Ric Flair

Debatable. He'd argue what is expected of him overnight vs travelling to and from across each day like he's done for over two seasons. And anyway, even if it was legitimate to him not fulfilling his contract, how often are players continually fined or withheld their wages? They aren't, they have so much power. I doubt we are very strict on clauses in contracts either, not with the laxadasical approach taken to the amount we offer on the flop.

Justin has been a solid servant for us, more than got our outlay on him in terms of output. His performances up until his injury in the 2020/21 season were excellent. He's the sort that given his likely high wages and minimal book value that we should be sensible with. If Leeds offered £5m and covered all his wages then I'd call that par for the course.

Not quite true though is it. He doesn't have to at all, not unless it was written in to his contract. He can do the 100 mile drive each way every time he has to be in and rhe club can't do anything about it. Not like we have a competent DoF to sell him either is there? 😂😂😂😂

I know and yet they are a horrible mix even at this level.

I still think central midfield is more important than a new striker, I really do.

I suspect Silko Thomas, Wanya Marcal, Braybrooke, Richards and Joseph are the obvious ones. Possibly Logan Briggs too.

I simply love Asics, no other brand comes close in running trainers for my requirements. The scandalous thing is the Jolt 4 which cost about £45 if you can still find them are the best all rounder for me. Can run 20-30km in them and no bother which compared to my pricey Brooks I bought several months ago my feet ache like fcuk after 10km. Novablast 5 I find very reactive even over longer distances but no single shoe is going to suit everyone, you only have to read your findings on the same brand and models but the iterations to it. Bloody minefield.

Managed to score a ripper against us which probably says more about us than him 😂😂😂

At QPR he's brought through Rayan Kolli and Sinclair Armstrong and plus signed the likes of Kieran Morgan from Spurs academy and used him from the off. At Hammarby he brought through Erabi, Gül, Karlsson, Madjed, worked with Williot Swedberg and Toure and plenty others. Will look at the clubs prior to that as well.

Genuinely rather Cifuentes than Rohl based on his track record with developing young players, in particular bringing through academy players. Rohl's got minimal track record of this and I've had a gutful of giving managers the benefit of the doubt that they'll do it. Marti appears he does at every club he's been at.

What strikes me as odd is that we have supposedly breached PSR for the 3 years up to the end of 23/24 but having spent fairly significantly in 24/25 and had well documented financial issues in January that prevented further spending, we didn't sell anyone in June. Have we complied with PSR for 24/25 and can we comply for 25/26 with such a bloated squad? It will be even more painful if we continue to make a pigs ear of selling players and get charged with further breaches to PSR. The horizon of 9 players contracts ending next summer, many of which will be our highest paid players might be scant consolation if we're getting hit by multiple points deductions or transfer embargoes.

January is an even worse transfer window for us than the summer. Don't be fooled that will happen at all. Those 9 players out of contract next summer will only have a few more months to wait come January to then take advantage of being a free agent and the likely bigger gains in signing on fee than moving in January and our club getting a fee. We've been notoriously poor at moving players on with less than a year to go. Got £1.8m for Demarai Gray and had to agree to a loan for Perez in his last year.

There were a number of reports we had been scouting him regularly.

This is it, next summer needs to be the reset that should have happened 2-3 years ago but we maintained the arrogance that we could get straight back up paying daft money and stay up and the decline would be seen as a brief deviation. It clearly isn't and our club should be horrified at the mistakes it has made and the refusal to hold those accountable for it who remain in their senior positions. Or we are just a social experiment which I've long thought we are as there's no explaining the last 20-30 years of us. We are mayhem.

This is not new, certainly not to the fans but just as much to our club. Of course it's difficult to sell players who have had mixed success here and one of the biggest obstacles is if you've paid vastly inflated fees for them in the first place and/or paid them wages that no other similar club would have done. Yet here we are, time and time again, repeating the same mistakes over and over and fans defend it. Back in the summer of 2022 we should have have the rude awakening where we couldn't do the squad refresh we needed as we either asked for too much for the players we needed to move on or the moves didn't transpire because of the culmination of what I've described above. Especially when we then got relegated as a result. Yet what did we learn? We get reports from Phil Hay who covers Leeds that we were willing to pay Jack Harrison £100k a week and them £20m + despite him having a short amount of his contract left, according to John Percy one of Winks or Coady is on £70k a week in the Championship, that rose to God knows what when we got promoted. If selling players is so difficult, don't make it even harder for you by taking away any financial flexibility the club may be able to build up by paying over the odds. Likewise the unreasonable transfer fees quoted. We get greedy despite scant evidence of being strong negotiators and getting good money for fringe players in the past. Sadly we are unlikely to see any change until we get a new ownership and Rudkin departs. Just in this holding pen of decline until it's got so bad that it'll br a pipe dream to get even remotely close to what we once were. Unforgivable.

Sulemana is the damning evidence, been an absolute disaster at Southampton in the same vain as Soumare and Daka on big wages and they get £15m for him. We moved the goalposts on both players when we had bids for them as we got greedy and no chance now.

Some evidence of us not selling unwanted players due to unreasonable fees requested, only for us to not use them/pay them multiple millions in wages and then leave for a free at the end of their contracts. See Daniel Iversen, Dennis Praet and to a degree Luke Thomas. Offered several million by Hoffenheim back in January having not used him for a few years.

No Braybrooke amongst this is a shame. Really hope we can get him a loan to League One or Two and he can make an impact. I'm not giving up on him yet.

Can't see how he'll end up back in the Championship.

Unfortunately Dju is likely to get picked up by a far better placed club than us now. I have been suggesting him for the last 2+ years. Was the ideal striker for us to have pursued under Enzo when in the Championship and likewise last summer under Cooper. Had a fairly quiet season last year but he's started this season explosively and we've no chance, even though we have scored him in recent months.

And equally unbelievable the person who solely leads on this and failed time and time again to move players on (plus give them heinously high wages in the 1st place) remains in post, undeterred not under scrutiny from our club.

Whilst Rudkin, Glover and the like are still here I'd prefer minimal incomings anyway as we are an utter disaster with this combination. It's equally unrealistic though that we get the 7-8 out needed to maybe just get 1-2 in on loan let's say. Rudkin has never managed that level of activity.

Karlsbakk with another brace (both pens) this weekend.

Wednesday night

I wonder what on earth goes through our prospective new managers minds during the interviews and negotiations when it becomes abundantly clear that their objectives and targets rely on their boss to sell players that he's never been able to do at the required level. I wonder if any have ever flagged this during discussions..... 😂