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ferrarilover wrote:French, your assessment of the team is grossly unfair. To suggest that our not signing Cooper basically means that our scoring any goals at all is down to the will of God Almighty and Divine Intervention from corners is NASA level daft.

Scott, we have some money left in the kitty, it's ok, it's just that we can't pay Deaman silly money. If he impresses enough to get an offer (as CP pointed out, Knill seems impressed with him so far), then the offer will be limited to whatever fair, but not excessive salary we can offer (think 700-800/week). If he demands £1500/week and won't budge, then he will be catching the last train to Clarksville in the hope of that sort of deal elsewhere.

Super, I missed the early element of the day, but it seems the players did a penalty shootout. I'm offering prizes for anyone not in attendance who can tell me who won it.

Matt.

supergulls wrote:I've been told Ashley yeoman beat jake Hutchings in the final.

ferrarilover wrote:Just a couple of things from the Fans Forum this afternoon. Knill confirmed that the Manset deal is dead. He said we were in for him, but that he never really seemed like he was genuinely set on coming to us. He glossed over the other Frenchman, pointedly.

Bill Phillips suggested that the next couple of years will see slower off-field growth, since we're in the process of paying off things like the training ground developments and the off bits from the Bench. I guess this will depend upon how well we do in the various cups. Bill is keen to get us on TV at least once this season, although this is somewhat out of our hands.

Knilly is acutely aware that we are short of a striker. He is trying to get someone in, we have a few irons in a few fires, but we needn't expect anything necessarily before the first game of the season.

He addressed, at length, the issue of getting players to the area. He's offering them first team football and a beautiful setting to entice them down, even on low wages. It seems that players these days are expecting silly money (two grand a week in L2) and are playing a dangerous game.

Cooper deal is dead. Knilly liked him, lots, but was concerned by his size and the fact that he's not a specialist defender. He liked him as a player and a bloke and would recommend him to any other manager looking for that type of utility player. He also seemed to be quibbling over a hundred quid and Knill refused to be dealt with in that manner.

Knilly is looking to develop players into saleable assets. That's part of his recruitment process, finding players who will be"better than Torquay United".

We are at the point where we are constrained by budget. He likes Deamon and Pearce, but he's not sure he can afford both. Pearce is a first choice, and has taken a massive wage cut to come to us on the promise that he will play. Expect, therefore, to see him on the teamsheet more often than not.

Likes the idea of developing youth players and bringing them through. He's delighted that Preece (or whatever his name is) hasn't gone to Villa, because it gives him another option to bring through into the first team.

That was basically it. There are a couple of odd things that I've forgotten, but nothing vitally important.

Matt.

hector wrote: Thanks for the summary. It does seem strange, however, that Knill has seemingly contradicted himself, as it wasn't long ago he was saying that location wasn't an issue and then also about having strikers in before next week. Now effectively we are not and geography is suddenly an issue again.

Starting up front with Benyon and Yeoman, reminds me of the year we opened the season with Laight and Byng up front. Not good. Not good at all.

ferrarilover wrote:Craig made the final, but Super et al are correct, it was Yeoman over Hutch. I know this'll sound like I'm getting on the NC bandwagon again, but his penno (such as one may adjudicate in this situation) was crazy good.

Matt.