Marina's Rolls Royce

Quid pro quo 73rd minute in tonight's match but I'll be jolly cross if Liam was just winding me up when he sent me the text requesting my input on game management.

OK? Well.... let me think...... We've got a new Manager who I believe will do well and improve on the work of the previous one, we've made some good signings this season with Knight and Dicky outstanding and McCrorie looking promising, we have a strong defence getting stronger, we already have some potentially exciting young talent for next season, a fantastic stadium where we continue to get great support, top training ground and facilities, several players coming back from injury such as Sykes ,Twine and Atkinson with the unknown wildcard of Mebude, the potential to finish the season strongly and have a great owner in Steve Lansdown who continues to provide financial stability. My glass is half full and I'll fill it up again when it's empty so I'm feeling really positive and won't fill my pants or rupture my spleen when we lose .

So is this season already over as far as you're concerned?

What you clearly fail to appreciate is that the vast majority of people attending the match are not posters on otib and not prone to the same extreme negativity or "I'm not gonna give my money to Lansdown" or "the season was over in January". With 6 points between us and the top six and 45 points still up for grabs and several players on their way back , this team has everything to play for but, hey, don't let that get in the way of your negative nonsense.

After a fantastic much needed win and some impressive consecutive performances against PL sides (which is a rarity in my support since the 80's)- yes I guess there's much anger that our club hasn't self combusted in the way which some have predicted.

You helped to create the OTIB NK so don't moan. NP has gone and the club moves on even if you can't. Your recent repetitive statements that the season was over in January is somewhat misguided but no doubt if NP was still in charge and in the same points position then you'd be booking hotels in Manchester for next season.

In recent seasons I can't think of new signings who have been "a waste of money". Half the first team didn't involve a transfer fee and those that did have been great value such as Knight, Sykes, Dicky and increasingly Tanner. TGH is solid and McCrorie looks worth what we paid and some. Perhaps you refer to Mehmeti? It's also pretty fair to say that BCFC have been at best pretty frugal but that's a different conversation..

Perhaps an anagram will help put your mind at rest, Tone? RED DUMBIEE or my favourite BUM DIED ERE and the other signing we loaned back? DRAB MIX

My take away from that interview was that if he was as old as me then a little bit of wee would have come out.

So, in your opinion, do you feel that we shouldn't have signed this player and who do you think should have been promoted to the first team from the academy whose pathway is now blocked?

Just out of interest.... what new signing in this transfer window would put the "academy first"?

He was 6ft 4" when he signed. Typical City.

A full pre season is a head start.

We're brilliant at signing players who don't grab your attention so it seems like a fit.

What's an 'attention' player?

The last time I used the immortal phrase "There I've said it"- it worked out really well for the player. Me... not so much.

( From BBC main page) Rory Bidwell Age 12 from Torrington in Devon has a higher IQ (162) than Albert Einstein at the same age but has said "football is my life". Dunno about you guys but there's definitely something VERY very intelligent looking about him.

Equally, for those that believe- it could be that we'd be bottom if it wasn't for Max These things work both ways.

I was listening to Talk Sport earlier and despite SC having huge experience , winning four promotions and two Cups - the only thing they managed to say about his appointment was " he's got the right accent to manage FGR". I was so annoyed I almost spat out my cider, stabbed myself with my pitchfork and kicked my sheep.

Is this "job for Cotts" possibly a job for Cotts?

Minimum of 9 points and a late charge to sneak into the playoffs where the momentum will propel us into the Premier League. And my nurse has confirmed this as a fact.

Interesting interview with Alex in the Daily Telegraph- I'd post a link but it doesn't work. Worth a read as there's new stuff worth knowing. Alex Scott believed his hopes of being a professional footballer had ended with Bournemouth. Aged 14, he was released by the club just as he had been, a year earlier, by Southampton. How remarkable it is that the 20-year-old is now a £25 million star having been signed by Bournemouth last summer from Bristol City; the ‘Guernsey Grealish’ who is tipped to be a future England international. “I never quit football. I always played football. But there was a point when I realised the opportunity to become a professional had probably gone, when I left Bournemouth. That was my mindset,” Scott explains. “My head wasn’t there. I didn’t want to play football over there (mainland). Then two years later, to be given that opportunity again, I really wanted to go for it and it was a stroke of luck. I always played football non-stop but I thought the dream was over.” It is quite a story. And it all began when Scott was just eight years old after he was scouted by Southampton at a summer camp in the Channel Island of Guernsey, where he is from. Soon he was leaving school early every Friday to fly to Southampton, spending the weekends in a hotel with either his dad Noel or mum Steph. Scott did that for almost five years. “At first I just loved it,” he says. “In Guernsey it’s always, ‘You have to get off the island to play professional football’. So that was a dream for me, doing what I loved doing. The downside is you are in a hotel every single weekend.” As he got older, the demands increased. There was a half-day at school on a Tuesday, Wednesday in Southampton, back on Thursday. “Things kept building up and it was getting tougher and tougher and I was not enjoying my football,” Scott admits. “I was not playing well anymore and I knew it was almost coming to an end.” When he was let go it was “horrible” but he adds: “I saw it coming early on and at that point I wasn’t too fussed.” ‘I just thought...I’m the best player here’ It is tough for him to think about the sacrifices his parents made – and the expense. His “confidence was at an all-time low” when Bournemouth picked him up and it was little surprise that the move did not last, with Scott fearing all the time away from home actually meant he was missing out on part of his childhood. “You lose your whole social life back home,” he says. “I just wanted to be with my friends.” What happened next is instructive as Scott re-found himself and re-built his career in grass-roots and non-league football back in Guernsey, firstly with St Martin’s and then, at 16, with the island’s men’s team, Guernsey FC, where it quickly became apparent he was far too good for that level. “That is when I really enjoyed it again, I loved it and felt like I was ready to get back into the academy programme,” he says. “When you play for Guernsey you play for your island and you are representing 65,000 people and it’s not something you can take for granted.” Soon a trial game was arranged with Bristol City – with Guernsey coach Tony Vance sending clips to the academy director Brian Tinnion. “Luckily I got the chance and scored a hat-trick,” Scott says. It was not just any hat-trick – it was a perfect hat-trick, left foot, right foot, header and all in the first 30 minutes. “I went on trial and thought, not in an arrogant way, but I thought in training, ‘I am the best player here’ and I just had that belief to go on,” Scott says. “I never would have thought the time it took to get to the first team after that would be that short, it was only a year and a half, and half of that was lockdown.” Bournemouth had continued to monitor his progress and even tried to hijack the deal to Bristol City but Scott had already agreed. “Bristol City heard that Bournemouth were interested and they said, ‘Get him here tomorrow’,” he says. Scott instantly fitted in – and pays tribute to the lessons he learnt playing men’s football early. “That was one of the key things that made me stand out from the rest – the way I could use my body and my intelligence having played against senior and older lads,” he says. “The lads (at Bristol City) were brilliant. Speaking to them now they say. ‘When you were first with us we knew you were going to go on’. It was a nice thing to hear.” It was after Scott’s outstanding performance in Bristol City’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Manchester City last February, when that Grealish comparison was made and he swapped shirts with the England international, that things really started to “blow up”, although many clubs were already considering making a move. Scott knew a transfer was likely in the summer. “While I was playing I found it easy to ignore. But once the season was done that’s when it got a lot harder because it’s almost down to you a little bit. You almost have to make your mind up – do you want to stay? Do you want to leave? It came to a point where, yes, I wanted to leave,” Scott says. He was sold on Bournemouth’s “ambition and vision” – but then the whole deal was almost called off. Scott suffered a knee injury just before he was due to sign and, for the third time, it seemed he was not destined to play for Bournemouth. ‘The deal’s done...I was so happy’ “It was awful,” he says as he recalls video footage of his team-mates at Bristol City holding their heads in their hands as he went down in training. “You can see they are shocked and gutted for me. I went down on my knee and I thought the move was off. Because of what happened, the way it felt, I knew something was wrong.” The initial scan resulted in a diagnosis of only one week out. But, then, after a medical in London, there was bad news. “I drove down to Bournemouth, was in the hotel and I have gone up to my room. I’m buzzing, about to sign the deal. I came down and I could see my agent’s face and I knew something had happened. He pulled me (to one side) and said, ‘12 weeks’. And I was like, ‘12 weeks?’ and he said, ‘Your knee, 12 weeks’.” Scott was told the deal was not happening and sat dazed in a corner of the hotel as Max Aarons, who was also staying there, completed his move. He went to bed believing it was off and came down to breakfast the next morning to meet his agent Wayne Henderson and talk what next. “He just said, ‘The deal’s done’,” Scott recalls. “I was so happy.” The knee damage ruled him out for the start of the season but allowed him to “scout” his new team-mates from the stands and learn what the impressive new head coach Andoni Iraola wanted from his team: pressing triggers, passing movements, pattern of play. It meant that even when Bournemouth got off to such a tough start, with six Premier League defeats and three draws, Scott could see it would change. “Watching the games was huge, learning,” Scott says. “I knew when I came into training and when I played games things would click naturally. You are scouting your team-mates and seeing what they like. Which foot they use is important, which passes they see in games, who is likely to do a trick and beat a player, who is likely to cross early.” Once fit Scott was thrown straight into the team and says “that was probably the best way to do it” as he and Bournemouth thrived. League leaders Liverpool are Sunday’s visitors to the Vitality Stadium and confidence is soaring with Scott likely to feature with his trademark look of having his socks rolled down. “I first did it because it was tight on my calves in the second half of a game and I ended up playing well so I kept it. Obviously Jack Grealish influenced it as well,” he says. And the ‘Guernsey Grealish’ comparison? “Of course! He’s one of the best players in the league so I will take that,” Scott says, laughing.

Yes- possibly and it's frustrating to be a selling club but SL said some time ago that was the model. The other issue is that as long as we are in the Championship , we have zero chance of keeping a player who wants away when a PL club comes calling and they all do even if its Bournemouth . Some have said about a new collection of No10's as if it were a bad thing. I think that if we have developed two that are really good ( e.g. Murphy and possibly Stokes) then perfect- sell one and keep the other. Some time back it was hoped that this would be the case with Scott and Benerous but injury prevented this plan from happening.

Absolutely. Conway Vyner Bell O'Leary Pring Tanner - they were all "one's for the future" but have become 'one's for now' having just dispatched West Ham in the FA Cup. Then there's Scott & Semenyo who have made the club more sustainable. The total cost of these 8 players is £275,000 and receipts on just two is £30,000,000 What is it that makes people so critical of BCFC buying or developing exciting young talent?