West Bromwich Albion are Founder Members of the Football League, they’ve spent around 80 seasons as a top flight club (10 seasons more than us), they’ve also won numerous trophies. They are a historical football club of similar ilk to Blackburn Rovers... oh and they are in the Premier League. Some serious football illiteracy if you think West Brom are a ‘nothing club’.

I don't want to be known as ITK. However, my good friend who has strong links at Wigan believes the deal with Kipre is pretty much a done deal with us. I hope he's right.

Anyone remember these books as a kid?

Can I have 12 bottles of bleach please?

Pity the hoped Hummel deal isn't in effect this year... Coventry City away is a beaut....

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11706/12057091/eberechi-eze-crystal-palace-sign-forward-from-qpr Palace sign QPR forward for £20m. He scored 14 goals for QPR last year in 46 games. Not sure of his age or exact position but surely Armstrong would be worth more than the £10m that's been banded around going off that..

Not much to moan about, a prem side has come in and offered him double what we have, that combined with premier league football he’s not going to turn down. I’ve seen Rovers fans on Twitter questioning why he’d go there instead of here, like seriously it’s not even a debate, plus if I was Kipre I’d more than fancy my chances of taking Kyle bloody Bartley’s place in the side!

Everybody with parachute payments for a start.

Naby Sarr might be ok as the "second" option but I wouldnt want him as first choice. Certainly not the answer defensively for all of his composure on the ball. And seemingly looked at fondly at Charlton more from a cult hero perspective, not because of his defensive ability. He was often not selected when Charlton played a back 2 in favour of Pearce. Dont get all of the bitterness towards Kipre either, very much looking at the situation through blue and white tinted glasses. Firstly, he is not going "to sit on the bench" if he does join West Brom, he is certainly not noticeably inferior to any of the 3 CB's West Brom have and theres no reason at all to assume that he would be 4th choice behind Hegazi, Bartley and Ajayi. Also, Premier League football and twice the wage, 99% of us would take that option, no matter what we say. Wanting more money is for some reason seen in footballing terms as disgusting, which I dont get. Also, he may never get the chance to become a Premier League footballer again. I presume that whoever comes to be our second choice keeper will not be greeted with the same criticism!

That's a seriously prickish way to pose for your first club photo.

It sounds to me like Cedric's agent has done us like a Kipre. Time for Bennett to unfollow him on Instagram....

Makes me laugh how people seem to think these deals are easy, Say Kipre wants the same wage as the likes of Dack? Will put him above some of our better performers, Then comes the knock on effect, unhappy players wanting better terms, This eats away at our budget till we won't have one, Jobs harder than what people think

Not sure why people seem so convinced that Kipre will be stuck on the bench at WBA, although if he takes the attitude that his is going to be, then he will. But I suspect he will look at West Brom's centre back options and think that with his ability there is no reason why he can't dislodge them

I don't understand this argument. How is getting paid substantially more to do your job "all that's wrong with modern football"? People need to realise, it's a job. A job I might add with a very short shelf life. Earn what you can and get out. Why would anyone begrudge someone earning double possibly triple what we could pay them? Whether he plays much or not is totally irrelevant.

WBA essentially offering double the wages Rovers are able to offer so Kipré can sit on the bench calling himself a Premier League footballer and looks like the lad is going to to for it. Shows all that is wrong with a modern day footballer.

For less than a million if WBA really wanted him they could have signed him weeks ago.

Not in defence. Heard he's leaky at the back these days after all those years with Hayley.

Ever since we became a Championship side, it should never be a surprise that we lose out on signings to a Premier League team. If Solihull Motors were suddenly plonked into the Prem, they'd likely be able to beat us to Kipre too. It's got nothing to do with who is the more prestigious institution, and everything to do with who has more money and plays in the top flight right now.

Kipre was on the bench a lot earlier in the season when Mulgrew was on loan there and starting. He must be rubbish. That's what I'm telling myself now it looks like he's not coming anyway. Softens the blow somewhat.

Bit unfair to knock the lad for doubling his wages and playing in the Prem. I'd look at Ajayi and Bartley and think, I can take one of their spots....

That's probably a bit harsh on Rovers. They probably could afford his personal terms when he was just coming from Wigan. They probably can't afford his personal terms now a Premier League club is sniffing with money to burn.

Beware Twitter accounts claiming to be in the know! ?

He blocked me years ago, suspect his block list is rather extensive. For an older chap he behaves like a petulant child and his followers must mainly be naive youngsters.

We get transfer pots of 7 then 5 million, we've been paying million pound loan fees. Signing short term older players on 20k pwk and have about a dozen on 10 to 15k pwk which is on or above the average champ wage if that graph is to be believed. Please don't tell me we can't compete with 2 thirds of this league on the park at least. We bloody well should be able to this seems to be replacing FFP as the go to excuse now. Yes we aren't going to outpay a Prem sde but not many are. Plenty other good players in the world.

Or Johnny Lenrose, as my dad was convinced he was called.

He may well be forthright in interviews and ‘one of the lads’ in the dressing room, unfortunately he’s been a ‘delicate little flower’ on the pitch thus far,

If he doesn't push a story, the LET get crucified for not reporting when is happening and get labelled as unknowledgeable or under the club's control. Publish and it's a case they're advertising so another club gets the player or its pushing a player out. They can't win. I'm sure Kipre's agent alerted other clubs before the LET put the article out.

I wouldn't pay any attention to the values on Transfermrkt. I'm sure they've got Lenihan as being worth 1.4m and Armstrong well under 4m.

Do you really believe an article in the Lancashire evening telegraph stating we were close to Kipre's signing pushed West Brom into a move? It's been no secret anyone at Wigan is available for bargain prices.

Other teams in the division sell their players. Mowbray hasn't had to sell. We operate a strict wages policy, so it's not that we can't compete, but that we won't. It would increase the losses.We could match West Brom's wage offer to Kipre. Some policies are meant to be broken for the right player. Of all Kipre's prospective centre back partners, who is the best? I'd go with Lenihan. Derby County are unique. They sell their ground for twice its book value.Then they sell it again, this time on a lease back. Their owner must have slipped the football team the ground back, whilst no one was looking. Brentford's money ball approach only works as long as suitable replacements for players that are to be sold can be sourced.That isn't the case this year. To add to @Ewood Ace's list: Bristol City, Reading, Middlesborough, Huddersfield, Cardiff, Swansea, Barnsley, Stoke, Brentford (I note Ewood Ace has already added to his list in other posts) Forest, Watford, Norwich, Bournemouth, Derby, Forest's owner has issues hanging over him from Greece. Watford probably need to sell before deciding whether to use transfer money on wages.Bournemouth have sold and could use that money to bring in players. Norwich looks to have brought in all the players they want and so are unlikely to be competing with us for players. There has to be a limit to the number of times Derby can sell its ground to cover wages.

Unfortunately in our position with finances, we are a move behind getting the likes of kipre. We should’ve been getting him from Motherwell, not 2 years later when he is an established good quality champ centre back with prospect of going higher. We can’t compete with the top half of the champ/bottom half of the prem so we need to box more clever. Our recruitment team is currently pretty poor imo as the goalkeeping saga shows

But you criticised Bauer for going to play where he was guaranteed to be a starter rather than fighting for a place at Rovers.

This lad isn't going to go to West Brom believing he is going to be on the bench all season, even if everyone else does. Its a chance, maybe the only chance he will have in his career to try and make it as a Premier league footballer. No one can sit here and expect him to pass this opportunity up.

Bell isn't great by all means, but we have gone on good runs with him in the team. For me priority has to be CB. Wharton and Carter have about 4 Championship starts between them. Carter didn't look ready and wasn't Wharton at fault for Blackpool's goal? Not saying that should be used to determine he isn't ready but personally I'd feel far more comfortable with someone next to Lenihan with similar experience.

RecOVERite Rover in the name!

i`ll reserve my judgement till he`s performed consistently in a real matches against determined opponents,for seven million quid i expect the real deal tbh,everything i`ve seen from him so far has been extremely pathetic

You do and then regurgitate them on here

It didn't get me excited. I'm saving that for when we actually part with the pounds and not pre publicise it in detail to anyone that may be remotely interested in the same player. Odd that as we had somehow cultivated a history as a club of keeping quiet whilst never actually doing so.

Wycombe, Luton, Rotherham, Barnsley, Preston, Millwall, Coventry, Birmingham, QPR, Sheffield Wednesday. There's 10 that we can compete with just of the top of my head.

Liking that shade of Blue!

These were supposedly the average salaries by club in the Championship in 2018/19. No surprises that Villa and Norwich got promoted looking at that - but Sheffield United massively over-achieved. No surprises who got relegated as well with Rotherham, Bolton and Ipswich amongst the lowest. Brentford and Sheffield United prove you can compete with a lower wage budget, but as a general rule of thumb, the more you pay out in wages, the higher up the league you will finish. 15 clubs paid higher average wages than Rovers.

Did she take down your particulars and fine you for being in possession of swollen goods?

Interesting interview with Brereton in the Telegraph today https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18682460.brereton-looks-back-forward-two-years-rovers/ Doesn’t really come across as the quiet, unassuming, delicate little flower a lot of people like to paint him as. He seems confident, enjoys being here, is mates with everyone, and slightly worryingly, thinks he is doing well. All this talk of him being a confidence player, I really don’t get. I think he needs telling that he’s approaching last chance saloon and we need infinitely more than we’ve seen from him thus far, and quickly.

Come on Chaddy, stop being naive. You are insinuating Kipre is all about money and will be content to sit on the bench. It's a wonderful opportunity for the lad to stake a claim at WBA to become a regular PL player and earn some big money. Why on earth should he not do it after he's shown he's a very capable Championship defender. If you are saying this lad isn't good enough for the PL then, IMO, Lenihan certainly isn't - I'd take Kipre over Lenihan every day of the week, he's a 'real' defender.

Let's not make up stuff about finances to soften the blow of missing out. Nobody knows what WBA are offering or how that compares to Rovers. Obviously they can and probably will be offering substantially more. We don't know if that is 'double' what Rovers are offering. West Brom are run by businessmen and I very much doubt will simply chuck double your money at a Championship player. Just like they could have gone in weeks ago with £2 million for Kipre and got the deal done early but have waited. We had similar stuff last year with Bauer and the frankly ludicrous suggestions that he was demanding £40k a week to move here. That was absolute drivel fed to try and make people feel better about a missed target and not getting a proper defender on a contract yet many accepted it as the truth. He later turned up at PNE. I just hope that the alternative isn't another last gasp loan deal. Season starts tomorrow and no defensive reinforcements yet.

I think the situation has changed rather than Sharpe backtracking. I read it as yesterday we were in a good position but since then WBA have moved quickly and been able to offer prem football and a higher wage. Move on to the next target.

Agent trying to drive up wages offer from other interested parties probably.

The thing is Kipre the footballer holds the key ... if he wants to come to Rovers then there’s nothing the agent can do ... I find it amazing that a player of his calibre and with that price tag is still unsigned by any championship club never mind the PL The likes of Swansea going for Williams when this guys on the market shelf .. Astonishing....

I liked Emerton. He really suffered with confidence but Sparky converted him to a right back and he was class. A great pro. A great guy.