Yellow Wal

Surely when loans first came in it was to help some of the smaller, poorer clubs who had mounting injury problems and a lack of players of their own. Now it is being used by the biggest clubs, and even lower Premiership clubs, to either a) give fringe players the chance to play first team football so that they can put themselves in the shop window so that the parent club CAN MAKE MORE MONEY or b) to give youngsters the chance of playing in a first team so that they can gain experience so that they can attain the standard their parent club wants or so they can be sold and CAN MAKE MORE MONEY or c) off load players they don''t really want so that somebody else will pick up the wage bill until they become free agents so that they CAN MAKE MORE MONEY or d) buy numerous young foreign players, loan them back to the clubs they buy them from just in case they reach their top potential and become world class players and then they CAN MAKE MORE MONEY! Think of people like Scott Carson and David Bentley to name but two off the top of my head! It''s an agent''s dream

Your head won''t be ripped off by me! I agree with what you are saying. I''m afraid there are people who do not realise the mess the club is in on the player front and what a massive job is in front of Gunny and his team. ....... perhaps people will wake up soon and see the damage the loan system is doing to football.

How much longer are we going to have to put up with a lack of passion from players wearing our colours? Surely we must have produced some players from the academy that will at least play with guts, a will to win and a pride in the shirt they are wearing. I want to see players who never know when they are beaten, not ones that roll over and die too easily. Even if the youngsters are not as technically as good as their ''seniors'' there is no substitute for effort, passion and pride which youngsters, given the chance, will surely display. If we have to go down I would like to go down fighting! 

This is a pointless arguement. Until there is an alternative there is nothing to discuss. When, and only when, there is a choice then there is something to debate.

It isn''t the fact that all players have agents but the fact that there are more deals being transacted .... more and more loans being made by the big clubs, and even the lower Premiership teams, for their own benefit. Check out how many players are on the books of ''the big four'' and how many are loaned out. More deals ...... more agents payments. Truly an agent''s dream.

Far too many average players being paid far above average wages then .... still we all knew that didn''t we?

Good shout. The supporters now have no-one to look on as a hero. Because he works hard Crofty gets most supporter''s vote these days but he is sadly lacking in guile, panache and flair to be a real hero. What has happened to the thousands and thousands of pounds spent on youth development? Those are players that we really can identify with - Sutton, Gordon, Fox, Goss, Mendham, Eadie to name just a few off the top of my head. Who is you favoured ''local'' lad?

Perhaps he should be given the chance if the situation arises where he is needed. Unfortunately you hit on another point which I have to answer. You mentioned many other average players, putting in average performances with less than average results. Well I have news for you .... we have too many BELOW average players putting in too many BELOW average performances on ABOVE average wages. Not just midfielkders either!

And one of the few players who are good enough for this division.

When is the whole question of loan players going to be looked at by the people who run the game? Surely when loans first came in it was to help some of the smaller, poorer clubs who had mounting injury problems and a lack of players of their own. Now it is being used by the biggest clubs, and even lower Premiership clubs, to either a) give fringe players the chance to play first team football so that they can put themselves in the shop window so that the parent club CAN MAKE MORE MONEY or b) to give youngsters the chance of playing in a first team so that they can gain experience so that they can attain the standard their parent club wants or so they can be sold and CAN MAKE MORE MONEY or c) off load players they don''t really want so that somebody else will pick up the wage bill until they become free agents so that they CAN MAKE MORE MONEY or d) buy numerous young foreign players, loan them back to the clubs they buy them from just in case they reach their top potential and become world class players and then they CAN MAKE MORE MONEY! Think of people like Scott Carson and David Bentley to name but two off the top of my head! The big four have had a monopoly of top players and they could easily name second teams that would hold their own in the top of the Premiership. Who would be the better team, Bolton or a Manchester United second string?   Loaning players is no longer there to help the smaller clubs it is there to help the rich get richer and to keep the poorer clubs (like us) where we are. Gone are the days when fringe, backup or reserve team players from top clubs can be integrated into other teams. Remember Mr. Gunn at Aberdeen or Mr Crook at Spurs! The loan system either needs to be scrapped altogether or at least drastically reviewed.

There is a world of difference between a manager and a coach. A figurehead, a leader, is what was needed and that is what we have. He has the coaches in Crook, Butterworth and Deehan who have enough experience in that field and in management to make the management ''team'' successful.

Exactly the point ... Greeno is now 29 and still has not hit his peak but a lot of the rough edges have now disappeared.

Good goalkeepers are quite often similar to good referees. You don''t notice them! Goalkeeping is about being consistant, about being able to organise those around you, about good decision making and about giving confidence to your team. Shot stoppers, who may look good in some peoples eyes, are perhaps forced into making saves because they have not been good enough to do the things mentioned before. This is why goalkeepers seem to improve with age until they hit peak at 30+? The flying saves are the bonuses for a team. Get all the basics right first ........ and I''m afraid at the moment this is where Mr. Marshall lets himself down too often.

So that''s a new player up front then ...... but who will be the two new full backs we despearately need after last week''s terrible showing?

The loan system used to be in place to help smaller clubs who lost players, usually by injury, and needed short term help to overcome the problem. Now it is used and abused by the Premiership clubs to give their fringe players experience of first team football, quite often in the Premiership with lower clubs, so as to either improve the player or to increase his value when they sell him (look at Bentley). Ban all loans, restrict the number of over 21 year old players that a club can have registered and a level playing field will begin to re-appear.

Dear oh dear ....  a bit of realism please. Cort was head and shoulders above any other player we had if not on the pitch, Clinghan can play the game, Doc and Marshall might just scrape by Croft shows spirit and the will to work .... but how many of the others do you really think are good enough? We had two full backs on Saturday, one of whom tried to play as he should but couldn''t and the other who didn''t know what he should be doing ... still in his case it must have saved on the laundry bill ... no dirt, no sweat, no effort!

Spot on Jelltex, but it is not only Sky that is ruining football but the authorities that control the game. Everything is in place to help the the Premiership and their clubs. The loan system was brought in to place to help smaller clubs who, mostly through excessive amounts of injured players, needed some temporary help. Now it is used to promote young players from Premiership teams to increase their value, David Bentley being a prime example. Had he not played for Norwich, and then Blackburn on loan what would his transfer fee been? Let us remember he played only one game for Arsenal first team, in the FA Cup, and never in the Premiership before coming to Norwich. Ban all loans and restrict the number of players over 21 that a club can have registered for them and a level playing field would start to return. Norwich have in the past through players like Ian Crook, John Polston, Ian Culverhouse and similar been able to sign top club''s fringe players .... it wouldn''t happen now because we would have to loan them and they would then be priced out of our reach by gaining first team experience and their values rocketing. The problem is the authorities who allow this sytem to continue.