ExiledAjax

Not sure I'm keen on us being bought by an "unnamed North American group". Whatever you might think of the current owners, at least we know who they are!

"Huddersfield added that the unnamed group's takeover was subject to "legislative and governance procedures", and that more information would be provided after completion." He's exchanged contracts but not completed the sale. Similar to how you buy a house. The "unnamed" nature of the "North American Group"* suggests to me that the O&D Test is yet to be satisfied, likely because they are struggling to identify exactly how many people will hold a "Significant Interest" in the Club following Completion. It may also be that there are one or more people who will hold a "Significant Interest" in the Club following Completion but who cannot, or have not yet, satisfied the O&D test. Exchange today presumably negates any threat of administration - remember that 5pm today is the trigger deadline for points deductions being this season or next. *Note that this description permits Canadian, Mexican and potentially other Latin American or Carribbean based members.

Pop, as @Blagdon red says Alexander has extensive knowledge of groups like the HF. He used to meet with them regularly - ie almost monthly. My understanding is that it was a broadly positive and collaborative relationship.

I'm not going to question it too much. Back up keeper signed on low wages and he's gone home. Fine. 1 out 3 signings in January has failed. I can live with a 33% failure rate. O'Leary and Wiles-Richards can navigate us through the final 8 games of the season as we gently drift towards a mid-table finish. Bajic back in the summer and reassess. GK is a position of minimal concern right now in my opinion.

Marinovic is a free agent ?

Been confirmed https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/haikin-leaves-city/

Yes. I should have made it clear that my post was intented to provide further stats - you said you'd just been on Wikipedia and I got the impression you were after some more detailed stuff. I meant to support what you were saying about single season bias rather than contradict anything.

*past performance does not necessarily guarantee future results.

Most strikers signed in January struggle in the second part of the season. Think I posted it a few seasons ago when Newcastle signed Wood - but most strikers signed in the winter window fail to score 5 goals in the remainder of the season (normally about 18 - 20 games if signed on deadline day). Wood himself vindicated my doubts and the stats in the end with his two goals in 17 games for Newcastle at the back end of 2021/22. If Cornick scores one goal between now and the end of the season then he will have done better than most January striker signings. @pongo88 full stats are at fbref.com. https://fbref.com/en/players/9169bc41/Harry-Cornick Over his entire career he's sitting on 0.23 goals per 90 minutes (42 in 16,244 minutes). In an uncanny match up that's also his record at Championship level (23 in 9,133 minutes). As you say that Champ record is across 4 seasons. Other than last season and this one he's actually been pretty regular for Luton in the Championship. In the three seasons for Luton 2019 through to 2022 he played 3,085, 2,557, and 2,359 minutes across 123 games (95 starts). Max number of league minutes in a season is 4,140 (46 x 90). He's not prolific. Not as prolific historically as Wells or Martin at this level or other recent strikers such as Diedhiou - all of whom are 1 in 3 strikers at Champ level. But he's got a goals/90 record that matches up to Weimann (bar his own freak season last term). A comparison of the total Championship careers of Cornick and five slightly random but vaguely relevant strikers. He actually stacks up reasonably well, especially his goals/shot ratio. That suggests that, like many of our strikers, when he does shoot it's a good and dangerous shot...he needs to shoot more often though as 1.61 shots per game is low for a striker.

For a while I was all in on Vyner being my POTY. But I thought about it and I think Sykes has just been so solid. When we've been poor as a team he's been ok, rarely if ever has he been the "worst" player on the pitch. When we were good he was excellent. Absolutely he has room to improve, but this season I think you could say that about every player. Per your other post, it's a decision between 4 or 5 players who have had a 7 or 8 out of ten season. There's no runaway winner this year.

I'm prepared for some criticism here, but I went for Mark Sykes for POTY. As a new signing he started the season strongly despite playing in a position unfamiliar to him. I watched him live in our August game home to Sunderland and his desire to get forward, running ability, and tenacity impressed me. Like our whole squad he's had some ups and downs but he's currently our highest scoring non-striker (if we count Weimann as a striker), and is only narrowly behind Weimann, Conway and Semenyo. He's been shifted around, played different roles, but has improved through the season and he's never stopped running. He's been included in almost all squads and has played a role in most games. Of outfield players he's got the 4th highest number of league minutes. It's been a really, really impressive debut season and I think he deserves recognition. Scott for YPOTY. Dasilva winning a pen for champagne.

Absolutely fine today. All our flaws were displayed in very clear and unstuttering glory.

True. I wasn't trying to score points either btw. It's always a valid question to ask but I really think there's an awful lot of nuance to the question: It's one of those questions that seems simple to answer but then every answer just leads to more questions. Personally squad size is huge. We're much slimmer right now, essentially this season we've had a main core of about 15 outfield players. That's a far cry from the "clubs in the bag" days of 2017-20. Every injury is impactful, and so more obvious, and so seemingly more serious.

Couple of points to add. Our squad is slimmer now than it was under LJ. So each single injury has a greater impact than before. Secondly, and I've not looked into it, but we need to consider the type of injuries we're suffering. Under the old regime the ones that were serious were muscle based and often recurring. A few suffered in training as well. Finally, remember that it was rushed rehab that contributed to the limited squad as much as the injuries themselves. This season, bar Kalas (which I think is a new injury) we've not had any be out for ages, then back for a few games, then out for ages.

Pre-season starts after the break imo. Try stuff, experiment, yes play Haikin, invert the pyramid, put Max up front, **** around and find out basically.

EFL changed the rules at the start of the season so yes this season teams can wear the same colour shorts. It's stupid imo.

Brownhill could bang one as well. But I remember Freeman as being the last person who could genuinely consistently deliver dangerous balls either onto the head of Flint or Wilbs or on target to test a keeper.

Scott is ok though. He popped a fk just below the bar at Luton midweek. Keeper saved it fairly easy, but it was def on target. But it's one a game, and our corners are ******* awful. Certainly something we can improve.

Freeman

Can't recall outside a transfer window.

You mean you don't feel a heartfelt emotional connection to the Club's latest trademark? I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.

If that's the case then personally I'd rather Nige do that at his next club.

Something tells me he and Pearson might not get on.

The reason we are now reliant on the academy is because the risks taken under LJ/MA failed. How can you say you have no issues with those risks when you're concerned about something that is derived directly from their failure? Why would you want to take more risks like that when you're currently concerned about the ultimate outcome of the last load of risks taken?

These statements seem to contradict each other though. I'd rather we try the stable progression option. We tried "giving it a go" as Luton's chairman described it. It damned near cost us an FFP breach and a points deduction and saw us finish no higher than 8th. It failed. If Brighton and Brentford are the models then look at what they did. Brighton did 6 seasons in the Champ, including a finish of 20th. Brentford did 7 seasons before their promotion. Both needed a change of manager in order to accelerate them up that final step. For me we can discount the Cotterill and Johnson seasons in the Championship as those were the "giving it a go" seasons. We've reset since then. So realistically we are coming to the end of our second season of sensible management in this division. I personally would therefore expect, if we seek to emulate Brighton and Brentford, one more season of stabilisation (23/24), then a change of manager and a 3 season push to promotion. Promotion could then realistically be achieved in season 25/26 or 26/27. That would mean promotion achieved after 6 seasons of stability and steady progression. We should at that point have a stable club in terms of culture, staff, and players, and that should give us a good chance of establishing ourselves up there. You and @Mihai can disagree with the above roadmap, and I accept that, but we took the risks under LJ and Ashton. The risks failed.