reynard

I think people need to differentiate between the actual place and the facilities there and the culture. It is without question a top class facility. It is also the players place of work. In that sense it is of course an asset. If you're a player and offered two similar deals and one is going to be training in basically a glorified shed in a field or somewhere like Seagrave there is a good chance the quality of the place where you will work may have an influence. Of course the culture of what goes on there is clearly lacking and that need addressing but it isn't the actual place that is to blame but the attitude of the management who work from it. With the right people in charge, the right management, recruitment, medical and fitness staff it could easily be a huge asset. The fact is the club needs a major overhaul not just on the pitch but off it as well.

Roger Davies was a club record signing at the time. Either 300 or 600K I can't recall which but a lot of money for us back in 1977.

I couldn't agree more. I'd almost say this is more key than the Cbs.

I admire your optimism but it is hard to see quite how we are going to resolve our on field issues. we have 4 centre halves, one out for the season, the other 3 all want to leave but are not looking likely to go. Two of them, even if they stay, can't play the way the manager wants them to play. We have a left back who can't play that way and a keeper who can't play that way who we have just, for some unknown reason recruited. The midfield also basically can't play that way if we keep picking Skipp or Hamza. We also look very lightweight in midfield. We really need a ball winning midfielder who can actually pass the ball. Up front we look even worse. Cullen looks a dead loss. Burns might be ok and the two loanees also might be good. It is too early to say with Bristric but I can't say that I'm overwhelmingly confident he will be the answer based on what I've seen so far limited though that is of course. If he were to pick up an injury we basically have no striker. Reid is essentially useless. If we stick to the current method of playing, we need 3 centre backs to leave and 3 to come in, Another midfielder who can actually receive the ball facing his own goal, another centre forward with some actual pace. All of the new players have to be technically good enough to play this way. So in the next week I'd say we need to get rid of at least 5 players and bring in 6 or 7 others. Will this happen? very unlikely I'd say. Without this, in a month or so, I fear we will be about where we are now in terms of league position.

I think you and I are on the same page pretty much. His was not an appointment I welcomed but he's here now and he's not going anywhere in the next few weeks. I hope he succeeds for obvious reasons but I'm really not sure he will. You're spot on re the recruitment so far but there are some younger recruits who have not had a time to bed in yet who may offer the skills required. I do fear though that the spine of the team is totally inadequate as it stands. Not sure we have a decent keeper, the centre half situation needs sorting this week. We clearly have players who don't want to be here or who aren't good enough. There's no point in hanging on to players who don't want to be here. Especially when they aren't capable of playing the style of football the manager requires. Whether, at this level, we could recruit 2 centre halves who can is a different question. I really think we need a Neil Lennon type of player. Our midfield looks so lightweight and unable to break up play and then move the ball quickly. Skipp isn't the answer. Braybrooke looks good but I think he needs to play with someone who, like Lennon, can give him more time on the ball to be creative. As you say the striker situation is ridiculous. Need another one in before the window closes. Even with the right recruits I don't think we're in for an especially entertaining season as things stand. There's too much going on behind the scenes at the club right now to say what happens if we're struggling after a dozen games. I know managers and players will come out and say it doesn't affect them but it is hard to think it doesn't. New ownership could mean a complete new approach and this breeds uncertainty on and off the pitch.

I'm not going to slag him off but there are some concerns even after just 2 competitive games. I'd say we just don't have the players to play the way he wants to play. As a manager in any environment you either change the personnel so you have the skill set required, or you adapt what you want to do and how you want to do it to match the skill sets of the personnel you have. Hopefully, the players we have brought in will be able to play the way he wants to play but the core of the side that started today simply doesn't have the core skills required and I didn't see any plan B out there or any attempt to adapt.

Good game, great goal.

Well based on that performance from Burns you can have him back. Quite obvious to see why you were happy to let him go. Hopefully he will improve but he looked distinctly average today. Obviously just one game but not impressed.

Simply woeful. Can't think of a single thing he did well.

Being a good character doesn't equal being an effective member of the team on the pitch. As debuts go that was one of the worst I've seen in a long time. Offered absolutely nothing. the best thing he did was getting off the pitch quickly when he was subbed. Probably the quickest he moved all match. Only the first game but hard to see what he will offer on the pitch. There's a reason teams are happy to let players like this leave as they offer very little apart from being decent chaps.

He was awful. No other word to describe his performance. Just doesn't inspire any confidence in the defence. Hos passing and kicking were generally woeful.

Not a great performance at all. Alves was decent but faded in the second half. Braybrooke was, I thought, largely anonymous in the first half but a lot better in the second though he really needs more time on the ball than I think he's likely to get. The gamechanger for me were the subs. Theirs came on and made a difference, ours came on and we seemed to lose shape and purpose. I think we should be concerned about the manner of play. We simply don't have the players with he skill level to play this short passing game. We could easily have conceded 3 or 4 today. Our goal was a good one. The pace at which we moved the ball was good and the link up play excellent and the finish top draw. But we move the ball too slowly. I wasn't impressed by Burns but to be fair we didn't pass the ball quickly enough to him. generally we were too ponderous and delayed passing until it was too late. We desperately need a ball winning midfielder and generally more physicality in the side. Every side we play seems to be stronger and physically better than us. The keeper looks like a bomb scare. Reid needs to go he's useless. The whole defence looks as if it could concede at any moment. Early days but the experienced players brought in don't look to have added much but let's see over the next few games. Right now I'd guess this team finishes anything between 12th and 18th. We need a few out and a few in which could make a difference. The fact we barely did anything positive after we scored is also a concern.

I agree. Also going into administration means there is a chance that players will not have been paid. If this was to be the case that would mean that, as a club, we would have broken the contract with the players thus allowing them to move, if the could, at will. Leaving us with potentially no or fewer playing staff. Whether Top or King Power, any longer, have the financial ability to support the club over anything other than the short term is in question. The, relatively quick sale, of some of our saleable assets, and the fact that we are happy to offload, for presumably small fees, players from the reserve team would indicate that cash is needed to maintain the club as none as so far been reinvested in the playing staff. What is the position regarding non-playing/stadium staff? Have we laid off people or have we kept on everyone?

A real sitting on the fence reply but I really don't know. There are too many facts that make everything uncertain. I think it is hard to read anything much into pre-season. The potential sale of the club makes it unlikely that any serious money will be spent on incoming players, even if we had it. The lack of a striker is a real concern and probably ideally we would need 2 to come in. We still need to shift out some more players to help reduce the wage bill and it remains to be seen who they can manage to shift. There's a lot of optimism on here, which is fine, that this league is basically crap and that we will be fine. I'm not that sure that will be the case. It looks like we will be playing several young players in the team which may work out well or may not. Simply we don't know. It is one thing to look good in a meaningless pre-season friendly, quite another to do the same over the course of a long season playing against seasoned pros. Another uncertainty is the manager and his team. We know what style we are likely to get but will they be unsettled by the talk of a buy out of the club? Especially if new owners come in who don't especially want him and his team and may wish to replace them. Add to the mix any potential court case with Leeds and right now I'd say the club is quite unstable. A squad that may not resemble the final one makes it hard to say with any confidence how we will do.

Nor me. They look tired and past it to me. England will get to the final without any bother in my opinion. The other sides in the same half are very average. I also think England will win the whole thing. Not because they are an especially great team but because they are the least worst of all the teams remaining. I've watched finals since the early 70s and this is one of the worst I've seen in terms of quality. England will not have a better chance to become world champions.

Thanks for doing this research. I think this last list puts into context the whole farce that the extended format has become. When you can finish third in a group and still qualify it can be really affected by which was the fourth side in the group and how bad they were. Egypt qualified from a group with two poor teams in it and so did England. There's no doubt African football has improved immensely and teams are unrecognizable from the Zaire side I recall in the 1974 (?) world cup.

Yes but look at the opponents. They have basically hardly played anyone decent. Mexico, like most of the sides in this world cup, are frankly bang average. England should win and if they can't beat Mexico then they don't deserve to win the world cup. England have better players in every position. I'm not saying it will be easy but I'd be disappointed if England don't win.

Depends on how serious you are. If you want to just self publish there are many ways of doing this. Lots of printers around who can print etc. I think you can do it through Amazon even? If you want to do it properly then buy or take out of the library the Artists and Writers yearbook. The new edition will be out in July. This list all the relevant agents that you can contact. etc. The people behind the book also run courses I think to help people wanting to write books. Sending manuscripts direct to publishers is pretty much a waste of time as only around 2% of books published come from what is called the slush pile. Agents submit manuscripts to publishers who they think will be interested. If you want to just publish yourself then I'd look for a company that can print and help design etc. I've seen many self published books over the years that look terrible because the jacket is awful. Also consider how you want to publish. You don't have to have a physical book you could just publish an ebook version. pretty sure this is where amazon kick in. There have been egs of self published ebooks becoming physical books taken on by major publishers but they are few in number.

Not really a surprise.

Possibly though the money is owed to the banks fortunately and not yet to HMRC. If they force us into administration the banks will probably not get all their money back. Of course we could just run out of money for the day to day running of the club which would be another situation altogether.

This. I'm disgusted by that performance. Let's start trying in the last 20 minutes. A bit more of that sort of effort earlier in the season and we might, just might, not have been relegated. Cowards and losers the lot of them. Too many overpaid has-beens who hopefully won't play for us again. I'm not a fan of Rowett but he's got every reason to be completely pissed off with the players. Why on earth couldn't they show the fight they showed in the final 20 minutes before.

Puts into clear perspective what many of us already know/fear. Going to be potentially very grim.

Due to the gross financial mismanagement of the last few years I think we will have to accept pretty much any offer we get for players. Say a club offers 3 million for Nelson, he will be gone.

el Khannouss is already gone. Deal is sorted.

He did sign some dross for them though. But promoting Rudkin over anyone is a mistake. He wouldn't even be able to make a decent cup of tea.