MadAmster

On 19/12/2023 at 13:10, Tamworthram said:

It's been a couple of years since I took a flight but I'm pretty sure (from my fading memory) that boarding passes are checked at least twice: - once at the departure lounge when your section of the aircraft is called forward to board and then again at the actual entrance to the aircraft. If there was a risk/history of flyers just choosing to sit wherever they liked rather than carefully seeking out their correct seat then perhaps there would be another level of checks implemented on aircrafts. But, there isn't so I don't think you can compare the two experiences.

In any event, although I wasn't at the game on Saturday, I can't help but feel this was more of "getting use to the new procedure minor irritation" rather than anything really worth getting worked up and complaining about.

I fly 10 to 12 times a year. I can't remember the last time I had to show my boarding pass on entering the aircraft. I use KLM, Easyjet, Air France, TUI and other airlines and none of them do that 2nd boarding pass check you mention. At Schiphol and Birmingham you do have to scan the BP in order to gain entrance to the security check. A 2nd check at the gate and that's it.

3 minutes ago, Returning ram said:

Possibly, although you need buyers. Will be interesting to see the demand for all 3 and where that comes from.

If not in January, I expect all 3 to be gone in the summer.

21 hours ago, Returning ram said:

I'd love to be wrong on him, but the days of playing just in one role have gone, if he does move on, he will come across the same problem that he has done under the previous managers who struggle to find a place for him, because simply put, there are players who perform better than him.

I read all the time how poor this league is, so he should really be tearing it up, yet for me, he never produces a performance where you watch and think, wow, there is a player there. As I say, hopefully he will push on, ideally with us, but if it was one of the academy players on the team that you'd lose out of the three, which one would you pick ?

I'd prefer to keep Max and Cash and Sibs to go in the scenario you sketch. In reality, I expect to lose all 3.

How did we get this far without someone posting this one...

5 minutes ago, Crewton said:

He's picked up 3 first half bookings this season - last Saturday, Crewe at home, and Wolves U21s, where he played the full 90 minutes. Saturday is the only time you could reasonably argue it's affected his performance, and the only time he's been withdrawn at HT after being booked. 

I think you're unfortunately repeating an old trope about Sibley. He's cut out the wild tackles that cost him both red and yellow cards in the past. Saturday's booking was avoidable but on another day would almost certainly imo have been addressed by a warning that early in the game. I'm impressed with how he handles himself now, particularly as opposition teams target him and referees seem to offer him little protection from provocation (see Saturday also).

 

He's not fulfilled his potential as a player but has improved his disciplinary record. IMO, he never will fulfil his potential when he never gets a run at one position except for that extended run at left back last season when he did well. I feel for the lad.

13 hours ago, Returning ram said:

He was for me, once he picks up his obligatory yellow card, may as well take him off.
Always thought Sibley was going to be better than Hughes, unless he starts to fulfil that potential he will be another Mason Bennett.

Not disagreeing. Factually, you are correct but if you look at how the two were used there are differences between Sibs and Hughes. Hughesy was played regularly in the same role and improved. Sibs? His only extended run at any one position was last season at Left Back and he did well. Give him a run at #10 to see if he can become the player he was expected to be. IMO, it's his usage as a utility player that has arrested his development.

His contract is up in the summer. I still believe there's a good player in there. If he's not going to get a run at #10 (or any other role for that matter), I'd advise him to move on to a club where he can get a run and reignite his development and become the Sibs we all want him to be. I don't see PW giving him what he needs. If he does move on I hope he gets what he needs and shows the past few DCFC Managers where they went wrong. If he stays I hope he gets the chance to show what he can do in his preferred role.

2 hours ago, SSD said:

I don't think the whole day was particularly great for me.

The South Stand checks for a start. I know they have to adhere to FA regulations for a while, hence why it had more security than Guantanamo Bay. It was ridiculously over the top. I know the club did a pre video to let you know changes were happening. I wasn't expecting to be checked three times to get to my standing position and get sandwiched in on a stairwell. The club have made the stand much safer by putting in the rails, to stop people falling over each other, yet we have to block stairwells due to all the silly checks. God forbid if there was a fire, no way would you get out quickly. Surely it was more dangerous before? Absolutely bonkers. Hopefully this will be done by Christmas or more people will get annoyed.

The match itself. Typical dirty away team. All the dark arts, made more difficult by the silly yellow cards we picked up in the first half. I know the ref didn't have a good game, we made her make more decisions by putting in stupid tackles, knowing full well Wycombe were making a meal of it. Terrible game management in midfield, in particular from Hourihane. Lovely bloke but he will not be missed next season. Wants to sit in and pretend he's Pirlo, spreading Hollywood passes. Get more involved in the game.

Wycombe doubled up out wide and sussed us out very quickly. Not enough play through the middle, shock horror. However, we could have easily lost the match too. A point was fair. 5 wins in a row previously, difficult to keep it up. A draw is disappointing but we're still in a good place to push up the league. Get a good result vs Lincoln then this will be forgotten about. Not too concerned, we was due a bit of a stinker.

1. If there was a fire, do you think the stewards would be blocking the stairwell checking tickets?

2. The ref had a good game. Hourihane and NML both had poor touches and lunged after the ball, missed it and took their player down. Both spot on yellows all day. Bird was beaten by his man and pulled him back to prevent him launching an attack. Yellow. Leahy went down under a nothing challenge from Sibs, IMO he was trying to get Sibs a 2nd yellow and therefore, red. Collo thought the same and pulled him to his feet. I presume Collo also told Leahy what he thought of his cheating. That got Leahy riled and there was handbags. In the lead up to that incident there had been some tasty tackles going in. She probably carded them as a warning to everybody to calm down. Sibs was stupid for his. The whistle had gone and his half hearted "shot" was totally unnecessary. We all know it's one of the things refs were told to clamp down on in the summer. She followed instructions and later carded Vokes for a similar occurrence. Consistency is what we've asked for and we got it. Was she perfect? No. However, she had a far better game than either team.

4 hours ago, Alty_Ram said:

As an entertainment spectacle it was a bit of a shocker. The official stats quote two shots on target for us and one for them in 90 minutes - a thrill a minute half hour between attempts on target. If we'd held on for all 3 points then probably recollections of that non event of a game would probably be a little less harsh but the background murmur factor was very high for long periods and reflected the lack of skill and entertainment on show.

I'm still baffled at the amount of times that we get the ball at the edge of the area and go out wide with it. We almost never seem to just have a dip. With a team defending deep the keeper can be unsighted or there may be a deflection and at the very least, stinging the keepers hands lifts the crowd but every time we went wide and knocked a cross in it was dealt with pretty comfortably by their fairly large defence.

The goal was out of nothing really and seemed to surprise everyone but the rest was utterly forgettable.

Their 1 was the penalty. Ours were the goal and, I presume, Cash's header. We might have a third as well, the one where Wilson went into the 6 yard box and the ball came off his thigh and was punted away by a defender about a yard off the line.

17 registered shots between us and just the 3 or 4 on target. Sums the game up.

On 17/12/2023 at 01:22, kevinhectoring said:

Why? We were awful today until we changed it, then we got better 

How much of that was down to the opposition? A team we never play well against.

On 16/12/2023 at 23:03, Magicman said:

Play Fornah not Sibley 

Sibs wasn't the worst of the MF 3 last Satdeh. I'd play Fornah instead of Hourihane.

2 hours ago, Crewton said:

"Ram In Peace", yes?

Could you go back on the Wycombe forum and tell them about @CBRammette Mum's experience (see above)? I think they should know that four of their finest got owned by an 83 year-old lady.

Guilty as charged, m'lud 😉

Just read CBRs post. I shall indeed inform them of this.

One of the most disjointed games I've ever seen in the 1st half. As well as the stop/start that suits Wycombe we also failed to find teammates with our passes. 2nd half was better but that wasn't a hard ask.

I wasn't surprised that one of the 3 MFs was subbed at HT as all 3 had been booked. Surprised it was Sibs as, IMO, he was not the worst of the 3.

That neither side had a shot on target in the first half wasn't a surprise considering the woeful performance of both sides.

The cards? NML and Hourihane both lost control of the ball and dived in to try to retrieve it, catching an opponent with their studs. Correct yellow. Bird pulled their player back to prevent him launching an attack. Yellow. Sibley, half hearted "shot" 10 yards over the ball, an age after the whistle. Following the ref's instructions from the start of the season, yellow. Personally I would have had a word and told him a repeat would see a card. She was, however, consistent when Vokes did similar in the 2nd half she carded him as well. Collo and Leahy. That all started when Leahy went down under a nothing challenge from Sibs. Leahy made far too much of it. Collo pulled him to his feet and told him, to basically, man up. That resulted in a handbags spat. Another one where a quiet word might have been sufficient under normal circumstances but, at that point, several players were getting "tasty" and the cards were likely designed to quieten things down.

The penalty given. I wish causality was still in the wording. As the Laws are currently worded, just about any contact whatsoever is deemed sufficient to award a foul. IMO, there was insufficient in Ward's contact to warrant their player going down. As it is, Welch can't be criticised for giving the penalty under the current Law.

The not given penalty. IIRC, 64 minutes, the ball comes in and Cash goes to head home. A Wycombe defender has the front of Cash's shirt in his left hand in attempt to make it hard/impossible to get a good header in and his right arm is round Cash's back, further hampering his attempt to score. Penalty. Pure and simple. Not given. The one big decision she got wrong, IMO.

The penalty shout from NML? The man played the ball. NML's run took him into the path of the slide through. Not a penalty. Another one the ref got right.

The equaliser? It was obvious what Wycombe were going to do. They loaded up their left hand side up top, we had 6 defenders lined up on their right... Wheeler went down, IMO, way too easily and the ref gave the penalty.

On another medium she was slated for her performance by most fans. Three didn't agree, saying she had a good game. Two other refs and yours truly. Her refereeing was much better than the standard of play displayed by either side.

Not a patch on recent DCFC performances. Wycombe came with a plan and it worked as it often does against us. I can't really complain at a draw. In fact, I'd call it a game neither side deserved to win.

22 hours ago, Amberram said:

I thought he had never passed his driving test, Mason Mount used to bring him to PP apparently.

Ah, I hadn't contemplated that position. I thought he had passed his test but just doesn't like driving. As ever, I might be wrong 😉

1 hour ago, Amberram said:

Is he driving yet?

He didn't get banned. 

The answer to your question, however, is, yes... his wife mad 🙂

Just a reminder that we will see Tricky Dicky Keogh tomorrow. Still puts it all on the line but has lost a yard of pace and the likes of NML and JJ can exploit that to our advantage.

21 minutes ago, Gerry Daly said:

The emergence of Wilson, Ward coming back, maybe JJ starting to make a contribution and NML looking fitter has given us an edge that we didn't have before. Depends who we lose in the window but from where we are now, I think we don't need much. I'd love to see a proper target man number 9 added to the squad, someone who can really get up and head it

Both good going forward. Ward's dead ball kicks are very good. Against Orient I thought Ward looked suspect defensively and I see Wilson as the better defender of the 2. They exploited that and a better team would have profited from it. I hope it's more "ring rust" than poor defending and that he will improve on that game on game.

On 11/12/2023 at 19:33, Raich Carter said:

From average attendances of 4,000 in 2020... It's not about the 'today', it's about the 'tomorrow' / growth. And as we know from Man U fans, fans can be from anywhere. I think the whole 'local' thing is on the slide.

I, quite rightly, had no choice but to support DCFC 'cos I'm from here. Same for my son. Zero choice. None. Not an option.

I'm local too. My 2 sons were born and bred just 18Km from the Ajax stadium. They are both staunch Rams fans. Internationally they will support Holland.... unless they are playing England. Choice? Hell, NO!

11 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

But he was left with a ground valued at over £80m

A lease on the training ground.

Plus a squad with a value of maybe £10m?

Awful lot of money for a League One club but if he gets back to The Championship it might end up looking a decent deal.

 

.. and an Academy stripped of its best players. That £80M valuation, though, did anybody, except the EFL, really think the stadium was worth that much? 

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

£60m

source?

According to the DET we're both £5M out

1 hour ago, kevinhectoring said:

Not sure what your point is. Your last paragraph misstates the legal position btw

Perhaps your point is that the two transactions were necessary independent  because the owners of the assets were different. I’m not sure that’s right - it’s easy for two separate transactions to be inter conditional. The reason they were separate was because when he bought the stadium he didn’t think he was going to buy the club 

Sure? When a business goes into Administration, the Administrators, in this case Quantuma, are charged with getting the best deal they can for the creditors. Quantuma were the ones who did all the asset selling to keep the club afloat like selling players etc. It was Quantuma that did the deal with CD and noone else.

If I have misunderstood the legal position and what happens in Admin, I would really appreciate it if you could tell me WHAT I've misunderstood, what the real position is and what, if anything, I have got wrong with regard to the role of Administrators.

Thanks in advance.

3 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

The highlighted part is an important piece of the jigsaw and is not fact.

Clowes Developments purchased the shares of Gellaw Newco 202, so DC did not purchase the ground, he purchased a company that owned the ground and with it a lease to the football club.

Everything would all appear to be under the Clows Trust umbrella but that still doesn't mean that the ground is within the football club.

Whether there is still a lease on the ground is still not known.

Your cost of £50m is also £10m adrift and leads me to believe that, with all due respect, that you don't really have many facts to hand.

Pedant. You buy a company you also buy their assets... It's probably not within the football club as CD (UK) own both the club and the ground. 

15 minutes ago, kevinhectoring said:

The deals were separate because

- Kirchner (plus Rooney and Stretford?) never contemplated buying the stadium (probably because they didn’t have enough cash)

- the transfer of the stadium into friendly hands/ the discharge of the MSD loan was a prerequisite to Kirchner’s acquisition of the club not least because the club had guaranteed the loan

So Dc initially stepped up and bought the stadium in the expectation K would then buy the club. When K encountered a spot of bother DC decided separately he needed to buy the club. 

 

June 14th, Kirchner pulls out of the deal.

Pride Park. DC dealt with MM/Gellaw. That deal was completed on June 14th.

DCFC. Once Kirchner was out of the running, DC started talks with Quantuma about buying the club and finalised the deal, IIRC, on July 1st.

He dealt with MM/Gellaw as they owned the ground.

Once in Admin MM no longer owned DCFC and therefore DC went via the Admin, Quantuma, as the Law states.

31 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Are you stating facts here or your own guesses?

Facts and extrapolations.

PP was owned by MM's Gellaw 202 company. I had thought it was Gellaw 101 but someone on here corrected me

DC bought the stadium from them/MM. Fact

He then went about buying the club. Fact, he bought the stadium and then went after the club.

Once in Admin, to buy the club he had to negotiate with Quantuma who were running the club for the Courts. Fact. This is what happens with any business in Administration

Quantuma were charged with getting the best possible deal for the club's creditors. Fact. As are all administrator's.

Mr Clowes paid around £28M for the club. Extrapolation based on fact. We know he paid around £50M for the club and the stadium. Depending on the source, he paid £22M/£23M for the ground leaving around £28M for the club.

That money went to pay off an agreed % of monies owed to the creditors. That is why the 2 deals were separate. It wasn't the same people selling... fact. The previous owner of a business in Admin only gets anything if the sum raised from the sale is higher than the sum owed to creditors and to the Admin for their "services".

1 hour ago, kevinhectoring said:

The decisions from the EFl proceedings will state beyond doubt which company owned the stadium. I can’t remember 

tbh once the stadium is intra group I don’t really see why it would be transferred up to the main Cduk company. Equally I’d have thought they would put (and hold) the club in a single purpose vehicle below cduk. It gives you more flexibility on ultimate sale. Perhaps there might be tax reasons. You can understand they might want to dissolve all the old MM vehicles tho 
 

It’s not just a theoretical point. If DC were to find that perfect purchaser (the one so many on here seem not to care about !) you could see them agreeing a deal where CDuk hold on to the stadium for a period after the sale of the club 

They could do that anyway. I've got a few thousand records. I can sell just one without that impacting the others.... DC (UK) Ltd could just sell one asset, the club, and retain ownership of the Stadium.

1 hour ago, admira said:

3rd for me. Was doing Burton but no longer thanks to Sky

Me n er indoors were flying over for the Burton game. The move to Monday scuppered that, partially. She is now staying in NL. I'm flying in on the Saturday morning. Attending Burton Rugby Club former players lunch on the Saturday. Visiting friends on the Sunday. Match on the Monday and back to NL on the Tuesday before flying to Fuerteventura on the Thursday. I love this pensioner lark.