Ghost of Clough

The administrators report confirmed it was exactly £6,264,636.50 paid to HMRC (25%). MSD loan was £22m. Football creditors totalled £8.85m, but I understand this would have been later reduced to about £7.5m (Lech accepting less for Jozwiak). This had to be paid in full. There was £3.1m of unsecured creditors. A minimum of 25% had to be paid, so just shy of £800k (bur could be anything up to an including the full amount) My total is £36.6m (if minimum paid to unsecured creditors). Note, Clowes accounts state an extraordinary cost (purchase of DCFC) OF £36.6m.

The last one interested me. A few snippets from his LinkedIn page... Whilst studying, shadowing different departments of League One Club Oxford United FC as an informal intern, before starting a formal internship as a Recruitment Analyst/Scout under the supervision of Head of Recruitment Mark Thomas. Coaching staff at Croatian 1. HNL team NK Osijek as their Performance and Opposition Analyst. Derby County FC as First Team Scout, focusing on live and video scouting. Since September 2023, additionally working for Rayo Vallecano as the Assistant Coach for their Juvenil C (U17) to gain practical experience for the upcoming UEFA-C exam.

Presumably Charlie Austin. Swindon are in trouble without Kemp and Young. They were their only 2 good players and were heavily relaint on them. They've alsonlost a couple of other players, so not a club I would be loaning to at this moment in time. I could see a spot for Brown at Tranmere. They're in good form and play a front 2 so easier to get into the side, but will also have an experienced strike partner to coach him through games. Colchester and Walsall both need a forward to replace Joe Taylor and Freddie Draper who were both recalled by Lincoln this month - both teams also play with a front 2 more often than not.

The EFL wanted us to use straight line amortisation without any pre-approved gimmicks (such as impairment), even if it's a commonly used policy. At the start of last season, Bielik's book value would have been c£3m.

I think you know the reason for that. I doubt Warne will ever change his approach either. On Brown scoring 5 (and Weston scoring 3), Warne put the 11-1 win down to the first teamers who played... they played 45 minutes and it was 3-0 when they all came off. The even more surprising thing for me is the relectsnce to use Ward. Not used in the last 3 games, despite chasing a late winner in the last 2 games. Only 27 minutes over 6 games since being hauled off at half time against Lincoln.

Vickers Wilson Nelson Cashin Elder Bird Hourihane Barkhuizen John-Jules Mendez-Laing Collins Subs: Wildsmith, Bradley, Ward, Thompson, Sibley, Blackett-Taylor, DBrown Blackett-Taylor announced in the next 48 hours. Not enough time to get another signing over the line.

I think today showed we're lacking depth - not surprising when we have a whole bench worth of players unavailable: Rooney, Nyambe, Forsyth, Fornah, Smith, Waghorn, and Washington. Blackett-Taylor and a centre forward to add to the mix too. With a full squad available, we would have freshened up our front line today, which would have carried us over the line. The important thing is we keep picking up points and stay within touching distance of the top 2. We'll then regain consistency when more players are back.

It'll be JJ for Elder, with Sibley moving to LB

Bird's having a good game. Mopping up loose balls and tidily knitting play together

Not a bad guess. Only Sibley in for Thompson. Presumably to give us the flexibility of changing to 3 at the back dependant on Lincoln's shape - Elder to LCB?

£800k historic, £250k 'actual'

Most of that is tax and national insurance

Bielik was closer to £3m with the other 4 players having a combined £300k. Bielik would have been amortised by £1.5m each year. It means in the current accounting period, we will make a book loss of £0.5-1m on him - more than offset by the profit on Knight.

Gate receipts and sponsorship each £1m down on my original estimates, with 'other' £0.5m down. TV £0.5m up, hospitality about £200k up. Overall income is c£1.8m lower than expected, altough it is over a 9 month period rather than 12. I can't accurately say what our wage bill was, but based on previous Clowes' Development wage bill, our club wages were about £10.25m, with £1.25m in pensions amd social security. This would match my original estimate. However, a 12 month period would mean I underestimated by quite a bit. It looks like our total other expenses were about £10.5m, and we made a transfer profit of just under £1.5m, which results in the £6.8m loss.

I was just about to post this. Nominal book values for Bird, Knight, Sibley and Duncan (due to agent, signing on fees, etc). I assume this doesn't include academy players as I think we kept around 8 from our U21s that summer.

Yes, but he played in more cricket fixtures for Derbyshire than he played football. I belive he also authored some Derby County related books (unless it was a different Ian Hall)

Discussions with Charlton, Blackett-Taylor and his agent had started months ago. The contrcat woth Blackett-Taylor was agreed prior to the fee being agreed with Charlton, hence why this has progressed so quickly after the bid was accepted yesterday.

The EFL can't do anything to help really. Reading will only be saved when the owner is no longer the owner. He's not going to sell up, the EFL can't legally take the club off him, so they need to 'encourage' him to put them into administration - essentially find a sanction or two which make them sell all players of value. Honestly, I can't see a scenario where they're in the EFL in 25/26.

He's played in a few positions. RCB or RWB in a back 3, RB or RWin a back 4. He may have even filled in at LB or CM at some point too

Blackett-Taylor, Mendez-Laing and Barkhuizen all rotating and chipping in with goals and assists will be a game changer for us in this 2nd half of the season. It allows us to keep them all fresh and shouldn't have big dips in form (which often comes from fatigue). We also have Wilson terrifying full backs. Good options to have.

Blackett-Taylor is a winger, Young I'd a centre forward

"I will not let him go to anybody who has not bothered to watch him." It amazes me that a football club would just ring up to ask for a player without knowing what type of player they actually are. I can understand at lower levels where we have built relationships with them and they ask for a short term loan in a certain position, but not a long term one. I was hoping a L2 club would come in for Brown, but I imagine a lack of first team minutes would mean it's a bit of a risk for them.

I'd be dissapointed if we hadn't even considered him as his end product is excellent, but I think this is just a made up rumour to get more money out of Carlisle or get more clubs to bid. Charlton surely can't be after another forward either?

We were linked with Ikpeazu under Rooney, but I don't recall anything since. Ladapo I would still be happy with signing, but I didn't comment on him.

What's wrong with the way he eats his half-time orange?