bigroy wrote:

To summarise, new owner also had a stake in old ownership, old ownership have lent new £28m to buy the club, decided not to fund it and put us into admin to recoup £28m, which is £13m more than what they bought the club for. SCAM and the EFL are also accountable!
These lads make the Oystons look like the Dalai Lama! How can this not be illegal? They should never be able to enter the country again let alone own a club!

I’m not an expert in the laws; but, on the surface this does strike the accountant in me as illegal in some fashion – to swap out the loans like that I have to think they would recognize a gain on sale or revenue of some kind and pay tax on that – I’m thinking it might be very hard to account for that properly for the publicly traded company/pass muster, and I doubt Stanley plans on paying tax. Chinese companies have had many accounting irregularities over the last few years…

My solution would be: suspend ‘as normal’ during summer break. Continue the current season when the new season would normally start – and finish the 19-20 season in the fall. This season just essentially has an extra transfer window. For what would have been the 20-21 season, cut the season in half (play everyone 1 time instead of home and away).

Hopefully, the wins keep coming; because I’m not sure we can rely on someone else going in the tank. Looking at the table, looks like it may take a minimum of 50 points (or more) to stay up. Unfortunately, with few really good teams this year/so many being beatable/average, everyone is getting some points, and it doesn’t look like a year with 3 or 4 teams averaging less than a point/game.

If the board comes to the conclusion that he needs to go (which you would think they should at this point), his salary really shouldn’t be a stumbling block. His contract is a sunk at that (this) point. Granted, even though those on the board should know the concept of a sunk cost, in reality, people get emotionally tied to decisions and have trouble actually separating the sunk cost from the decision making process. I think it’s fairly clear at this point that they are better off without Cook in charge. Without knowing the details of Cook’s contract, if they want to avoid a large payout now, they should be able to re-assign him (put him on gardening duty) and pay out his salary as normal.

I am all in favor of that.

Moving forward, Wigan really needs to hire a manager who is willing to think outside the box & do things differently since we have less resources than others at this level – that’s the only way to thrive. You can’t do it having an old time dumb jock who is set in his ways/predictable and just being conservative or doing what everyone else does.

Was reading somewhere that Wells has been on international duty in the ANC and has been given time off by Dyche to rest. That’s why he hasn’t been involved in preseason nothing sinister there.[/quote]

He was playing for Bermuda in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. He looked good in those games – scored a penalty vs Costa Rica and a goal in their win over Nicaragua. A Big reason Bermuda was competetive/punched above their weight class.

Wow. I realize you’re trying to make a point; but, that’s an incredibly optimistic take, bordering on delusional. With the form that Reading, Millwall, and even Rotherham are in, I think it will take an absolute minimum of 4-5 more points to stay up, and more likely 6, if not more.

To say “it must evolve” assumes that the game is not already at its peak entertainment value. Any changes or “evolution” will bring some risk of the game becoming less entertaining/turning off some fans.

That said, I think that generally most find a wide open game with a high pace of play to be the most entertaining. Fresh legs generally allow for more running/a higher pace of play. While I would be against allowing unlimited substitutions or re-entry of players who previously subbed off (think hockey or basketball) because I believe that it would reduce coaching strategy too much; I do think allowing a 4th sub could help. I’d also be in favor of allowing an extra sub in weather conditions where the heat index at game time was above a pre-determined level.

I’m also for transparency – let’s scrap added time and have an official clock so everyone knows how much time is left. Stop the clock if someone is injured or time wasting. Too much room for corruption currently, and when the extra time is longer/shorter than expected, it always seems to favor the big clubs or favorites in international competition.