TugaysMarlboro

Really poor showing by the owners (no surprise) especially as they never refuse to sign a cheque. You only have to look back to last summer, when the club let 10 players leave at the end of their contracts — including that season’s top scorer and Player of the Season. Since then, they've effectively chosen to pay the remaining players the UK minimum wage (which, if memory serves, increased this April and likely factors into the situation). There are also claims that this pay didn't even cover travel expenses for away fixtures. To compound these issues, we then heard about the petty restrictions allegedly imposed at the training centre, reports about players being prohibited from using basic amenities like coffee machines. These weren't just whispers either, some of the very players who have since left the club corroborated these claims. For anyone who thinks this issue only concerns the women's team, just watch the podcast with Elliott Bennett and see how he was treated toward the end of his time at the club. It shows that this is simply how the club operates now.

"as the fans requested, we have extended players contracts"

I wouldn't be surprised if Dolan goes abroad. I've thought that English clubs may hold off picking him up knowing there'll be a fee, but not knowing what that fee is. The compensation could be more than a club would have been willing to pay for him if he was under contract. If he was an option for a PL club, it's peanuts. But I can't envisage that or any of the clubs dropping down to the Champ next season wanting him - which leaves a small selection of clubs who like us, aren't swimming in cash.

Remarkable isn't it? Gestede has come out and said that the transfer budget is the transfer budget, fees received don't move the needle. Some people just don't want to accept it.

I quite like that Alli at Luton. He only arrived in January and has mainly been a sub until starting their last 6 games where he's scored 4.

Wasn't expecting 7 changes from Wilder. Still a strong team but I'm hoping that many changes numbs their fluidity.

So 35m over 3 years, yet the narrative is they pump in 20m per year, so we're missing 25m somewhere. Which magically adds up to the Szmodics + Wharton fees received. Who would've thought it eh.

"Then the penny dropped, it clicked, what was actually said, and the context behind it." Followed by Yasir not saying what was actually said or the context behind it.

I actually agree with your original number of needing 9 players (8 with Ribiero extending). We've seen that we run out of steam as always towards the final 3rd of the campaign and we've less academy prospects able to adequately step up for an extended period with the necessary quality imo.

Out of interest, for those who have now reluctantly renewed over the past week or so. Is there a future line in the sand you won't pass with regards to renewing next season?

You have to pay £20 to go and get it yourself? Scandalous.

I don't follow the academy very much but I noticed a lot of the younger lads getting short term deals across the leagues this season, has there been more than previous seasons? None of them have seemingly turned up many trees and look capable of making the step up next year at present.

It would be very Rovers of us to let Dolan go on a free, spend a decent fee on a replacement - only to let them leave 3 years later for nothing.

Doesn't that worry you Chaddy? If your wage was the same now as it was back in 2019, would you be happy with that? Looking at it wider, if we have the same wage bill now as 2019 then that indicates one of 2 things to me: 1. We've replaced senior players from the 2019 era with players who will be happy to take very similar terms to what the previous players were on. Which considering a 6 year difference likely means the new players are of inferior quality. 2. Senior players have had wage rises, but we've reduced the overall number of "senior players" and increased the number of academy players in the first team, who are naturally on less money and thus the cost balances out when taking the whole squad into consideration. Either way, if they're cutting costs or keeping costs the same, we will only go backwards.

Glad to see it's not just myself being bombarded with emails from Rovers. It got that tiresome earlier this week that I unsubscribed.

With Windings as the font used.

From the article: Danny Batth, Adam Forshaw and Andi Weimann are the three senior players out of contract this summer, as well as Tyrhys Dolan, though his situation differs. Genuine question here, can anyone explain why his situation in particular, differs to the other 3? Is it that he's got a contract offer?

Is his agent the one that hosts the "I Had Trials Once" podcast? Used to play for Salford in the very early days when Neville and co bought it?

I think we will leave our communication there.

You can see the problem here right? You use rumour as a statement and it's fine. Someone else does the same, but with a different viewpoint to your own, and all of a sudden "no-one knows for sure".

He also wanted a new contract with some spending guarantees (rightly earned I think) and contracts for the players who had got him 6th, both denied.

You have mentioned this a few times now. That £4.5m does not include the Raya sell-on fee we received, which is anywhere between £4.5m and £6m. We only spent £4.5m after selling upwards of £11m in the summer alone. Who do we have that makes £11m so we can spend £4-5m?

The wife wanted trash TV tonight, she's letting me keep this game on if I want.

Firstly, I don't think partly quoting a sentence from Pasha as the gospel truth is a wise thing when trying to backup your argument, especially when one of those signings came in at the end of January and the other seemingly can't dislodge Pears as number 1 (a position we both agree, should be number 1 priority in the summer). Secondly, you have said we need 10 new players next season, i'll assume that does not include replacements of any other potential losses who we haven't had this season (such as if Markanday or Garrett leave on a perm or loan again). Do you think obtaining the number of players we need at the right level, can be obtained with the small amount of money you've mentioned?

The only heads I want to roll are those on bank notes, sliding across a table from a suitable buyer to Venkys.