Recent content by SkyBlueSteve81

I agree that Eccles has stepped his game up this seasonand it has to be the coaching from Frank and his team, playing further forward does seem to suit him and he's chipping in with a few goals which it what has been missing from his game. I love that he is a local lad and clearly he loves...

Doug will want a bit of a cup run to bring in some extra £ but the league should absolutely be our priority. Early rounds could be an opportunity to give the fringe players some good minutes, of course that depends on who we are drawn against. I'd say go for top 2 in the league.

Does anyone know what we need to do to move up from a Cat2 to a Cat1?

The contract is irrelevant when it comes to another team wanting him. Extending his contract would only ensure we get a bit more compensation if it were to happen. As people have pointed out Frank isn't short of a few quid so he's far more likely to stay here longer if Doug keeps supporting him...

When we signed him I thought he'd be a decent alternative option or squad player but that quite quickly changed to "why did we bother". His output this year has been brilliant and i'm happy to be proved wrong.

Probably got him to model it for pictures then said "oh by the way you're going out on loan, sign this"

I think £20m is very close to the point where you have to seriously consider it. £22.5m + 15% would seal it for me because with that we could bring in a direct replacement, CB and winger.

So assuming Frank is not going to play Simms and is looking to move him on - What do we think Simms' transfer value is? Surely Doug would be looking to recoup a significant percentage of what he paid.

Someone suggested to me earlier that Sims isn't seeing any league game time (including the play offs last season) as another appearance or two may trigger one of the ad ons from his transfer. I'm memory serves his initial fee was suggested to be £3.5m potentially rising to £8m. Seems plausible...

In theory they can't, however I was listening to Podcast the other day where a former footballer explained how it actually works in the real world. Wolfsburg will identify the player and then go to his agenct and have a conversation "Hypethetically would your player be interested in joining our...

It depends on what you are looking for in a Striker. Most people seem fixated on a striker being a failure unless they score 20 goals in a season but there is much more to it than that. Scoring goals is an important part but so is their overall contribution, workrate, do they improve the...

Would it have been Mark Robins negotiating the deal or would it have been Doug King? I would have though Doug would want top be front and centre of any financial transaction.

Couldn't agree more. Too often we seem to be thinking that each of the back 4 need to touch the ball as it is moved from one side of the pitch over to the other. Surely there are times where we can miss out at least one of the 2 CB's and get it moving a bit quicker.

Could also be that Brighton don't want to send him somewhere to sit on the bench for the season. Surely if he went to Rangers he'd be behind Butland in the pecking order?

Is that what the rent is now or are you factoring in the money Doug is spending on floodlights, the pitch etc?