They are so desperate to have us that we have been playing one lot against the other!!

Seriously - Puma and Admiral are part of Genesis Group (Puma have majority stake in company)

Admiral walking the plank at end of upcoming season!!

There must be some sort of connection between Admiral and Puma, surely? Otherwise why would either be cool with us having two manufacturers?

Never heard of a FL club wearing kits by two different manufacturers in the same season before!

tGG - cheers anyway. Hopefully we'll see itsoon enough.

The reason why there has been Puma kit on the training ground: [Link]

TGG - no sign of any newts getting, ahem, suddenly discovered in the car park undergrowth?

Russ - not a carrot. No sit to rep at the moment, I'm afraid :-(

Thanks KD, had no idea!

Plymouth and Southend also going down the safe standing route [Link]

TGG - Any plough lane activity? Is the wrecking ball on site yet?

Nope [Link] and [Link]

I actually get more of a buzz from mooching down Garratt Lane after a hard day's skive and seeing some little boy or girl in full womble kit on their way to something with their parents than I do about most## victories on the pitch.

Also looking at the OS update, I hadn't realised Meades was still carrying an injury. He's a bit of a liability, still feel we need a specialist LB for cover.

Kentish said safe standing would Increase capacity, doesn't it only allow one person to stand per safe seat?

Agree with you JOG ON. We have lost a lot of extra money or funds because of out growing our ground. I would say we have lost well over a million pounds a year because of it if based on an extra 2000 fans a game average and the extra consumption of food.

Well that was two minutes of my life I'll never get back

At the end of the day, until we can look at sums of money like £150,000 and see it as an insignificant sum, we are going to be selling our home-grown crown jewels before they have reached an optimum return figure. Once we are out of KM and operating from a ground that allows us to maximise both commercial and support revenue potential, nothing much is going to change here! We need to be in a position where players like Anthony Hartigan can be retained and progress into our 1st team, and this means turning our nose up to offers until they are closer to the million pound mark, at which point, the sale would be more in line with the return profits we would all like to see the academy system produce for our bean counters!

Afternoon all. ICYMI, Mark Hendrikx penned our Monday Essay this week, discussing the range of attendances in League One and the Championship. You can read it on our website. [Link]

I'd like to think we have higher ambitions for our yout' than just being benchwarmers paid a bag of chips (with or without curry sauce).

I think it's clear that NA has done amazing work (by comparison) getting the Academy up to scratch. I think he makes a rod for his own back by not wishing to "blood them quite as aggressively" as he might/ought to. Also, having decent players stolen/hoovered up by bigger clubs helps muddy the stats that some might use in order to paint it as 'charity work'. ;) Like Stuart D says - how much ££ would temporary loans and 'filler' from other clubs cost us, as opposed to some homegrown and hungry? The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Typical that if we do produce a really bright prospect , they are getting snapped up by bigger clubs before us fans see them in action for the first team . Doesn't mean the academy isn't worth it though.

Another question for Ardley at MtM...how are you developing Academy players from 'cheap filler' to first team regulars?

I agree Kentish, although you could argue Will Nightingale is a youth players that progressed to a 1st Team starter. Also he youth players given contract supplement the 1st team squad, enaballing us to pay bigger salaries at the top end to keep us competitive.