Guitar Ray

A pro footballer under contract at a club is employed, whether or not they're selected for the squad. If they get left out of the 20, or whatever it ends up being, due to there being too many players over the age limit, could the rules be construed as being discriminatory? Clubs aren't going to want to employ players to have to pay them not to play. We live in a world where asking someone their age in a job interview is technically illegal, so to have age limits within the framework of smaller squads seems to me that it could potentially restrict the employment prospects of more of the

Wouldn't fuss me if Burgess went. Had a good first season but had been powder puff this year when I've seen him play. Whitehead doesn't even enter my head anymore as an option in the middle, hope he's paid up. Taylor time will tell but he's gone down hill fast since coming back. First and foremost Taylor has to force his way into the 11. Did OK when he came on in the last game but not sure it'll be enough to keep his place. Short term that could depend on the Manny rumour but he's not a straight replacment for the longer term that's for sure.

Not sure employment law is relevant? Vale could employ 500 players if they wanted to, they just wouldn't be able to select them all in the FL squad. That's the point, it doesn't appear to be relevant. You'd think in this day and age that it would be. Just referring back to part of the comment posted by DanishValiant, "Imagine any other business, only being allowed a certain number of people over a certain age. There would be lawsuits all over the place! Ie. what if Tesco or Sainsburys said, each branch could only employ 10 people over 21, the rest had to be under 21."

Brown still has many more good games than he does bad and you only have to watch a few games at higher levels to see keepers making mistakes. Currently playing a big part in our very mean defence also. I'd be OK with him for another season but would really like to see whoever is backup push much harder than seems currently the case. It's a difficult one as we already know that a decent keeper isn't going to come just to sit on the bench.

I'm still hoping he'll do something for charity with that mop once the barbers open.

Is that all you wear? What about the neighbours? 😲

Yes, big shout out to the ref, who I thought was toss but got the big decision right. Waved away 2 big pen shouts for them and Manny could've easily seen red for his challenge after already being booked.

Equality Act 2010. Forget legs going, that's ageist.

But it is a sporting competition. The number of players on the field is fixed. So the Prem fixed the squad at 25 Adult players, and an unlimited number of apprentices/learners since they don't all make the grade by the time they are 21 and all can't be guaranteed a job. It's a sporting competition played by full time professionals. Surely employment law relating to age should apply?

Playoff push still on.

Correct, nobody should be slagging him off, he's right up there in the Premier League of Phil's. Battling for a Champions League place with Taylor and Schofield. A few places above Serrell, Scolari and Sproson. (Sproson gets a bye as he's one of our own.)

That's an interesting point. Ageism is supposedly illegal interms of employment if not pay.

Talk about cup half empty. 🤷‍♂️

I take your point but maybe Cambridge isn’t the best example, because if you take Mullin out of that side they’re nowhere. Maybe Hoolahan to a lesser extent, so possibly two key signings are the main reason rather than a complete turnover of players. Hard to say, but obviously if Rodney had by now scored 20 plus, in addition to a second striker on 11 or more, we’d have had a different season for sure.

I don’t think I was clear. With the contract situation, a 20 man squad cap and the bloated size of our squad we’ll be getting rid of a big chunk anyway in the summer. If we believe that Clarke has now hit on a winning formula then you could argue that we merely need to improve in two or three positions, plus have better players as backup options. This is what was needed, but we failed to do, last closed season. Only Rodney was a nailed on first team player, and he’s still got a lot of developing to do. The others were making up the numbers rather than pushing for a first team place.