Carl Sagan

Not gone on tour with the Liverpool fringe squad because he's still rehabilitating after an injury near the end of last season. If he does go out on loan, it's not going to be until the end of the window.

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2024/07/why-bobby-clark-has-not-been-involved-in-liverpool-pre-season-so-far/

Sounds a little as if he's now moved out of our league even if I'm sure we would be interested. 

On 19/07/2024 at 22:58, Abu Derby said:

The data stats guys are set on employing as many players with a z in their names as possible. I reckon it’s a strategy that hasn’t been tried before and could well reap rewards. 

It's my favourite letter - seriously! 

I think he's as close as you come to guaranteeing 15 goals a season from midfield. I know some Oxford folk and they're all excited to have him there. 

Great he got off the mark first pre-season game. Football is so much about confidence, so it's very beneficial to hit the ground running. Look forward to seeing how he gets on this season. 

46 minutes ago, cannable said:

Have I missed something? 

Just wishful thinking on my part. He's being offered to Championship clubs for ~£1.25m. Haven't seen us as one of those linked. 

Elsnik when he re-signs. If not, maybe Adams or Cash. 

On 17/07/2024 at 19:35, CBX1985 said:

You should consider a Now TV day Pass.  Can get them for £14 and can get all the Sky Sports for 24 hours.  Not great value if buying lots of times (but as a one off give times a year not too bad.

Can get for a tenner if prepared to just watch on your phone.

https://help.nowtv.com/article/sports-membership

NowTV is always doing offers so during the season I normally subscribe for either £18 or £20 a month depending what's on offer at the time. Much better value than a day pass (especially given the number of games this season) and gives you access to practically all of Sky Sports.

I wonder if we might have put a bid in to show Leicester we're not wedded to Iversen and they need to lower the price. Can't see the Zerrerstrom thing coming to anything.

2 hours ago, Animal is a Ram said:

While Vickers wouldn't be my first choice, he's still a good option for this level. No goalkeeper is a *touch* dramatic.

We wouldn't have got automatics if Vickers hadn't been injured. Desperately needed Wildsmith back in the team, but Warne wasn't going to make the call. 

Disappointed we haven't brought our new number one in yet. Sadly IMHO Vickers never looked up to it. Was hoping Trott, then Ryan. Either Iversen or Rodak would be fine, but the longer we wait the more desperate we'll become and the higher the price. 

20 minutes ago, angieram said:

Yep. He always likes my posts when I comment on him coming back to Derby at some point. Once a Ram.... 🐏⚽️

I remember seeing him walking up Wembley Way for the Lampard playoff game, wearing his Rams' Elsnik shirt but not involved. And about to be released. I guess Harry Wilson had taken his hoped-for place in the side, and the academy people saw Sibley coming through. But Elsnik had so much ability and coolness. £1.25m is a lot for us but doesn't seem a lot for him. Would love him to return.

I posted in the ex Rams thread, but I'm adding here that according to the Mirror guy, Elsnik is on offer for £1.25m. Having been "offered" to Hull and Oxford:

Would you want him back at that price?

£1.25m for Elsnik?

Would you rather he went to Hull or Oxford, or to us? 

The internet is amazing. Today I was thinking about Richard Feynman and something he said about the difference between knowing the name of something and understanding it. And how no one understands "inertia". And here, from a momentary google, is the very clip I must have watched as a kid, and had this seared into my brain:

When we already have Kenzo and Tommo, I could see the additional lack of physicality as being an issue. We don't want to be overpowered.

Interesting to see if anyone goes for Dembele. Especially interesting if it's us! 

Nixon says he's been offered to lots of clubs, but there've been no takers so far:

I asked him specifically about us, but he's not responded.

I'm guessing we'll see a video of Warne and the coaches addressing the players about something, when they announce "and we've got someone we'd like you to meet". The door opens, in walks a grinning Ebou, and the players go wild.

22 hours ago, Gerry Daly said:

I think Brown may go out on loan but not for the whole season. I think he is nearly ready to make an impact for us coming off the bench and maybe playing odd games 

If you're good enough, you're old enough. Brown has the pace and power none of our other strikers possess, and a lot of skill to go with it. I would have loved this brilliant effort to have gone in, and hope he gets off the mark quickly to give him the confidence to play alongside the team at this level, and to crack on to do amazing things. If it clicks for him early, I do see there's a possible path to him becoming our most important striker this season. And the envy of the Championship.

He's still only 18, yet has scored:

• 14 goals in 19 Premier U18 games
• 7 goals in 12 Premier League 2 (U21) games
• 10 goals in 22 senior appearances for Gateshead (National League and FA Trophy) with many of those early appearance being as  a late sub

If a Premier League youth striker came to us on loan with that record, he'd be a cause of great excitement. Why can't he be our own, home-grown, 20 goal a season striker? The next Phil Gee?

On 12/07/2024 at 07:43, GboroRam said:

No, I seriously was considering one. The prices are relatively affordable, but there's enough sneaky dealer tricks that you end up paying extras and it just didn't work out as good a deal as first suggested. 

The trouble with living ethically with everything you buy is, eventually you run out of ethical companies and you starve to death. 

The main reason I went in an alternative direction ultimately was my wife thought doing everything through a central console was too confusing. Unfortunately one of the major disadvantages of tesla is they insist on fixing things that aren't broken. Nobody has a problem with indicator stalks, we're all comfortable with using a stick next to the wheel to tell people which way we're going. So to move it to somewhere unintuitive is a bad engineering decision. I've seen one person add sticky buttons so he can feel them without taking his eyes off the road. When users have to fix your improvements by DIY, you know you've made a mistake. 

I would say probably the most stupid thing about Teslas is having to use the touchscreen to open the glove box! Who on earth thought that was a good idea? Even if, on the whole, I really like the absence of clutter. Indicator stalks? I've not yet decided, but I suspect future drivers might laugh that there were once such things.

It's interesting that SpaceX uses touchscreens instead of switches in their spacecraft. One good thing about that is it should force the technology to be really reliable. But I take the point that, just because you could, doesn't necessarily mean that you should. And design should always be human-centred if humans have to use it.

There are two history-making photos of the attempted assassination that don't seem to have been posted, unless I missed it:

And then from New York Times photographer Doug Mills, a bullet whizzes past Trump's head:

Disappointing after @Day's post to see political points creeping into this thread, that I'd hope could be a historical record of an important event. Of a day that might change the world. 

On 29/05/2024 at 07:45, GboroRam said:

Hyundai Kona 64Kw.

200bhp, not that I drive fast but far better pick up than my Clio GT.

Top speed 102, which sounds puny but even in Germany I won't go over a ton on the autobahn. 

Bargain. I was looking at a hateful, evil tesla but with all the extras and dealer sleight of hand, a 290 monthly payment turned out to be over 400 on PCP. I ended up with a HP of 345 per month. Happy motorist here. 

Is that a joke re Tesla? Of course without them there would be no EVs because the villains, the traditional automakers like Hyundai, only wanted to make and sell gas-guzzling polluting vehicles, for the sake of short-term profits, even if they destroyed the planet in the longer term. 

20 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

The under 21s are playing over in Ireland and looking at a couple of young players while the first team are in Spain.

Let's hope not as they are meant to be playing in Matlock in a few hours. Eek!

£650k sounds an awful lot of money, especially when Cardiff were "apparently" wanting £500k early in the window and we were only offering half of that. 

Ebou brought huge determination, energy, fight and general dynamism to our team, but I have not been convinced by an equivalent amount of technical ability.

He was the right player at the right time to do a job. And that was a considerable contribution in getting us over the line for automatic promotion, but I've not been convinced we should be back in for him. He played most of his football prone, and good technical players don't do that. 

He seems a good lad to have around, so if the price is right I can see why we'd go back. But I always thought our absolute maximum should be 400k. 

See what happens at the end of the window...

Did think the Killers were oddly poor on Independence Day, even with Dave Keuning back and playing brilliantly. The O2 was very quiet, and Brandon struggled to get a reaction. Plus it's such a killjoy venue - you have to use our rubbish app; you must never step over the line of where you're allowed to stand; and if you dare put your drink down in the corner where nobody will go, we will throw it away. 

Heaven forbid anyone should have a bit of gig fun. Me and Mrs Sagan were right at the front, but we couldn't really be bothered with it and left early.

Always find it interesting to see the training routines:

Interesting that Langstaff has gone to Millwall for a reported £700k. Such an impressive career goalscoring record, I would have gone for him if the fee was in that ballpark and wages were manageable.