2024 January transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[AV82EC]

I think the Chester CH postcodes go right over into North Wales as well.

[PeterWithe]

Re cross border postcodes, the mid Wales coast has Shrewsbury ones. I would have thought SE was all over that.

Aren't they all SA or LL? (which would be in my top 5 of largest geographical postcodes)

[Meanwood Villa]

Now here's a thing of beauty. Enjoy.

[Risso]

Re post codes.......

Why don't London postcodes start with 'L' ?

There's villages three miles from me that have Newport postcodes, despite being five miles inside England

I can field this. (Oh my giddy God, I fucking love postcode chat) London was the first place that needed postcodes, because it was so big, hence the E, SE, SW, W, N etc.

As for Newport, I DON'T DO PROVINCIAL POSTCODES.

I really like a bit of postcode stuff as well. I love it when towns well outside another one are forced to use the postcode from the other, causing outrage in the local population. Eg Bedford, which isn't really that close to Milton Keynes but has an MK postcode, despite being in a different county, and is in fact the county of town of that county. Proof that Bedfordshire deserved to come well down your list of best counties. If it wasn't bottom, it should have been. Shit bastards.

[pablo_picasso]

Reading those Boro forums seems that they think Rogers is not quite as developed as the likes of Azaz, never mind A. Ramsey or Philogene-Bidace.

I fucking hate everything about FFP.

Not only is it a way for the cheating c**nts who closed the loopholes to raise the drawer bridge & keep their ill gotten gained advantage, but it is also forcing us sell our academy kids just to satisfy some abacus reading bean counter with all the personality of a three week old potato whose name is probably Colin.

Some of those academy kids are Villa fans & better quality than the likes of some of the players we are bringing in for the future.

The one thing that is cracking me up in a gallows humour kind of way reading those Boro forums is why should we lower our prices for players like Azaz because Boro were shopping at Sainsburys with an Aldi budget, yet they are going to try & skin us for as much as possible for Rogers.

It's like Villa asking PSG to give us Mbappe for 57p & a packet of pork scratchings because we cant afford him due to FFP. If a club cant afford a player, then they should shop at a store more akin to their fucking budget.

Why the fuck Rogers wasn't part of the Azaz deal is beyond me.

One, we could have overplayed our hand with Azaz in terms of value, & got Rogers for cheaper.

Which suggests that Rogers wasn't on the cards when the Azaz deal was happening.

And two, why the fuck is it always us lowering our fees & apart from with Grealish, why don't we have the stones to tell a club to pay up or fuck off

Apologies, rant over. There are probably valid reasons for a lot of those complaints, I just don't like us selling our kids, period, & especially for what I believe is below their potential value...

I am all, smiles, candyfloss grass & lolipop trees now... 😉

I think it’s really difficult to assess comparative development, but I doubt we’d look for lesser players for the sake of FFP. We must have seen something in him, in terms of potential and an existing gap in the squad.

Also in recent times I’m not sure we’ve buckled on selling players below what we value them at?

Take Aaron Ramsey for example. He went for £15M.

Alex Scott on the other hand went for £25M.

Both similar aged. Both high potential.

But Aaron Ramseys goals & assists stats, along with his overall performances were far in advance of Alex Scotts. So much so that when Aaron Ramsey got injured, Boros form fell off a cliff. Even with Archer still scoring regularly.

So why Ramsey at £15M & Scott at £25M?

£2M for Azaz, who has similar goals & assist stats as the player the media rate as the best player in the Championship in Dewsbury-Hall (sounds like a National Trust building) & Boro fans rate higher than Rogers, who they want £10M-£15M for.
 
£5M for Philogene-Bidace, who every Hull fan I speak to rate at around £30M.

Thats what I mean when I say our academy sales are usually undervalued...

[Sexual Ealing]

Re post codes.......

Why don't London postcodes start with 'L' ?

There's villages three miles from me that have Newport postcodes, despite being five miles inside England

I can field this. (Oh my giddy God, I fucking love postcode chat) London was the first place that needed postcodes, because it was so big, hence the E, SE, SW, W, N etc.

As for Newport, I DON'T DO PROVINCIAL POSTCODES.

I really like a bit of postcode stuff as well. I love it when towns well outside another one are forced to use the postcode from the other, causing outrage in the local population. Eg Bedford, which isn't really that close to Milton Keynes but has an MK postcode, despite being in a different county, and is in fact the county of town of that county. Proof that Bedfordshire deserved to come well down your list of best counties. If it wasn't bottom, it should have been. Shit bastards.

Bedfordshire is a bad county, but in Surrey they support Chelsea. I can't tolerate that.

[AV84]

I hope we don't go down the foreign route. Sometimes British is best and, frankly, I like my postcode looking like a number plate.

90210 et al can get in the bin, colonial halfwits.

In Ireland we introduced the EirCode system a while back and every single house has an individual post code.

[Sexual Ealing]

I hope we don't go down the foreign route. Sometimes British is best and, frankly, I like my postcode looking like a number plate.

90210 et al can get in the bin, colonial halfwits.

In Ireland we introduced the EirCode system a while back and every single house has an individual post code.

What?! That's postcode lunacy!

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah but that’s placing our view of value, as opposed to their actual value. With Ramsey, maybe we set a lower value in the acknowledgment of wanting a buy back clause? Azaz, I don’t know but could easily be clauses within that. Philogene did seem odd, but £30m seems a lot.

[AV84]

I hope we don't go down the foreign route. Sometimes British is best and, frankly, I like my postcode looking like a number plate.

90210 et al can get in the bin, colonial halfwits.

In Ireland we introduced the EirCode system a while back and every single house has an individual post code.

What?! That's postcode lunacy!

I lived in Dublin when it was introduced and thought it was such an unnecessary thing. We had numbers, street names, and a post code for the general area. Never knew what the EirCode was for the house. Since moving to a more rural area, its actually a good idea. Couriers and Emergency services, for example can find us no bother by just typing the code into their GPS. I'd say half the country never uses theirs and the other half has it tattooed over their hearts in celebration of not having to take 5 phone calls asking for directions every time they're waiting on a delivery.

[UK Redsox]

Now here's a thing of beauty. Enjoy.

Blimey, didn't know that Shrewsbury went all the way to the Welsh coast. That must piss off Plaid Cymru

[aev]

Re post codes.......

Why don't London postcodes start with 'L' ?

There's villages three miles from me that have Newport postcodes, despite being five miles inside England

I can field this. (Oh my giddy God, I fucking love postcode chat) London was the first place that needed postcodes, because it was so big, hence the E, SE, SW, W, N etc.

As for Newport, I DON'T DO PROVINCIAL POSTCODES.

But no "S".

I am currently in Gloucestershire, with OX7 postcode.

[Gareth]

Reading those Boro forums seems that they think Rogers is not quite as developed as the likes of Azaz, never mind A. Ramsey or Philogene-Bidace.

I fucking hate everything about FFP.

Not only is it a way for the cheating c**nts who closed the loopholes to raise the drawer bridge & keep their ill gotten gained advantage, but it is also forcing us sell our academy kids just to satisfy some abacus reading bean counter with all the personality of a three week old potato whose name is probably Colin.

Some of those academy kids are Villa fans & better quality than the likes of some of the players we are bringing in for the future.

The one thing that is cracking me up in a gallows humour kind of way reading those Boro forums is why should we lower our prices for players like Azaz because Boro were shopping at Sainsburys with an Aldi budget, yet they are going to try & skin us for as much as possible for Rogers.

It's like Villa asking PSG to give us Mbappe for 57p & a packet of pork scratchings because we cant afford him due to FFP. If a club cant afford a player, then they should shop at a store more akin to their fucking budget.

Why the fuck Rogers wasn't part of the Azaz deal is beyond me.

One, we could have overplayed our hand with Azaz in terms of value, & got Rogers for cheaper.

Which suggests that Rogers wasn't on the cards when the Azaz deal was happening.

And two, why the fuck is it always us lowering our fees & apart from with Grealish, why don't we have the stones to tell a club to pay up or fuck off

Apologies, rant over. There are probably valid reasons for a lot of those complaints, I just don't like us selling our kids, period, & especially for what I believe is below their potential value...

I am all, smiles, candyfloss grass & lolipop trees now... 😉

I think it’s really difficult to assess comparative development, but I doubt we’d look for lesser players for the sake of FFP. We must have seen something in him, in terms of potential and an existing gap in the squad.

Also in recent times I’m not sure we’ve buckled on selling players below what we value them at?

Take Aaron Ramsey for example. He went for £15M.

Alex Scott on the other hand went for £25M.

Both similar aged. Both high potential.

But Aaron Ramseys goals & assists stats, along with his overall performances were far in advance of Alex Scotts. So much so that when Aaron Ramsey got injured, Boros form fell off a cliff. Even with Archer still scoring regularly.

So why Ramsey at £15M & Scott at £25M?

£2M for Azaz, who has similar goals & assist stats as the player the media rate as the best player in the Championship in Dewsbury-Hall (sounds like a National Trust building) & Boro fans rate higher than Rogers, who they want £10M-£15M for.
 
£5M for Philogene-Bidace, who every Hull fan I speak to rate at around £30M.

Thats what I mean when I say our academy sales are usually undervalued...

The drugs are clearly strong in Hull, 5m was probs a bit skinny but there will be clauses if he does get better to either buy back or get a % of any sell on…we won’t have been dictated to by Hull, it will have been a deal we were happy with.

Ramsey and Archer we know have clauses & likewise you’d expect Azaz will too…

[pablo_picasso]

Yeah but that’s placing our view of value, as opposed to their actual value. With Ramsey, maybe we set a lower value in the acknowledgment of wanting a buy back clause? Azaz, I don’t know but could easily be clauses within that. Philogene did seem odd, but £30m seems a lot.

They're not my valuations, Im comparing market value in regards to other players sold for more, who did less...

And then I see Boro standing their ground & trying to fleece us for Rogers after we practically just gave them a player in Azaz. (Not to mention Archer & A. Ramsey).

Which is their right of course.

I just find the fee discrepancies frustrating & I don't understand that when they wanted Azaz & we wanted Rogers, why we didn't do a deal when we had a little leverage to play with...

[PeterWithesShin]

I used to deal a lot with mail order and it always amazed me with Irish address how many were just the person's name and town/village/city. No house number/name or even a street name.

And back then the first time I saw a Blackpool postcode I wondered why it made no sense. Obviously it makes sense now but back then you couldn't just Google it. Or even Ask Jeeves it.