ExiledAjax

I find Pougatch very "Smashy and Nicey". Comes across as desperate to convince you that he's a funny guy who's best mates with the pros. Grates on me personally. Logan is far more natural and comes across as genuinely wanting to present the sporting occasion to the viewer. She'd be a top choice.

Well there you go guys. There's your fix. Grab a pen, grab a sheet of A5, and scribble away.

It's financed on paper though. There's a relationship between the two things, and that's what "get your £ on the pitch" describes.

Trouble with Emmar 'ayes is that as a presenter we would have to listen to her voice. And that is an unpleasant thing to do.

Laura Woods was the best of the ITV world cup anchors. Put cliche factory Pougatch to shame in my opinion.

Oh and a wild card who's still pretty new and currently only really on the podcasts and radio - Nedum Onuaha. Calm, funny, knowledgeable, played with and against some of the best, hates Joey Barton. A class act.

Great minds.

Colin Murray would get my vote. But probably doesn't want the gig.

But which player actually made the one huge profit? Webster - the guy that LJ specifically demanded be signed as a condition of letting Flint go. The guy LJ then played as much as he could (I mean which of us wouldn't have done that!?). He's the one who went for 1000% more than we bought him for.

7.5k to the Etihad for a cup semi-final. 4.5k to Fulham a few years back (but Fulham's normally more like 2-3k). 1k average away following this season. I think 6k would be about what should be expected tbh, and I think that's a good number. It coould well be more as you say, but I'd be pleasantly shocked if we got up near 9k like Pompey. 1-0 to Spurs. Kane from the edge of the box.

Nearly 9k apparently. Impressive. I'd imagine we'd do 5-6k for a similar London game at a big place like that. Pompey have been solid but with only a little threat. Spurs sending everything through Son on the left and he's not quite got the deliver correct yet. Morrell's been solid if unspectacular.

Have opted for Pompey v Spurs and Joe Morrell.

Might even be 9th in the Championship.

I've spoken to Gould about this precise point. "Value on the pitch" is a bit of both what you and @Harry are saying. Gould's view on it is that you need as much of your wage bill playing as much as possible. Otherwise why are you paying them? To achieve you need a sensible wage structure with carefully allotted wages. He would say that yes you should play your expensive players as much as you can, but before you do that you should be carefully choosing who gets those high wages. It's that second part that wasn't happening under Ashton, and so we ended up with players like Palmer and at certain times Wells. Naturally you cannot always achieve this as things like injuries (Kalas) and managers discretion (see Bentley) might detail it. But basically the idea is to structure wages properly, be honest with players about potential minutes and therefore fair wages, and to have a clear idea from the manager about how much players will play. In that way we can try to get our "£ on the pitch" as Gould said to me.

Yeh replays were scrapped for the 3rd round and on during the "COVID seasons". But they're back this season for 3rd and 4th round. 5th round, QFs, SFs and final will be ET and pens straight away.

White paper expected in the next few weeks. Legislation late this year or early next year. So regulator likely in place for the 24/25 season. Whether it does anything for the financial waterfall we will see, but even if it initially only improves governance, transparency, and accountability, that will be progress.

The cynic in me says this is appeasement during a tough season where relegation is staring them in the face. Bread and circuses for the baying masses. But the optimist says it's good fan engagement and something more owners should do. I guess the proof is in how long it lasts for and whether Ilicali offers anything more concrete going forward.

OP here posted his thread simultaneously with mine. Hopefully mods will merge when they can.

In a post COVID world that inflation has largely stalled, in particular for players going Champ -> Prem. Whilst Scott does have nearly double the number of Championship appearances as Kelly did at the relevant time, and was one of very few players from this division to win the U19s with England, I still think that in this market, with 2.5 years on his contract, £12m cash up front plus £5-8m worth of achievable add-ons is fair. Either leave it as an agreed fer read for the summer or include a loan back to us for the finale of this season (as we saw Liverpool do with Carvalho last year) and I'd be happy to sign on the dotted line. What we the fans want and what the club can commercially achieve may not be fully aligned.

All fair points. For me though look at past and roughly similar transactions and £12m plus well-negotiated add-ons is a good deal for everyone involved. Even just £15m plus add-ons would make Scott the third most expensive teenager to ever leave the Championship. Post-Covid you just don't see these kinds of numbers for players like this. £12m plus add-ons is a fair and achievable fee, and it's the kind of thing we're going to have to take. Top ten most expensive teenagers (and 20 year-olds) to move out of the Championship, per transfermarkt. Note Collins was Burnley - Wolves just after Burnley were relegated. It's pretty much a Prem- Prem transfer.

Had a look but could not see a current thread on Alex Scott. We all know he's being/has been scouted, and I know I've heard that Spurs are in for him. But just now I saw this come up on BBC Sport's general Premier League news thread. It's the first concrete report that I personally have seen in a 'proper' national news source. It's not exactly "specific", but does state a figure of £12m as our target price, which seems pretty fair to me as a basic upfront price (assuming there's also a bunch of add-ons and possible bonuses to take the total potential value up to £20m(ish)). Would you take that now - I think we should. Just seen that @James54De has seen similar, so mods please merge.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/05/crypto-chaos-how-crawley-crumbled-under-owners-reckless-leadership Whenever you feel like ranting about SL or our CEO just remember that there are clubs out there who have it much worse. Some highlights form the above article: "One financial incentive for Telford [the new signing from League Two Newport] is to win the ball back in the opposition half, a bonus that is unusual in professional football." "Then there was the case of trying to sign a centre-back this summer who was offered a bonus per header as part of a proposed contract. Considering the stats show the player in question makes between 20 and 30 a game, it would have been a lucrative deal in the fourth tier but he opted to go elsewhere." "Three YouTubers from Sidemen FC, who have a partnership with Wagmi [Crawley Town's parent company], were granted trials at the club. “All three players will be further evaluated by coaches and staff during the session for possible inclusion in the team for the Red Devils’ upcoming FA Cup match against Accrington Stanley on 5 November,” Crawley said. None of them were signed."

Had a fun half hour haven't you.

Saw this. Thought of you.

Very nice. Interesting chat around contracts near the end where he talks about being contracted to Cardiff on loan but being recalled by Forest. Lovely bloke, lovely interview.