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Many years ago I was "enticed" into joining a family run business where the owner had suffered a few minor heart attacks and wanted to step away and spend more time on the Golf course. I lasted nine months, the guy couldn't give up control and was even more hands on than he had been previously. When anything was changed that he didn't know about he became paranoid. In the end we sat down over a cup of coffee where I said that either he goes or I go and as it was his business then it was an obvious and easy decision, we shook hands and I departed. I suspect SG is cut from the same cloth b

On the other hand, that's the kind of money that can keep a club like Stevenage alive during times like these.

Id rather have Gibson as owner, but someone more effective doing the running of it. Having someone with the clubs best interests at heart is probably something we take for granted and changing that could go Man City or Bolton.

To be fair to bettinelli, when you're told to only ever kick the ball out into the oppositions half, you're going to fail to find our players more often than you'll find them (simple maths and physics- defenders tend to be taller than our strikers, there are less attackers than defenders). However there aren't many excuses to be made for the frequency with which he hits the ball straight out of play under no pressure.

I remember a few year ago Bobby Moncur on the football phone in, and Allie Brownlee asked him about how many kids make it from a youth academy, 1or 2 in my experience if your lucky he replied, always sticks with me that, and these idiots at City pay 450k for a 13year old, its disgusting when some clubs can't even afford to buy a senior player for that money.

The game that we loved has now been ruined and turned into Billionaires toys much like their latest Yacht, Penthouse or Supercar. It's just a shame that all four of the Champions League semi finalists couldn't lose. My only pleasure is that I haven't watched a Champions League game in years. I have lost any interest I once had in European and International competitions a long time ago and the Premiership is now heading into that territory for me as well. Saying that I haven't watched an FA Cup Final in over ten years either, the predictability factor of Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd, City, Liverpo

Finances and people's response to the pandemic are definitely things that will drive the numbers and it really remains to be seen how that will affect things, completely agree with that. I think there's more a feel of really missing being at the football, though. There's the odd person, like those on here, who won't be going back because of Warnock, sure. But from personal experience of fans outside of this forum, the general feel around Warnock is really positive, people seem to really like him and want to follow him into battle, as it were. That usually translates to bums on seats.

All it really takes is Gibson to accept that neither him nor Bausor are effective enough in running the football side of things and to even try to find someone who can. That would be progress. I'd still be happy to have Gibson in charge of the club, ensuring it never went under, so long as he can give up enough power over to someone who knows how to develop a modern football club. I can't say his recent experiences will have made him any more open to that, though. Tony Pulis coming out and saying it's great having a direct line to the chairman rather than having to go through another pers

Sadly I don't see next season being much different from this one. Especially since I doubt Warnock will be able to recruit significantly better players, to replace those leaving. I expect we will continue to set up to play direct football, with forwards who aren't really suited to it. Our midfield will continue to struggle to exert any control and as a result we will create few chances per game. Even more annoyingly I'm sure NW will continue to have his favourites he'll pick game after game, even if its glaringly obviously they aren't performing. As to the crowds, I don't know h

Its for precisely that reason I desperately want them to fail. The kind of money being thrown around at the top echelon of football is just obscene. Simply hoovering up the best talent around to win trophies is not an achievement in my eyes.

Either that or they had the idea, but then were completely clueless as to how to implement it properly. Its all very well having an idea, but in order for it to work, you then have to draw up a detailed plan of what needs to happen and who is going to do which tasks. Stuff like costs and timelines also usually figure in there somewhere. We heard a lot about the idea, but very little about its execution. If they wanted Boro to be the English Ajax, maybe sending someone over to talk to the club and look at their methods might have helped? 🤷‍♂️ For the record, I really wish it

Remember when many of us complained about our corner and free kicks and how ost of the time they came to nothing and well were pretty poor standard wise I now believe we have a far bigger problem in that how naff and useless our throw in's seem to be. Although I have been moaning and stating the fact most games and thankful that others seem to agree I was saddened to hear that even Maddo refered to it in yesterday's game, if he can see it tehn others must be able to as well? But they are are they not? usually a combo of the same 3 players involved and 9 times out of 10 nothing but no

I fell asleep reading this. No reflection on you!

Absolutely insane. How can anyone tell if a kid that age is going to make it at senior level? Even more insane when you consider he'll likely never get anywhere near City's first team, except for cup ties against lower league teams. Have to admit I don't know much about how this sort of thing works, but I imagine he'll spend a few years at the academy, before getting farmed out to Championship or League 1 clubs...unless he shows signs of being the next Sterling or Foden. Another thing that really baffles me is the practice of big teams buying a young / promising player, the

Totally agree with you moneys killed the game, you can't possibly compete with the big boys, they just splash the cash year after year and offer players obscene salaries, every other club are just making the numbers up. The coaches in charge of these clubs may be good but 100 to 250 mill to spend every season bloody helps, I wonder how most of these coaches would fair with a lower league club with very little money to spend.

Hmm...probably was under-estimating. Boro seem to have a hardcore fanbase of around 10-12k (at home games, at least), so I guess its reasonable to expect another 4-6k on top of that.

Yeah, I can understand how that might be a similar thing to this. And maybe we've already seen that with the introduction and shortly later the exit of Adrian Bevington? I'd still say his credentials for that role were very much in question and there's enough to consider there that might show he wasn't the right man for the job. But it's that he left and nobody else came in that perhaps speaks louder than the fact someone of his individual experiences was there to begin with.

Some nice assists too. Coburn with a lovely hook pass to assist Kavanagh. Encouraging 👍👍👍

All our goals were quality finishes, can't pick a favourite, Stott with another lovely finish too.

Of the 4, I'd choose Man City. In an ideal world it wouldn't be any of them, but I've no wish to see PSG win anything ever and Real Madrid winning another European title is hardly thrilling. Though it would be funny if Tuchel and Chelsea beat PSG in the final after PSG sacked him for losing last year's final.

https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/highlights-coburn-hat-trick-books-pl-cup-final-slot Highlights from the game. Some lovely finishing from Coburn and Kavanagh.

The three other teams in the semi finals have done the exact same so not sure how you can criticise one ahead of the others!

U17s are into the final of the Premier league Cup!

@Weasel the QPR game is yours to do, don't forget earlier ko time 1230hrs @SmogDane Should we fail to beat QPR then the Rotherham away midweek match will be yours to do, anyhow you still follow Weasel, thanks Sonni!

Perhaps we should look at Croatia🤪

Yeah that is what i tried getting across really because i think a lot fans are hoping it clicks together next season because its his last season in the game. People are claiming this isn't Warnock's team, However it has been his team since Christmas and for me, thats when we have performed the worst which is worrying.

Just watched and i agree with alot that has been said on there. You can't argue that since Christmas we have been absolutely appalling.

Ha! Yes - Warnock doesn't strike me as a "Golden Thread" kind of guy. I guess the idea had to be abandoned once he was brought in. But other clubs have made similar philosophies work for them and I'd hope it is resurrected in the near future. Though maybe, as you say, our chairman and board simply aren't smart enough to see the benefits.

We are really the perfect club for that kind of philosophy. People rave about Brentford’s money ball system - I think we have really missed the boat with our academy. We should be looked at as the English Ajax and the golden thread really compliments this. Instead we have spent about 5 years saying we are broke and a decade flipping between management styles. I don’t think it was genuine from the club as it wasn’t a thought before Woodgate or after. I can well believe it’s something Bevington tried to bring to the club and took with him.

Wouldn't bet against one of Hull or Sunderland finishing above us next season 😬 As you say though, it's lack of a long term vision rather than being an all round badly run club. Feels like death from a thousand cuts with Boro rather than one or two disastrous decisions. Although entrusting Monk with the most transfer money we're ever likely to have again does stand out as decade defining idiocy. That will always be the sliding doors moment that really gets me down... what could have been if a competent 'man with a plan' like Dean Smith or Farke got that war chest and fired us back up

Thank f**k for that.

Mancity bought a 13 year old kid from Stevenage for 450k yesterday 🙄