stewarty

Fair enough Mikey, but how’s about having a word with your employer and encourage them to stop short-changing us with the pittance you pay for the TV rights.

Beale and McCallister, Scott Mason the first team analyst too. I think we can expect the majority of his guys to move with him.

Agreed. It wasn't my first thought, but it did cross my mind.

Any news on whether Defoe is moving with Gerrard? Given he hasn't played and our striker play has regressed, that feels like a failed experiment and if we can exit that deal, it would be good business.

When we read the accounts on Friday we didn't think that it would take the manager's departure to kick start the player trading model.

Officially confirmed by Villa and the club.

Picked GvB but don't think it'll be any of the names on there. Suspect it'll be someone foreign though.

Had we been managing our retail operation "in house", then all of the revenue and all of the costs would be coming through our accounts. Its hard to say how much that would amount to. I too heard some of the higher numbers bandied around by the Beahon brothers on podcasts, but we also heard from the club that the structure of the deal was unique compared to anything we have had in the past, with an ability to generate bonus payments depending on sales. But I think you could easily be talking that the total revenue via Castore could be 4-5 times that £4.3m. I think when it comes to Castore, the number appears a little underwhelming right now, but it may take a year or two for the full benefits to flush through and for the numbers to normalise. Only then can we properly judge whether its been a success.

I really hope you are correct, but this one looks like its going in one direction only.

Gerrard came with his team, and will likely leave with the majority of it. He personally doesn't need the EPL level money, but I fancy that the opportunity for him to facilitate his team getting EPL level money, and the security that might bring them, could be a big draw for Gerrard.

As far as I remember, the reason that he gave was due to restrictions the South African authorities put on moving capital out of the country. Whether that’s 100% true or not, I don’t know. He didn’t seem to have that problem when loaning the club funds prior to this.

I didn’t read it that way, more that player trading is a more sustainable model going forward. And that we are well positioned given the relative depth of the squad now. He wasn’t saying we needed to sell them all

I feel we are in a little bit of groundhog day with the accounts. Each time we accumulate losses which are in turn covered by a range of wealthy supporters. Whilst it is heartening to see how much 55 meant to those guys who again have stepped up and helped the club massively, its not a sustainable position in the long term. There is no doubt that Covid has massively impacted our ability to trade normally, you only need to look at the circa £17m reduction in income. That said, it has forced us to go after alternative income streams more aggressively such as our various commercial partnerships and RTV, as well as the modestly improved merchandising from Castore. On Castore, it might not be until next year's accounts until we see the full impact of the partnership, hence why I say modest improvement to c£4m. What it does show is the reality of our financial position and why we felt a little underwhelmed by the transfer activity in the summer. It also underlines why 56 this year is so massive with the guaranteed UCL income.

Dont disagree overall, but the market over the summer was delayed by the Euros and never really got going to the same extent as it would given the trend in years previously. Ultimately I don't think we received sensible bids for our key assets over the summer. On Kamara though, we have secured him on an extended deal earlier in the year so that at least preserves his value for a year or two more.

Or rather, anti-protestant bigotry, as we should all refer to it as.

Not sure about that. Suspect the manager will try and keep the majority of the team exactly the same. Thought we may have hooked Tav because of his first half booking.

Job done. That’s about all i can say in the end. onto another big game on Wednesday

Crocker just stole my line. Prick

A half of two halves.

Clear penalty. Poor from the VAR there

How many of those games has he started? Always think that’s a useful metric for a striker.

Satisfying to see us get the first goal and then build on the platform it gives us to the game. Big first 10-15 of the second half… can we build again and get Alfredo the goal he needs so we can see his happy face again.

There's rumours (and a pic doing the rounds) that Frank "the best in the business" McPartland has been hired to oversee their recruitment. Got a feeling this is going to be a car crash if this turns out to be true. In terms of new manager markets, they're so small that small bets can skew the odds a fair bit. At best they're knockabout fun, but are no indication of anything.

This appeal characterises the petty distractions that permeate our game constantly. Utterly pointless

Lundstram as well for me. He's starting to find a bit of form which has been much needed.