IMO, the Raos, Pasha, Waggott and Gestede have all been economical with the facts. Preumably, you feel very uncomfortable about that? Perhaps Ismael could also become a voluntary lay preacher!? I would dispute we have spent anywhere near £7.5m. I think fees for players signed have been over hyped for the consumption of those in our fan base who are highly gullible. I would put fees paid in the £4 to 5million range with a further £2 to 3million due when we win the PL!!! The fact is fees for departing players Brittain, Travis, JRC, Buckley and Dolan (compo) will almost certainly exceed the fees paid for our incomings. I think the reality is we have spent nothing, in fact we are in the black on fees and you can add to that some add-ons from past sales. I suspect if our budget is £5million, there may well be some hefty bonuses to be paid due to a substantial saving on that budget! Of course the only way round this is to scrap all this 'undisclosed fee' crap, report both the actual fee, potential add-ons and the fee paid to agents for every transaction. That would give you the openness, transparency and honesty that seems to excite you.

Nixon has said we have been talking to Lorient for a few days for that striker

Much as I liked Nyambe as a defender anybody who thinks he should be playing as a wing back needs to give their head a wobble.

Unleash the player.

It was the same with Gueye in the WBA game, he was effectively refferreed out of the match.

Not sure it is that simple. Why did he decide to leave? What messages was he receiving from Suhail and Gestede?

Eustace wasn’t sacked, he decided to leave. Clearly he saw the writing on the wall over the summer regarding contracts expiring etc and recruitment going in a different direction. BTW, I noticed Batth, Sanderson, Nyambe and Weimann all started for Derby at the weekend. If that was us, I’d be fuming.

Yeah, I heard that. Need to check the source, though.. And I did find him on LinkedIn.." Unleash the player Ltd".. It looks like an agency or a tentacle of one, but I am not sure..

We signing him as centre half backup?

There are some rumours surfacing about Myles Anderson being involved.

aren't we spending money this window? £7.5m spent and possible more so. This summer we seem to back Ismael with money but also permanent signings. Gestede, Owen and Ismael are all aligned and thinking the same way but they appears to be allowing to spend more money than we have done since the Mowbray spending on BBD and Armstrong

Yes, an obvious pattern. Hard not to think it is deliberate sabotage...

What hasn't changed is the fact that football is a results business, and the patience of those with the purse strings wears thin very quickly if the results don't meet expectations. The confounding factor that we have had to contend with at the Rovers since the Venky era began is that there doesn't seem to be any clear set of expectations. The closest we got recently was the odious Waggott claiming that survival was the goal a couple of seasons back. No wonder we lack direction, there's nobody setting a Vision, so the Mission is confused and contradictory. Basic strategic management. Absence of. End. That's what is most frustrating for those of us who have lived through eras where there WAS a clear plan, there WAS a coherent strategy (even if it was shoe-string stuff) and there WAS a clear identity and cohesion on the pitch week in, week out. It's about time we had another era where we all felt like we could pull together.

Unless Adam Owen & Rudy Gestede are a pair of magicians 😉

Is the current squad, really paper thin, if we sign another striker and midfielder, but Buckley, Travis, Pears and Leonard leave? we have 2 players or more for each position so is that paper thin? I would still like another keeper in with some experience to give Toth and Michalski competition for the number 1 and 2 jersey

On recent years' form, Hedges can be comfortably discounted now for a couple of seasons, in terms of any attacking contribution. If you are reading this, Ryan, prove us wrong 😉 All we want is for our players to give everything on the pitch, and to be good at what they are paid to do, with reasonable consistency. After all, the mighty Mr Shearer didn't score every week, did he? But we always knew we would get a shift from him, regardless of the opposition. Anyway, I suppose the upshot is we are beginning to now have options where there were none, which moves us a lot further on than many had anticipated for this season (including me)! I'm not getting optimistic and misty-eyed yet though, as it is a long hard slog in this league, and some of our new recruits are in for a nasty shock! On that front, what the actual fook is going on with the Yuki-bashing this season? Refs seem to think it is ok to have open-season on him, including (on Saturday) getting kicked in the chest without there being the slightest chance of a foul being awarded. VI needs to school him in the dark arts and get some of these cynical cloggers called to account for their bully-boy tactics with our Oriental maestro (maestroes now, I guess). Watching on with interest... COYB!

Oh they know, it just costs money to have a proper squad.

It's the life under Venkys in the sense that they've changed tack again: under Mowbray it was 'slow down and let's build sustainably' (spunking £14m on Gallagher, Armstrong and Brereton-Diaz!) - until the taps were turned off and Tony left in a huff under JDT it was a 'project' around a style of play and building through the Academy - until we sold A. Wharton from under him, the taps were turned off again and JDT paid to get get out of his contract under Eustace it was 'cobble together a squad of freebies and loans' - until they refused to tie down the core of his squad, lumbered him with a crap, panicked January transfer window and Eustace jumped ship to a relegation threatened Derby That's three different directions in four years. That is the problem (on the playing side - obviously off the pitch we're a mess). We're changing tack again (one I actually quite like - similar to how I though the JDT project would work). Whether it works or not, at least there's a plan - young, athletic players that we own. Yes it's resulted in us slashing the wage budget, again, and it's seen the core of a squad that finished 7th walk out the door (or perhaps more excitingly, get sold), but at least you can see the method to the madness.

Here’s my take… Comparing Eustace and Ismael is irrelevant. Theres arguments both sides, but under our currebt regime, and the focus on scouting lower European leagues for diamonds in the rough. Then developing them on a fraction of the wage of their English counterparts and no doubts selling them for a profit where possible. - It’s Ismael over Eustace every single time. The player downgrade argument is also moot, because a) we don’t actually know if these players are better than what we had, because we haven’t seen enough of them. And b) either way, the manager wants a different type of player. Eg Baradji and Tavares are completely different to Trav and Bucko, so we’re not comparing apples with apples. All we can do is see who we finish up with, get down to the matches and make our own mind up. Right?

If you tried to pull out of a challenge and still raked down his legs like that then you are not in control of the challenge.

Nailing my own colours to the mast, I think Eustace's obvious man management and preparation skills would have had us in the play offs, had he only been backed. I think Rudy, Suhail et al wanted him out because he wasn't "aligned". Now doesn't that word do a lot of heavy lifting?!!!

Newcastle deserved a lot of credit for the way they never gave up last night..very good game.

He played a game for Yverdon, yes, then if I understand rightly he missed the rest before he left. Possibly a case of putting him in a game to prove he could play, then when that didn't get a sale over the line they either gave him the operation or rested him in case he worsened the injury before the sale. It's still all a bit of a mystery though and we do know for a fact there was an issue with his medical the first time. The club needs to explain things since they've gone on to sign him anyway.

The same as last year, the year before and so on then. Maybe one day they’ll learn, then again maybe they don’t want to.

30?! Absolutely past it. He should sign a new contract and settle down in Lancashire...