Mr.Carrow

The club won't break it's wage structure for one player. However, if we sell 2-3 players for £60m or so I can see a portion of that money going into the wages pot which could help encourage the others to stay. Could be another £10m promotion bonus on the cards? It's an all-round odd situation with Pukki. Will a top club want to spend the money we would demand (think how much he'd cost to replace...) for a 30 year old with one successful season in a top league in his entire career? Maybe the club can come up with a "creative" solution to giving him the money needed to make him stay.

I don't think you understand football. Young players are expected to make mistakes. Name me a player who was the finished article at 21? What clubs do is weigh up a players age, attributes, game intelligence etc and compare to the number of mistakes they make (which will inevitably decline as they get more experienced). Our young players are some of the best in the country by that measure and will go for around the sums being quoted. You seriously think a 21year old already proven to be a highly capable Premier League attacking player is worth a couple of million more than the Murphy brothers, or the same price as Pritchard??!

Why would you not think that this isn't distinctly possible from the position we are currently in? The club have signed and developed players for peanuts who are now worth fortunes. This isn't luck, it is clever strategy which has been proven to work incredibly well. What possible reason is there not to be confidant that this won't continue; and with a much bigger pot of money to play with? Have Webber, Farke, the scouting team, the academy team left?? Have I missed something from over here in South America?

We have a wage policy for a reason and that "all in it together" feel is one of the reasons for our success last season. I really struggle to imagine who we could've signed who would've radically improved the team, who wouldn't have smashed that structure. People moan with hindsight about not signing another CB, yet at the start of the season we had Klose, Godfrey and Zimm, so any incoming CB would have probably ended up fighting with Hanley over fourth spot if it hadn't been for the crippling injury crisis. Who could we have signed on reasonable wages for that position?

Had Klose not been crocked I believe we'd be 6 points better off right now. The fact is that people moaning that we didn't sign another centre half are not factoring in that a centre half worth signing would not have come to be fourth or fifth choice.

I have a hunch we may spend more in January than we expect- the logic being that we are more attractive as a Premier league club and the club know they have virtually guaranteed big fees to come in at the end of the season. I would've thought smart agents would promote the club to their clients knowing that they have a good chance of replacing outgoing players.

Unfortunately I think a lot of us were naive in thinking our slick style was ready made for the Prem and Sheffield United's more agricultural style would be found out. The only teams we've bossed have seemed a bit arrogant and not really battled and closed us down. I still think if we can keep our more physical players fit and in form we have a chance. And of course, Farke is still the man and will be even if we go down.

Superb half from Todd. He was absolutely everywhere.

Anybody who feels like nerding out can check this website for attendance stats. Some are pretty shocking- Wolves were down to 4k average in the 80's, Villa had an average of 15k one season in the top division, Chelsea were regularly down at around 12k and even clubs like Newcastle regularly averaged below 20k.http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm

Many clubs who currently get bigger gates than us got similar or less than us in the 80's and 90's. I remember a Chelsea v Man.City game with a crowd of 11k. We used to get crowds similar to West Ham and would generally be above clubs like Southampton. Another factor is that the local population has grown fairly rapidly in the last 30years and transport links have improved immensely. One thing that hasn't changed much is that City are still the only glamorous entertainment in the area! I agree with your last paragraph.

Whenever I've looked at it City have had the highest percentage of seats filled outside the big six or seven for twelve seasons. Being at 95% or so of home seat capacity is regarded by clubs as an indisputable sign that extra capacity is needed. Most clubs are way below that yet still expand and often see a large improvement in gates after expansion. Pointing out that for some games away seats, single seats and restricted view seats haven't sold out isn't really a strong argument. Clubs know that there is a very limited number of people willing to take those seats- frankly, if they sell out too it is seen as a bonus. I do think some of the arguments against expansion are sensible and understandable but really it boils down to catchment area and demand (both of which are there in spades) and whether the club feels it is in a realistically healthy position to be fairly successful in the next decade (which again is looking like a yes). One interesting thing from the AGM is that they are clearly looking at two stands, so may be able to do one, taking us to say 32,000, then see how demand pans out over a few seasons before taking on the next one. In my opinion the first one will be done within the three years Webber has committed to.

Greater Birmingham has a population of 3.5 million, but has six (possibly seven) professional clubs. Norfolk and Waveney have a population of over a million with one professional club. Yes, Villa take a larger chunk of that population than the others (and clearly have a bigger support than us, but the catchment area argument is a bit of a red herring.

The Watford game had over 27,000 for probably the least glamorous fixture of the season on a cold winter evening when it was on Sky. I'm not sure what your point is?

Yes he was excellent. I still think in this brave new world of social media criticism from a few loonies often gets blown out of proportion. But we're watching Todd become a man this season and he's gonna be some player.

The owners have clearly got a knack of recruiting very talented people, who seem to have a knack of recruiting other talented people. Bar the occasional blip such as the Wolves bloke this has been the story since they appointed McNally. I can see why we took the approach we did at the start of the season and I honestly think that had it not been for the calamatous defensive injuries we'd be making a real fist of it. But the majority of the people who masterminded the incredible achievement of last season will still be there next, and I see no reason not to be confident they cannot do the same again- and possibly even upgrade due to our extra finances. Should the worst happen, i think we are in the position to come back stronger and better prepared.