The season 2020 - 2021.

They are the best seats without a doubt.
Lounge bar, TV. inside toilets, tea/coffee, biscuits, (mince pies at Christmas) padded seats in the stand. Certainly the most expensive, but I would not sit anywhere else.

 

We did not discuss the finer details of the agreement, but as usual we bow to your superior knowledge.

 

Are you a shareholder in iFollow or something robbie?

I am not too bothered by exactly what percentage goes to the club - a large chunk goes to someone else and £10 is too expensive for an online match IMO. It does not compare to seeing the game live.

I am willing to reserve judgement fully until the Club announce how much they will charge for their own version next season. That will be a test.

 

Same for me Rob.

 

Mixed news on Gibson.

Sounds like he'll require surgery and miss the rest of the season, but should be back in contention for pre-season. Seeing a specialist at the end of the week when swelling has hopefully subsided.

 

Given the source is Michael Bailey this is reliable:

"Ben Gibson update. First scan done. Swelling still really bad so will also see a specialist at the end of the week. Does now sound like he’ll definitely miss the rest of the season & require surgery. But he should also be sorted well b4 preseason starts."

 

In the grand scheme of things that’s excellent news, but I imagine we are mostly agreed that signing a new, high quality, centre back is probably second on the summer transfer priority list after finding Skipp’s replacement?

 

I think we'll see Sorensen tried in the Skipp role once promotion is secured. Everything coming out of the club suggests they think incredibly highly of him. Big boots to fill though!

But yeah I think CB has to be pretty high on the shopping list. We can't go into next season with Gibson, Hanley, and Zimmerman. Relying on Omobamidele, Sorensen or Tettey(!?) to fill in would be reckless.

Assuming no first team regulars depart: DM, CB, attacking mid, striker, maybe a RB?

 

Assuming no one goes other than Skipp and Gibson & Giannoulis are made permanent I think my priorities would be

DM I'm hoping that Soressen can have an impact next season, but we would definitely need a replacement for Skipp.

CB I'm comfortable with Hanley & Gibson but I don't see Zimmerman as third choice, fourth maybe so I think we need possibly a younger player that can challenge Hanley / Gibson for their place. Ideally I would prefer a left footer.

No10 I like Dowell & also think Rupp can do a job there, but I think this is our most problematic position. If Buendia went I can see Dowell playing his role, but we would still need a No 10.

GK Not convinced in Krul is injured the cover we have is good enough. So me keep either Nylan or McGovern but not both.

 

As I understand it, the £10 for a video match pass just reflects the highly unusual circumstances of this season. If you take the annual international membership sub as a guide, the cost per match is around £4.50 (allowing for 16 matches not streamed because of TV rights). If all 46 were on iFollow, it would be £3 per match.
The point about this season is that many season ticket holders didn't ask to be refunded, and free streaming is a form of recompense to them. If UK non-season ticket holders were able to enjoy the same service for relatively little outlay, the value to the season ticket holder is diminished. So I guess £10 was chosen as a reasonable compromise all round.

 

This is really bad news for both Ben and the club.
Zimmers does not inspire me.

 

Sure, but I don't think it is reasonable, to the tune of about 30-40%. It's interesting that this roughly aligns with the amount reportedly not going to the club.

I think the season ticket point is a red herring - season ticket holders who didn't ask for a refund did so at their own election. Many people cannot be season ticket holders, even in the UK - if you do not live close enough or your job rules it out. So the test is, what is fair based on the value to consumers of watching a match digitally (which is not as good as live)?

For me, I watched and paid for a couple of iFollow matches. The early one wasn't great, the more recent one was good. It was markedly better than a pirated stream. However, it wasn't so much better that £10 per match was worth it (there is no point me buying a season subscription because I would not be able to watch more than c.30% of matches). And I know it could be improved, because the quality through Sky Go is excellent, so streaming can be good.

Ultimately, market forces will prevail here - so the interesting and telling price point, as I said above, will be what the Club chooses to charge with its own service.

I appreciate iFollow was something of an experiment, but I am surprised they don't do packages other than the season - e.g. 5 matches, 10 matches, 20 matches. Those could then be discounted from the headline £10 per match to varying degrees. I reckon they would make a lot more money that way as then the temptation to just pay the equivalent of a pint or two for ease and quality would properly outweigh watching free pirated streams and then battling with glitches, foreign commentary, fuzzy pictures and pop-up adverts for women who are quite admirable in their physical flexibility.

 

Agree with all of that Rob. The "adverts for women who are quite admirable in their physical flexibility" are at least a diversion when the stream goes up the creek.

 

Changing the subject: I hear the betting markets have suspended betting on us to get promoted.

 

Gibson out for the season

Alex Neil fired so we won't have him in charge of Preston

 

We were already 100/1 on.

 

Sure, but for so long as the bookies are offering odds, that means there is a meaningful chance! (Otherwise they wouldn’t get paid out). And their odds will always be worse than what they think are the actual odds of it happening.

So at 100/1 on, they are saying more than a 1% chance and I reckon something like up to a 2% chance.

Call me a worrier but I want the odds to be more or less 0% before I feel completely comfortable!!

 

Link please! (But don't tell Robbie, I don't want him to chastise me for not buying a porn subscription. )

 

I only get cartoon boobs on the pop ups

 

We seem to be putting a lot of hope into Sorensen at DM. He's only played there this season for about 30 min that I can see.