Tombwfc

People thought TSL was a Championship player for a time last season and for nine games Mason Burstow looked like he might play for England. I'm not saying he needs to retire as a lost cause or anything. But he rightly lost his place in the side and from Christmas-time onwards his starts were... Wycombe (a) - Lost Mansfield (h) - Lost Doncaster (a) - Losing when he was taken off. Drew Wigan (a) - Drawing when taken off. Won. Stevenage (a) - Drew Orient (h) - Drawing when taken off. Won. Port Vale (a) - Lost Bradford was something of a start, but he hasn't done nearly enough to show he'd be capable of starting in the Championship. I'm not convinced he's currently better than Dempsey who'll be playing in L2 this weekend.

That goal against Bradford has done a good job wiping people's memories of Simons. Feels like he's seen as the player he was assumed to be this time last year, rather than the one who barely played for six months. And when he did play we invariably didn't win. Whether Watson's good enough himself we'll see, but purely comparing the two I don't think he has a high bar to clear to be an improvement.

Thomas Frank & Keith Andrews at Brentford. Just had a quick scan of Wikipedia and 10 current Championship coaches got their start being promoted internally. Bolton vs PNE happens to be a match between two of them. I don't think it's that uncommon, particularly in the EFL. Sammy Lee and the like stick in the memory, but there are also plenty of managers brought in who have been shit too.

Steven Schumacher?

We do this every year. Cissoko, Forss, Simons, EE, Gale, Apter, Taylor... all came here expecting to play last season. And all had to settle for a place on the bench for long periods, for one reason or another. By the end of the window we'll have signed 11+ players. Bonham, Forino, Sheehan, RR and Dalby are all guaranteed to start as first choice if fit. It doesn't take great maths to work out that some of these new signings are going to have to wait their turn. This lad might be brilliant, but he hasn't started a Championship game in over 10 months. He isn't coming here guaranteed anything.

Our projected starting XI for this game probably wouldn't beat Barnsley away. But equally, Preston wouldn't be heavy favourites to beat any half decent L1 side away in a one off game either. So if that's what we are on Saturday, so be it. Should fancy our chances of getting a result whoever we put out. It's not facing Coventry with a bunch of kids who turned out to be semi-pro standard.

The way Charlton fans went on about Rob Apter I thought we were signing Rivaldo. Same for Forss and Middlesbrough. Probably one for the squad I reckon. Unless we're planning to play three at the back, which isn't impossible.

Facilitating fan to fan resales is one thing, but I just can't quite compute giving the club back I ticket I paid for, so they can sell it on to someone else for £30+. And in return I get a voucher for a tenner.

John McAtee - 6,214 L1 minutes - 34 G/A Joel Randall - 6,750 L1 minutes - 29 G/A So McAtee is ahead, but I'm not sure it's enough of a difference to call one a guaranteed scorer & creator and the other a failure at that level. I think they've both been decent L1 players in the past. In terms of dumping everyone who isn't Championship quality, you can basically group our squad into the following... New signings Every week starters (Sheehan, Forino, Toal, RR, Dalby, Bonham) Work to do but signed by SS/Fergal in the past 12months (EE, Simons, Gale) A young back up full back and an old one (Conway & Christie) McAtee and Randall stand out in that they're the only players we have left that weren't signed by SS, have barely started any games under him and when they have they haven't impressed. That's why they're lumped together and IMO have similar futures here (none).

They're in the same bucket as 'players who are clearly miles off being Championship quality'. McAtee might be better, but it's tallest dwarf stuff. Away goals scored over the past two seasons seems a strange stat to use. Since March last year McAtee has the same number of away goals as Chris Forino (1). Aaron Collins also has seven away goals for Bolton over the past two seasons and a) he left a year ago and b) I wouldn't want him playing for us in the Championship either.

What it shows is the futility of staring at companies house hoping it'll give you the precise answers for what goes on behind the scenes at a football club. There are many reasons why things could be presented in the accounts in certain ways, all preceded and given context by many hours of real life conversations between people you've never met. Trying to parse the 'truth' from it all is impossible. You could've written a novel in the words you've wrote in this thread in the past week alone and you'll continue to spend countless more hours doing the same. And in the end you're really no more informed than a bloke in a pub who's never spent a second thinking about it. It's a dog chasing it's own tail, if the dog wrote essays about it on a football forum.

If you've spent dozens of hours and literally hundreds of thousands of words looking at this stuff... and still have a loads and loads of questions, doesn't that say something in and of itself? The answers are not there and never will be. Seven years and we haven't got past the first bit of that Dunning-Kruger effect yet.

If someone drags you down - in any way - it has the potential to hurt you. Ultimately it's a contact sport and players grapple and tug each others shirt all over the pitch - accidentally and on purpose. A sport where every one of these was called as a foul - let alone a red card - would be unwatchable. Especially in the era of VAR. Egregious shirt pulling, such as dragging a player back as he breaks away with the ball - is usually punished by a freekick and often a yellow card. Which is exactly what happened with Simons except he also decided to try and lamp the fella too. Brainless.

Are there examples of players getting just a three match ban for deliberately punching an opponent in the face unprovoked? I don't know. I think even in the scenario you mention the player would be getting charged by the FA afterwards. Regardless, if Simons had retaliated by pulling the guys shirt, he wouldn't have been sent off. Instead he punched him. The argument he was hard done by - or that we want to see players sent off for shirt pulling - is a bit baffling really.

I know it's the case with all loan moves to an extent, but with Kenny the situation is seemingly we rate him a lot higher than Celtic do. If we sign him on loan and we're right, his price doubles or triples next season which benefits Celtic more than it does us. It's not my money to say 'just find another £m or so', but it is a bit annoying.