surprise though - surely we work on what to do when this happens? It seems not.

No, Columbia

Yup (run out of likes for the day). Naismith for Scott, though? Bloody hell.

I kind of agree but would make this observation: Preston's central striker was thin as a rake, no more than 5'11" and had no pace - yet every single ball into him stuck. So we don't need a "big" striker - we need one that's better than Wells or the boychild Conway at hold up play (they're both basically "finishers" and not enough else). Conway had a wake up call today - he was dismissed today as an irrelevance by their CBs. I'd have picked him start though! So what do I know.

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I agree 100% (out of likes for the day). Today Conway looked like a child playing a man's game - which is what he is, tbh. Weimann is NOT a midfield player - certainly not one in a team that wants to keep the ball. He's a forward- a good one. Substitutions? How about Sykes for Cornick after 5 seconds or here's an idea... Sykes from the start. Not that he's Tom Finney, either.

And you didn't sit on him until he signed a new contract? You've had a nightmare! ?

They spunked all their energy waving flags and throwing smoke bombs on West Street 3 hours before kick off mate. Given the weird mixture of booze and coke that was probably ingested at that time, they all felt flat as a pancake by 3pm. Cos it's not the old East End, Dolman or Grandstand that gets the place rocking is it? So respect to S82 and we'll let them off today. Alternatively... what was there to get excited about once we'd kicked off? What comes first, the chicken or the egg?