Ric Flair

I look at it another way. It's unheard of for us to blood academy players under the age of 18-19, often they're even older so the very fact we've got two in Monga and Evans aged 15 and 16 is evidence of the rare talents we have on our hands and our willingness to start to use them. It's also signs of the time it's taken for our success over the last decade, to translate in to the better calibre of academy players we've been able to produce as we grew as a club. This is a golden era in terms of our academy and it's a shame the overall health of our club is at it's worst for quite some time too, but that makes it all the more reason we show the bravery to bring these talents through. We're also going to be playing at a lower level so we have to offer Monga, Evans et al a reason to shun more money and the glitz of a move to a PL side and that's first team football. It's rare for 15 and 16 year olds to play regular 1st team football, most certainly in the top two divisions but the trait common in those who did and were successful such as the Bellingham's, Nwaneri, Chris Rigg, Harvey Elliott, Milner, Bale, Rooney, Wilshere, Sterling etc was they were already physically capable at that age. Monga especially, but Evans as well are seemingly adept to being able to compete against players much older than them and so add in the obvious talent makes the gap to being ready much less than other young players coming through. I repeat it's pretty much unheard of for us to do this and for 15 year olds to appear in the PL, this doesn't appear to be a publicity stunt. They're outliers but outliers only happen if they're enabled and at this stage I'm not seeing any reason not to consider Monga and Evans as valued first team players next season if they stay. Just to reiterate the special talents, Jake Evans is the youngest player in PL2 history to be top scorer, he's scored and assisted more at his age than Ethan Nwaneri did last season at that level and look at him now. Evans turns 17 next month, he's outgrown PL2 football quite evidently having done the same at U16 and U18 level the year before when we won the U16 PL Cup, Monga being another major contributor to that. World at their feet.

I'm not completely sold that Monga is better than Evans. Both are ridiculously talented.

What experience did Nigel Pearson have when he came to us 1st time around? We also cannot be relying on just the manager and his staff to completely rebuild us as it requires more above them to align and support the process. The likelihood of thst all happening remains to be seen but the biggest priority from our next manager is having the bravery to bring through and use our academy players. Cleverley therefore is not the worst shout in the world.

The golden era for our academy, need the bravery to blood them (when the time is right) and show them the pathway is to stay with us for the early part of their senior career at least.

No, this club doesn't do bargains.

Seems a bit at odds though with him having had absolutely no steer from the club on what they are going to do, they're ignoring him.

Yes of course!

I must say, the bits I've seen of Charlie Savage i think he's capable of making it to the highest level. Reminds me of Braybrooke but with more aggression and evidently taller.

What is can't reconcile with my brain is if the club can afford to sack him in this seasons accounts then why is he still here? If they can't afford to part ways then it is truly mind blowing how we've left ourselves in this position. I can't imagine the club still believe he's the right man to take us forward, surely not?

If that's true then his sale will not be much use for funding any potential PSR shortfall or generate serious funds for promotion. I'd pitch a realistic ask of £30-35m so not massively more but with a sell on or add ons. £23m is utter muck though. No wonder the likes of Evans, Nelson etc are being linked away too....

I do think a naive PL side comes in for Ayew with just 12 months left of his deal. Reid has MLS interest but can well see us being lumbered.

For a club like ours? What we going to do with £12m? What we actually need to to create £40-50m players again. It's an art to know when to flip and for an untested 16 year old on thr face of it it would be a big fee but he's the youngest top scorer in the PL2, surpassing Ethan Nwaneri who wouldn't go for anything less than £50m if he were to be available. There's several players we ought to be able to generate £12m for but sadly we have the business acumen of a grey seal.

Couldn't disagree more if I tried.

Just tried the Bosworth half marathon route ahead of the race on Sunday. Lovely stuff, didn't see a moving vehicle for the first half of it. Did have to stop for a Richard III and got lost but 1hr 43 is a PB by 5 mins. Now to follow it up with a 1hr 45 in an official race and I can rest up for the year 😂😂

Maybe they're looking to pay above the odds to keep it out of a tribunal. I did fear he'd be linked away. FFS

I think we could buy him for £6-7m

Always had a soft spot for him, quite like he's not the robotic modern attacking full back every other player has to tey and be now. He's efficient at most areas of his game and I really hope he makes LB his own next season and we get to see the best of him.

Anyone who brings me Franculino Dju would get my full backing.

My wildcard POTS next season pick. We'll then give him a new 5 year deal and change manager and who won't play him.

Maybe have a word with his manager Gary Rowett then. Usually managers down play things in comparison to fans expectations but when he's trumping him up as a future England international and top class PL defender then you're trumping down wind son and you'll smell it fast.

Can't believe I forgot about Abdul, if he also stays we have so many options. Ayew and BDCR need to be moved on to ensure we give proper gametime to Alves, Evans and Monga.

No, but in a fluid front three with Mavididi and Evans/Monga would likely work.

Salech from Cardiff too

It's a decent return and there's so much more to come from him. The biggest test for him was whether he could stand up to the rigours of playing regularly and not get persistently injured. One minor injury for a few games aside, both before and after that he was in very good form and it's probably only the last 3-4 games that Cardiff properly fell apart. I know they struggled throughout the season, but there was fight in the side right up until these final few weeks when the pressure got to them. We can definitely benefit and utilise his ability to be an impact player. He was far more effective coming on and changing games, we need players like that.

He's a result against Ipswich and he's pretty much matched or bettered Cooper's against the same opposition 😂