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Vercoe
Grimnir
This one?
If so, yes, well worth a read! Unfortunately the amount of money it would take to remove these limpets from the club is just not worth it for many; except to a fan of the club...and I don't know any multi-millionaire Blackpool fans
Davide Somma
I think something like £300k has been raised so far and the wealthy fans are waiting for a certain amount to be raised or something before invested, I can''t really remember. Highly unlikely with Cellino in charge though, I'm sure he would prefer full control over the club.
terriersmad
Promoted: Middlesbrough, Burnley
Play-offs: Derby, Wolves, Ipswich, Bristol City
Relegated: Blackburn, Rotherham, MK Dons
Town to finish 15th. If we were a bit tighter at the back, I'd go a bit higher. Leeds to get off to a good start, lose three in a row in late September, sack Rosler, enter administration by March and give everyone a laugh. Wednesday to be the most boring side on the planet again (which they will continue to be until they sign a striker who isn't a clogger) and finish 13th. Hull to miss out on the play-offs for exactly the same reason. Fulham will only just fail to get relegated. Last season's surprise package Brentford to suffer a major slump and finish lower mid-table. Charlton to spend most of the season in the play-offs but drop off at the last.
The above is all highly unlikely, but good fun to think of the permutations before a ball's been kicked.
gfnx25
However, I'm looking forward to the new season, I really do. I don't think we're going to set the league alight but I don't think we're going to be some sort of cannon fodder either so very exiting times ahead.
BR.
I went to the Bury v Rovers friendly actually, forgot to mention on here. Sat in the main stand because I sat in the away end for the friendly last summer (also 1-1, incidentally) and could barely see a thing!
Grimnir
gfnx25
Classic
Tbf I've never been to the main stand for a game but heard this one several times. Some things do never change...
gfnx25
terriersmad
Useless stat of the day: this is the tenth season I've seen at this level. We've scored on just two of them, and won only one (2-0 v Charlton, 1996).
Vercoe
Watching it on catchup now and I have to agree it's bloody awful. Only Channel five could make a footy highlights show so bad.
Shedender
It's a shame the BBC don't have the FLS anymore.
Shola
I like it. I've long said the football needs to FEEL like a Big Brother eviction night.
On the bright said that female presenter looked like the first girl the crowd had ever spoke to, so that's a positive. You used to have to build a robot to talk to a girl.
Davide Somma
Think the three to go up will be Hull, Boro and Burnley. Three to go down Huddersfield, Rotherham and Bristol City
Number 1
Vercoe
Dan
Ad.
Holgate has finally f*cked off so we've got some transfer funds. Expect us to bring in a striker, a winger, or two, plus a full-back.
Shola
gfnx25
I'd like to think he's just happy this transfer saga ended et all. Quite a good fee for Barnsley aswell
Ad.
He's a very good player. Looked so cool and composed despite only playing 20-odd games. He's not quite John Stones, but I think he'll make it.
I'm more relieved, like gfnx25 says, because it's finally come to an end. He's apparently turned down moves to Bournemouth and Aston Villa, and had a two week trial at Man Utd. Rumours this week were that his agent was saying he'd not sign a new deal and move abroad at the end of the season for free. We ended up with a decent price, rumoured to be worth £2m, which means we can strengthen. Funny thing is, the lad actually regarded as our best talent since John Stones, who turned down Man Utd, is still here. No doubt he'll have a good season and move to Everton..
BR.
If we sign a 33 year-old who ended the season on Leyton Orient's bench and sell O'Sullivan.....then there'll be even more unhappy people. I can't see us signing him to be honest, but O'Sullivan could still leave.
Dan
terriersmad
More worrying is the probability of Alex Smithies going to QPR. Not in the team today, bid officially lodged, and sounds like Powell's planning for life without him without bringing in a direct replacement. That Bentley from Southend would be ideal, but more likely is that we stick with what we have and risk Murphy's dodgy foot flaring up again.
gfnx25
Ad.
Plenty of rumours going around that he was at our game today.
Davide Somma
Boring 0-0 against Reading. Defensively we have massively improved under Uwe just need to get firing now..
Looks as if Byrne at Swindon is off to Burnley. Would of liked him here considering the fee is so small
terriersmad
Football really has gone bananas. Gray is a good player, no one could doubt that. But how can a newly-promoted club justify spending that on him? How could any club in this division justify it? In the same window we've seen Stewart Downing move for £5m (rising to £7m), a mooted £14m transfer for Jordan Rhodes, and Tom Ince move for almost £5m. Last year we saw Ross McCormack move for £11m. This is the second tier of English football. And although there are some big clubs in this division, the amount of money is still utterly obscene.
I enjoy football at this level. It really is a cut above League One. I remember when we played our first home game against Nottingham Forest and thinking that this was something else - Forest should have hammered us that night, but we ended up scraping a draw. After years of being flat-track bullies in League One ("big-spending Huddersfield," to quote Steve Claridge) the quality and the challenge of the Championship was refreshing. But I can't help but feel alienated by the amount of money being thrown around. This isn't the game I grew up with.
This isn't a complaint about how all this money being spent makes it so much harder - Fulham spent more than anyone else in this division last season and still finished below us, proving that it isn't how much you spend that matters but how you spend it, and Burnley got up on free transfers and scrupulous spending in the right places. It is a complaint that as a football fan I find it hard to identify with the modern game. Things like Bristol City - a mid-sized club like Town with no added financial bonuses from Premier League failure - bidding £6m for Dwight Gayle and £9m for Andre Gray are the sort of things that take the clubs away from the fans.
The 6 years of First Division football I watched between 1995 and 2001 are still a high point in my time watching football. I might be looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but it seemed like the clubs themselves connected to fans so much more. The players out there might have had a reasonable fee paid for them (£200k was a common one, I seem to remember), but even that kind of money was something fans could relate to. Players still lived in and among the fans (I remember Marcus Stewart living in Dewsbury). Clubs weren't owned by foreign conglomerates or city yuppie types, but by local businessmen made good.
Football won't go back to how it was, which is a shame in some ways. Clubs used to want old First Division status because it was the top division and it was a chance to play the biggest clubs in the country, but now it all seems to be financial. The desire for riches seems to trump providing a good afternoon's entertainment for the local public. Looking up a level, the Europa League is shunned because it doesn't bring riches with it and is blamed for all sorts of ills, whilst the Champions League - which is just as demanding on a team's schedule - is the holy grail because of the millions in TV money. It's ridiculous.
One Night In Grimsby