38MC

Given they are dealing with Tony Bloom, you can damn well believe it, a bit like dealing with Darren MacAnthony, he won’t beat around the bush. I’ll do a deal, but if I’m selling it’s on my terms. Ask Arsenal… oh and btw I prefer to sell in January.

Agree. And until someone meets our valuation he’s our player and will play, otherwise it shows we are hoping to cash in and all the ‘poker face’ will have been futile. Also I’m sure the experts @Mr Popodopolous and @Davefevs will correct me, but whilst SL may want to sell, the reality is he’s still chucking a decent amount in this season to cover losses, Scott sale or not. We’ll have an immediate cash flow/P&L impact for first instalment but the rest is balance sheet creditors (I think, but could well be wrong). Given reporting periods it means no difference to us if the same happens in August or in January. In January it’s much more a seller’s market so it might be worth the risk of injury / loss of form to get to that period. What is pretty clear by now is there are only really two suitors - wolves and bmouth, with the potential for one or two other clubs coming in from desperation towards the end of the window. Neither of these genuine suitors I would gurss are particularly attractive to Alex Scott, hence not seeing any discontent from his side. When you know there are only really two genuine buyers, and one of them can’t actually afford the deal anyway, I really do think he’s still going to be our player on 1 Sept, and we go on with a view to selling in January if we feel that’s the right footballing decision. SL covers the cost of Alex Scott yearly in his owner’s contributions. Even if we sell, given it’s in instalments and add ons, selling or not won’t push the needle too far on what he’s covering at the end of 2024 given we will spend something (despite what the club says).

Agree. If we really wanted to sell, given Wolves’ obvious interest, I think we’d have come to a compromise solution by now with them. I don’t think we’d have played such hard ball and put him through a rigorous pre-season. We’d have shaved a bit off here a bit there and done the deal. To run this saga as long as we have does show some real strength in the bargaining position. If we were keen sellers actually we’re getting to the stage of almost depleting our strength as the window of opportunity to sell closes in. Same as Saints and Ward-Prowse, they’ve happily let West Ham walk away. That shows real strength on their part, because if they really wanted to sell then they are weeks away from West Ham offering a reduced fee as they know the pressure is back on saints to do the deal giving West Ham the upper strength in the position. To give it a poker analogy, you might bluff pre flop and post-flop, it’s reckless to start doing it on the turn and the river.

I disagree. I think he would still play. We’re clear that we don’t ‘want’ to sell, but will if someone meets our valuation and Alex wants to go. If personal terms etc aren’t sorted before then, I don’t think he’s a player we’d worry about his mental attitude, and I don’t think we’d be wrapping in cotton wool either because our position is as a reluctant seller.

Unbelievable isn’t it. Its like the club have some Heaven’s Gate-Esque following if you can’t see this development, clubs transfer business, manager’s onlyfans, for what it is

It’s usually hard to disagree with what you say about other teams missing out by smaller margins but when you look at Blackburn they’ve lost their main striker, Millwall signed someone we would not guarantee football for yada yada yada. Normally I would agree with you, but I don’t think this time around we are ‘normal’ as per that bunch. We’ve got a lot of young players coming up with another year’s experience and realising their potential. Our springboard is that much greater if you will without strengthening; but we have done just that. We’ve had a really good window so far I think notwithstanding what happens with Scott, and we have a few signed in January 2023 who will have had more time to settle and hit the ground running. Didn’t Alex Ferguson say something along the lines of his January signings were with a view to the following season. There’s a lot of logic in what you say but we are an outlier I think. We did have that many decisions go against us and we did start the season with a lot of inexperience. We go into this one with a clean slate but much more experience. I think we are going to be a surprise package this year. I wouldn’t say playoffs is the measure of a good season, it’s far too soon for that and we have to allow for the youth to grow. But I think we have a feel good factor, we could hit the ground running, and I wouldn’t want anyone else in charge. COYR!

I don’t like anyone that wears a flat cap. That said and in all seriousness sometimes there are (local) players of an era where you wonder were they really in it as fans or not. Including the likes of Tommy Doc. When you see where Scott Murray is today, or even Tinnion, of the same era but non-natives you see a love there; and from others you see a little bit of bitterness that they maybe couldn’t enjoy a footballers lifestyle without the nuisance of application. Carey to me seemed to dance the razor’s edge

In the space of one very open interview his stock has changed dramatically. I’m not articulate enough to say how brave a man that he is, but what the reaction does hopefully demonstrate is that there is a helluva lot of empathy out there. He will have so many now willing him on: people will be hoping to see him return to the player he was and also find peace and happiness. Hopefully the reaction will be inspirational to other people to find the courage to open up. The support is there.

I hope P+ get some seriously prominent pitch side advertising at Stamford Bridge

I think it’s more likely that there are just a very small pool of people who can afford to invest in football. This vassal state doesn’t even fill Texas, of course there are far more overseas investors. Considering the serious growth in interest in the Premier League within North America, who will host the next World Cup, its natural North Americans would invest in the most commercially successful league in the world. You need to be seriously wealthy to invest in top tier football, and we don’t have very many British who are able to do it. That’s nothing to do with Brexit. That’s very simply because our product was so commercially successful it’s now a prime export.

But in the meantime Nantes could spend all of the money and whilst you may get an award of damages, you may not get the money - hence it's typical to be sued and then be counter-sued. Not that this justification in any way suggests I believe Cardiff have acted appropriately,