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Depressing…and he’ll never get a look in at City.

Jordan James? Joining Wolves.

I wonder if players (their agents) would be so desperate to go to Chelsea or Man City if they weren't able to leapfrog other clubs in terms of wages. Certainly they would continue to have a massive draw due to their status, but I wonder whether an academy-level salary cap would go some way to level the playing field here.

I’d keep THB.

I actually think clubs should be limited to how many players they have in total for each 'team' or age group in the unders. Chelsea still have a ridiculous volume of players and them and Man City seem to be the worst for hoovering up all the talent from everyone else. It just means more talent gets forgotten about. It would flow downwards, if clubs were limited to say 16-20 kids per age group (of the right age), then those deemed "not good enough" at the best clubs would flow down to other clubs, say Southampton or Coventry, then Oldham or Exeter etc. Gives the kids more chances to play and develop rather than sit in HUGE pools of players thinking they've already made it as they're at Man City. Simplistic view maybe, but something needs to change.

At 8 million we’d be better off long term chucking the 10 million to get Justin James!

Polling has closed in Clacton and nobody is expecting anything other than a win for Farage. To anyone in Clacton who still believes he has the best interests of your constituency at heart and has been out and voted for him today, I have one question... What the fuck is wrong with you?

Fair point, and we did take Stephens from Plymouth academy I think so not like we’re not also guilty of it. Just seems to be getting worse and they are going at such a young age we never even get to see them play for Saints which is a real shame. Same for the lad that went to Lyon.

if a club like Everton or Villa come in for THB this summer he will be off - but I'd hope we wouldn't lose him to a Coventry or Hull. But money talks and I thought it was said we needed to raise about £50M this summer. if it came to selling 2 of Scienza, THB or Jander who would you keep?

I get it, it is shit. But if the South West clubs were able to match life our financial settlements for 11 year olds (and their families), maybe they would have a chance.

I know the guys from the Second Tier podcast aren't universally popular here but the Stoke-supporting one said he thought this was a great signing for us

Take your point, but if he isn’t in an academy already and we spot him, and are prepared to buy his family a house I think that’s fair enough. If City did that I wouldn’t complain because they aren’t taking someone else’s investment at a huge undervaluation (although I say that without knowing what competition we got, if any).

If the system was totally fair, he would have been brought on by Exeter, Plymouth or one of the Bristol teams.... such is life.

Reminds me of these comments from the Wolves technical director Matt Jackson at the end of last season

A few will have already seen this: My friend who lives in North Devon knew him well and told me when he moved to Saints he would be phenomenal. I think Saints relocated his whole family even when he was age 11. Apparently he has extraordinary confidence, something like what we see with Bellingham. By all accounts this is a generational talent who in times gone by would have presumably gone through to the first team and been sold for millions. I don’t know how much compensation we will get, but if we can’t bring players through and sell them for huge sums you have to wonder whether the academy model can continue to be successful? This obviously applies to most of the teams in the pyramid as well. Does anyone know if anything is being done about this? I guess not given, as we have seen with Spygate, the elite run football but I’m surprised it doesn’t create more noise!

No

What’s in the attic? Toys

Aren't they still £103m in debt? £303m for a League One club without debt is a huge commitment... I don't really see why anyone would try to complete a deal before it returns to being a Championship club and bringing the debt down some more

Better than none.

So in 200 years we’ve come up with 3 in the world.

Probably the last thing THB will do, is move to what is essentially a relegation certainty. Which is Hull and Coventry out of the running unless they offer him silly money. He can stay with saints, have a good season at the top of the championship and know he'll either be up to the premier with saints and/or be in a very commanding position for a move (due to his contract term).

Not surprised he won’t sign as he only joined Lazio in January this year and only last week he started his first game for them after 8 from the bench. Scored the first two goals.

TQ!

So we're still looking to sign a striker then? Interesting considering Tonda's comments. We have a lot of business (mostly out) to do in the next couple of weeks, that's for sure!

The owners have watched 90 minutes of Russball and thrown the towel in.