Ric Flair

Mesmerising. The noise

We'd need to be pretty desperate to sell him as I just dont see a fee of more than £18m being offered at this stage and that would be a majorly low to what his potential is. Really depends how much we may need to raise by the end of June....

He's not on a free, still got two years left on his deal. Will go for £10m + add ons.

Will serve us right for how we've handled his development.

My dilemma is, we already know what we know and it's hard to look past just how much of a pigs ear he's made of it. The catastrophic damage of his persistence with the same players during thst massive losing run and not scoring run is unforgivable. On the other hand if we were linked with him afresh this summer after he'd left PSV 2 years ago and had a stint as an assistant again plotting his next project with the emerging talents coming through then I'd be very pleased. Whatever the outcome if he stays, he's got a major rebuilding of his reputation on his hands. It was be rare for him to turn it around as well, tends not to happen but we will see.

Matias Almeyda has just left AEK Athens. Was a manager i wished we'd looked at when Brendan was sacked and then when Enzo left but not sure he'd be interested in a Championship club. He did a very impressive stint at AEK though, he's a class act. Based on my horrendous track record, one to cross off.

They've lost a lot of their star players in the last 2-3 years that has turned them from promotion chasing to where they are now, although they've still massively under performed. They are just one of those clubs that always produce decent players thst play at a higher level, whether that's via their academy or good recruitment.

Wonder if Ruud worked with him at Netherlands youth level.

5x5km trail race tomorrow, it piqued my interest when looking at the 2025 race calendar. Now it's nearly upon me and battling a stinking cold for over a week, I'm not quite so excited 😂😂 Done zero training for on/off running on the hour every hour for 5 hours, but hoping the weekly distance i average is more than sufficient. Again, not really done much trail running so could be a whole different ball game. Will try and enjoy it.

I've moved in to the 2nd stage of the grieving process - anger. I'm angry he's leaving us, how dare he consider playing for another football club. I can't comprehend it, as unreasonable as that sounds. I feel hurt. The club should be so ashamed of themselves.

Thanks mate, I felt I was a proper miserable bastard last night 😂

Yeah he's very impressive.

He was one of my cheap KDH like for likes, along with Alvyn Sanches. Rudoni even looks like KDH.

Yes

Delighted it's a Sheffield Utd and Sunderland playoff final. Two teams who've built their sides around a core group of academy players and young signings. If we do that, there'll be minimal complaints from me.

The shift change needed is at what age we are willing to blood them. We haven't given many much of a chance before the age of 19 previously and we've also struggled to get loans as well so you have that period of nothingness where vital development can be missed. It's obviously not just the clubs fault but the concern is we've got very very good 14-17 year olds (won the U16 league last year) and others in younger age groups supposedly equally as talented compared to previous eras. Waiting until 18-19+ like before is what needs to be scrutinised.

Will see if I can get him on the pod to slag off Rudkin.

I don't disagree with you with some of what Dyche " could " do here but I'll go back to my point about systematic change. That's bigger than any manager, but I simply cannot accept nothing changes off the field in that department and if Dyche is appointed and everything else remains the same, then what? If we did get some serious change and we'd appointed Dyche already, is that also an aligned fit? It just feels this is a huge succession of decisions required with far too many unknowns. The same could obviously be said about a manager with a philosophy for bringing through youth but everything else around them stays the same, it's perspective and perhaps I'm ignorant to the principles I identify with for my football club. Bottom line I want major change, I'm a massive hypocrite though in what that looks like.

I'll be honest, I'd rather that happen and he stays and plays next season, than goes this summer. 25+ games in the Championship next season if he contributes to the level of his potential tial and we'd be looking at a significant compensation fee at the very least.

That's quite an agenda. Our failures in the mid 00's were as a result of us bringing through academy players? Prioritising academy development over results does not have to be mutually exclusive, and yes maybe the wording from some of our fans makes it seem so. But the reasoning for doing so is far more reaching. As I've said, the successful model that any club like ours is currently in to progress and rebuild is to buy low, on modest wages and sell high. To have excellent scouting and succession planning. Having an academy that can provide a chunk of such players and the fact they are pure profit if and when they are moved on at the right time is a major advantage. I repeat, the financial mess this club is in already in is uncomfortable, caused by the vast wages and transfers wasted with an inability to move such players on and off the field structure in recruitment and innovation seldom working. Yet had we not been able to bring through the likes of Chilwell, Barnes and KDH just think how much worse a position we'd be in without that £120m pure profit. Maybe we'd not be, perhaps you're looking at it that these excellent products raise too much funds for us to then waste and overall we become worse off 😂 I know I'm being slightly facetious there and you state that it was the chronic mismanagement that saw our decline, that's the point. Linking that to academy players I just cannot agree with. By the way, we won the U16 league last season which Monga, Evans, Page and a few others players starred in. Those involved in the academy will tell you it's the current players aged 13-17 coming through where there's talent pool like we've not seen before/for quite some time. Built the ethos and platform for these players to come through and we limit the likes of Trey Nyoni and Tyrese Noubissie leaving before they break through in to the first team. And finally, whilst that period was horrific for us in 2005-2009 the brightest sparks were a causation of the likes of Mattock, Stearman, Wesolowski, King, Gradel and Schlupp coming through. Many of these went on to be PL players and I'd level the blame far more at the experienced players during that era that badly let us down, but also wasn't their fault they were paid vast money by a clueless board in a culture that had fell apart at this club. So yes, being a club that one of its main priorities is bringing through academy players is paramount. I do not entertain it's a causation of failure.

Forgot to mention Nefyn is a decently priced course if ever in North Wales. Made famous by the Visit Wales TV adverts several years ago, it's pretty good. Played it twice as I tend to go to that region at least once a year.

And if faced with an injury crisis in midfield he could always stick Michael Duff in to sit in front and keep it steady.

And he goes forward like he's just remembered he might have left the hob on.

Rightly or wrongly though he's got minimal track record despite a 15+ year span as a manager, the same as when considering other managers who don't have experience in x, y and z criteria. It's a red flag.

Exactly, there's no conclusive evidence he would do because the clubs he's previously been at he's not had such players to do so. Nor has he been massively proactive in the nucleus of his squad improvement year on year being exclusively younger players. It's all guess work and why he's an immediate no.