chinapig

The problem is nobody seems to want to buy him. Perhaps he and his agent should reflect on that.

Nice Clash reference btw.

At one point Richard Gould claimed we had lost £30m in transfer income. Absolute nonsense imo but I wonder if we nevertheless tried that on with the EFL?

My personal opinion is that he best affects play in the final third from central midfield, not as a AM/10. In modern football parlance, he is an “8”, he’s Josh Brownhill in his middle seasons here, but better with it technically (although Josh improves this part massively). I feel he’s wasted as a 10, I want him to get in the ball as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong he’d still be good in there, but I feel he’s more influential starting in a conventional CM role. We saw that in the Euros this summer too. From the BBC piece yesterday: I think maybe as a box-to-box eight is probably my best position ... We've agreed before Dave that he is best as an 8. The fact that he agrees with us is further proof of what an intelligent young man he is.?

FFP is not concerned with cumulative debt. LA Liga is actually much tougher on how much a club can spend in a season than the Premier League though. Before a new season begins, each club in La Liga submits financial data on its estimated revenue and spending that is then analysed by a team of financial experts before setting a club’s maximum allowed spend for the season. So the controls are in advance not retrospective as they are in England. Can you imagine the Premier League telling Man City in advance that there is a limit on how much they can spend? Which is why Barca need to get players out to reduce their wage bill before they can register new players. The criticism they deserve in this context is particularly that they are trying to force de Jong out without paying him the £17m they allegedly owe him. The Premier League's attitude meanwhile is basically "yeah, whatever". For instance assuming they haven't dropped it without telling anyone their "investigation" into Man City has been going on for over 3 years. So La Liga is far from perfect but the PL still lags behind on controlling spending.

If you watch the latest Robins Uncut there is a point at which Curtis talks about what the two 6s (James and Williams in other words) need to do. So I can see us playing two 6s and two 8s (Weimann and Sykes probably) with Martin ahead of them. This makes us more solid defensively and well set up to counter attack with the wing backs joining in.

Das Reboot: How German Football Reinvented Itself and Conquered the World by Raphael Honigstein.

Do you mean Inverting The Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson? In which case I agree.

Listening to Kieran Maguire this morning it seems DC are paying Rooney something like £865k a year. According to KM's information Kirchner offered him more than that to sign a three year contract at Derby. Madness. It appears also that Stretford is looking to serve legal papers on Kirchner but can't find him!

They may have triggered a 1 year option and not announced it.

You are Elon Musk and I claim my £1billion.

It was their rather trivial complaint that when we were talking to him he was still technically under contract to them so we should have told them. Though Nathan Jones knew he wasn't going to sign a new contract all along so theirs was a silly overreaction. So if they are still mid-tantrum they might not want to play ball.

Can't imagine Luton being keen on doing business with us after their hissy fit over Naismith.

Sure, I was highlighting the absurdity of somebody persisting with an argument that somebody is 29 the day after their 28th birthday (or something, his case gets a bit garbled) rather than accepting the convention that you are 28 until you are 29. Kudos to Graham for his patience though.

I'd be inclined to round down the guy's IQ score by dividing by zero.

Of course, I was being tongue in cheek hence the ?. We'll see in due course. If Nigel sees something in him I'm prepared to wait.

All fair comment but we must maintain the great OTIB tradition of writing off a player before he gets started.?

No point talking about sorting out the culture of the club then setting such a bad example.?

So now there are 3 clubs in Doncaster. Doncaster United are still the biggest though.?

Except that he said he resigned on the grounds that he needed a break and an opportunity to study. Also that he thought the club would benefit from a new manager. Not much of a break and not much studying it turns out. If his motivation was to relieve the club of his wages why was he backing the Kirchner takeover (in which his agent Stretford was involved)? That regime wouldn't have been able to afford him either. So suggesting him resigning was an act of charity seems generous.

Of course nobody would suggest that loyal Wayne was negotiating this at least as soon as it became clear his mate Kirchner was, let's say, not entirely honourable. Though to most of us that was obvious all along. He would never con gullible Derby fans in that way. Would he?

How much of a restriction that is depends on what the average wage bill is in League 1. It would be interesting to compare with Ipswich. Especially as Ashton was telling fans who wanted yet more signings that they should have a look at their wage bill. The size of which has nothing to do with him of course.

If you don't know where France is Major you just need to turn right at Dover.

Corruption in football and the Conservative Party? Surely not? Were any of the companies mentioned awarded a PPE contract??

Including presumably thousands of locals who walk their dogs there and the presence of rare (or possibly mutant) newts.