Chris_R

Yeah but don't you know, when you sell a player for £20m and then buy a player for £20m you can activate the infinite money glitch if you shout "AMORTISATION" when he signs. You only have to pay the first installment of the new player's fee and can totally write off the other 4 years, it just disappears into the ether.

It's obviously just my opinion. But sorry, I mistook this place for a public forum. I'd love for us to have lots of better players than Longstaff, but at least 4 of them must come from the academy or it's a waste of time because they can't be registered. Until we have those 4 on our books, Longstaff's value is way in excess of what it would be if he were not from our youth setup. In fact his value to us is so much greater than his value to anyone else that he's basically not able to be sold.

To be fair he's got Lee and Shearer in from his first spell, just under different managers! I did similar and didn't pick ANY Keegan players, saving him for manager because I needed someone gung-ho to cover the lack of cover my wingers would give me.

It wouldn't even be a 24-man squad. We've got (Unless I'm missing anyone?) NO PL-quality academy players other than Longstaff and Miley. MIley doesn't count because of age, so if we sell Longstaff we'll be registering 21 players for Europe - Or filling the rest with utter dross as a box-ticking exercise. We're going to be naming benches with empty spaces on them. Anyone we then sign instead of Longstaff will have to take one of the 21 places, not the 24. Meaning someone else senior will miss out. It's a non-starter. Longstaff will stay. And, as I said, quite rightly. We should have kept Anderson for the same reason. The only reason you should sell PL-quality academy players is if you've got a surplus of them. We don't.

Must add I'd like to note my newfound hatred of @James for making me look through some of those fucking shit squads. There were some absolutely grim seasons in that timeline.

Think that works? (Edited to change formation to 4-4-fucking-2, had toyed with one up top then meant to change it when I put Isak in and forgot) Really playing the system with putting Roeder-era Shearer in and even more so with a half-dead Stuart Pearce whose best days weren't even at our club, but rules is rules. Not much tracking back in that but Keegan will just have them bombing forward anyway in search of a 7th so it doesn't matter if we concede 2 or 3.

Do we get the prime version of that player irrespective of the manager we select them under, or do we get the version at that time? Ie if we pick Shearer from Glenn Roeder's tenure, do we get the bald version who could barely run? Also define "Played for" - Do they actually have had to have taken to the pitch? Do friendlies count?

I can only repeat what I've already said about Longstaff... PL rules mean we need to register 8 UK-trained players. UEFA rules mean we need to register 4 UK-trained players, and a further 4 academy players, for UEFA competitions. We're aiming for the CL or Europa League, so those rules apply in our thinking now. Can those wanting us to get rid of Longstaff please name the 4 better academy players we currently have on our books? Miley doesn't count, he's U21 so is a free registration and doesn't count to the numbers. If you can't name 4 better academy players aged 21+ (I'll give you a hint - you can't), then are you suggesting we go into European competition registering a squad of just 24 instead of 25? Because that's what we'll have to do. Longstaff will, quite rightly, stay. Or at the very least be offered a new contract and not be put up for sale. There's 0 chance we try to sell him.

No thanks, sounds like you're due a defeat!

Yep. Just whack ublock origin on and reject all cookies. It takes seconds and needs no technical expertise. If you're sat there without doing these things in the back end of 2024 and still reading the Chronicle website unfiltered, then I've very little sympathy.

I see this a lot but seriously do people not reject cookies, including legitimate interest cookies, and then have an ad-blocker running? Because that eliminates 90% of the problems.

Yeah I thought the same. How can you have been there a month and there's been 4 training sessions? No wonder your ideas aren't going in very quickly.

Haha yes I thought this. Didn't watch the replays in real-time as I got distracted but on MOTD I immediately thought that. It's an OG, not a Bruno goal, so the handball goes back to being accidental and irrelevant.

The way I look at the tackle is this... If my foot was coming down onto someone who I cared about and I didn't want that to happen, I'd find another way to land. He had options and chose not to take them.

Delighted to see him playing again. Thought he was fantastic first season with us and it's been a real shame that he's had such a bad time of it since. Obviously Hall looks to have the position nailed down as first choice but as is always said we need 2 good players in each position.

How would that even explain why the process took a long time? If they were investigating public executions, well they happened. So why then approve the takeover? What did the 2 year investigation uncover that changed anyone's mind on the matter? I know they're just mouthing off, but the argument doesn't even stand up to the most basic scrutiny.

True but I honestly don't fear then anymore. The boogeyman status they had has gone. Of course they could beat us, any team can, but I'm no longer thinking it's an automatic defeat like I did for the last 30 years. The spell is broken.

Sorry but do pro footballers still share hotel rooms? I earn in a year what most of these earn in a week and when I go away with work (lots) I get my own fucking room. And if I earned what they earn and was told the club could only pay for one room between 2, I'd just pay for my own room.

Not sure anyone mocks the mackems for having empty seats. We mock them for the club blatantly lying about attendances, about the mackems patting themselves on the back for the "attendances", and the fact that as a fanbase they so blind with rage about us they spend vast energies coming up with excuses as to why they aren't selling out all the time. If the club just announced 25k like is probably in the ground most weeks and owned that number collectively as a fanbase, then fair enough. Nothing to mock.

We finished 4th and then 7th They finished 4th and are currently 6th Yeah, night and day between the 2.

The 1v1 yesterday I actually think is forgiveable, I think he expected the keeper to go down and he was going to lift it over him. Keeper stood up though and made him look silly. It's like when a striker hits a penalty down the middle. Statistically it's the best penalty with the greatest chance of going in, but if the keeper doesn't move you look like a right bellend when he just catches it.

We need to register 4 academy produced players and another 4 UK-grown players in our 25 man squad. If you reckon we're OK for that without Longstaff then fair enough, but there's good value in just being academy-produced. (Miley won't count towards any of that as he's U21 and won't take up a squad place) So despite how much it'll make people's heads explode on here, I reckon the club will try hard to keep Longstaff.