deep blue

If Cifuentes is good at finding raw (I.e cheap) talent from Scandinavia, as was suggested earlier on here, then he might have enough influence on the signings for us to get in a gem from that area.

Me too, but part of the reason is that I've managed, with persistence to find the more specific hospital numbers to ring and have been prepared to myther them (politely).

Well done Lynn and the rest of the group involved in setting up the webinar. It was very well run and presented. Let's hope you can have more of an impact with the club on some of those issues. (I was the anonymous "Neil" on the Zoom; my camera driver packed up ... no loss).

But your assertion of "mediocrity" in all the earlier years is way off the mark. We have had the period of the Ice Kings, 3 appearances in the cup final, occasional skirmishes in Europe, league Cup wins, etc etc. The fact is that in the decades from 1955 to 2005 we have switched between the old div1 and div2 with regularity, which has involved mediocrity in div2 but mixed with the many successes of promotion to div1 and several successful spells in the top division (e.g. the Bloomfield era when we had 3 England internationals in the team). One of the endearing aspects of supporting City is that it's rarely been boring .. a few spells of bad management but mostly good. What's different now is how abject is the whole mismanagement running right through the club, the apparent "don't care" attitude and the disdain shown for supporters. The way that this neglect has seen us throw away a great opportunity to take a more permanent step up is infuriating to all true fans no matter how long they've been supporting the club.

Just for perspective, I've supported the club for over 70 years and have never been as unhappy and disenchanted with the club (I.e. the owners) as I am now.

Just want to echo this. I'd like to thank SecretPro for his best efforts to keep us informed. Hardly his fault if, on occasions, his source turns out not to be 100% or the situation (and the club's mind) changes. I hope you ignore the few barbed comments and keep giving us what info you can.

Re the theory that Sheff Wed owner is making negotiations very difficult : if it's true that Rohl has a release clause of £2.5 mill then surely it's straightforward, with no negotiation required, if we simply cough up that sum? If that's true and our owners are reluctant to pay that much, either because of PSR or simply meanness, then I would suggest those considerations are much less important than getting the right manager in, and as soon as possible.

No we don't. We take the PSR hit and keep all our better youngsters. That's the better long term strategy.

I've never forgotten that, and yet it was largely ignored by the media at the time. It was a miracle piece of control. Had it been a Man U player it would have been heralded much more.

I'm sure a year ago some people on here were predicting as much as a 16 point deduction. We ended up with zero. Just saying...

David Moyes, maybe?

Oops, bad original reply...I misread that comment.

And, unusually, not in his own goal.

Apparently, Rohl has been working well with a shoe string, and worse with more difficult owners.

And it's still true ... mate.

👍👍

Or maybe he can turn it round with a manager who puts his faith in him and gives him a solid run.

I just don't see any evidence from what we saw last season for your last sentence to be true. From what we saw, Ruud giving a ludicrously short few appearances to youngsters after it was too late to have any effect (I.e. after relegation confirmed) gives completely the opposite expectation were he allowed to carry on.

If we have a promising CB in the dev squad then he could be added to the squad and we hope he only needs to be called up in rare moments. But all our most-mentioned youngsters appear to be anything but CBs. Does anyone know if any of our developing CBs look promising enough to be included as the last option for that position in the first team squad next year?

I'm with you too. Agree completely.

Can't understand such importance being attached to a few points deducted under PSR. It is much more important to concentrate on appointing the right manager. An able manager who can extract the best from the squad can accrue many more points than a poor manager, surely more than enough to compensate for the PSR deduction; and then for the following season you still have the good manager in charge instead of having to get rid of the bad one, with all the upset that entails.

On the contrary, Ruud took over a team who were 16th. Survival was far from easy with our squad, but it was also far from impossible with a decent manager.

Whilst what you say sounds reasonable, I think that those who refuse to pay another penny to the owners at the moment recognise that the owners treat the fans with no respect at all and will never take their negative comments on board. I believe that the only indicators that would induce the owners to think of changing course would be (a) a dramatic reduction of income and/or (b) an embarrassingly sparsely filled stadium which would make them lose face.

The quality of the manager is more important than a few points deduction. Just look at how many points Cooper and Nistelroy won over a whole season, and compare it with the number we could have accrued with a half-decent manager. The difference is almost certainly significantly more than a points deduction, and moreover you then have a decent manager and vibe going into the next season (unless he does a Marescaa disappearing act, but that's always a risk).

No evidence at all that they'd play the youth. Canrsley had no choice in the matter when he was in charge of England youth. Also, neither have recent experience of managing a club, which is a much more demanding job than managing an international squad.