I’m fairly sure Ian Holloway was once placed on gardening leave by a club, purely to prevent him going to a rival until the end of the season.

Shows what happens when you have to rely on local talent instead of buying it in! Great performance Herbie and Scott.

I wonder what came over them 😂

No, they’ve made that nice and simple 😁:

How old do players have to be to count as youth players in the ESC/GBE context? Don't tell me they made that fuzzy too 😂 I'm assuming it's the same as squad registration with players under 21.

It's not that I don't see your point, I just think it could as easily viewed as a plus for the lad as for us. And maybe he gets lucky and it lands at his feet in the 6 yard box for a chance to make his name. Ideally you do it in a game where we are winning convincingly and you can afford to give him 5 or 10 minutes to make his mark, but since this needs doing ASAP and the next game is Brum...probably not! I think Tyjon's debut was only about 30 seconds and it will have been a proud moment for him anyway. Admittedly his wasn't to clear an administrative problem. What I know about the process btw, I probably learnt about 70-80% of it from talking to Wilsden.

It is disgraceful, this online ticket only crap!

Yes that's what I meant, wouldn't need an ESC slot, the work permit would be a formality essentially. And yes I had L1 or L2 in mind, nobody in the Championship would bother. Wow didn't know they only got 2 spaces, though can't imagine they have the scouting networks for it to really matter, generally. Outside of some bigger L1 clubs.

With a completely different set of teammates that he only net 48 hours earlier! He probably only had 1 training session, max 2, before starting the match. Was a bit unfair of VI to play him imo, even though Cantwell was injured Maybe we ought to have used Tyjon instead, or O'Hashi dropping back as a No. 10 & Gueye up top.

I guess how they’d handle the conversation with him would influence how he’d feel about the situation. Of course with our lot they’d almost certainly handle it badly. One final thing, showing empathy isn’t, and never will be, a weakness.

You and Wilsden clearly have a better handle on the process. My weakness is a permanent overload of emotional intelligence rather than the garden variety type (tongue in cheek) of process intelligence. Just seems harsh on a young lad whose hopes and dreams of making it as a pro end with being wheeled out for a ritual humiliation. Ignore me, I'm just a softy.

Ok thanks.

That's mine done!

Rather quiet recently.

Yep literally are the forgotten champions

A permanent transfer requires a new work permit - I guess the benefit would lie in him not taking up an ESC slot of any prospective new club. This might be particularly helpful if he were to move to a L1 or L2 club as they only get up to 2 ESC players. It would also make it easier to loan him out as currently he’d count as an ESC player for both us and the club we sent him to.

If you’re on gardening leave you’re still technically employed.

Well unless I'm misremembering, it would also allow him to be sold to another UK club, as once you have the exemption thingy you don't need to reapply at another club. So it would increase his pool of suitors, helping him get a move, plus put 'Championship experience' on his CV rather than 'signed but never played a game'. I also think it's less disrespectful than the alternative - outright cancelling his contract to make way for the deal, which is absolutely what will happen if we need the space and he isn't exempt from needing to use it.

Mention of Waggott being "still employed" sends me into a cold sweat. Is it normal for employees who have been dispensed with but who are on gardening leave to be referred to in that way? I take it he doesn't actually do anything or wield any influence any longer?

Nope, not said it for a while now.

Fantastic post, well put. (Except perhaps the very last point, I'm starting to not believe the club's line on that in a literal sense, but I won't go into that now) That list really shows how rare good CMs have been for us, and yet I'm sure certain posters will still say they expect a Travis level replacement.

Charge your battery!

Can anyone confirm if Travis has changed his bio. Im positive it mentioned rovers but could be wrong

…there’s plenty of older Venky apologists in the fanbase too.