robin for life

Didn't know there was one, or where to find it.

This. The most logical option all round. Say he's on 20K now, say you go right how about we guarantee you football this year, we pay you £15,000 a week, you're helping our wage bill, but in return we'll give you a 2 year extension on 10K a week for the following two seasons, with appearance, goal and win bonuses, so if we win and score, you'll get 15K that week.

Kye Rowles, hard as nails central defender, who gets booked for fun, but scores goals and literally scares the living s*&t out of strikers when he marks them. He's only 23 and wont be long until he's in the Championship or Premier League.

I know I am in the minority, but personally I would sell Semenyo and Massengo this summer. I think 20m for the pair is realistic and it sorts out the financial mess we are in, and probably gives 4-5m to Pearson to reinvest. The one to keep is Scott, if he shines next year, he's a 25m+ player. Semenyo has 1 year + 1 year left. he is 22 and will be 24 when his contract expires, so he can leave on a free, no tribunal, nothing. We may exercise the extension, but say we are mid table, next year he will be in his final year, and it will be well known foreign clubs can sign him in the January for free, and domestic clubs the following summer. The offers next year will be less than they are now, regardless how good a year he has. He isn't a 20 year old, who is covered by compensation, he is 22, and when his contract expires he can walk for free. The club know this. Now or January (if he starts the season brightly) are the most valuable times to sell him. If we turn down 8-12m for him now and he's leaving for 3-4m next summer, then we have made a huge error.

He should have taught them how to curl into a ball and roll along, as for sure MA was gonna try and thrown them under the bus.

Then he will give a press conference explaining in great detail for about 30 minutes how he planned the whole thing outstandingly, but Macca let him down and the kittens escaped before they could be sent into the skyline.

I hope you started "Johnson says bounce around the plane"

McInnes probably provided them the kittens as well. Originally Coppell was going to take them, but he decided it was too much work and handed them back after 2 weeks.

Thanks, it's been a common theme in recent times. Getting away from the world with the dog helps a lot. A lot of people think talking helps, but it often doesn't and meds definitely do nothing. Time, space, relaxation and forgetting the world and getting your own head straight is normally the only thing that does and you can never do that staring at the same 4 walls all the time.

I'm up in Scotland at present, on a mental health break and a good mate of mine, his son plays for Celtic's B side having broken through their academy and has just been offered a promotion to the first team. Celtic are very keen on signing Semenyo according to my mate and have sent someone to watch him play for Ghana. My mate has said that whilst the club have not come out and stated that they want him, he is led to believe from his contacts within the side, that Celtic have two priority signings to make this summer and he believes Semenyo is one of them. If Celtic do come knocking, I think its fair to say its bye bye Antoine.

Pearson has hinted he wants his squad assembled by June 10th when they return for training. I doubt we will sit around a wait, we've made an offer, and its there to be signed if he wants to. Yes he will be looking at other suitors, but if he doesn't commit this week, he basically doesn't see us as a first choice, or of a , I'll go there if something better doesn't come along. That's not the sort of player we need. Pearson and the club will have been patient as Forest were a bigger club than us, but I suspect, our recruitment team will be all over this, this week and if he isn't prepared to sign, I reckon we'll start looking elsewhere, as he will clearly see us as a back up plan, which I don't think is something Pearson wants.

As Elvis once said, itss nooowwwwww orrrr neverrrrr

One ?

Forest should be able to attract some decent players, I would say of the 3 to go up, they would most likely stay up. Fulham will be in a relegation battle, as will Bournemouth, I suspect at least 2 of the 3 will come back down.

Yes I would say so.

Really? Well neither of my grand parents were English, and one of my parents is not English and I have siblings who are not English, but I still have a Brittish passport, so am I not English, despite being born in England, when 6 out of the 7 closest relatives of mine were not born in the UK?

No chance Forest would take a punt on him now. If he is going to sign for us, it will happen in the next few days, if he ain't signed by next weekend, he clearly has his sights on bigger clubs than us.

Before they signed for us and done poorly, no one was criticising the signing of either Diony or Kent, hindsight is a wonderful thing .....

Development ...... Footballers don't live in estates

Exactly this. If you are top 6 in January and the option to sign a player like Nketiah or someone of that ilk became available, it could be what you need to get over the line. It's not a signing for the long term, but a player who can deliver what you need. By bringing in 17-20yo's from the Premier League with no game experience for a season, you aren't guaranteed to be getting anyone who is better than your own youngsters and it stands in the way of them improving. The same as taking on a 30 something player who was classy and has been off with an injury, no point bringing in to get them fit for someone else, but if you need to add quality and there is a player in the premier league in January not getting games and wants football, and they could have the quality to help get a top 6 side into the Prem, then its a risk worth taking and I would imagine thats the only sort of loan Pearson would look at, unless one of the big boys buys Massengo or Semenyo and offers us a player on loan as part of the deal who might play in the same position, as it means you dont have to rush into getting a replacement. Prob 8/9 will ne squad players, but I think 4 or 5 of those in today's squad are out of contract in a few weeks, so could easily end up seeing players who win promotion today released.

Although not everyone has smart phones, not everyone has mobile phones. A lot of the older generation fans would be screwed by this. My Dad is in his 70s doesn't have the internet at home, has a mobile which doesn't have access to the internet and he still sends cheques, and he was an inspector for the Inland Revenue in his working days! My parents don't even have a computer and when it comes to insurance and that he rings around. I find it crazy, but just because a modern generation relies of technology, it doesn't mean those who don't use it, or have never used it should miss out.

Three weeks ago, I got an email from Ticketmaster, that due to a large number of tickets for the Killers being sold on Gumtree and Craigslist, that they re-issued Killers tickets for Ashton Gate with new barcodes. I received these one week before concert and were E-Tickets which I printed off all four of them to take with me on Thursday. Touts were at the gate on Thursday offering £300 a ticket and getting £500 a ticket! Mine were £140 VIP tickets and we got in no problem, but they didn't check ID to names and anything, so clearly a massive gig like Thursday was deemed acceptable for print at home tickets, added further to that, no checking of ID to name on ticket, which it said on ticket MAY happen. yet a lot of touts buying and selling outside, and tickets were refreshed by Ticketmaster after they were made aware of loads on sale for huge amounts online in the run up to the concert. I've always said the only way to prevent this sort of thing is to send out tickets which have a photo id on them, so when you buy, your computer takes photo of face, or by phone or if you buy in person, done where you buy ticket from. That way if I am not with the group of 3 others and my face on tickets, you dont get let in, as purchaser is not with the tickets and entry is only allowed with ticketholder. TBH, venues dont really care about touts and fake tickets and black markets, they say they do, but they dont. They make their money selling out a concert and as far as they care, as long as it sells out, they've made their money.

1-0 Forest. Be interesting how they see this game now. It had been quite open and end to end before the goal. Will Forest risk going for a second, or will they go for possession football and force Huddersfield to have to go for it, and maybe leaving them exposed for a second. I predict the latter, sit on the 1-0 with possession football, and hope Huddersfield leave themselves open for a second to kill the game off.

To be honest, to get them from bottom when he took over, to in the playoffs and the best team on form in the last 35 games of the season, he pretty much deserves manager of the season even if they don't win it.

Australia has strict rules now. 8 of a 20 man squad, have to be home grown, A Maximum wage of 15,000 AUD applies, except for a maximum of 2 Marquee players who can be paid a maximum of 1,500,000 AUD a season. This included bonuses and signing on fees, wages and everything. So effectively about 750,000 a season or 14,400 a week, but this includes everything and is a maximum of 2 players per team, the remainder can't be on anymore than 15,000 AUD a week, including all fees and bonuses. Therefore very few bigger names are ending up in Aus now, and a lot are moving from MLS, or J League or lesser leagues in Europe. Gone are the days of Premier League and Championship players galore ending up in AUS. Many end up in China, and only when exhausted money out there, go to Aus. I know earlier in the year Aaron Mooy wanted to head back to Melbourne City, but they already had 2 marquee players so he wasn't a viable option. Kasey Palmer would have to go down as a Marquee player to go out there, as he wont take less than 7.5K a week all in, I'm sure. Even if he went anywhere as a Marquee player (Of the 12 teams, 6 have already 2 Marquee players contracted for next season and 4 have 1, 2 have none) we would have to foot some of the wages. If we terminate his contract with compensation, a move out there becomes somewhat possible, but it wouldn't be as lucrative as it was 5/6 years ago. As a club, we should be scouting the A League, as a lot of young players are getting a lot of game time and experience out there now. There's a lot of under 25s who would not cost the earth and given the max wage they would have been on is 7,500 a week, we would be an attractive proposition. Lachlan Wales (Western United), Birkan Kirdar (Melbourne Victory), Daniel Walsh (Perth Glory), Tate Russell (Western Sydney) & George Blackwood (Adelaide United) are all very good promising players who have stood out this year and could easily play at Championship Level, and a few of these will end up Socceroo's before long. If we were to lose one of our midfielders or strikers in the summer, Lachlan Wales or George Blackwood could certainly come in and do a job. I mentioned in the if Pearson got sacked who should be our next manager thread the other week, that we should look at John Aloisi as a potential manager. He has done wonders at Western United, and they have one of the smallest budgets being one of the newest sides and he got Brisbane very competitive until 2018 when he left them to join Western United when they joined the A League. This year, they have been outstanding with their quick, impressive passing football and Aloisi was a decent player in the 90s and even played for Portsmouth, and Coventry behind return to AUS. He got Roar who had been bottom 3 team for season's a top 4 team and semi finalists , before he resigned and had a break from management. Last year he then joined Western United and has taken them from being the 10th best team, to 3rd, having been up there for most of the season. He then has seen them go to the final of the grand series and win it. The way they played the first half yesterday against Melbourne City (sister club of Man City) showed Aloisi's tactical genius, and then they closed it out in the second half. This is Aloisi's first major honour as a manager, but at 46, his style of football has him tipped to be the next Socceroo boss. If we did part ways with Pearson at any time in the next 12 months, he is exactly the sort of manager who could get us to the premier league. He has worked on the 11th highest budget in the A League, and was unable to sign a single marquee players as the clubs finances couldn't afford it, yet he has led them to the series finals and won the series. A manager who has a team play attacking and impressive passing football and able to close games out, and run down the clock when winning and then show the heart to win when it matters, and on a shoe string budget. Regardless of what league you're in, these qualities show Aloisi as a potential top class manager and he is still young at 46, and has a good CV in the game as a player. He's a manager the fans would hate as many would have never heard of him, but he would be exactly the type of manager who would take us to the Premier League.