Ghost of Clough

Perhaps I should have highlighted this for you: "Do you really think Pride Park is worth 80 million quid... At the time I'm pretty sure it was widely regarded this was a very high end valuation" £80m was justified as fair value under independant review. Other sales (such as Stoke) were sold using the same method.

Stoke sold their stadium for £70m without any critisism.

In the 21/22 PL season, Man City, Brighton, Burnley, Brentford, West Ham, Aston Villa and Liverpool were the only teams to make an accounting profit (£141m combined). However, in the two years previous, the same teams made a combined £509m loss, with only Burnely making a profit (£0.5m in 19/20). West Brom are the only current Championship side to have made a profit in 21/22 - £5.4m (thanks to their £45m parachute payment). The 5 Championship clubs to have submitted their 22/23 accounts have all made a loss (£84.3m combined) - Norwich, QPR and Bristol City all losing in excess of £20m.

More likely to be 352 tbh. Mendez-Laing, Gayle Barkhuizen and Sibley as the options upfront. I expect something like this: Wildsmith Nelson Bradley Cashin Wilson Bird Adams Hourihane Elder Mendez-Laing Barkhuizen Subs: Loach, Nyambe, Ward, Smith, Thompson, Sibley, Gayle

Everyone is allowed to make a mistake 😅

Riggott made his debut in 2000. He rejoined us in 2011 but never played Personally, I wouldn't include Pringle, Hoganson, Hector-Ingram, Watson or Rooney as they were U21 signings. Ross Atkins was in 2011 Huddlestone (not listed) debuted was August 2023, whereas Holmes (listed) made his debut on Boxing Day 2022 Lee Grant, Pablo Mills, Marcus Tudgay also made their debuts in 2002.

In the U21 games, I don't think there's much between Fornah and DRobinson We had a couple of bad years with U18 intakes. Following the very succesful 2018 group which contained Cashin, Ebosele, Archie Brown, Sibley, Thompson and Stretton. In 2019: We had Bardell (still with us but struggled with injuries), Nto (just returned to our U21s), as a well as the likes of Solomon, Aghatise and Cybulski. Delap would have been part of this group, but left prior to the season starting. In 2020: We had Ibrahim and Borkovic. Williams was signed by Chelsea in Jan 2022 We are then into the 2021 group who are only 1st year pros this season so you can see why we've had a gap. 2021: Evans, Aideyan, Ryan Moore, Moloney, Sebagabo, DRobinson, Fapetu, Eze, Richards, Ebiowei, Nicholas-Davies, Kaide Gordon, ZDixon 2022: Shattell, Grant (joined Man City at U13/14 level), Cox, KRobinson, Perry, Gough, Hawkins, Simons, Kellyman, Sharpe, Davidson,DBrown, Wheeldon 2023: JThompson, Price, Osayande, IGordon, Banks, Gill, Eames, Tola, Allen, McAndrew, Osong, Agustien, Kaba, Scanlon, Oguntola From having just a couple of 'high potential' players likely to play in the Championship or higher in 2019 and 2020 combined, we're back to having several players with a good chance of making it to that level in each year group - even with 9 players from the 3 most recent groups having been snapped up by other Cat 1 clubs

Charlie Goode? He was at Northampton in League 2 at the time. He's now into his 4th season at Brentford and has featured for just 882 mins in the league (half of which when they were still in the Championship). He appeared just 3 times for Blackpool last season, and is now on loan at Wigan. Perhaps a lucky escae htat we didn't spot him and waste another £1m.

Mostly Championship matches this season, but also reffed 2 L1 games, 1 L2 game, and 1 EFL Trophy game. He returned to the English game for the 20/21 season. Spent the majority of those first 2 seasons in L1 and mostly Championship since. He's only ref'd 2 PL games since his Norweigan break in 2019 - the most recent being September 2023.

Madleys overall record reffing us: 5W, 1D, 4L, 2 reds against (0 for), 2 pens against (0 for) Barnsley's record: 0W, 1D, 0L, 0 reds, 0 pens

From those to have played in the league this season and still at the club... First teamers: Fornah, Ward, Thompson Over 21: BJohnson, (Nunn not used) 21: Bardell, Oduroh, Gibson-Hammond, Nto 20: Bartley, Radcliffe, Bates, Weston, Oseni 19: Evans, Moore, DRobinson, Fapetu, Lindsay, (Ridd not used) 18: Cox, KRobinson, Moloney, Richards, DBrown, (Shattell not used) 17: JThompson, Gill, Perry ,Gough, Hawkins, Davidson, Wheeldon* 16: Allen, McAndrew, Osong**, Oguntolu** *17 or 18 **16 or 17 The majority of those 19 or older will be either released, sold, or loaned out by this time next season.

It's difficult going to a team which is hasn't lost since the day he joined - the won the day after he joined and he came off the bench. Since he's joined, they've won 5 and drawn 1. He got a full 90 in a cup game against NLN side Hereford. Prior to him joining, they had gone 4 league games without a win and only 1 win in 7. I'd say he's been a bit unlucky with the timing, as he would probably have been starting league games if he was allowed to go out on loan at the start of January.

8th in National League South. He came off the bench for the final 4 mins + injury time when already 4-2 up. He made 2 starts for Buxton in the National League North earlier in November. He's 21 year old, and I beleive we only signed him on a 1 year deal, so I wouldn't expect him to get an extension here.

Wildsmith Nyambe Nelson Cashin Elder Bird Adams Sibley Wilson Mendez-Laing Barkhuizen Subs: JThompson, Bradley, Ward, Smith, Thompson, Blackett-Taylor, Gayle

"No end of chances"? Taking this season as an example, his chances at CM/AM were: 14 minutes as a sub when returning from injury and helped see out a 1-0 win. Injured for thr next 2 games. 2 months until his next 'chance'. A last minute sub when winning 3-1. 3 weeks later, he starts and gets 71 minutes. Starts the next game, gets an assist and is subbed at half time (we were losing 2-1 and eventually lost 3-1). Unused sub in the next game. The following game, he came on for the last 10 minutes when losing 2-0 to Crewe, then assists our 93rd minute equaliser. Over 3 weeks until his next 'chance' at AM - a 95th minute sub. A start in the next league game (2 weeks later) and scores. Subbed off at half time in the next game (0-0, game finishes 1-1). 24 minutes off the bench in the next game. 6 weeks until his next game at AM. Subbed off at half time against Bradford (score was 0-0, we lost 1-0). A couple of games later he gets another start at AM, followed by 27 mins off the bench a few days later. 3 weeks until he gets another chance. This time 13 mins to see out a 3-0 win. 9 mins a few days later and scores the only goal in a 1-0 win. Maybe if he was given a consistent run of games in his favoured position we would get some consistency from him? Even so, he's averaged 1 goal contribution every 88 mins when playing central. The problem is he's played at LB or on the wing 75% of the time.

Is that Thompson LW and Weston AM?

4231 (after being corrected by Angie) JThompson Bardell Bartley KRobinson Gill DRobinson Fornah Ward Thompson Weston Wheeldon

Yes. Too many people wanting to watch Derby and Blackburn U21s instead of Everton and Palace.

He picked up an injury early in the season and just returned to the matchday squad last week (unused sub)

Perhaps because he contributes more than other midfielders when he actually plays. Minutes per goal contribution: Sibley - 176 (even higher when looking at CM/AM only) Hourihane - 227 Bird - 236 Wingers and forwards being: Weston - 25 Mendez-Laing - 113 Washington - 130 Waghorn - 134 Collins - 140 Barkhuizen - 148 John-Jules - 188

Skip to 54 seconds for behind the goal

Can you find a still of both incidents? I haven't seen the replay from the one yesterday (it didn't even occur to me it was near an arm), but I also have no idea what the one from 3 games ago was 😅

The U18s finished in a respectable 7th position last season, only 2 points off 4th spot. As far as I'm aware, we haven't recruited from other clubs for our U18 side this season, all progressing from our U16 side. The small improvement this season is from a combination of having a very talented group of 1st year scholars, as well as not needing to fast track too many into the U21 side. The U21s certainly had a season to forget last year. Results have improved, but even the games we are losing are typically by just 1 goal (we've only lost by 2 or more 3 times, the last was in September). There are a few reasons for the improvement. The 3 main one being: 1. More high potential U18s progressing into the U21s. Last year's 1st year pros were all released in the summer, with only 1 2nd year pro retained (Bardell). This to me highlights the low potential of the U21 squad last season. 2. Solid recruitment - Weston, Gibson-Hammond, Bartley, etc. These signings have helped us maintain a healthier flow of U18s into the U21 side. Jeffcott and Lindsay helped plug gaps too. 3. Perhaps the most important- having good CBs playing at CB. For most of last season and early this one, we had players filling in. Bartley returned from injury in October and gave us a good platform to build from. Bardell is back now too. Early this season we had DRobinson, Radcliffe, and Bradley Johnson filling in. Last season Grewal-Pollard and Clarke were often played there too.

Correction: the win put us 4th, 3 points ahead of Wolves.