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Still two games to go but the silly season has begun and already there is gossip and rumour abound

23rd April 2017 By Martin Penney 6 Comments

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These are crazy, crazy, crazy crazy nights.

I can’t stand Kiss, but if Gene Simmons & co were writing their ‘lyrics’ about this Friday they were spot on.

What a ridiculous game in so many ways.

We won 2-0 without an official shot on target.

We had a last-minute replacement referee from, erm, West Sussex. Some of his decisions seemed to confirm his point of origin as well, except that he missed the Graham Dorrans barge in the box.

Never mind, he also missed the foul on Josh Murphy in their box and allowed Brighton’s Bruno to act like Danny Dyer in rehearsals for his next “I am the Cockney King” movie.

A less athletic keeper than David Stockdale would not have got anywhere near either of Alex Pritchard’s blasts, so he was hoist with his own petard on both bounce-backs. Shame (not).

Of course, the half-time wits were out in force:

‘If he (Stockdale) gets another one, will they force him to take the match ball home?’

‘I’m going in the bookies in the morning to get odds on Chris Hughton to be the first sacked Premier League manager of next season’

And a couple of others not for publication.

Naturally, Stockdale’s reception from the Barclay for the second half was rather appropriate. Quite apart from his ‘Suffolk connections’ he’s played a couple of blinders against us in the recent past so his luck had to expire at some point.

Absolute praise for Messrs Ruddy, Martin and Bennett. When Ryan is up against an old-school lumberer like Glenn Murray he’s really quite impressive. It’s the speed of the opponent on the floor that does for him, unfortunately.

Anyway it was good to beat them, and a shame that some of the ‘banter’ was a little less than friendly.

I did save a smile for ‘He’ll take you back down, he’ll take you back down….’ I hadn’t thought of that one.

So, another game over: two to rip. It’s always nice to end a season on the up, which I think we’re achieving in an unspectacular type of way.

And now on to the part of football life that I really do not enjoy.

The festering corpse of this season isn’t even interred, and already Rangers want Graham Dorrans, Timm Klose is off to FC Basle, Alex Neil is active in the media because he wants another English Championship role, Ivo Pinto apparently wants to stay and Mitchell Dijks is quite understandably uncommitted.

Or so we’re told.

Alan Irvine might hang around if the golf clubs and tennis racquet can be utilised during the summer (I’ll play you best of three sets at tennis Alan, but I don’t know a seven-iron from the dogs’ food bowls).

Speculation gets me down. Those who write about these things invariably never know. They really don’t.

The only two exclusives I can remember in five years to be retrospectively proved correct are Archant’s Michael Bailey with Stuart Webber and our own Gary Gowers with Yanic Wildschut. Everything else was garbage.

And given the player turnover, let alone the announcement of the head coach, us City fans are going to have a treble basinful of that kind of chuck-away this summer.

Incidentally Keith, I went into my local Corals this morning and they said you would have to wait until the play-off final was over before they were prepared to offer odds on your Hughton bet! (I might be prepared to put on a tenner myself if I can get better than 1-3).

*I’ll just end by following up Gary’s article of yesterday and say that I urgently want to read what Steve Stone and Stuart Webber said to our Stewart too.

Come on mate, you know we want to see it 🙂


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Filed Under: Column, Martin Penney

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Comments

  1. Alex B says

    23rd April 2017 at 1:58 pm

    According to reports SW has stated or suggested that only 12 to 15 of the current squad will still be at city next season this is a very large cull.

    It could mean that city either has to pay alot of players off or loss alarge amount on possible transfer out to bargain hunting clubs.

    To pay players off ultimately means buying clubs will not match their current high salary, I know in the prem all players get a premium on earnings, I would have expected that the club would have installed as in previous relegations there was a clause stating a drop in the amount earned.

    If as the rumours go the club didn’t place this clause into certain players contracts then it was bad business to sign these on these terms.

    There must be players at the club downhearted of not only getting relegated but also having their salary cut while others are still on prem salaries, it is said all players salaries are confidential but these things have away of getting out.

    At the end of the day city will be losing more than players but a lot of money they can’t afford.

    Reply
  2. martin penney says

    24th April 2017 at 7:17 am

    #1 Alex: I would like to think much more attention will be paid to the finer points of contracts from now on.

    I agree with you that very few footballers’ salaries remain truly confidential!

    Reply
  3. Don Harold says

    24th April 2017 at 9:06 am

    I quite enjoy the speculation and rumour. Some stuff is already appearing; Dorrans to Rangers makes a bit of sense but the rumours of Wes and/or Maddison joining him at the Forces of Darkness are too ridiculous to contemplate (I hope).

    Garry Monk as our new Head Coach would be a great appointment, not just for his ability but perhaps more to hear the whinging of Leeds fans (again) as they choke on their misplaced superiority complex.

    Keep the rumours coming I say; it’s a long football-less time from May to August.

    Reply
  4. Stewart Lewis says

    24th April 2017 at 10:33 am

    Martin #2: I had some interesting discussion with Steve Stone about contracts and the type of player we give them to.

    But first things first: hopefully not too long now before the Stuart Webber interview’s up.

    Reply
  5. martin penney says

    24th April 2017 at 12:14 pm

    #3 Don: thanks as ever for your views, always appreciated.

    I doubt Wesley or James will be up for grabs, as it were. The conundrum is that (excluding Steven Naismith) we have three players (Wes, Alex and James Maddison) more or less able to fill that slot.

    Maybe having Pritchard a little deeper could be the answer – he doesn’t seem to be shy of a tackle. But that’s up to the new head coach, not me:-)

    And, like you (I guess) I have no time for Leeds either. It comes from being a teenager in the early Seventies and remembering Bremner and his mob. With no affection at all.

    Rumour only gets to me because it is just that – I’ll be as interested as yourself, honest!

    Reply
  6. martin penney says

    24th April 2017 at 12:26 pm

    #4 Stewart: I can’t wait to read it and I’m not being smarmy.

    It’s frankly pleasant to anticipate reading the results of an independent interviewer speaking with the head honcho and his henchman rather than the usual machine-fed stuff we can either take or leave.

    Reply

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Look, I’m listening to the excellent OnTheBall podcast by @michaeljbailey and I cannot understand why their is a narrative of blame towards us fans.

We pay a lot of money and have every right to have a go at these players. Give us some passion, fight, belief that’s it #ncfc

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Wasn’t strange tbf why u left but if it’s that bad spill now not in 10-15years time when you retire #ncfc

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