cowl

I can't see it happening for Van Aken here now, but he's also been unlucky with the timings of his injuries. Almost 3 years since we signed him now, and he can only have been available to play for little more than maybe 20 or 30 games. I suppose we saw enough of the negatives to his game to feel certain enough about his chances. Even so, maybe Monk will take a look and see something there - but I suspect it's far more likely we'll be trying to get him fully out the door this summer.

I doubt DC was actually preventing Monk from bringing his coaches in though. Birmingham seemed to be spitefully digging their heels in over Beattie, and so I assume Monk was prepared to wait for them rather than bringing in someone he'd not worked with before.

Maybe he could mow the grass like he used to do Scunny?

I thought it was that they didn't get further punishment, rather than an actual reduction.

A believer you mean?

Macclesfield could well fold. Superb work from the EFL on this - they must be so proud of themselves. In the meantime, they look idly on without doing a single thing about the biggest source of inequality throughout the football league which are the parachute payments. The consequences of them spiral all the way down to the conference. They behave as though these payments don't even exist, or at least, aren't anything to do with them. And then they have the gall to talk about the ‘integrity of the competition’. I've really grown to despise them over these last 5 years or so.

Yeah, I believe you.

...erm...

Good move for the lad! You fear for the younger lads we released this summer given the current climate in football, so to have got himself fixed up with another league club is something he can be very happy with. I hope he does well.

And his middle name is Sheridan. This is happening...

For me, my whelm tends to be a measure of how I feel about the direction we're heading (perhaps for everyone, I don't know). When we closed out the season before this last one, under Bruce, I felt positive - and this despite long-knowing our current owner is highly incompetent, albeit well-meaning. And then despite the whelm taking an almighty hit after Bruce leaving, I sat down for my Christmas lunch with a very healthy whelm (we were third, after all). Post-Christmas has been hard to describe, but I don't recall experiencing whelm being sucked out of my body so rapidly. But, I do honestly suspect the worst of it is over. Yes, we still have the same owner, yes, we start the season with a points deduction, and yes, we have a manager that I very little inspired by - but I feel there is hope that we might just be able to build something better from here. Mind you, I do tend to get positive between the seasons anyway - probably slightly beyond reason. Anyway, I feel an oddly ‘okay, considering...’ 40ish% level of whelm.

The guys reasoning alone is a little suspect, as it seems to imply the player's will to join his mate at Wednesday is merely enough for us to immediately enter into discussions to sign him, whether we'd previously expressed an interest in signing him or not - as though we're a slag that would drop her knickers for anyone that seems ‘up for it’. Although just following this analogy, given our past history, since we've been f*cked over that many times in the transfer market, it wouldn't surprise me if we went and signed him now!

I actually have some sympathy with the players in Leagues One and Two. In fact, I don't entirely agree with a salary cap anyway. What I'd prefer to see is something that I'm not entirely sure is even legal at present, and that would be for the Premier League to enforce a rule that says that all players registered to play for a Premier League club must have a rule in their contract that stipulates that upon the even of a relegation, the contract is automatically reduced by a certain percentage. That percentage, though it would have to be something that is calculated so that it's the same fixed percentage for all players, would be whatever percentage it would allow for clubs to operate at The Championship without the need for parachute payments. I don't think this would ever happen though because the Premier League would be too concerned that the better players would go to other leagues.

If he's back tracked to clarify his meaning then it's no different and hardly worthy of little more drama than the way you back tracked earlier from your comments about ‘working class lads’. Basically, Odubajo is taking exception to being called a ‘w*nk c*nt’ and told to ‘f*ck off back to Brentford’. That's the long and short of it. If his comments suggest this or suggest that, then you'd think they can nevertheless be seen in the context of someone who is reacting to being verbally abused like that.