Coconut

Not nearly as bored of it as I am people bringing up pink kits and tagging B4 into it.

It is no bad thing to forge local links, however... I'm not trying to be negative but we're talking about the Southern League Premier Division Central (level 7, 3 levels below League 2) which is one level above Mickleover Sports in the Southern League Division One South. Sending our kids out on loan at that level tends to be last chance saloon for them in the hopes that they can forge out a career in football at all, even a semi pro one (see Jauvan Splatt who was loaned to Mickleover and now plays for Whitehawk FC in the Isthmian League South East Division, also level 8 ) but isn't something we're likely to do to give them senior football in the hopes that they may one day make our team. We're not looking at a Vardy situation here, snatched up from the National League (level 5), we might not even be looking at a Ben Pringle situation when we took him from Ilkeston (whatever level 'Non League Premier' was in 2008!)

Surely the plebs are the ones who read "Picture where you and your knee are now" and took it to mean that your knee had to be included in the photo? A basic lack of reading comprehension on display. Unless people were going out and about without their knee, detaching them somehow, then all criteria are met whether they are showing them in the photo or not. If anything the old thread title was discriminatory against above-the-knee-amputees - if you didn't have any knees you weren't allowed to post, at least not if you weren't in the habit of carrying around your amputated leg in a bag everywhere you went.

but....................................... where would selling pretty much our only attacking threat for 2/3rd of all games last season get us? We finished last season scoring just 36 goals and haven't bought (or even been linked with) anyone who'd even make up the paltry 5 goals Waghorn scored, nevermind someone who'd get us 5, 10 extra goals on top of that! If we gamble on someone stepping into Byrne's shoes and it doesn't work out we'd likely both concede more and struggle to hit 25 goals for the season!

That's fair enough and as you say, we'll never know unless it happens again!

Acknowledge your part in something, show remorse and apologise for it, take your punishment on the chin, show strength and character by overcoming personal trauma (after accepting help, a step many never even reach) and work your way into a position where the rest of the squad respects you, your manager respects you and you might just get rewarded for it. Rooney's made positive comments about how Lawrence has been with the squad during his time as manager. He was already 'redeemed' in the eyes of those within the club. The captaincy isn't redemption, it's a footballing decision. It may not be a decision we agree with looking in from the outside, but it is the decision that's been made. I think it's important who the captain is if they've been the captain for 3, 4, 5+ years and had a defence built around them, but the way we handed it around last made it almost valueless. Often when a new manager takes over at a club one of the first things they'll do is seek out the captain to give him a lowdown on the character of the squad, there's power in the role. Power that I'm glad someone who refuses to do any of the above (and shows exactly what sort of character he really is) no longer has. Whether you like Lawrence or not, he's made mistakes and the people closest to the situation feel that he's learned from them and is a better person now. 2 years later I'd rather have him at the club than the greedy ****** crying about things being 'unfair' and who still hasn't apologised for his actions because it would have harmed his undeserved payout.

They should bring Cocu in now IMO, the job Cooper did there (well, the style of football at least) was the job Cocu would have done here if he had the same quality of players and an example of how his philosophy could create a successful Championship team.

I'd wager it was more over "2 lads about 20yr old messing about in the fridges going back and forth round the queue". If they weren't acting like dheads the masks wouldn't even have been mentioned. It didn't kick off because 2 lads weren't wearing masks, it kicked off because 2 lads showed a complete lack of respect for others.

Bought mine. Can't really figure out why they're embracing modern technology by going cashless whilst at the same insisting upon people printing out their tickets like it's still 2002 and we spend our spare time sitting in internet cafes or the local library. (...or like it's 2019 and we're all sat in offices and can use the company paper/ink supplies) Bloody pain in the arse having to go begging to use someone's printer.

Poor man's Will Hughes (we're poor men) but I suppose its encouraging that QPR / Warburton wanted to keep him.

Can't say I agree with that, I think he's always looked like a carbon copy of Keogh but with the bad bits emphasised! An all-action, last-ditch, disaster zone of a defender. They're basically the same player, playing them together was a comically bad decision.

😉

Try not to worry too much B4, have a look at @Ghost of Clough's post on our academy thread - we played a very inexperienced team and ended with some very young boys (some of them are half of your age and even younger!) against players who are much more physically developed, and much more experienced, players who would not think twice about kicking our players up the bottom and sending them flying through the air or trying to intimidate our players to gain an advantage. Try to remember last season and that a lot of our kids should not be judged negatively because they struggled against Chorley - they should be be judged positively because how well they played against the youth teams of Manchester United, Manchester City and other big clubs last season. It doesn't matter which league our first teams play in, men Vs boys will always be a mismatch and the men will usually win. You're a big fan of Sibley and Knight and think they are worth at least £10m each, but even if they had played earlier today it is likely that they would still have been on the losing side. Some of the young players you have watched today could be players you value at £10m in 2 years. Nobody needs to tell you to keep the faith in our lads B4, but please don't concentrate on today's game, our academy will face far more suitable opposition in the next year and I'm certain you'll see us win a lot of games.

Do we though?

There's unfair and there's unethical. Jettisoning academy players because of the circumstances we face would fall squarely into the latter, it's a non-starter.