Josh Bowler extends loan spell at Hull City

Trying to figure out why his appearances for Hull City stopped abruptly back in January.

Turns out he picked up a bad heel injury that would sideline him for 8 weeks. I guess the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown has given him additional time to recover ahead of the Championship fixtures resuming...

Hang on a minute. I thought I'd been reading incessant posts from our fans saying the Premier League is only being restarted 'for money' and 'to enable Liverpool to win it'? So how does that play out for the Championship minnows? Would they owe money back on their far less lucrative TV deal?

As I posted elsewhere, these guys are professional footballers who want nothing better than to be playing the game (albeit with a few fear-torn exceptions).

Bowler made a decent start at Hull. Don't see him breaking into our team though we are light on right-wingers. Hopefully he gets some more time and responsibility in a Hull team that's now missing Jarrod Bowen.

Bowler's main trick is cutting in from the right wing to shoot with his favoured left foot. From what I saw of him in the Under-23s in 2018-19, he does not seem to have enough in his game to be a Premier League regular.

As regards players wanting to play, I agree with Michael. The vast majority of them will have been very frustrated to lose three months of playing time. That frustration would have been compounded if the season had been declared null and void, thus wiping out their appearances, goals scored etc. That was never going to happen, nor should it have been.

Sell him, if we can, with several favourable clauses, ie, buy back, first refusal, sell-on fees etc, which is what we should do with all our players where possible.

The problem being we buy no-name youngsters for millions and sell them on for peanuts with very few exceptions.

From the little I saw of him, he's not fast enough, strong enough, skilful enough or smart enough for the Premier League.

Why was he given a year's extension? Another head-scratching needless contract for me. I wish all Blues the very best but most importantly I wish our first-team squad to improve quickly and dramatically.

If your assessment of Josh Bowler's abilities is correct, Justin, I wonder why we would want to accept a lower initial transfer fee in lieu of a buy-back clause.

Michael #1 – I've seen nothing whatsoever to suggest that the players' wishes were a factor, let alone were sought in relation to Project Restart. By contrast, I have read of the views of the "fear-torn exceptions" (mostly BAME players) and of players expressing the view that Project Restart is money-driven.

That is my view and I believe the view of the vast majority of fans – I base this statement on TW and BBC polls both of which showed around 75% against a restart and the views of the 10 lads I go to the match with. We are all entitled to an opinion but I believe yours is a minority opinion.

I think you're right on a number of points, Martin. Most fans believe that it is about money and don't want to see the sham of games played behind closed doors. Most fans believe they are going to catch the virus if they were to go back to attending games before there is a vaccine.

But my point is, given the choice between getting back to playing now, in whatever form, that is preferable for these professional athletes (there's the money thing again!) to cowering in fear for the next gawd-knows how many months – or even years – waiting for this mythical virus to save humanity.

However, with the media promulgating their message of never-ending fear, you won't be hearing much from the players who are quite happy to get back at it. It's far more newsworthy and 'on point' to perpetulate the impending second wave so we can get everyone locked back down again.

Hence the minority view.

Of course Project Restart is money-driven. It will enable loss-making clubs to pay players' wages without falling even further into debt.

Project Restart is not much different surely than opening up retail again – with the knock-on impact of crowded streets and transport. A lot of very modestly paid people rely on income from matchdays.

This is not just about paying the wages of stars like Bolasie and Ramirez, it's about keeping things going. Everyone will have to make a judgement call about their own risk and do their best to limit their risk to others. But the answer can't be to cripple the economy until there's a vaccine – who pays the doctors' wages after all?

The German experiment is by no means perfect but it's football (which I like) and some of the quality has been very good. It sounds like a local 5-aside game or a tennis match but so be it.

What is going to happen next season if we are still with the 14-day quarantine and crowds are allowed back?

The place over the park is going to be empty – apart from 5 or 6 scousers.

I saw a bit of Bowler in the U23s, and towards the end of the previous campaign he was fast becoming a ‘game-changer'. He's had an up-and-down season at Hull but he'll be a regular now they sold a couple of players, which is good for him. I rate him.