I dunno, it's a perfect opportunity to learn exactly what not to do!

It was a horror show and well up there, but it can't beat Shane Duffy vs his own defence just before his departure. Two own goals and a red card. He'd had an own goal in the game prior too, which I think someone told me made for 3 own goals in about 60 minutes of football! Which has to be a British record.

It is a major problem, for the people who can't park outside their own property. Are you one of them? Apparently around 70% of UK homeowners have their own off-street parking (finding it a little tricky to get the exact figures). So this means a driveway or a garage. A lot of the rest will be able to park outside their home, but on the street. Meaning they might be able to run a cable (could be a health and safety issue though), or as I said in my other post, charging points can be fitted to lamp-posts, or just built there. They wouldn't generally be super-chargers, so they'd charge slower but cost less than a supercharger, and you could just charge overnight fairly cheaply (but I imagine a bit higher than at your own home). A lot of the people who don't have off-street parking etc are concentrated in the cities, where public transport is often excellent, and plenty of people use that or bikes. Towns and rural areas have less issue with it. That said, I do think it's a problem that could do to be addressed (probably with street chargers, but it'll take time to build enough) by 2035 when all new cars have to be EVs. But it should be noted, this is in no way a game-ender for owning an EV. It just means you can't charge at home. This lowers one of the main advantage of EVs (cheaper 'fuel' and not going to petrol stations), but you can still charge it at charge points. Again, newer technologies are making this quicker all the time, and the cost is usually similar or a bit cheaper than petrol or diesel. And Tesla have it cheaper still for Tesla owners. I notice you didn't reply to any of my extensive points about what makes EVs better, I hope you at least read and digested them. Electric car prices vary just like combustion cars. At the moment, the used market is getting a lot cheaper. At the roughly £8k you mention, there are EVs available. Some I'd recommend, some I wouldn't (I'd swerve a Nissan Leaf). I saw a video where a guy managed to buy one of those 450k mileage Teslas for I think it was just under 9k (he had to negotiate, the asking price was about 11k I think). There didn't seem to be a lot wrong with it and it drove very well. Typically though, a used Tesla about 4 years old seems to sell for about 18k-20k. But there are other brands, I just think Tesla have a very good record for reliability, effiency and charger access, and I know the most about them so I mention them a lot as examples. In 2 years time when you come to change your car, the used market may have shifted again. Especially if cheaper new EVs come along as is expected. I strongly recommend that when you come to choose your next car in 2 years, you assess the market again as you might find a better value EV at that point than any Diesel, and it could save you a fortune in the long run. Perhaps also test drive an EV so you can see what the fuss is about. I haven't yet, but if I could afford one I certainly would, a lot of people rave about their performance.

Then next time you see him, tell him that and let's see how things pan out.

Very different players, depends what the manager wants to do. And Ayari has already said the manager wants him to come back. Whether he'll be seen as a squad player or a regular is another matter.

The first thing you've put there is the top priority to me, as I assume it is to you. And yet I heavily suspect we won't try to get a new number one keeper. The rest...well, I think it's too much to pull off for a dysfunctional club constantly strangled by the owners, still undergoing wholesale changes to our recruitment and scouting department as you mention. Whatever people think of Broughton, we finally got on with contract renewals when he came in. Now it's back to the Waggott model, I expect us to fuck those up. Currently, I'm also still expecting us to go down next season, which has been my view since around March. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Charging at home is currently an issue if you can't park outside your home. Likely in the future there'll be charging points in many places you can park (even a lamp-post can be converted to be able to charge a car too), but you probably won't get the savings you can currently get by charging at home. Although if we invest more in renewables we could bring these costs down. However I'm going to answer your first question on the assumption that a buyer can charge at home. Why are EVs so much better than 'fuel efficient' cars? The average combustion engine is only around 40% efficient (60% of the fuel's energy is wasted in heat, friction and emissions). I'm finding it hard to get a proper figure for the most efficient around, but there's an F1 Mercedes engine (which I can't imagine is available to consumers) with about 50%, and a Wartsila 31 engine that apparently can do a little over this. Electric motors convert 85-95% of the energy into the car's motion. So they're roughly twice as efficient. Instant torque. Because of instant torque, all the sprint records for commercially available cars are held by EVs. In short, they're faster. The Rimac Nevera can do 0-60mph in 1.74 seconds (only 150 made though). The Tesla S Plaid (no production limit) does 0-60mph in 1.98 seconds. Looking at the list of fastest 0-60 on Wiki, you don't find a fully combustion car until 5th place. The ICE cars that do feature on these sorts of lists always need a mega engine that will burn an insane amount of fuel. The fastest quarter mile is held by the Rimac Nevera, at 8.25 seconds, nearly a full second faster than the next two (all electric Lucid Air Sapphire and the ICE supercar Bugatti Chiron Super Sport which I believe has a massive 8 litre engine! Both tied at 9.1 seconds) Less moving parts means less maintenance. Recent research shows that Tesla have the lowest average maintenance costs in the world over both a 5 year and a 10 year period of ownership. When you get a service, a lot less needs doing. Can potentially be powered without any emissions at all, including the electricity you provide to the car. In fact if you get yourself enough solar you'll never have to pay anything again to 'fuel' your car, and even without this you can get clever with flexible tarriffs and charge at off-peak hours and pay very little indeed. If you're not using the car the next day you could even (in some cars) export energy back to the grid at peak times and make a profit! There are Teslas that have clocked in excess of 450,000 miles without needing their battery or drive unit changing. I doubt there are many ICE cars in the world that have gone that many miles without the engine needing changing, at least not without constant care and maintenance. The average lifespan of an ICE car is apparently 133,000 miles. You should check out the videos showing some of these 450k mileage Teslas, they still look in good shape and are basically as fast as the day they were made. There is a guy who has driven over 1.1 million miles in his, though he's had three battery changes (I don't know if they were necessary or he just wanted full range back). They tend to get long warranties. Two of those battery changes I mentioned were provided by the warranty. The technology is still relatively new and will only get better. Batteries with close to a thousand miles of range are theoretically possible with batteries currently under development, better drive units etc. Despite the scare stories, the newer battery chemistries are actually far safer than ICE cars, as in they're far less likely to set on fire. Even newer batteries are being designed to be even safer still. Electricity prices are less dependent on the fluctuating prices of fossil fuels dictated by the whims of Russian and Middle Eastern despots. If we ramp up renewables so we are self sufficient for energy, we can avoid all that instability. I'm barely going to touch on this part because it's well known and the details would take too long, but with these cars being cleaner we can also combat climate change, and even if for some reason you don't care about that, we can all breathe clearer air. Air pollution kills over 7 million people globally each year, including nearly 50,000 in the UK. Getting on for twice the population of Darwen, or globally, more than the population of Denmark. I'm probably forgetting a few things.

Had a stinker at Ewood as has been pointed out, but I heard he was great for them in the league. A league two below ours though. He might will have potential, but the last thing we need is another development keeper. I'm not interested in any goalie who isn't experienced and a safe bet.

2.5 mill probably is him adding a mill on for that Prem money 😆

Very different scenario, if the rumours about that are even true. Venkys had more interest then, plus we knew Manure had obtained details of his min clause implicitly so we managed to get a touch more out of them to avoid a court case and/or forcing the deal to Liverpool through instead (who had offered several million more than we got in the end). Hardly a bargaining masterclass to have given him a clause in the first case when he was already contracted for a decent stretch before it. Also Waggott was nowhere near the club back then.

If it's 10 we really are a joke. 15 is too low tbh. I appreciate it was a 'gamble' for Palace given his experience, but in that case it shouldn't have been too hard to get a 20% sell on.

Agreed with all your post except this bit. We don't do talking clubs up. Pretty sure the most we would squeeze out would be 2.5 mill, and tbf, that's a fair deal. With the caveat that we won't adequately replace him or spend more than a couple hundred k of that.

The only way it would make sense is if Ipswich didn't have much budget left in January, tried at 1.5 mill but were told we wanted 8 mill. Now they are getting Prem money and they inexplicably still want him (I guess his best attributes are pretty transferable to a higher level, if we ignore that his weaknesses are more exposed up there, perhaps he could end up being what he is in this league - an ok lower half squad player). Of course, the notion that we or Ipswich would put that value on him, especially at his age with a year on his deal, is pretty laughable. Perhaps a more likely explanation is they heard Ipswich were willing to pay 8 mill for a Rovers player (actually Szmodics), saw past interest in Gally and added 2 and 2 to get 8. Or, most likely of all by far, it's a load of fabricated bollocks.

That's not half bad. Another 50 miles and it would suit for any journey I care to make, and the price is borderline affordable for me (would be a big chunk of my savings though). Currently having to pump 500-800 a year into fixing issues on my 08 reg Peugeot, plus the fuel, so when you factor in savings that sort of car would almost pay for itself after a few years. What was it like in terms of things needing repairs, replacement etc?

Just browse them in incognito/privacy/secrecy mode or on a different browser/device and you'll be able to read a few more before you get locked out. Between my three phone browsers each with incognito mode, and two with incognito on my laptop it's never more than a mild inconvenience 😉

Apologies yes, ten minute walk etc. All this talk about cars must have distracted me! About your other part (btw you can use the multi-quote option instead of writing within your quote...not sure how you did what you did, what just press the '+' next to the Quote text and you can stack them then type under each. Lets anyone who is quoting you subsequently keep your comments intact unlike when I've just quoted you...apologies if you already know this) I think part of the problem for these legacy automakers is they're not committing wholesale to EVs, which is understandable given their existing infrastructure and markets, but means they're doing what you just said. Making EV versions of ICE cars. The problem with that is they're not purpose-built to be EVs, and their architecture therefore has unnecessary parts to it when converted to an EV, meaning waste and inefficiency in the design. When you look at the most successful EV makers who actually make profit on their EVs, like Tesla and BYD, they're committed fully to electric, and lots of the other successful Chinese brands are either fully EV or primarily EV, rather than simply adjusting existing combustion cars to have a battery etc. Again it's understandable, because they're already making the ICE cars and cracking the EV market is still very tough because it's a nascent market and technology. Their economies of scale are geared towards ICE, but if they take too long achieving economies of scale for EVs, they'll end up too far behind to catch up. Of course, some of them do have purpose-built EV cars and are building factories just to churn out those cars, and they're probably the ones with the best chance of competing longer term. Currently some of the Japanese firms in particular are in real danger of dying out or being bought out by someone who wants to use their badge and brand. Good point about the scaling up of EV percentages. I hate our current government but I do think they've gone about this in the right way. Pushing the requirements year on year is a better idea than expecting everyone to go cold turkey in 2035. It gives firms, customers, the market and infrastructure time to adjust without overnight disaster that could have resulted in the plans just being abandoned when it was clear uptake wasn't high enough. For those who don't know, companies will be fined for every combustion car they sell above the threshold. It's a huge fine, too - 15k I believe, or 9k for vans. It should force better price parity between ICE and EVs, though admittedly it's not good for consumers and car companies in the short term, but should get firms progressing with the transition. I hope the fines will be used to subsidise EVs or other green initiatives that could help the transition be affordable for consumers, but you never know with politicians. 6.7k for a decent used EV with decent remaining range and longevity would be very good and could be a bargain. But I suspect if you're selling one at that price in the current market it's something like an old Nissan Leaf? Not a particularly good car and whilst it would suit for some people, wouldn't suit me very well and I don't drive all that far. When you can get something like a Tesla at that price, which will eventually happen, you're probably on for a real bargain.

Pretty much all of us knew this though. We keep saying 18 mill because that's all we're guaranteed. Btw the majority of reporting I've seen said the deal could reach 23 mill, not 22 mill. Dependent on the terms of the deal (remember, our negotiators are clearly shite) we might not get the majority of those add-ons beyond the sell-on if Palace simply sell him for a huge profit this summer. In any case, the fees we ended up receiving for Raya and could receive for Wharton, before the sell-ons, are pretty much what I'd have expected us to get for the players guaranteed, before add-ons. And the reported sell-on clauses of 15% of profit are too low when selling top young talent. These should have been at least 20% of profit, or 10-15% of total sale. We've thrown away enough on these deals to pay for good Championship-level replacements for each player, likely with change left over if we had a good scouting and procurement system that we didn't need to completely reassemble every 12-24 months. Of course that said, we did get it right with Raya's replacement (albeit a year late, which meant we lost a whole season with Walton in goal), spending just 500k. Then we sold him for at least 1-2 million less than he was worth too, after alienating him by playing a shitter keeper ahead of him and reducing his market value. We're just really bad at this player trading lark. We make the occasional good bargain recruitment, but our sales expertise leaves a lot to be desired. Between selling too low and failing to renew contracts or sell when contracts are running down and the player won't sign, we've pissed away tens upon tens of millions. Then we cry poverty.

Maybe our players were kicking off because JDT told them to train Christmas Day and they weren't used to it anymore 😂 If he made them train that is. I'm sure we used to be fairly good on Boxing Day generally. Pretty certain there was a period of a few years where we would win it regularly. Maybe just when the games were at home, dunno.

Boxing Day results in the Championship under Mowbray (I think I've got this right): 2021: 3-2 defeat to Hull 2020: 1-1 draw with Sheff W 2019: 1-1 draw with Brum 2018: 3-2 defeat to Leeds We did beat Rochdale in League One in 2017 but we were easily the best side in that league. Maybe Ol' Tone should have done some fucking Christmas Day training instead of being everyone's mate.

Haaland was murdering the Bundesliga at 19, with nearly a goal a game. This lad is scoring 1 in 2 in the Danish second tier at 20. I'm not sure making such a hyperbolic comparison is helpful. We can sign a good prospect without them needing to be the new Haaland.

We would be eligible for that much? Honestly thought it would be a lot less. What happens if Newcastle just sell him on when he's made say 80 appearances though? For Elliott, Fulham also got 1.5 mill up front, which we won't. I don't know if either compensation package would include a sell on.

41 year old Zhang battered Wilder. With 4 losses in his last 5, that's essentially Wilder's career over.

There are already rules about what compensation is given though. Those could be enhanced significantly. They don't need to sign employment contracts for that.

You mean when they got about 4.3 million for a 16 year old player they'd had for one year who played 3 games for them? Us getting a few hundred k for a 16 year old who has played a game for us doesn't sound too similar.