Also Lee Butcher, goalkeeper from Spurs (2008), may be one or two others that I can't remember

Not forgetting many who thought they were destined to play for Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan.

Yep Harley (Chelsea) 2000,Hoyte (Arsenal,) 2012, Sparrow( Arsenal )1982, 3 in 39 years

Good grief, I'd forgotten him.

Spit/ Trebor - We had Gavin Hoyte on loan briefly from Arsenal in 2012 but can't think of any from the breakaway 6 since then

Reading back: Jon Harley from Chelsea?

Spit: One of best Sat nites ever when Derry came to Cork in 86 for Cup game. Derry female contingent certainly enjoyed a night out...

I hope they get proper, candid and transparent advice from us. Warts and all. It’s been a ride but it’s been far from a bed of roses. We as a fan owned club have treated fans pretty badly whilst living the dream. Others can learn from us and do a better job in future.

If the ESL happens it wouldn't surprise me if some smaller clubs check out the fan ownership model. Who would they approach for advice, I wonder?

It would be a great outcome if the Premiershite folded altogether.

As a fan who went from First Division/Premier League then a couple of Championship seasons, because we were rubbish, straight overnight to watching my team at Sandhurst Town in the Combined Counties League, because our league place was stolen, it’s easy to see that the whole premise of what the Americans are selling goes against the reality of actual U.K. football fans, and hopefully actual football fans everywhere. They may convince the overseas audience that football is only worthwhile when Messi is playing against Ronaldo but that doesn’t make it right, or true, or ok. I celebrated our goals away at Sandhurst Town just as joyfully as I had at Manchester Utd and Arsenal (not Man City because in those days they were a proper football club and we battered them regularly it felt easy.) I chatted incessantly about the CCL games in the bars afterwards and on the way home. It is not about the elite athletes on the TV screen it is about supporting your club in a competitive football match regardless of opposition or level or ability. You can upset a club’s fans as has happened at Wimbledon, Bury, Chester, SwinDon, Accrington Stanley, Aldershot, Blackburn, Leeds, Bolton, Blackpool, SwinDon, Leicester and SwinDon, and proper fans band together and offer sympathy and support. But if you upset the entire U.K. football fanbase then you have no idea what’s coming. You won’t be able to complete matches. You won’t be able to travel to matches. You may not be able to train for them. Too many clubs have needed to show that they can reform and restart without the money men taking from them. And for me with AFCW it’s been a joyous rollercoaster ride. If we have to do the same with The English Football League then I’m happy to get started.

Have to say Derry city have a better story than us.

pete - no-one cared. We were just "little Wimbledon" - either ignored or actively disliked. As soon as it is the likes of the bin-dippers, ManUre & ChelScum (they have been relegated back to that nomenclature after this week-end), it's a whole different ball-game.

Cletuses - before OI gets his revenge.

Lovely interview with TT on the OS. What a nice chap he seems to be.

The thing that confuses me about the whole closed-shop thing is that it can only work if you have a players' draft system - otherwise you get the same old "same old usual suspects" and the rest as cannon-fodder thing. How is that going to enhance "the brand"? "Dip-shit yank" comments aside, their lawyers must be quite confident that they can get round Employment/Restraint-Of-Trade laws, somehow.

Derry city doco just started on bbc2

This has had almost as much exposure on Radio 4 today as PtG's death - even Womans (sic) Hour, ffs! The longer it plays out, the more I am leaning towards just saying "Toodles. And don't bother coming back :-)"

UEFA may (possibly) grow a pair but I think that the best way to squash this is for FIFA to stop rummaging the back of their Cayman Islands and say "no representing your country". Everyone likes a pound note but when you get to that sort of ultra-Elite level, you want to win shit - for both your club and your country. Win some two-bob crap, or be absolutely crushed by losing the semi-final of a World Cup - but be determined to do go one (or two better) next time? Luca Modric has got medals and money coming out of his arse, but what do you think was the game that has meant more to him than any other in his life?

Was going to say I hope we get no loans from the 6 SL teams,but then I'm sure our last loan from one of them was in 1982?

Pity there wasn't this much national uproar when our club was franchised up the motorway.

[Link]

Well, this shit show has done something I NEVER thought I would do. Say 'Well Done Leeds'. [Link]

DO,I'm sure I heard the commentary team say that the balham game will be on YouTube

Yeah. Getting a Chelsea loanee in is the same as being a feeder club. Did you know we're already a feeder club to Brentford, Sunderland and Brighton? Well, apparently so.