Pezo

Yeah felt like going through the motions. Just needed to do it because I can't stand the anxiety of waiting for someone else to do it.

Having worked with someone like Ashton, the choice would be (as the manager's manager) - I really like this person and I think we should bring them in, I have worked wonders with the agent for a few months and we can just about fit them into our budget. Would you like them? Then 2 things will happen because your job is decided by that person - "yes, they seem good boss" or "I have reservations, they don't fit how I want to play, they have a poor fitness record, ect". Then No matter what happens Ashtons answer is "you can sort out the way we play, Rolls will sort out the fitness stuff, ect ect ..... By the way the photo shoot is this afternoon and I would really appreciate you being there".

2 poor teams in possession, the one that had the most possession lost. Easy answer for us - don't touch the ball!

I think someone has already said it - he has all the ability but can't/won't assert himself. Classic Nyatanga type IMHO.

Build up play in this game is so slow I feel like I can watch and contribute to the match day thread without missing anything.

I would prefer they look terrified with the ball at our feet but we’ve obviously identified that and decided that derby should have circa 70% possession when we’re the home team.

Only if the opposition runs into you any time in the next 30 seconds. missed that rule change!

Source?

I have watched for 30 years and can think of 2 times it's been worse than this off the top of my head - Pulis, SOD. This is probably equal to D McI, Millen, Tinnion, Holden, Benny.

It will happen if a team can get a competitive advantage out of it. It’s certainly going to be interesting seeing what happens the first time someone takes a chance. It has to be for the right reasons though (that they are the best candidate) and at the moment I haven’t seen a female pundit that I think would do well in the top 4 leagues but happy to be proved wrong.

I love OTIB, the only place I've ever known where people that agree call each other names because a sentence has highlighted something different than what they would highlight. Reading this it's fairly obvious that people are finding it hard to find a female pundit that they value the opinion of, they are also finding it hard to find too many male pundits they value the opinion of. On a forum with many views about football I don't find this surprising but can't figure out why people start getting personal.

I just hate the way the prem uses and abuses the rest of the EFL and the EFL goes back time after time. It really is an abusive relationship.

I wonder what the total cost of player was (agent, bonus, rental car ect).

Oh yeah I wouldn't want it to sound like I don't use them or even have a problem with them - I have echo's, an Amazon TV and prime. Prime TV is pretty shite but it's all slowly slowly catchy monkey with Amazon, they will continue to analyse watching patterns and figure out what people like and make it enough to keep people on the platform.

You had to say it didn't you.

I was thinking more along the lines of them getting the richest owner in football and being constrained by FFP

Standard MO for Amazon - move slowly, horizontally and vertically subsidising new ventures and charging a cost that's supposed to barely break even or knowingly make a loss - reduce barriers to entry and eventually wipe out the competition before slowly increasing costs.

Why do I feel like this is Amazon just starting to test the water before wiping the floor with Sky and BT. The money behind these tech giants makes even the biggest UK companies look like play things.

Let’s face facts PP and FFP and just attempts at medication to the problem of income inequality caused by TV deals targeted at 1 particular league rather than the game.

I think the reality is there would be too many barriers, clubs that couldn’t take the risk or players that couldn’t take the risk so they stay where they are and never come here. Then the prem doesn’t attract the best talent and that’s a slippery slope.

I get the intent but I think there are clear scenarios where this doesn’t work. Your going to ask someone like Dennis at Watford to sign a contract that says “if we get relegated you will get paid X amount less” which in reality to him probably means “if we get get relegated your not going to be able to see you family in the football season” or mutual termination which would mean Watford taking a massive risk (losing 15m worth of player) Instantly he won’t sign it because there is a high chance of relegation or Watford (and all promoted teams) only then look for free/low transfers to mitigate there risk. Personally I think there is a choice but it’s a bit catch 22 - you either have the same teams getting relegated that just came up (and keep the championship competitive) or you have the same teams getting promoted that just got relegated (and the bottom of the prem is competitive) but because of the vast differences there’s always going to be a problem. The prem holds the cards because they have the money and they prefer that competition is in the prem and they don’t even think of the consequences to competition in the championship. this was quiet eye opening for me but there is a bit at around 18 mins when they discuss independent regulation and distribution of funds.

Isn't this the reason PP were introduced - certain players didn't want to go to teams if there was a risk of lower pay and being locked into a contract. Some players bring over and pay for a whole entourage with them, they might have to send there family home after year 1 of a 3 year contract and as such don't want to commit.

I wonder what the average is across the league. I like to think most of the time if you're the big fish (us in league 1) then you should really be getting about 1 in every 2 correct, if your the small/medium fish (us in the championship) you should probably be looking at 1 in every 4 (we can't attract the best players at this level so there is a lot more risk and likelihood of getting it wrong). 1 in 12 is frankly embarrassing and shine's a 1000 watt bulb on our problems, I wonder what the warning signs were because a lot of those players could be doing better for us. I do wonder if the club hierarchy know this level, we do like players that seem to be average league 1 players (we never buy the best league 1 players), old championship level players that are past it and prem castoffs that think they are too good for league 1 but that would also be there natural level.

He's probably not running 20k for his £20k.