: Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:30 pm  

MSH wrote:

Says it all about our luck in 2009, and even back end of 2008.

Hope the forwards are on song as we'll need goals, Jags still out, Neville now out, Heitinga not available, Hibbert suspended....truly a battered defence.

Hope Yakubu and Saha are fit and ready.....

It's a disaster we've gone from having three right backs to none now for Thursday. I would assume Yak is almost there now, made another appearance yesterday so he can't be too far off.

As Robbie says Gosling will probably play there. He did for Plymouth when we signed him.

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:32 pm  

What are we thinking about this Squad Capping and homegrown quotas?

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:40 pm  

Brilliant blog on the BBC about the lower leagues, suggest all should take a look http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/carl_baker_and_stockport_an_ex.html#138740

Brilliant blog on the BBC about the lower leagues, suggest all should take a look http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/carl_baker_and_stockport_an_ex.html#138740

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:41 pm  

Dan_FC wrote:

It's a disaster we've gone from having three right backs to none now for Thursday. I would assume Yak is almost there now, made another appearance yesterday so he can't be too far off.

As Robbie says Gosling will probably play there. He did for Plymouth when we signed him.

Played there t'other week when Hibbert was sent off IIRC.


As for the homegrown thing, well, I'm not quite sure what it will mean. Hopefully it will mean getting rid of some of the deadwood at our club (Voronin, Babel, Dossena etc.), with younger, maybe even English players coming in.

If we have to have eight players under 21 for next year, I hope to see more of Pacheco, Dalla Valle, Buchtmann and maybe even a few English lads. I like Martin Kelly, but I'm unsure about Spearing/Darby to be honest.

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:45 pm  

El Pac Carnegie wrote: Brilliant blog on the BBC about the lower leagues, suggest all should take a look http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/carl_baker_and_stockport_an_ex.html#138740 Cracking read. Was listening to an interview with Gary Ablett on the radio before. A million miles form the Premier League and Champions League, thank god! On a lighter note I like many others had Stockport to go down

El Pac Carnegie wrote: Brilliant blog on the BBC about the lower leagues, suggest all should take a look http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/carl_baker_and_stockport_an_ex.html#138740 Cracking read. Was listening to an interview with Gary Ablett on the radio before. A million miles form the Premier League and Champions League, thank god! On a lighter note I like many others had Stockport to go down

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:49 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

Cracking read. Was listening to an interview with Gary Ablett on the radio before. A million miles form the Premier League and Champions League, thank god!

On a lighter note I like many others had Stockport to go down

Aye give me lower league football any day, not the money mad Premier League

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:03 pm  

MrPhilb wrote:

What are we thinking about this Squad Capping and homegrown quotas?

Initial reaction - strongly against it. I just think clubs should be allowed to follow whatever strategy they want. It's difficult enough to get a winning club without having to jump through stupid hoops that the governing bodies put up.

Thinking about it a little. There are going to be players, young players, who are left out of the 25 squad places who are left languishing in the reserves when under the present system they'd break into the first team. How is that going to help their development?

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:23 pm  

How does guaranteeing 8 players in a 25 man squad will be under the age of 21, mean there will be players languishing in the reserves not getting their chance?

Surely it's the other way around? The top players from the reserves will now get a guaranteed spot on the bench if there is an injury or two.

There will be 17 players over the age of 21, so imagine your first choice XI and bench is all over the age of 21, then if any of these players are out, surely it would be better to see a young player from the reserves, than see somebody like Kyrgiakos who we've signed.

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:28 pm  

I hope we draw Paraguay in the World Cup. http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/web/gen/20090908/galeriahq_53779658371-11.html

I hope we draw Paraguay in the World Cup. http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/web/gen/20090908/galeriahq_53779658371-11.html

: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:33 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

Cracking read. Was listening to an interview with Gary Ablett on the radio before. A million miles form the Premier League and Champions League, thank god!

The basic story of how Carl Baker is coping with the death of his brother and the illness of his other brother really pulls at the heart strings. I think everyone will feel for the guy and be very happy that the club are doing well by him.

But TBH the writer needs a good slap for the sentimental rubbish about how this kind of thing made him love football in the first place and you just wouldn't see this kind of thing in the Premier League. There will have been plenty of similar cases throughout the PL that you just don't hear about. The lower leagues don't have the franchise on caring and decent human interaction, no matter how much they want to claim they do.