This is the thing that perplexes me most about the whole concept. The 'big six' are only big because they're successful, win most of the games they play, qualify for Europe and win trophies? Surely the appeal of following Arsenal / Spurs if you're in the US or the Far East becomes virtually non-existent when they're battling it out for 11th and 12th place every year, and there's not even relegation to keep it interesting at the bottom? As a model, this is so short sighted its untrue, and assumes that an NFL-style system is sustainable for football - which it isn't.

I think it's mostly bulls*** aimed at leveraging more money out of the footballing authorities - as if the 'big six' aren't already creaming a profit. I hope the governing bodies have the stones to stick them out on this one and call their bluff. Although I imagine they'll bend over for them, and 'the six' will end up squeezing even more coin out of the game.

The only thing I would add to that is do what you can to offload the 4 strikers contracted for next season, maybe keep Hoskins but get shot of BAS, Rose & Smith,  to make room for some attackers who know where the goal is.

I'd keep Rose. He's proved himself decent at League 2 level, and in a different side might have proven decent this year. We already have the spine of a decent side for next year (assuming we can hold on to a few who'll want away). I know the strikers have proven woeful, but it is the creativity department wherein lays the problem.

Andy Boothroyd is available again. The football wasn't brilliant but we had a good home record and he did get us to Wembley, we might even get Clive Platt back.

And he may bring Bayo back... or not.

If you checked on the majority of owners using that sort of criteria (outside having sufficient funds), I would argue that there would be very few football clubs with an owner. 

So you are saying most owners have previously been arrested and charged over massive financial wrongdoings, including multi-million pound insider tradings?

[People are checked out before they buy football clubs,]

And sanitise the whole of football even further ? Why are people obsessed with every thing to do with football being perfect ?  Everything in life isn't equal, If it was the whole world would be petty boring. Trying to make football "fair" just because we support a small club, football needs people with money to come in and out of the game. Its what makes football the game it is, People are checked out before they buy football clubs, rightly so, but this obsession with Club ownership is just purely embarrassing. 

But just how well are people being "checked out"? This is the crux of the problem. If you can show you have the funds, then you'll likely get your ticket stamped. You need look no further than Tony Cardoza's dodgy past. That man should never have been allowed within a spit of owning a football club. I'm all for people being allowed to invest as they wish, but there are other factors to consider.

[Vadaine Oliver £500]

The salary page has Vadaine Oliver on £1500 , so what did we offer him ? Remember he could commute from Sheffield to Northampton which is got to be worth a few hundred a week.

Used the Wayback Machine from 2020. According to that Oliver was on £500 a week. I just can't see anyone commuting to work for that sort of money.

Active Squad:
Player Name   Weekly Wage   Yearly Salary   Age   Position   Nationality
Andrew Williams   £3,500   £182,000   32   ST   England
Chris Lines   £3,400   £176,800   33   M C   England
Jordan Turnbull   £3,100   £161,200   24   D C, DM   England
Lloyd Jones   £3,000   £156,000   23   D C   England
Mark Marshall   £2,900   £150,800   33   AM RL   Jamaica
Alan McCormack   £2,500   £130,000   35   D R, DM   Ireland
Joe Martin   £2,100   £109,200   30   D L   England
Nicky Adams   £1,900   £98,800   32   WB/AM R   Wales
Ryan Watson   £1,700   £88,400   25   AM C   England
Sam Hoskins   £1,600   £83,200   26   AM R, ST   England
Scott Wharton   £1,600   £83,200   21   D LC   England
Charlie Goode   £1,400   £72,800   23   D C   England
Harry Smith   £1,200   £62,400   24   ST   England
James Olayinka   £1,100   £57,200   18   M C   England
Matty Warburton   £900   £46,800   27   AM RC, F C   England
Michael Harriman   £900   £46,800   26   D RL   Ireland
David Cornell   £870   £45,240   28   GK   Wales
Paul Anderson   £800   £41,600   30   M R   England
Reece Hall-Johnson   £700   £36,400   24   D RC   England
Shaun McWilliams   £620   £32,240   20   M C   England
Steve Arnold   £600   £31,200   29   GK   England
Callum Morton   £580   £30,160   19   AM L, ST   England
Vadaine Oliver   £500   £26,000   27   ST   England
Morgan Roberts   £480   £24,960   18   AM RLC, F C   England
Camron McWilliams   £430   £22,360   18   D/WB/M R   England
Sean Whaler   £420   £21,840   18   D/AM R   England
Bradley Lashley   £390   £20,280   18   GK   England
Jack Newell   £310   £16,120   18   M C   England
Jay Williams   £310   £16,120   18   D C   England
Scott Pollock   £270   £14,040   18   AM RC   England
Ryan Hughes   £230   £11,960   18   D LC   England
Caleb Chukwuemeka   £120   £6,240   16   AM R, ST   England
Dylan Berry   £120   £6,240   16   GK   England
Ethan Johnston   £120   £6,240   17   ST   England
Ewan Clark   £120   £6,240   16   M C   England
Haydn Price   £120   £6,240   17   M C   England
Jacob Ballinger   £120   £6,240   17   D/WB/M L   England
Jordan Fowler   £120   £6,240   17   D RC   England
Josh Flanagan   £120   £6,240   16   D C   England
Lewis Gilbert   £120   £6,240   16   ST   England
Lewis Patching   £120   £6,240   17   GK   England
Liam Cross   £120   £6,240   16   M C   England
Max Dyche   £120   £6,240   16   D C   England
Richie Bailey   £120   £6,240   16   D R   England
Ryan Smith   £120   £6,240   17   D/WB L, M LC   England
Tom Scott   £120   £6,240   16   AM C   England
Urijah Gordon-Douglas   £120   £6,240   17   ST   England

I'm **** dreading this match but I'm still going to shell out ten quid to watch it. I can't work out if that makes me loyal, optimistic, masochistic or just plain stupid!

I'd say it makes you all of those!

The last time I missed a derby was 1981, when I was in handcuffs by 2.40pm We went on to win 1-0 that day, and if that should happen tomorrow I'll be dancing on the ceiling. Realistically, though... 

The council are the landlords. They are the enforcing party of anything encompassed within the original lease. Plus they made changes (June 2018) to try allegedly clear the path for the East stand development.

Yes, but you said: " If the council don’t want to let the land go to the club." Bower and Thomas hold the CDNL leases, and the club (owners) hold the stadium leases. So it's not as simple as "if the council don't want..."

[If the council don’t want to let the land go to the club]

As I have sad until I’m bored with it. If the council don’t want to let the land go to the club, then just get on and sell to someone else. If they do want to let it go to the club, just make sure that any agreement is watertight in terms of the use of the enabling money and its division between the development of NTFC, plus what the owners can personally gain from it. It actually is child’s play.

Thomas and Bower hold the land leases? Not the council.

Well Jolly what do you think of Chucks, Jonesy and Marshall’s little cameo’s last Saturday?

I thought it was interesting, especially given Brady's repeated statements about "the players need to show in training to have a chance of playing". While in an ideal world I understand (and largely agree with) this viewpoint, I would say we are at the stage where chances have to be taken. Marshall can be a bit in-and-out, but I think he has to start because we need some creativity. I would also start Jones on friday, too. As for Chucks; I'm not sure, but if Brady doesn't start him then I'd definitely like to see him get a full 45 minutes second half.
I see enough with these three to edge us towards some unexpected results.

There's always Barrow in the afterlife! 

Thanks for that.

[We have beaten Oxford and Portsmouth recently]

Joey Barton was mentioned on here before he took over at the Gas, looking at Saturdays game, I thought that despite probably having a better squad of players than us, Rovers were no better than us at all, in fact I think we could lay claim to have been better than then. So does that make Brady a better manger than Barton?
   We could put this in the context of "are we better to get an experienced man in" ? Barton. an experienced manager, failed to get enough out of an arguably better squad to beat our squad managed by a "rookie" manager.
   I would agree that Brady hasn't got everything right, that was never going to happen, but I think he's made our defence reasonably solid despite having an extremely limited goalkeeper, and hasn't done anything stupid like leaving our best player on the bench so he can watch and alter the game later. He's struggling to get goals from our front players but I think that would be very difficult for anyone.
    We have beaten Oxford and Portsmouth recently, both managed by experience men so what conclusions does that draw ?

And what about all of those 'lesser' sides we have failed miserably against? If we reach the end of the season still failing to pick up any points away from Sixfields, would you still consider him the right man for the job?

[Also a bit disappointed our local plod didn't arrest them for breaking the Covid travel rules !]

You do have to question the mentality of these people, also where they stood they could only see the goal at the south end of the ground, if it had been me I would have watched through the gap between the West and North in the 1st half, to see the goal my team were attacking.
    Also a bit disappointed our local plod didn't arrest them for breaking the Covid travel rules !     

You are allowed to travel.

I think it’s easy to say we should be more attacking or have a proper go but that’s always going to be difficult given the players we have. We are currently playing 3 attackers, Watson is our most attacking central midfielder and we are playing 2 fullbacks (Kioso/Mills) who are arguably wing backs.
We just have inferior players and in attack very inferior players. If other teams play to their potential it doesn’t matter the formation or mindset we will struggle to create anything and get a good beating.

The defense is solid enough, we just aren't creating at the other end. We set up far too narrow yesterday, and one of Brady's major failing seems to be he is unwilling to change things early enough. The amount of times this season when it has been blinding that things aren't working, and yet changes aren't made soon enough. And when they do arrive they don't always seem logical.

i
Partly agree with you as JB might have rung the changes sooner to bring on Marshall and AJones as within a few minutes we had scored. I also thought that Chucks made a difference too. What annoys me is that the attitude of a few on here who seem to think that after todays result we are going to be relegated with 15 points to gain. As Pedji points out we appear to be set out not to lose.  I often wonder what his selection team are thinking?  Actually I believe todays result favours us more than it it did Rovers. Think Brady is coming to the point where he has to be brave and chance his luck and ours for that matter. Can we do it ? 7 more points may well be sufficient and is not beyond us.

The problem is, Evers, we might grind out three draws, but that can be overhauled by any of the others landing one big win. I agree with you that it is coming to the point where he has to throw the dice and have a proper go. Realistically, failure to beat either Blackpool or Ipswich and we are almost certain to go down. That is unless we can find some away form.

Well done, Sammy! But a draw won't be good enough. Do we have the stones to snatch a winner?

FFS!

This is easily the biggest game of Brady's tenure. A loss and we are almost certainly going down. Even a draw will provide little value. However, if we win, and results elsewhere go our way, then we have a real lifeline. Either way, by 5pm tonight we should have a realistic idea of how many points will be required to avoid the drop. Here goes nothing (hopefully not nothing ).

So are we.

  Sad but true.