ClaphamFox

I haven’t forgotten. However we didn’t spend a single penny on a permanent transfer last summer despite the fact that the squad was desperately in need of a refresh. I also don’t expect us to spend any money this transfer window unless we somehow manage to shift Winks, Soumare, Faes, etc. On the balance of evidence I think it’s fair to conclude that financial reality has well and truly bitten and that we are not going to offer Antonio silly money. In fact I suspect the reason he hasn’t signed yet is because we haven’t offered him much and he’s waiting to see if he gets any other offers. If we were offering the amount some people think we’ll offer, he’d have snapped our hand off already.

Antonio will be cheap because he’s 35 and because he’s coming back from a near-fatal accident in which he broke both of his legs. Not a single club in the country is going to offer him high wages, especially not us given our financial limitations. In fact the only reason we’re even looking at him rather than trying to sign somebody else is because we expect him to cost very little. If the deal ends up not going through, it will be because he’s asking for too much. None of which means I have much confidence that this move—if it happens—will work. I’m deeply sceptical about it. But anybody suggesting Antonio be expensive is completely missing the point about why we’re even considering him.

His answer was a textbook response from a player who knows he may end up staying at the club he’s currently loaned to. It was respectful to Newport and would have kept their fans behind him had he stayed. He’s been media trained well.

“Better than Carrick” isn’t much of a bar to clear, is it? And no, I couldn’t have said the same about Lampard as his managerial record in England prior to Coventry included some successes, whereas Gerrard was a disaster in his only job in this country.

Gerrard was horrendous in his only job in English football. Villa improved massively the moment he left. He’d be a terrible choice.

He certainly doesn’t seem to know how to manage this group of players. The problem is, it isn’t clear that there is someone else out there who: a) would be an upgrade on Cifuentes; and b) would take the job.

Both of these statements are completely untrue.

The situation in Iran is worth monitoring. It could be significant. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36810pkz96o

Surely Silko?

No reputable source has touched it so far. If it’s true I would expect one of the journalists who follow us to mention it this morning—a number of them were very quick to jump on the delayed December payment story. The email being circulated still reads like a fake to me. At the very least I’m certain it’s not an official email from the HR dept. As others have speculated, it could be from somebody lower down, such as the head of stewards or something. But overall I’m still a little suspicious about it.

Either it’s fake or they’ve handed over internal communications to somebody with no grasp of English grammar, which would be a weird thing to do but not necessarily surprising given the way we seem to operate. However I’m inclined to believe it’s fake.

We can repeat this sentiment over and over again but it still won’t happen. Unfortunately we’re in a near-impossible situation: we’re led by a nepo baby owner who just regards running the football club as one of his hobbies (and not even the most important one) but who retains a strong sentimental attachment to the club because his father died at the stadium and is commemorated there. This sentimental attachment is likely making him very reluctant to sell up but he’ll never have the acumen, drive or personality to run the club effectively, leaving us in a terrible stalemate from which there is no obvious escape.

Yes.

3-0 HT.

We’ll get four wins and also 15-point PSR deduction, leaving us on -3.

Comfortably the best footballer I’ve actually seen play for us. I grew up listening to tales of Frankie Worthington and Sep Smith, neither of whom I was around for so can’t compare.

I suppose for many fans their love for the club is so deeply embedded that it’s not something they can switch off and on depending on how they feel about the owners. In exactly the same way that fans across the world keep showing up when they’re pissed off with the people who run their clubs. Supporting a football club is not a rational choice that can be changed like choosing to shop in a different supermarket. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t ‘make sense’ to you?

I know Davis Walliams has been cancelled, but…

If he’d signed for Man City already he wouldn’t be playing for us at all. It would make literally zero sense to have an agreement with another club to protect a player from injury and then bring him on for 15-20min cameos when there’s no benefit in doing so because game is already lost and yet would still risk him getting injured.

Not obviously better. What would be the point?

You do if the current directors are completely incapable of choosing the right replacement.

There is a lot of truth in what you say, but I think you’re missing something important. Success in football is not just down to a combination of squad strength and the quality of the manager. Club culture also plays a very important role. And there’s every indication that our club culture has become rotten. Unfortunately there is a limit to what most managers will be able to achieve in a club with a rotten culture. An elite level manager might have a big enough personality to transform the culture, but elite managers are hard to come by. So until there are profound changes in how we operate as a club, changing the manager again may have very little impact.

Of the Legion.

You’re right. That will be Danny Ward’s fault.

One Bob Cratchit! There’s only one Bob Cratchit! One Bob Craaaatchit… 🎶