BottledDog

No doubt about it Agreed. If you actually had a Category 1 academy I presume you would be shouting it from the rooftops. From the Fan Forum Minutes - "The board stated that the club had spent significant sums on the development side to get the Academy up to Category 1 status (i.e. investment in staffing and facilities)." Does that suggest we've actually made it!?!? Wish they would shout it from the rooftops to be honest. It's difficult to get much sense from these short answers in a meeting without much, if any context. I think the wording is quite deliberate, and I am still firmly of the opinion that no, we haven't been awarded Category 1 status. These people are specialists in giving shifty, equivocal answers, and the only reason you would give a shifty and equivocal answer in this case is if the answer is "no"... That said, I would be happy to take it all back if there is a link to what ChricMcQuillan says...? That was my take on it. Would have thought we'd have had announced the shit out of it if it actually happened, and I certainly can't remember the story Chris is hinting at over the summer. But then again, vague hints again from the fans forum, and we still find ourselves playing in the Category One league. Bizarre.

It clearly was for us.We're shit.

We wont score. They will. Monday night FFS.

We took on more games without investing in the squad because we wanted to win it, aye, right. That's a whole different arguement. If you go down that route (one that we all agree on), we also didn't invest to do well in the Premiership, which is our priority. All I was taking umbrage with was the suggestion we don't try in the cups. We generally do. We might have had a more comfortable season if we'd sacked it off and not bothered in the Euro Cup. But we didn't, we gave it a go.

We didn't try to win the UEFA, we tried to go as far as we could but I have seen nothing to suggest that we tried to win it. "we tried to go as far as we could" Well, in a cup competition, that is pretty much all I ask. We could have won it, we tried to win our games, we failed.

nailed it - the league is beyond 70% of the teams in it before a ball is kicked, to not try in the cups is a piss take tbh We do try in the cups though. Last year we were bunkum again against Brighton, and went out against ManU, but to say we didn't try to win the Euro Cup is bullshit imho.

I may have been conservative here.

3-1 loss.

Not until that £18m clears up, no. In fact, I wouldn't take a lot of convincing to believe that that's the actual reason behind him deferring the payment.

Well yes, but a top eight or top ten target would be achieved equally as well by coming 1st, 4th or 6th.

Seems pretty good to me. Means that once we've paid back the £18m we'll be effectively debt free, and subsequently all monies generated will be the clubs to use. Maybe I should clarify. Can you not see you're being led down the garden path? They continuously change their story as they go along, with the only constant being they systematically notch down the level of ambition. We went from a club aiming for Europe and targeting the best young players around the world to set up a world class academy to a club happy to survive in the Premier League targeting local youngsters for its academy. If it's not being spent paying back debt, then it'll stay in the club. No? If not, we'll have a new thing to attack but until that happens, it's clearly a good thing. What it'll be spent on though, who knows. Maybe that Category One academy we have apparently just built under Ashley.

But aren't these targets just the minimum of what the club expects to do? And basically just made internally in order to make, among other things, future financial decisions behind the scenes. We expected a minimum top 8. We dropped a bollock, Pardew got called in to explain himself, realised they both fucked the squad up, and reduced the minimum to be top 10 for this season. But whatever the club aim, beyond the lack of investment, it shouldn't have any effect on where the team ends up. The manager and players just need to do the best they can and target the highest possible position. 1st, until it's mathematically impossible.

Seems pretty good to me. Means that once we've paid back the £18m we'll be effectively debt free, and subsequently all monies generated will be the clubs to use.

Ha, I'd not be sending that back to be fair.

No doubt about it Agreed. If you actually had a Category 1 academy I presume you would be shouting it from the rooftops. From the Fan Forum Minutes - "The board stated that the club had spent significant sums on the development side to get the Academy up to Category 1 status (i.e. investment in staffing and facilities)." Does that suggest we've actually made it!?!? Wish they would shout it from the rooftops to be honest. It's difficult to get much sense from these short answers in a meeting without much, if any context.

Regarding the cups. Very weak answers from the club there; just easily trotted out excuses that barely have anything to do with the points from the floor. Yeah, we get that you're running scared because we nearly went down, but fuck me going for a cup doesn't automatically mean relegation. And yeah, the Europa league affected our league results maybe, but would an FA cup or league cup run really cripple us!?!? If so, then we need to buy some more fucking players.

There is no exact wording, though the link half way down this article may provide it on... er... Tuesday. Censored, or just useless gets? Either way.

http://www.designerstalk.com/forums/attachments/help-me/11682d1336058742-international-freelance-quandry-you-aint-seen-me-right.jpg What money?!

I'm not sure 'excel' is exactly the word for it.

Could only manage the first page there, but generally very positive. Worrying.

Graham...

Ummm... No. They clearly have.

Both of them have got to cup finals with lesser teams. When did Kinnear get to a Cup Final as a manager? Got to both the league cup, and the FA cup finals with the Wombles iirc. No he didnt Fuck. Whats that got to do with what you said? Edit: See you removed the 1996/97 question too As in, Fuck, I'm an idiot. He only managed a semi (well, two). See, the Kinnear brainwashing works!