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That is exactly the MO here at rovers buy cheap hope they play well sell on for profit ideally put money back into “running costs” and give a new coach (after previous one leaves due to lack of ambition after 1 &1/2 transfer windows) a nominal sum to spend in their first window rinse repeat

Aye, good point. I'm guessing that is where they'd use the selling option.

Whether Dolan was likely to go or not wasn't the question. Again, you're trying to isolate each player as a one-off, an anomaly. The truth of the matter is that the spine of our team has left and their contract status has had a part to play in all of them, to greater or lesser extents. Signing cheap players on comparatively low contracts does not disprove that. We HAD to sign players or we wouldn't have been able to fill the bench. The greater signifier is the amount of starters that over the next 12 months will have to be sold or will leave on a free. Because nothing has changed. No lessons have been learned. The king is dead, long live the king.

It wasnt too good to turn down for Hyam. Maybe you could argue earlier in the window. But his value to us massively increased so late in the window. Take Guehi as an example. £40m was a great offer for someone who will otherwise leave for free. But they couldnt get a replacement so had to keep him. That £2.7m taken will be offset by a much greater risk of relegation. There wasnt clearly any chance of getting any of them to sign because we cant sort the contracts of current players. Which is a massive problem that undermines any other plans we have, and any other decisions we make. He played Travis in every game and he remained as his captain. Theres no suggestion that he was happy to move him on as if he had fallen behind in the "plan."

8-0 defeat vs Chorley for the ladies today. To call their treatment a disgrace by the club is a huge understatement. The club can't even be arsed updating their page on X.

Cantwell and Toth will be difficult because both will have good seasons and have interest from clubs with ambition

For what it's worth,in my opinion , Dolan was never a chance, he was always going no matter what. He said he tried to keep Britain, that one upset him. Ismael was always replacing Travis, hence the "what contract?" comment. £2.7 million was simply too good to turn down for Hyam. But it isn't just those 4 that have left.

What is a loans manager judged on though? Genuine question by the way.

I'm trying to see it as they are. They're obviously not going to give everyone a 4 and 5 year deal. The players you mentioned, I'm guessing, will be on the lower scale and should be easier/cheaper to renew if they're still wanted. Some players are also just allowed to run out of contract at every club.

Sure, it's a possibility that VI was happy to let Hyam, Brittain, Trav and Dolan go. It's slimmer than a gnats pube, but it's a possibility.

Or they go and trot about in a Mickey mouse league overseas for a couple of years picking up a fortune. Fair play to them, make the most of it I say. Unfortunately this trend has had an immeasurably detrimental effect on the game as a whole. The skill and experience that was once spread about teams in the lower leagues by top level pros dropping down to keep playing is now all but gone.

Offer better terms and also offer deals earlier. I know it is obvious that its not happening. We clearly arent offering competitive Championship wages hence why only Ribeiro has signed a deal in 2 years from our first team. And believe it or not, thats my grievance.

The errors continue and they feel like they can blame previous coaches it’s ridiculous we all know the real issue at the club

By "sort out contracts", you mean give them better terms. It's obvious that wasn't going to happen. I've never claimed Ismael was happy to let any players go, I just said it's a possibility. You didn't even think to consider it an option.

🤣🤣

However, the injury is likely only anywhere near as bad as it is because the stupid bastards insisted on continuing to play him whilst he was carrying it last season. That's how you get a recurring injury.

You are making massive assumptions, including assuming massive wage demands, and are also trying to pull the debate off onto tangents about individual players. Again, the worry is that we havent got a new deal sorted for any key player in years. Its not one or two, its EVERYONE. So that suggests that even if its true that we would have to "break our wage structure" to get any to sign. Then our wage structure is too restrictive to begin with. And it wont help that we wait so long to offer deals in the first place. You are fixated by this Ismael throwing him under the bus situation. Yes, I still think the same but its not very important in the grand scheme of things, its not the problem. Ismael had question marks over man management at previous clubs and with incidents like that and also the Pears one, I can see why. Obviously you after a blip are fully in defence of everything he does, but in this case as I said its not a big deal and not the problem so dont fixate over it.

When me and Sonny leave in January this is what you'll be left with.

Im sure there'll be net savings on incidentals as well but Im not really bothered by that. I just can't get my head round anyone trying to spin a £2.5m trading surplus over the summer as a £4m - £5m overspend on a £5m transfer budget. To me that would mean purchases of £9m and sales of zero. Each to their own though.

It’s 4 games into the season and it’s got the feel of a disaster waiting to happen, I’ll be shocked if we are still with a fighting chance come April if I’m totally honest, cheers Suhail, Rudy and special mention to the owners for making the 150th year an absolute disaster. Will take league two at this point if it meant we get these lot out

I think it crucial as part of a tier 1 academy to be able to demonstrate that we are good for everyone’s career that signs for us, no matter what turns out to be their ultimate potential.

“Past mistakes” Gueye, Ohashi, Toth, McLoughlin, Ribeiro, Cantwell and Kargbo’s will all have a year left by next season

Ah, should we have broken our “wage budget”? Problem is no one on here knows what that was or is. In order to answer that question you need to know what the exiting players were on, what they wanted, what the overall salary budget was and what we are up to now at the end of the window. Only then can you ascertain what we could have offered Brittain or Travis. You can’t just say “we aren’t paying over X amount”. Maybe we could have kept Travis or Brittain if we used the wages we are wasting for Forshaw. What makes me suspicious is we had two players on, say, £12k a week and we supposedly made good offers to try and keep them, as well as making offers to Batth and Hyam (and Dolan). Therefore, if that is to believed then the money we were offering them must all have been “within budget”. I bet the salary costs now are far lower than had they all said yes. In which case, there should have been plenty of money in the budget. So it’s not a simple question at all.

Crediting them for getting us out of something they put us into by not recruiting experienced championship players like Alan Browne

Never been more disengaged with the club. Reckless transfer business in defence... going into an extremely physical 46 game Championship season. The only conclusion you can make is they don't care where we are in the league come January 1, and perhaps the beginning of May too. Selling Hyam without a replacement felt like a slap in the face to paying fans. A better centre back partner for him with quality is what was needed but we didn't take that seriously either.