Xen

Sounds an awful lot like Youri's situation at Monaco. And a similar loan-with-a-view-to-buy deal. Hopefully this one pans out in the same way.

Trying to force a move to us, specifically, or just a PL club in general?

Imagine if, after all this, he fails the medical...

I doubt we'd go to all this trouble just for a 6 month deal. And I'm not sure what Shakhtar would gain out of it either - they're losing the player in the next 12 months regardless (can't see him signing a new contract) and seems like Lyon aren't that fussed about taking their option to buy, so its in Shakhtar's interest to sell. The 6 month clause - which seems to have come from Dorsett's tweet (in other words, dubious) - will most likely just be a contract work-around.

With Kristiansen, Tete and Ricardo's return, poor Timmy is going to go from being first/best-choice Left back, Right back and de facto right winger, to back-up across the board. He's due a break in all fairness. Although I suppose he got that after Belgium's WC exit...

*If* it's even a thing, then it won't functionally be any different from a normal transfer. Ultimately we'd pay Shakhtar the agreed upon fee and the player would sign a contract with us. There may be a number of contractual work-arounds needed, but the deal will ultimately be the same. Lyon will likely be owed some sort of compensation. Shakhtar will pay this, although that money will likely come from ourselves as part of the agreement. We may pay a loan fee upfront with an obligation to buy built in - so the main transfer may happen in June, but he'd be our player from now. The transfer fee would be fixed today - essentially a 'buy now pay later' to skirt past any weird contract laws in place. Player wages/bonuses etc may be more complicated if its officially a loan, as the player's terms at shakhtar, Lyon and here would potentially be different and may need some adjustment during the 'loan' period to make the contract more like what he would be offered were it a permanent signing (assuming we're paying more). The only thing I'm not sure on is if the player could refuse to sign for us in the summer, which seems unlikely anyway. I'm not sure if individual pre-contracts like that can be legally binding at this stage or if the player still has final say. It may be that FIFA etc need to get involved as its a special case, which could be the reason for any delays. I don't know if any other foreign players from the league have moved in similar circumstances, but it's certainly not a 'normal' transfer, by any means. But once the paperwork is sorted the underlying deal will be nothing out of the ordinary.

This feels like nonsense. If his contract was suspended then he couldn't have signed 'on loan' for Lyon - it would've been a short-term regular contract instead (i.e. no option to buy). Even if it is true though that we can't buy him (yet), then surely we'd just agree a loan with compulsory buy clause in June, which would be functionally the same thing as a normal transfer (except maybe a difference in how the player's wages are structured).

Hoping this gets to All STHs, can pretty much see the ground from my flat so would be rude not to

I live in Manchester now (since just before the first strikes started) and don't drive, so I'm reliant on the trains. It's made planning trips difficult, and more expensive when i've had to make other arrangements (like a hotel and coach trip to get back after Fulham). It's a massive inconvenience, obviously, but that's kinda the point. As with most of the other strike action at the moment, I back it and hope they get what they're after. Ultimately I hope we go back to the days of a public railway as it's a joke, particularly some of the services in the NW.

None of the players on the pitch were alive when we last used that badge

Just collected mine, main ticket office/club shop.

Still waiting on my ticket arriving in the post... Emailed that link posted earlier so fingers crossed they act quickly enough 😅 Anyone else still waiting for theirs?

He's probably just doing other conditioning work to stay fit without aggravating the knee injury, but its just easier to say 'rehab' as a catch-all term for that kind of thing. Probably making use of those fancy cryo-chambers and other rapid-rehab stuff they'll have available to them, too.

Schlupp was born in '92, spent 5 years in the academy from '05-'10 - before his 18th birthday. By the rules he needed 5 years before turning 21 to be considered naturalised, so yep, he could switch his allegiance if he wanted to. Chilwell was '96, and in our academy from 2009-2015 (when he would've been 19) so also qualifies for the same reason. We'd have a very strong looking left hand side, with Barnes, Chilwell, Thomas, Schlupp all available, and a solid midfield as well with KDH/Choudhury. Che Adams up front as well. CB not as strong, but Bassey/Moore would be solid enough. Would mostly be academy players filling up the rest of the spots. Alves/Braybrooke/Wormleighton in particular who are perhaps a couple years off of being established PL talents as well. There'll be loads of mid-tier non-international PL players who could qualify through the parents/grandparents rule, but no way of easily identifying them...

Being told to leave because of major attitude issues, Roma fans really aren't keen on him. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/yqu320/goal_italia_mourinho_roma_have_been_betrayed_by_a/

This is why I'd be happy with him coming in. I wouldnt necessarily want him as our first option, but I don't think we'd go far wrong with him leading the way. Short term deal and he'd set us right. Longer term his ceiling perhaps isn't the level we'd want to be (although you could've said the same about someone like Potter - everyone could have their breakthrough club), but I'd have full confidence that he'd get the backing of the players and we'd get a bit more consistency. At the very least, it'd be refreshing to have a manager who is up front and honest, where you can trust what they say in interviews and you know it's not going to be self-serving and diverting blame to protect their reputation. For me, Dyche seems like that kind of personality.

Maddison out-strengthing Adama Traore in the buildup for that

Thought he was onside to be honest. Surely the linesman has to let that go on and let VAR deal with it?

4 perfect passes and a great finish. Lovely, lovely stuff.

WHAT A GOAL

Youri pretty much playing RB is a weird choice. Did very well there though.

The vast majority of managers, no. Dyche's circumstances match up well with ours though so it could be that rare case where it works out: - Out of work at the moment and would want to show he's still got it at this level - More resources/better players than he's been able to work with before, so a different kind of challenge - Perception of a generally well run club with owners who are good to work with - Local to home, so no personal disruption - Very little risk from his perspective; he'll either increase his profile or he can point to the same failings Rodgers has as mitigating circumstances Throw in some decent incentives (££ for league position) and maybe dangle a carrot of a permanent contract for Europe qualification or a league/fa cup, and I think he'd go for it.

I still think - given the current position and trajectory of the club - someone like Dyche coming in on (ideally) a short-term deal til the end of the season would be the best fit to get us back on track. Nothing fancy, get the basics right and everyone pulling in the right direction. He's always came across to me as a hard worker and genuinely likeable character, rather than the David Brent caricature we have in charge at present, and we need someone like that to win the fans back around and bring certain exiled players back into the fold (and not play favourites with other ever-presents) Wouldn't cost a fortune, he lives fairly local (Kettering I believe) and obviously available. Not a glamorous pick, but would get the job done.

It's as simple as this. It really is. And at that point it becomes a question of "when is it too late?" The sooner the better obviously, but I can unfortunately see him being given until the WC. If he's still at the helm after that point (which basically means he gets another transfer window) then the damage is done and the club won't be the same even if we do stay up. Get rid of him tonight and I'd work on convincing someone like Dyche to come on a short-term deal to get us playing with some sort of identity again - that alone will be enough to keep us up and we can step 'up' from there if needed after this shitshow of a year.

Well I tested positive for Covid earlier in the week (thankfully v mild after day 1) and one of my first thoughts was genuinely "At least I don't have to feel guilty about not wanting to travel down on Saturday, now". Which I think sums it up rather well. It's gone from being something I've enjoyed - even when we've had crap spells - to something that feels like a chore and I'm apathetic about at best.