maydrakin

Just thought I would check when our first summer (first team) signing was announced for the last 10 years:
2022 Jul 3 Tom Barkhuizen
2021 Aug 6 Ryan Allsop
2020 Feb 6 Mike te Wierik
2019 May 8 Graeme Shinnie
2018 Jul 20 Florian Jozefzoon
2017 Jul 3 Andre Wisdom
2016 Aug 27 Matej Vydra
2015 Jun 19 Chris Baird
2014 Jun 25 Zak Whitbread 
2013 May 7 Lee Grant
 
Absolutely no reason to start panicking quite yet, as only three seasons had we actually signed someone by now…

B for Boris…..he’s gone 🥳🍾🎈👯‍♀️💃🕺

Plymouth won the league with more points than we’ve ever managed in our history. Their top two scorers got 13 goals & 12 goals respectively. For reference, James Collins got 11.
We simply don’t need to have a 25 goal striker to get promoted. Spreading the goals around more will do just fine, and it would be better to not be so reliant on one individual.
Ipswich had 2 of the top 8 goal scorers this season, but in the other 6 scorers, none got promoted. It actually indicates more that relying on one player to score the majority of your goals is more of an indicator of failure rather than success.

Just common sense.  Seen it for years going back to Tim Sherwood heading to Blackburn.  My Crystal ball shows me that a team from the Conference has risen in the East and will have twice the goal power of Derby next season.  A Portuguese traveller who was due to venture 16 miles down the road will now remain in situ or consider an option further South.

I don’t think so.  If he has a good season in the championship, it will serve him much better than any season for us.
I would also expect that Bristol will have more spending power than we do.
I honestly think that playing in front of 30,000 will be very low down the pecking order against being able to prove myself against teams like Leeds and Leicester, rather than Cheltenham and Burton.
First team football at the highest level and total remuneration are the main factors.
Offering “Jam tomorrow” will only get us so far, especially when player will probably only play for a couple of years at any one club before moving on.

Unfortunately something we have to accept that whilst we might have the history and size as a football club, we are ultimately up against clubs in a higher league than us. 
 
If this was a choice between a premier league club and championship club we wouldn’t begrudge him going for the higher league. Same applies to Championship and League One. 

I agree completely with David's approach to this. I think some debate and reasonable banter is perfectly OK and in fact think the forum would be poorer if away fans were blanket banned. Equally, lots of pointless confrontational and abusive posting just invites an immediate ban. No problem with that at all.
I do actually like to hear what reasonable, sensible fans of other teams think because they may for example have a different take on a player's performance than we do and as long as it isn't just trolling then it can add a different perspective and they may also for example add some honest assessment to a debate over the merits of one of their players that we are trying to sign.
I am also one of those folk who likes to browse opposition forums in the run up to and aftermath of our games to see how they view us and our likely threat and see whether they changes their opinion after the game or whether they were impressed with a particular player or felt that we deserved the win or whatever. I don't however hang about on other teams forums apart from that because frankly most of their postings are of zero interest.
I have on version rare occasions created an account on another forum where there is an ongoing subject between clubs or where the content is blocked unless you sign in with a valid account, so guests have very limited or non-existent access. Where I have done that I am always mindful about being fairly respectful because otherwise you'll waste a few posts and get banned anyway, plus I might be looking to get a genuine answer to a question. If you wade in and needlessly and deliberately try to antagonise people then no sensible exchange is going to happen which renders the whole thing pointless anyway and a ban will never be far away.

I do prefer if any posters from other teams are just up front about their allegiances though, either through user name or just being open and honest. I have been on a site where as part of registration you have to declare your team and you get a flag to that effect so people can choose to engage with you or not I guess.

I like it when we have intelligent visitors, for every knob head there are those with an honest view from the other side of the fence. It’s healthy … And on the knobs meh ! We’ve got a few too and all are good for an ironic laugh. 
 
Mind you, great thread title, that’s defo a booker prize winner 🍻

I watched a documentary on Rolf Harris and the next day I found out he had died.
Does anyone know if there’s a Nigel Farage documentary?

I'm not getting over excited or underwhelmed with any signing we make or anyone we get linked with.
I don't know enough about anyone we've been linked with so far to pass any judgement on account of the fact that I've barely seen them play.
Positives with this is that he's on a free, young, will improve, potentially good resale value.
People on twitter moaning and saying no because "He didn't score enough last season"
Well Blackman, Waghorn etc had one good season and we spunked nearly 8 million on them pair. 

I thought his contract was worth £1m, so we were paying him that over a three year contract…

The coment by @maydrakin was refering to Shilton. saunders was our first 1M signing.

The issue is that we spend an exorbitant amount of money to develop players and end up with bigger clubs coming in an cherry picking anyone with a lot of potential.
We could just as easily let the bigger teams develop these players and then pick up the ones who just don’t make it, like Haydon Roberts, who can step into our first team squad immediately.

So, it's probably better to start at the back and work forward, then?

Interesting - that account is different, as there is an underscore next to the name on the latest account,
I did look at their history and it stinks of some saddo either guessing or reading up on newspaper rumours and regurgitating them in the vain hope that they are seen to be ITK.
Utter drivel, I’m afraid.

In fairness, we are in a world where third division footballers earn hugely inflated salaries.  If Cashin, Bird and co had gone into medicine as doctors, they’d be earning closer to a tenth of what they’re earning now and if they get to the top of their game (in both professions), they‘d earn senior consultant annual salaries in a week.
Therefore, I agree with the original statement.  It’s hard to blame the players for taking the idiotic fees, however it is a symptom for why we were on the brink of extinction last year.
Let’s compare to rugby, which looks a much more reasonable salary scale for professional athletes (and this is at the top level):
In the UK, the average salary of an established premiership rugby player is around 100k-150k pa. At the top end, salaries can go as high as 500-800k pa. Academy players are on 15k-25k pa, which shoots up to 40k-100k pa if/when they make the first team squad.

I watched a documentary on Rolf Harris and the next day I found out he had died.
Does anyone know if there’s a Nigel Farage documentary?

I watched a documentary on Rolf Harris and the next day I found out he had died.
Does anyone know if there’s a Nigel Farage documentary?

I watched a documentary on Rolf Harris and the next day I found out he had died.
Does anyone know if there’s a Nigel Farage documentary?

I watched a documentary on Rolf Harris and the next day I found out he had died.
Does anyone know if there’s a Nigel Farage documentary?

I watched a documentary on Rolf Harris and the next day I found out he had died.
Does anyone know if there’s a Nigel Farage documentary?

If you enjoy a tasting menu, I would recommend Stones in Matlock.
It’s always been fantastic, and offers a specific vegetarian/vegan menu, which Arthur’s doesn’t, unfortunately.
http://www.stones-restaurant.co.uk/#food
 
I have been to Sat Bains in Nottingham too - that is amazing, but is quite pricey for a meal out!  Have to say, it was an experience though.

I thought I would add this beauty into the mix.  A homage to the eighties, incorporating the original colours of chocolate, amber and sky over a main body of seashell to incorporate the modernity of the new millennium, whilst tipping a nod to the current black and white on the trim and collar.
😉

In fairness, our squad isn’t exactly looking wonderful right now.
We have a small group of players under contract, a number of which aren’t exactly perfect for the system the manager wishes to play.
We need a fair few players, all of which need to be hits, which is not guaranteed.
There’s a base to build on, but we need a very good transfer window.