AUTUMN NEWS

I notice that my local team Bromley (National League) haven't got a game today.....reason....they were at home against Macclesfield today.....oh dear.

 

Alan Randell is on a months youth loan to Torquay.

 

I think he's a real prospect. Lets hope he comes back in the manner Luke Jephcott did.
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I see that injury blighted Jamie Ness has left Dundee by mutual consent.....he has managed only 13 games since joining in 2019......unfortunate for him but he does seem to be made of glass....Argyle was the longest stay in his career....no mention of him retiring as yet.

 

I didn't realize that Tom Purrington had signed for my local team Bromley....he was on the subs bench tonight in their 4-1 win against Dover in the National League.

 

Saw the video of Adam Randell's goal for Torquay against my local side Bromley....great shot ...the goalie had no chance......Tom Purrington unused sub for Bromley....good win for Torquay 2-1... with a 90th minute penalty.

 

That's the least of his game. So calm and assured on the ball, always in space, always passes to someone wearing the same colour shirt. The ideal centre midfielder.

 

'Plymouth Live'... say that Ryan Hardie missed Saturday's Burton match because he was recovering from a Covid positive result....he could be available this weekend.....assuming he is feeling fit enough to perform.

 

Lewis MacLeod is still feel not quite right with the knee he injured three weeks ago against Shrewsbury and will be seeing another specialist.

 

Can't trust that Ryan Lowe or Simon Hallett. The former assured us recently there would be no more signings. Now this!!

https://www.pafc.co.uk/news/2020/october/timmy-abraham-signs/

 

Rather surprised about this.....Timmy Abraham 19yr old (20 in Dec) 6ft 1in forward.....only league experience 4 (Sub) games at Bristol R's last season before the shut down.
Why another forward ?.....a central defender would be more useful.....maybe Jerome Opoku feeling lonely.....or Opoku talked him up as a good loan to have....only here until the new year.

PS....Could be off to Germany in the new year.

 

It surprised me as well -it will be another chapter in the book (eventually!)

A bit of a curious set of circumstances that led him to come to us and ruined my planned day off (again) . I have a feeling (though no doubt I am wrong) that it is the first time we have signed someone on deadline day for at least 3 years. Really good business though.

 

Bit of speculation by me here but I suspect we have taken him "as a favour" to Fulham to give him games prior to his move to Germany. Because it is "a favour" to Fulham we probably aren't paying much of the wages if any at all. Hence why perhaps we have an extra player nobody expected. It will be worth Fulham's while as long as he doesn't get kicked to death in the meantime, They stand to make a couple of million out of him.

As for the we need a this player or that rather than another striker well we aren't getting one so don't let that colour your opinion of this one. I will reserve judgement until I've assessed him on the one dimensional TV coverage on iFollow.

 

Possibilities that Conor Grant might not be available for the Lincoln trip on Tuesday....came off at half time more has a precaution.....Grant wanted to continue but he was substituted so that it didn't become a worse injury.

 

Lewis MacLeod will be out for a further 3 to 4 weeks so says Ryan Lowe.

Also Ryan Hardie has recovered from his Covid problem and should travel to Lincoln.

 

I see Callum McFadzean has got himself a one year contract at Sunderland.

 

If Accrington have 8 players out with Covid and their game against Bristol R is off....where does that leave us the following Saturday away to Accrington....does that mean that game is off as well.....if they've got 8 players down with Covid... even after their isolation period surely they will not be match fit for awhile......

With 24 clubs in the league you only need this to happen now and again and the league table will get in quite a mess with teams having to play understrength teams because of players recovering from having Covid......surely the bigger squads will fair better than those whose squads are pretty slim to start with.

 

Tues...3rd Nov....home to Swindon.....maybe not now seeing Swindon have Covid.....plus Accrington on Sat 31st Oct down with Covid....could be a gap in our season.

 

So (deep breath) the expectation is that games will go ahead providing a club can field a team (including scholars). That said, any club can postpone a match if they feel it is unsafe to go ahead. This will automatically trigger a misconduct charge due to 'failure to fulfil a fixture' which in turn will trigger an independent investigation. Sanctions for this offence include a fine or up to a 15 point deduction.....However , each case will be treated on its merits and no investigations are yet to be concluded. At the moment we very much want to play every game (why wouldn't you?) and Covid outbreaks are being treated in the same way as a rash of injuries. The bottom line is that we need to learn to live with Covid. The absolutely worst idea is to suspend football for a period-We are already losing a load of money , if football is cancelled the we would (presumably) lose a proportion of the solidarity and central distribution money (c £1.4m pa). At the moment we will survive, but many clubs are not in the same position as we are.

 

I agree with the "we will have to learn to live with Covid" part. This is going to sound a bit harsh but it is meant to be more of a reality thing than anything else. The tiny number of people in the overall sphere of population of Countries will die and the absolute overwhelming number will not. There is no evidence that I know of that shows this thing will wipe out mankind. However, if people don't work and if their living standards are just taken away then more will die in the long run through things like starvation etc. Other treatments won't be given and the biggest cause of extra deaths will not be because of the virus effects but a knock on of just concentrating on it. Locking everyone away and there being no quality of life is not my idea of living and if this is all we have to look forward to for years to come then what is the point in being here. That's just a general observation on the virus and not about football.

Football taken in isolation will eventually be wiped out because if it doesn't generate cash to pay for itself then there won't be clubs to take part. The same applies to almost every sport. If games continue to be called off in numbers, and it is rising, then the chances of this season not being completed again is high. Potentially we could have 3 games to catch up created over a one week period. We might have called off Lincoln and then we lose Accrington and Swindon. Somehow they would have to fit those 3 back into an already overcrowded fixture list. You could get into a situation very quickly of a club having 6 or 7 games to complete. That sort of thing kills the league as any sort of fair competition. It therefore becomes not worth the paper it's printed on.