Sorry I'm as confused by this response as I was by the whistle.

Can't see any comments about it, so gonna ask. Did nobody else hear a whistle before their third goal was struck? Everyone I was with, and people around me in the BBE did. Doesn't seem to be any mention of it but the whistle stops the game. Bristol fans didn't fully celebrate either at first so I assumed they heard it. Was it from the stands or something?

I certainly wasn't calling Pears a good keeper after his clean sheets. He was rarely troubled because the defence were on point, and the only exceptional save he made in that period was only necessary because of his poor positioning. He did alright for a few games, no more, no less. He couldn't have done much better, but there wasn't much to do. Then he reverted to type and put in the worst keeping performance I've seen since Fettis. Contrary to some who like to claim he is only a professional because of his dad, I do think there is a decent keeper in there if he can work out the mental side of the game. But for now he is a poor keeper at this level and the thought of relying on him for say, 8 games, fills me with dread.

Who is Colak? This is the first I'm hearing about him and I've been reading this thread all summer.

The player and their agent will know he is out of form. In a way it's a good time to tie them down, easier to complete negotiations. The trick is being right in your assumption they'll come good again though...

Definitely good to see a 5 yr contract for an asset (as long as Buckley isn't going backwards, but I suspect it's just a blip). Sets the tone. I don't remember the last time we gave a 5 yr deal (apart from BBD's 4 yr with a 1 yr option). Would love to see us tie up lots of our young talent to long term deals. I always feel it makes sense if we rate them as they tend to be cheaper deals while they're at that stage, as well as the security factor. Looks like Gregg agrees. Hopefully we won't see a repeat in future under this regime of the contract rebels scenario we had this summer.

Oh, I didn't honestly see that as any sort of priority. We already had 3 years left to run with him, I'd have expected to sort it at the end of this season. Nonetheless, it's interesting and positive to see the club looking to the longer term and not wanting to repeat the mistakes we have seen with contracts recently, leaking millions away. Just hope there isn't too much of a pay rise involved in this case, as tbh his place in the first team looks less than guaranteed right now. Early in the season though.

We don't know if they will be here beyond May, that would apply to any loanee. But in this case there will be more power for us to keep them if we want to. That has to be a plus over a normal loan. Yes, any player eats into our budget, whether owned or loaned, that's a given.

I know sometimes clubs use loyalty bonuses instead, probably increasingly these days. I thought someone may say this but I just use signing on fees as a catch-all term for simplicity. On FM they call it a signing on fee when you first sign them, and a loyalty bonus after that. I think they have it as signing on fees are up front, loyalty bonuses paid over contract if they don't request a transfer. In the real world it's probably different in that some clubs will tend towards it always being loyalty bonuses even for new signings, I would assume.

I'm not sure what your aim was with this post, but I'm not biting.

Is that in terms of the tenacity and desire to win the ball as well? JDT seemed to imply in a previous interview that he wasn't doing too much of that and he has been encouraging him to (and that he had taken to it really well). Maybe it's just that Wharton had been trying to show off his class rather than his graft to the new boss. If he plays that well every game I don't think he would even need to improve to be top drawer at this level. We all know every game isn't going to go that swimmingly though, there will be teams who control the game too much for him to have an impact and there will be midfielders who will kick him around to try take him out the game. Good luck to those ones though if big bro is playing, as they'll then get twatted when they go near the defence!

He isn't, he's 18. A young 18 though, birthday was 2nd June.

The followup wasn't half bad either. Tenacity and desire, I like it. Hope he keeps that hunger and wasn't just buoyed by his debut in a local derby.

It's very likely the players who came in for fees have a total wage bill and sign on fees higher than Lenihan's contract. So I don't think that's a fair way to look at it.

I agree. His technique is very good but what impresses me the most about him is how composed he is and his speed of thought. He reads the game brilliantly, like very few 18 year olds can, decides almost immediately what to do and does it without any hesitation at all. So far, those decisions are spot on too. The other thing that impresses me is his ball-winning, a surprising bonus but perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise given who his brother is.

Wiki tells me Barker scored once every 5.2 games for us, which is a very good rate from central midfield. Being honest, I have to say that striking ability is the only thing in his game we didn't see any particular sign of against Blackpool. He had two shots from the edge of the area and both were blocked. I don't know if the first was on target, it's hard to tell from the video and from where I was in the ground. The second seemed on target to me at the time but the keeper had it covered. In all his appearances, almost all of which were at youth level, he has 2 goals in 45 games. 4 of those games were senior appearances so he has a 1 in 10.25 average at youth level. Senior level is obviously harder, so it will take a lot of development to get to a 1 in 5 average you would think. Hopefully that comes.

I think it's only fair in this context to mention that 2 of the loans are with an option to buy. That is a change in thinking. A try-before-you-buy approach isn't a bad idea for a club like ours. Hopefully the option prices aren't too high and there is something left in the kitty for them if we decide to make them permanent, but I suspect the options are there partly with a potential Brereton sale in mind (Hirst's, anyway, I bet Mola is a lot cheaper).

Ahh so you haven't seen the Tugay and Foden comparisons then.

You really think it makes zero sense to want to have a stronger squad than last season? Honestly?

Dolan has had me on the edge of my seat plenty of times since he arrived. His form has dipped though and he needs better end product.

Thing is, if he leaves next summer his signing on fee and wages will be inflated by being a free agent. If a club pays that sort of money that goes away and they've less left to spend on his contract. Also, clubs have shown in this window that, for some odd reason and more fool them because they can't all get him for free, they're not willing to pay 15 million for him. So unless he plays even better, he might not get the move at all with that price tag. Overall, that idea suits us a lot better than it suits him. I highly doubt his agent would let him sign it unless Brereton himself insisted.

Well, 4 out of 15. So not most, less than 1 in 3, but still a good chunk of them.

I dunno, Adam Wharton does pretty well with his pulled down.

Yeh, I was gonna mention this. Didn't turn out how he, or Connor Mahoney expected eh? Can still eke out a Championship career though, as Mahoney is doing for now, but honestly they waste crucial years of their development with these moves. I can only hope Ash Phillips is wiser and signs that new deal soon.

Good curries tbf. I was only being hypothetical with my question.