To be fair, I agree. If no bids have been accepted then this should have stayed in house. O’Rourke broke the news regarding the bid so wide of the mark from him.

Interesting to hear how all this will be Waggott/Mowbray/Venky’s fault.

FFP vs parachute payments. It’s a two tier league. Bournemouth will be in trouble if they don’t get up this season however.

Obviously the money side is all guesswork but it sounds like he asked not to play against Luton so I think we’re already at the stage where his commitment can be called into question. I don’t know how we can have him back now, the bridges are burned. I just can’t see how we’re going to find two decent replacements in 24 hours.

Rothwell has chosen this moment to down tools, not us. There is no good outcome here, but this is all on Rothwell.

Do you honestly want Rothwell anywhere near this club right now??! Mowbray wants him out because his head isn’t in it. Fair enough by me.

We’ve offered him a pay rise within a new contract and he turned it down. Rothwell has chosen to force a move to a promotion rival with three days to go in the window by downing tools and refusing to play. Stop trying to absolve him of blame. He is a disgrace.

I don’t know why I bother to go over this multiple times but if Rothwell refuses to sign a new deal and is determined to leave, there’s not a lot we can do about it. We’ve not ‘done nothing’. We’ve offered him new terms and he’s rejected them. He’s now forced a move to a rival club. Could we have offered more money? None of us have any idea but that doesn’t excuse Rothwell downing tools in the middle of arguably the biggest season in recent memory, to force a move to a promotion rival.

You’re oversimplifying it to suit your narrative. It’s not Mowbray simply thinking he can find better players. It’s Rothwell refusing to play for us and forcing a move. It’s clear that Mowbray and Venkys did not want to sell Rothwell but he forced the issue. The whole saga is regrettable but Rothwell has effectively downed tools and Mowbray clearly thinks that having him around with his head elsewhere is worse than selling, even to a rival. Tomorrow is huge.

It stings having to see him go to Bournemouth and it may well see them finish above us but Rothwell sticking around the group when his head is clearly elsewhere could equally derail the season. How would he play for us now? The reaction at Ewood would be toxic. Tomorrow makes or breaks our season. A couple of suitable replacements and we might be fine.

I really hope Rothwell Odemwingie’s it and ends up standing outside the run down seaside mini golf hut that doubles as their training centre at 11pm in the rain waiting for a medical that never happens.

He’s basically refusing to play for the club. The damage is done. We either take the £3m or let him fester around the club. We’re damned either way.

Clearly Rothwell’s burnt his bridges and Mowbray would rather him gone regardless of which club he ends up at. Shocking. For all those wanting to skew this to blame Venky’s or Mowbray, Rothwell has downed tools and essentially forced us to sell to our nearest promotion rivals. There’s only one villain in this. There will be Bournemouth fans reading this thread pissing themselves and frankly so would I in their position. All I’d say is that it took us three years to get a worthwhile season out of him and he will screw you over at the first opportunity. Glad to see the back of him.

Sharpe is saying that Rothwell wants the Bournemouth move. That seals it for me. Keep him and let him rot.

The longer this goes on without updates, the less likely he goes I’d suggest. To get in 2/3 established replacements by tomorrow night is a tall order. I’ve made my peace with him going so I’m not fussed either way now - provided we get the replacements in. Intrigued to see what other business we might do. Sounds like there were a couple lined up other than Hedges before the Rothwell nonsense. One thing does seem to be clear is that there are very few leaks from the club these days. Tend not to hear about a move until it’s more or less tied up.

I disagree with the notion that we’re ‘letting’ the players contracts run down as if we’re not attempting to do something about it. Clearly Rothwell, Lenihan, BBD, Nyambe all think they can attract PL interest and have refused to sign improved contracts. Apparently we offered Armstrong the best deal we could possibly afford and he turned it down, understandably because he wanted a prem move. We don’t know the numbers involved but if the players mentioned above are determined to hold out for a big move (Rothwell’s antics this week seem to confirm that..), there’s next to nothing we can do about it. If you were in Brereton’s position, would you sign a new deal with us on any terms?? No, obviously not, he’d just be making it harder to get out in the summer. Is that our fault too? Or should we have tied him down 18 months ago when he still had 3 years left on his deal and could barely get in the team? Fans would have been furious. It’s easy to blame the club but if the players are refusing to sign new contracts, what more can we do??

I had been frustrated about the situation but then in a moment of clarity thought, it’s Joe Rothwell ffs. I doubt most fans have even heard of him outside Rovers. Bring in two or three replacements by Monday and we’ll be better off without him. Bad timing but he’s shown his true colours. Get it over with and move on.

Getting us into the PL would provide a life changing amount of money! If this is for a move to a PL team then to an extent I get it but to down tools is inexcusable. If this is for Bournemouth then I’d let him rot.

Pathetic. Demanding a move when the squad is on its knees. Get him out of the club.

I’m ignoring anything that comes out of Dorset. We won’t let him to go Bournemouth.

That’s a cheap shot. Ive missed out like most but have no issue with the club selling to ST holders first. Whatever the system, when there are only 1000 away tickets, someone is going to lose out.

I don’t think this has anything to do with Bournemouth. If he’s engineering a move it will be for a PL team not another championship side. We’d refuse to sell to Bournemouth either way.

One of the more interesting things for me is Mowbray’s quote the other day that Rothwell wasn’t going anywhere. Mowbray is usually very coy on transfers and rarely speaks definitively so it would be surprising if he leaves now. Whatever happens, I can’t see him ending up at Bournemouth this window. If the rumours are true, it must be a PL side who are interested.

Forget the name of the club, it’s the league. I can understand pushing for a PL move to an extent but this is really poor. If it is Bournemouth he’s after then he eclipses Bradley Orr in my book.

Committing to another Championship club now makes no sense regardless of the wages. I could understand it if we were midtable but not when we’re above Bournemouth in the league. He’ll get far better financial offers in the summer when he’s a free agent.