nPower Football League Thread 2011/12

[Adam]

Talk out of the higher ups in the Football Supporters Foundation are saying today that Portsmouth WILL be starting the season on -15 points. Be interesting to see if this becomes full public knowledge soon or if perhaps it is wide of the mark considering the recent media reports.

[Bobfoc]

Apparently, Kuwaiti millionaire Fawaz Al-Hasawi could be set to purchase Nottingham Forest very soon.

[Matt]

Apparently, Kuwaiti millionaire Fawaz Al-Hasawi could be set to purchase Nottingham Forest very soon.

*billionaire.

Unless something new has happened today, I wouldn't be putting any money on this. All of WACCOE was looking through every single Arab journalist's twitter pages yesterday to try and find some proof that he was interested in buying Leeds and it's all based on a comment from someone that he's interested in buying a Championship club with a great history. If it's true then Forest will be the team he buys but I wouldn't be so sure he's actually buying anyone.

Which reminds me, WACCOE was hilarious yesterday, at 10-11am everyone was wanking themselves silly whilst listening to the Kuwaitti national anthem, by about 6pm they were a bunch of tea-towel wearing camel-shaggers and we don't want a billionaire owner anyway.

[stokeriño]

The Football League will return to playing seven subs next season.

GOOD NEWS...for FM13.

[Adam]

And also for all us fans of small teams!

The shouldn't have put it back down to 5 in the first place.

[Matt]

Good, this means we can have a sub goalkeeper now, I was never too confident about the idea of Billy Paynter going in goal.

[Lineker]

Malky Mackay's transfer kitty is set to be boosted at a Cardiff City board meeting where a possible shirt rebrand from blue to red will be discussed.

The Bluebirds boss was favourite to succeed Paul Lambert as manager of Premier League Norwich City but ruled himself out on Monday.

Cardiff's owners will also finalise the extent of their investment at a meeting that starts on Tuesday.

New capital from the club's Malaysian owners is expected to be "signed off".

"There's a budget in place for new players to secure the next stage in the club's development," Cardiff chief executive Alan Whiteley told BBC Sport.

"And that's been signed off and will be part of the new investment."

The owners indicated they would be ready to invest a total of £100m into the club if the Bluebirds change their shirt colours from blue for red and rebrand the club crest so it would have made the Championship club more appealing in the Far East.

Some Cardiff fans initially reacted angrily to the proposed change of club colours and it was feared the protest jeopardised investment plans by principal backer Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who had planned the multi-million pound rebrand.

Club chairman Dato Chan Tien Ghee later revealed that controversial proposal had been dropped due to "vociferous opposition" and he reassured the ongoing commitment of the Malaysian investors.

But he warned that the Bluebirds could not afford to continue losing money - a reported £1m a month - and that their investment strategy said to be worth £100m would be reassessed.

And in an open letter to fans after the club's last board meeting, Tien Ghee warned that the club must change while he also suggested a full review of the club's finances.

Now the change of shirt colour is back on the agenda and will be debated at this week's board meeting as Cardiff fans have started to cool on their rebrand opposition because of the scale of the proposed investment by the club's Asian owners.

The board meeting will clarify the exact scale of the further investment by Cardiff's owners, who have already invested about £40m since Tien Ghee first represented the Malaysian investors on the Cardiff board in November 2009.

Vincent Tan's Cardiff vision included upgrading the club's training ground, expanding the 26,500-capacity Cardiff City Stadium and paying off their long-time debt to Langston, owned by former owner Sam Hammam.

Whiteley put the proposed £100m investment by the Malaysian owners "into context".

"They have put a significant amount of investment into the club altogether," he said.

"When we outlined the plans of some of the things they are looking to do, if you started to add all of those up - including plans for a new training ground, plans for stadium expansion, trying to deal with the Langston position and put into place money for a new squad - then the number in total, including their existing investment, was coming up to those sort of levels.

"There was never the case that there was £100m for players."

Whiteley is "keen" for Cardiff to reveal their plans "for better or for worse" and hopes the club will do that "during the course of this week".

[Lineker]

Steve Bruce has indeed been offered the hotseat at Hull.

[Lineker]

Mark Robson has been appointed as the new Barnet manager.

[IAceI]

Francois Zoko is leaving Carlisle United after refusing a new contract, wants to try himself at a higher level. Also leaving are man mountain Lubor Michalik and Tom Taiwo of £5m to Chelsea fame.

Frank Simek and James Berrett look set to stay after agreeing new contracts/that this is their level. And Carlisle have also moved to sign 32 year old Mike Edwards from Notts County on a free.

And so begins another year of the Carlisle United merry-go-round where good players leave for free and punts are taken on other free players. Ah the joys of them being a middling League One team.