Prepare to be astounded.

Dear me Chaddy, deary deary me.

One day the penny will drop

Unless we are in the room none of us. We all have our opinions but thats all they are. We tried to negotiate with him 2 years ago and he stonewall us then cos he had no agent Are we skint? No. They owners have had their well documented problems in India. You know this. We spent around 4-5 million last season and spent this summer also and still looking to spend more. Not its not 10 millions budget we are spending some money

Yeah, fair point. Death by a thousand cuts and all that, for us

They might have ambition, but I wonder what the strategy is?. They had the oldest squad in the Championship last year, and have now added 2 more veterans + Morris (29) to it. They basicly have a squad with no resale value and need to recycle the squad every year. Surely they will be solid and experienced with Eustace, but it seems like they are settling for mid-table security.

Or his only offer

Won’t be us and that’s the problem. Terrible ownership often ends just like we are seeing at Sheff Wed (see also Reading in recent times), but the apt word is ‘ends’. Here, I only forsee us limping on, zombie style, but with ‘the lights on’ for ever and a day.

I have never gotten this footballers career is short. They work about a third of what an average person works, but in that time they earn ten times as much.

What an absolute mess. Gotta feel for those that are involved and of course, the long suffering fans as well. Feels like this could easily be us, Venky's just turn off the taps and let the club to implode. Once again though, you've gotta be asking serious questions of the Footballing authorities, another club that has been a disaster for long enough and now it's finally reached the tipping point, how have they allowed it to get to this state?

The Housemartins - There’s Always Something There To Remind Me

Thanks Matty! But that doesn’t fit Chaddy’s agenda

My understanding was that all deals including loans run until the end of June as per contracted players but I can't find anything to substantiate it.

The main thing is Derby have ambition , we don't !

A break in play for adverts obviously would impact match day supporters.

I remember talking to John Williams about financing a squad. He pointed out that there were two options. You either limit the wages paid individually to all players (in effect a wage cap) meaning you could have a bigger squad, or you paid the going rate and brought in a number of potentially better players but had to survive with a smaller squad. He opted for the second option. I agree with that. I guess the point is that there are different ways of managing player salaries within the same budget. Implementing a wage cap is just a choice. In my opinion a wrong choice.

Not a chance. He didn't even want it. He's comfortable at the level he's at and it paid off.

At a normal Club, Dolan and Batth would have been re-signed without as much as a second thought. It would just have been a by line in passing in the local rag that they'd penned new deals.

But still more attractive than we are apparently. Bit of a worry eh?

And having some mates with him helps.

No--they live on what they earned, partly at least.

The big unknown is what Dolan is asking for. He probably doesn’t feel valued by Rovers based on what they’ve offered, but he/his agent might have miscalculated what he’s capable of getting elsewhere. I can’t imagine Derby are big payers even by Championship standards, but are probably a level up from Rovers, who must now be in the bottom 2 or 3 clubs in terms of salaries.

Can only quote what you said, which was "no contact". Quite plausible that you're scenario has happened.

I’d assume that’s exactly the what’s happening. He (his agent) will have ‘tested the market’, to coin that hoary old phrase, and realised he can get better than the shite Rovers are offering.

Go and read about their finances. Their owner is not wealthy in footballing terms and he has been desperately searching for new investment for the last 12 months to help them. He's been putting in circa £13 million a year for 3 years to keep them ticking over (oh look, another club that loses an 8 figure sum every year even when they get better gates than we do and have managed to find a new owner prepared to fund it - one for the negative Venkys in people to keep in mind). You've answered half of your own question - they are going around trying to sign free agents - a clear sign of a club working to a limited budget yet still able to sign up our players. How are we skint when we've brought in £40 million from sales and spent very little of it?