Just seen Markanday is in talks to join Chesterfield on loan... I'm sorry, what?! Fucking Chesterfield? A League Two side, freshly promoted from the NLN? That's a fucking joke of a loan. He might not be a world beater, but he's definitely a cut above League Two. It's a very poor do if that's the best loan we can find for someone who has been a squad player for us, made 21 Championship appearances last season, cost us 500k, and in League Cup games against that type of opposition has scored 4 in 8. He's also one of our only wide players (probably our only one actually) that does have a bit of pace. Supposedly Eustace likes a pacey winger.

So I've had a bit of a rethink and I'm now also considering ICE cars for under 2k, to get me by for another 2-3 years or so, until I can hopefully afford a better EV, which I think should be very possible by then both from a personal perspective and the changes expected in the market. It will also just save me the hassle of overthinking the purchase, as I tend to do with expensive items, and kick the can down the road. Something reasonably efficient (like a Citroen C1 from 2013 that I found, but I don't trust the dealer based on reviews) could save me about £200 a year in fuel. Not the £800 that an EV would save me, but still helpful at a much lower purchase cost and with no worry about longer distances if they come up. Again after a few years it could have almost paid for itself. Especially since road taxes seem to be far lower on fuel efficient models (in fact it's free this year on that model, vs the £320 I'm paying this year! Not sure what it'll be next year after the changes). And probably the insurance would be slightly cheaper than the Zoes I was looking at, as it's older. So if anybody has any advice on finding an ICE car for under 2k, with decent fuel economy and good reliability records for that model, I'd be very appreciative. Maybe would stretch to 2.5k if it was good enough. I need something that's not painfully slow, but doesn't need to be a beast. I'd say I can live with anything that's 0-60 in about 13 seconds or less. Anything at 14 seconds or longer and I fear for one particular merge lane I use a fair bit that has shit visibility and often has a lorry coming from the main lanes! I'm not too fussed what it looks like, even if it's scratched up, as I just want to save money and get to work, but can't really be bigger than my Peugeot 308 due to the tight parking at home. Doesn't have to be 5 doors. One thing I've noticed in this category is virtually everything has a Cat S, Cat D, whatever category, marker (means it's been written off, for those who don't know, but to varying extents...might be something as simple as airbags having deployed and it costing more to replace them than the car is worth). I'm not sure how concerned to be by the categories that don't involve structural damage. I'm also not sure how much they affect insurance costs. Though I've been setting the mileage to 70k or less and the manufacture year to 2012 or later (my Peugeot is 91k miles and 2008, so I want something a bit fresher - purely to increase the chances of good reliability), so maybe older models in this range might not have Cat markers. The best deals popping up tend to be from private sellers, not dealers. This gives me a bit of anxiety, as I feel like there's less recourse if something goes wrong, and maybe more chance that defects are being hidden (perhaps I'm naive in thinking most dealers will have given the car a proper look over and fix anything serious before selling?). How do other people feel about buying direct from private sellers? Also, I've only really been checking Auto Trader, with a quick glance at Ebay. Any other good sites I should be using? Still looking for Zoes too btw, just need a better deal than the ones I'm currently finding.

That Jason Roberts' 'Finishing Masterclass' that Sky or whoever did will forever live in infamy.

I can picture it... Benson: Sure, you could come off your line in those situations, but that's scary right? Everyone will be looking at you, and you might make an obvious mistake. Stay back on your line so the mistake is less obvious when it flies in. Raya/Kaminski/Pears/Wahlstedt: But doesn't somebody need to try to stop the ball getting to their 6 ft 3 forward? Benson: That's what your teammates are for. Keeper: What, this team of midgets? I've been coming out for crosses since I was 8. Benson: ....stay on your line lad.

This got me thinking. I think the only loanee CM who has ever worked out was Reed? And he was 23. I think it's a position you need experience for really, or at least a player coming through the club with time to grow. Not saying it's impossible for a young loanee to work there before anyone starts. But we've seen Morton, Clarkson, Grimes and others fail. Who was the lad who missed a sitter against the Dingles, I wanna say Tom something? Can't remember anyone 21 or younger do well there on loan for us. Maybe I'm forgetting someone but it seems a high fail rate even for loanees.

Sure, but it doesn't indemnify Ipswich from their bullshit cheapskatery.

Championship clubs tend to have youth players whose wages are easy enough to pick up though compared to Prem academy players. And NLN clubs certainly aren't picking them up any better than L1, L2 and NL teams. I think it's more a case of the perception that Prem academy players must be better, even though our academy outperforms quite a few of them for league standings and players produced. Added to that, some Prem clubs just hoover up dozens of talented youngsters and loan most of them out like they're a player farm. Without following L1 and L2 much, I suspect they've over saturated the leagues with their own youth and there's less chance for our unfairly less well perceived players to go there.

Why is it framed as us messing Ipswich around on our lengthily contracted star asset for the sake of half a million quid, rather than Ipswich with their Premier League riches messing us around for the sake of half a million quid? Frankly our valuation is too low anyway, based on what I've heard. I hope we stand firm. For once I'm not going to criticise these bellends on this one, not yet.

Only in the sense that I expect he won't reply or if he does he will swerve actually answering the question. But I'd like him to answer it. I'm curious where he draws the line.

He means he's shite and not worth fighting over. Personally I'd say he's...alright. Has talent and is one of those players that go on to succeed in another Championship side tbh, kinda like Morton did at Hull after being mostly wank here. But Moran in no way set the world alight here. Looked good in flashes, looked a bit shite for longer though. You'd need his game to kick on from where he's been at for it to be a good loan, but he showed enough for me to say that's possible.

Every player is potentially one bad injury away from their career petering away.

Well, after the first round of games we're sat 3rd. I'd still take the season ending immediately though!

Considering that as I understand it, Klopp absolutely could qualify for citizenship due to naturalisation, having been here for 9 years (I believe 5 years is required), and having made a massive contribution to British sporting life would almost certainly get it approved.... @chaddyrovers would you accept Klopp as England boss if he obtained a British passport and therefore had dual citizenship?

No. He's under a lengthy contract he signed half a season ago that doesn't, it seems, include an 8 million clause. The only way Sammie stays is if we reject all the bids.

From what I've seen and heard, I'd have thought we could have landed him a loan at least one league higher. Hopefully he bosses that league and gets recalled in January to go a league or two up.

Whilst I do like us loaning out the youngsters (despite questioning the level some of them are being sent to), I'm starting to wonder if the youth sides are going to have enough decent players to be competitive in their leagues. Granted, that matters less for the U21s than it used to thanks to that ridiculous system they introduced last year, but it still helps players develop if their teammates are better.

Or at 21 perhaps he is just coming into his true ability. 9 goals in 20 might not be 'setting fire' to this league, but it's a pretty good record. Not 27 million quid move to the Prem good though. Again, frustrating we have to humour bids under 10 million for a far superior player.

Annoying that someone who is apparently shite in the Championship can sell for about triple what we're apparently being offered for Szmodics who just obliterated the Championship, just because they're younger. He might have 3 times the peak career remaining, but he's costing 3 times as much and isn't as proven. That said, I'm only going off your assessment that he's shite...I notice he scored 9 goals in 20 games for Hull (or 9 in 12 when played up front according to transfermrkt). Seems a decent record. Not 27 million in the Prem decent but still.

We're going to have to get keen on spending money to bring more players in then, because if we're not relying on young prospects to pad out the squad, it's far too thin. A centre half is definitely needed now O'Riordan is out on loan.

Palace are the ones who dropped out? I've been wanting us to loan Rak Sakyi for ages, but christ, he's had one good season in League One and a handful of Prem cameos with no goals. 12 million is a fantastic deal.

If that's a reference to my post, I wasn't comparing him or his price to a goalkeeper. I was illustrating that what someone will pay for a player can change rapidly and dramatically, so you don't just sell for what the first bidder is willing to stump up.

Or wait until they do pay the asking price. De Lange was only worth about 800k according to this logic of value. Until a few days later when he was worth 2 million because Bordeaux or whoever it was paid that. If we were only being offered 2 quid, should we take it? No of course not. We only 'want' to sell him because we want to get the asking price.

If they can take this form into the league, they'll be laughing

Oh poor, sweet, naive Chaddy. He's lying mate. That's what he does. If we could get money from the owners just by asking, we wouldn't have had so many windows scraping by, and we wouldn't have done fuck all in two January windows where promotion was realistic. If Waggott asks Venkys for 1.5 mill, they're going to say 'Fuck off Steve, that would cost us 3 million'.

I don't think it's that the going gets tough, I think he wears out a bit after giving his all for a couple of months, doesn't get rested, and just loses that 10% to his game that he needs to be effective.