chinapig

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

Did you read the article I linked to? The author lives in Italy and has researched and written a book on the Ultras. Let's just say there are elements of Ultra culture we wouldn't ideally want to aspire to. Though I don't think the phenomenon ever got embedded in English football anyway.

As in Italy, the home of the phenomenon, for instance? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/29/beyond-the-violence-shocking-power-ultras-wield-over-italian-football

I have it on good authority* that Gould got a message to Nigel that we had accepted a £25m bid 5 minutes earlier so he'd better sub him or else. *No I don't

No because we won it in the past. Albeit about 2 hours ago*. ? *adjust timing depending on when you read this post** **Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so (Douglas Adams)

I'll stick my neck out and say it was a "did win" game.

And the emergence of Conway plus the revival of Wells.

Yes, he seemed to raise his flag then immediately put it down again.

Law 11says: A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by: interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate or interfering with an opponent by: preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or challenging an opponent for the ball or clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball. None of the above seems to apply to what Rashford did.

I recall Rick Parry saying in an interview on the PoF podcast that this needs to be addressed. I trust proposals will follow in due course Agreed and Tracey Crouch didn't seem keen on this either. The government wants the PL and EFL to sort it out but perhaps some informal nudging behind the scenes needs to happen.

The police are closing Winterstoke Road to traffic right now to cope with the protestors. Both of them.

The people's club thing translates as "we're utterly crap in every respect compared to our local rivals so we'll claim to be more authentic to make ourselves feel better". See also Everton.

Others will correct me if necessary but as I understand it there are limits to how much owners can put into a club in that they can only cover cash losses up to the upper loss limit (£13m). This has to be in the form of equity and not for instance loans. Steve's practice is to convert loans to shares. So Steve cannot give Nigel, say, £20m to spend and tell him to go for it regardless of FFP. Money for signings has to be generated by the club.

Because it's not the fans who messed up the finances?

First of all you don't have to be ignorant of FFP, the regulations are on the EFL website if you want to inform yourself. There are people better qualified than me on here who can clarify anything you are not sure of. As to selling the family silver that is inevitable for almost all Championship clubs regardless of FFP. You are not going to hold on to an exceptional talent like Scott for years, sooner or later he will go. If you are going to attract youngsters to the Academy they need to know that they have a chance of progressing to a higher level. Many of us share your anger at how the club was managed in the recent past and lay the ultimate blame at Steve's door but we also understand that what is happening on the pitch now is a consequence of what has to be done to repair the damage. I don't see any alternative solution. Do you?

Quite, plus Lemina is about 10 years older than Scott. No reason why they wouldn't want both then.

Being ignorant of or not interested in our finances and the implications of FFP doesn't mean you can just wish it all away and magically increase the budget Nigel has available. As to next summer with contracts expiring and players either leaving or re-signing on lower wages (and with reduced amortization costs) we should have scope to make signings. More so if we sell somebody for big money of course.

The real loser here is the Wembley Stadium company who would have had a guaranteed full house made up entirely of Gasheads. And a mini bus driver.

Yes, in a negotiation you have an opening position and a fall back so maybe our fall back position is £20m. We may hope to settle somewhere between the two of course. It's not just the fee either, we may have a position on how much we want paid up front for instance. Time will tell though my guess is it is more likely to happen in the summer.

You want £25m to drive him there? Thanks for the offer but a Uber might be cheaper. ?

No, Steve was the architect who chose notorious dodgy builders Ashton & Johnson Ltd. Having overspent the budget he discovered the house was falling down so he had to bring in Gould & Pearson Ltd to rebuild it. It's my analogy and I reserve the right to make it up as I go along!

And to think we paid the Gas £10m for him.?

Is any of that true of Manchester United for instance? As I understand it the debt was loaded onto the club and the Glazers have been taking money out for themselves ever since.

It's not unusual.?

He can sack them, they can't sack him though. However unpalatable it is we have to deal with things as they are not as we might wish them to be.