DJ Barry Hammond

Interesting - the objections to signing a left back suggest a lot of opinions have changed on Luke Thomas. You don’t need to go back far to find growing disbelief on these boards that we didn’t sell Thomas for £5 million. Personally, I think looking at left back options on the assumption VK departs is not an unreasonable thing to do. It also needs to be remembered that some of our academy prospects could see a greater benefit from securing a loan move and getting regular minutes as a starting option rather than staying with the club and being a squad member with limited first team opportunities.

Seems the social media team have missed one today 😏

Including this which mysteriously cuts out to a silent black screen for a whole minute.

Ah yes, here’s the clubs tweet we’ve all been waiting on today!

ooooooo!

Not seeing @moore_94 lurking on the forum ready to create the ‘officially joined’ thread so can’t imagine an announcement is close.

Did you actually read the article (typical local news site that makes it hard to do). I did and it was a complete nothing burger! There was no social media tease of him joining Rangers (at least with what the article indicated) - and the rest was all public domain information.

You can’t just leave that bit hanging there - not as if that’s sacred information now!

Ah, so they’ll just need to nip down to Boots to get the film developed! So we’re talking about around an hour plus travel to and from Highcross for the announcement!

Hmmmm 🤨 See, I think Skipp’s a more likely candidate for the mutual termination free transfer in year 3 of his contract after failing to make more than 50 appearances for the club during that time situation. And for reference - he’s apparently made 28 appearances for us so far!

Haven’t there been other jobs, like in Germany and The Boro job that he also didn’t get?

Dare I say that we might have dodged a bullet here? To position yourself as leaving for months, only to then return a week into pre-season… what’s that about?

It’s probably also worth saying that QPR outplayed us for long periods in that game and that the score line somewhat flattered us.

Technically we’ve always been skint - an average yearly loss of £30 million a year doesn’t shout rude financial health does it! The key difference is that before King Power were willing to underwrite that debt. However, if they’re looking to sell the club, they can’t be reasonably expected to do that - for one, underwriting more debt means more club equity and in theory makes it harder for a third party to buy them out. So that would suggest in terms of finances, the club will need to move towards a break even model, which will be a lot different to what many fans have become accustomed to.

We haven’t run anywhere near to break even for a long time. What’s happening now is a sign that King Power is either no longer willing or able to bankroll the club. So perhaps fans are getting their wish - King Power are gearing for an exit.

Caught up in your wishing well, your hopes inside it…

Ha! Complaints of a lack of noise from the club around managerial appointment followed by “no, not that noise!” However - there is a couple of things to consider here… The information about interviews and who led them suggest this info has been passed on via the club - that it’s come via Percy strengthens that idea. In which case, it then becomes quite odd that you would allow the name drops of two out of work candidates that are on your shortlist if you’re actually planning on hiring one of them. I would therefore conclude that the preferred candidate is a name not mentioned in the tweet… and given the club is hopeful to conclude a deal “later this week” that would suggest the appointment is perhaps not as simple as just agreeing financial terms with a sole party.

I don’t agree - there was signs towards the back end of United’s season he was losing the plot. Plus, it instantly feels a ‘short term’ decision - Wilder wouldn’t last 2-3 seasons with us. I have no issue with the club sounding him out as an option - that would be sensible due diligence - but he’s not the best candidate by far. I’m also not totally against a delay in hiring anyone for the time being… it gives us time to look at Kingy more and for him to properly stake a claim - and my hunch is that he’s actually the best long term solution for us.

Cooper’s pre-season was shambolic - in theory it was so bad the club would have had justification to sack him before the season kicked-off!

I’d hire Kingy as manager.

Is that Kingy being caught on the mic instructing the press?

We’re not getting KDH back anytime soon. If Chelsea were to let him leave, I am sure the likes of Villa / Newcastle would be in for him. Personally I think he’d really fit in at United.

Is that even possible?

I don’t agree with your assertions. We have key positions within the squad that have huge question marks over them - with perhaps the key one being striker. It’s also not clear what our primary central defence and midfield partnerships will be and whether they will actually work well together (Are you that confident that Winks and Skipp can be a dominating midfield force between them?). So that is essentially the first 11’s spine that in reality, we know very little about. I would also suggest that more than “2 or 3” from the current squad will leave us - I think we’ll hit 5 departures easily, but that in reality we could see as many as 8-10 players leave us - in which case, we are essentially looking to build a completely new squad.

For all of those wondering why not July 1st / PSR stuff… I suspect there’s an accountancy trick in here. I’d imagine this week / months wages have already been settled, meaning any compensation package agreed today will fall into next week / months payroll - and therefore the new accounting period.