Soares was a reasonable gamble. After his injuries he wasn't the same player but he'd been a big potential, his skill set should have been higher. It didn't pay off BUT I'd say he seemed to have a better reading of the game than most of our players. It was the execution he'd lost.

There seems to be a bit of a consensus on here about Appiah’s second spell. What are all your views on the signing, budgetary considerations, playing tactics and ultimate departure of “the Wardrobes”?

SW19 on beating Gills and playing Hull tomorrow now up - [Link]

If I'm reading it right the 4 step process went (1. op 2. Rehab 3. pre season fitness 4. match fitness from PSFs). His process ended up being 1. Done. 2. Part done/delayed. 3. Delayed. 4. Didn't happen til he started playing in proper matches.

Keefy from the statement we put out it wasn't the operation it was the rehab work that suffered during lockdown and put him back for fitness for pre season, so he missed pre season and basically was doing his rehab and pre season during the first few months of the season

Surely the club has private health insurance for their players. Palmer going on the waiting list for a hernia operation?

Russ the problem is the way it comes across is the agent did their job (acted in the player's best interests) and the club went a bit fan boy and did the same thing. It certainly wasn't in the clubs best interests. And that's not hindsight cos loads of us called this out from the start.

shergy that would make sense - I believe we signed him knowing this was being dealt with. There was a statement originally put out that without the physio/work to get back he was way off where he should have been and missed pre season. (We might have been generous by saying COVID stopped the post op work or it might have been the case and we just didn't mention that was meant to happen at Crawley).

Isis babe not allowed back in Britian!

Appiah was great on his first loan spell and I think Ardley gambled on getting the same player. I was excited when he signed him at first, he was a good player in his first spell for us. And maybe Appiah's agent wanted a 3 year deal. Certainly you'd imagine if your client has some injury concerns you'd want to secure them a longer term contract.

REPD, surely any manager would moan at the very least internally about the budget? It is in the managers interests at any club to get the highest possible budget and then up to those above him to decide what can be afforded. I very much hope that MR is going to be pressing Joe Palmer for the biggest possible budget next season, particularly if we stay up

REPD - somewhere like 21 or so!

Would be interesting to see what Robinson and Perslow do with the money that Ardley Cox and Bassey spafed up on the wardrobes and sicknote

Lurker, I thought he had the operation well before he signed him. The reason I say that is that I am fairly sure he complained that he didn't get the after care he needed at Crawley

I'm sure Ardley was given extra funds (he kept moaning about budget for most of the previous season), thought he could get somebody in but panicked when he couldn't.

shergy my understanding of the Palmer situation is that he needed a hernia operation - I've actually heard several times on EPL televised matches that player x has come back from a hernia operation. It's really common (fuck it I'm waiting on one). It's not really an injury in that way. Plus he didn't have a track record of injuries. The problem was we're talking low level player, small club, so the ability to get the operation done, full physio etc is much more limited than for EPL players. Plus my understanding was he had it done at the worst point in the pandemic - it was originally estimated it'd be done and dusted before pre season. So he missed pre season. And then struggled to get fit (was clearly carrying extra when he did come back) which is again a recipe for an injury and slower recovery. So I think this is one of those things that is rare and hard to get around if we'd committed to the contract already. BUT that doesn't explain that he's just not that good unless he's also really rusty. He's a plan B last 20 big lump not a James Hanson big lump (and that's allowing for JH's injuries)

Morning all. Can anyone remember how many points we've lost from winning positions this season?

I have enough faith in JP that he’d tell any manager to stop being a prat if he tried to offer a 26 year old with a horrific injury record a 3 year deal....averaged 13 games a season.

WU, all water under the bridge now but then again last summer we signed Palmer when he was injured which was obviously another gamble

Presumably Ardley felt he couldn’t get Appiah unless he offered a 3 year contract. Where were the checks and balances from the FCB here?

I am one of Ardley's biggest fans. I think he did a great job on and off the pitch and as I said recently didn't and still doesn't get the respect he deserved/deserves from some fans but Appiah was probably his biggest mistake and ultimately played a part in his demise

Bucks has 103 Covid cases per 100k but this is due to the higher number of cases in MK which is the highest by far than any area in Bucks.

Morning all. New 9yrspodcast out now, during which we discuss the club's approach to recruiting coaching staff; Robbo's changes to the playing style; captains; and the games with Peterborough and Gillingham. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube via this [Link]

And just to be clear - all of that asks questions of the club not the player.

Oh and we didn't give anyone 3 year contracts - apart from him. Another little beauty of a WTF situation.