Steve Cooper "It won't take a genius to work out what has happened. I hope some questions are getting asked over there in Lancashire." Not myself being a genius I can't work out where Cooper is going with that comment, it leaves avenues open. GB has promised full disclosure.

We have, allegedly, for several seasons been looking to sign new strikers. That is for a reason. The ones we have are not considered, by our recruitment team, DoF and manager, good enough for the Championship, at least currently. Until we learn how to press "send" on a laptop we will have to play the cards we have, even if they are all Jokers.

Play the strongest possible side, attack with intensity from the start. We are at home to a crap side bottom of the league and a win puts us back in a playoff spot.

In the ongoing wake of this debacle I have actually warmed to JDT. In his latest interview he is angry and struggles to keep that in check and correctly once again distances himself from the shenanigans of deadline day. GB on the other hand is a huge disappointment. I have no idea how culpable he is in the O'Brien and Brierly failures but his inability to find a striker in 2 windows is poor in the extreme. The signing of Hirst last summer will haunt him for a long time and in this window just Thomas, a good player who was hawked around all Championship clubs by his parent club. Recruitment didn't even have to fire up their laptops to find him. However what can we really expect from an academy manager/director from a far north league learning on the job how to be a DoF at Championship level exacerbated by it happening at a Circus run by a CEO Mike Lindell lookalike. I don't accept his recent post window coverup interview that was scripted and full of misdirection. I hope he is a man if his word and will reveal all once the appeal is lost on Tuesday. Meanwhile I await news today of what our leaders have leaked to a certain journo.

That's all I don't agree with. We have tosspots very competent at following instructions.

I reckon anyone working in vice is doing such a good job that a promotion is more likely than becoming bus fodder.😯

They are in and will remain in limbo until FG exit or bring other investors in. FG alone will not invest sufficient to compete with MU, NU and Chelsea. Arsenal are just run and managed better. I totally agree on the comments on Mane, Salah and TAA. Salah is missing Mane the most although I doubt Salah would admit that. Klopp gave a brutally honest opinion post match.

I keep going back to read Cooper's comments. Cooper said: “It wasn’t us, that’s for sure .... It won’t take a genius to work out what’s happened" GB has promised full disclosure of all internal and alleged external factors that scuttled the deal once the current appeal verdict is known. We shall see ..... Not long to wait.

Its in RoversTV on the club website and so is the one by JDT where he is not best pleased.

No idea. Wasn't it on deadline day that we were rumoured to be "assessing" 3 different strikers? Works of fiction.

I still think the deal sheet principle applies to the EFL too. It's all processes online. See 44.5 onwards https://www.efl.com/-more/governance/efl-rules--regulations/efl-regulations/section-6---players/

O'Brien only went to Forest in the summer 2022 window. He has not been their best midfielder in recent seasons. He wasn't even there! Maybe Greg can do a cover up for that gaff 😏 Ok, so now having listened to the full episode let me just say it is first class and well worth a listen. My view may be biased as I found myself agreeing with most of the opinions expressed. Good work.

Throughout this debacle I have been struggling with Rovers going into a deal with wages at 45k++ and a commitment to pay 10 million if promotion is achieved, for a player obviously deemed not of PL level by Forest. We failed throughout the window to sign a striker, even as intimated by GB on the final day of the window, to make a promotion push more viable. The cynic in me thinks this, LOB, was a deal to miss.

With it being a late transfer did Rovers use the "deal sheet" approach or try and rush everything through before 11pm. The deal sheet would have provided a further 2 hours in which to submit all other requirements The deal sheet is a simple form which even the likes of Sylvester could fill in.

The errors on forms points more and more in the direction of Sylvester SEM, who, presumably, signed them off.

A dropped "e" ..., Flashbacks to the pre word processor age, you have to be of a certain age to know what they were, when I had a secretary who often misspelt "now" as "not" as in "would you please now not complete sign and return" Otherwise a nice lady who made a great coffee, just meant I employed a proof reader too.

I have to say that I have found Nixon's detailed info on this debacle useful, he seems to have an insider source again ..... Or he's just talking shite which is more than possible.

Yes, I think you're right. It's quite unusual for me to be looking for reasons to save the fuckwits of Ewood. It feels quite weird.

If those are the reasons for registration rejection then a competent lawyer will bury the EFL. Problem being is that the EFL are a law unto themselves with no accountability to anyone. In front of a jury of our peers we would win.

Yes, and quite right to.

I can see that. A low life individual representing a whole family of low lifes.

Page 302 of this thread has a copy of Nixon's patreon post that gives a timeline and includes that Rovers had agreed to cover full wages in the loan part of the deal. That's full PL wages .... no mention of any loan fee. So, if Nixon and a Google search are correct, we agreed to pay wages of £65k per week as a skint Championship club when also failing to get a proven goal scorer ... I am in need of some suspension of disbelief.

It was 20 minutes for me, but I was a lot younger then...

I just did a Google. It shows him on 65k per week...... I think I'll wait for confirmation that the proposed deal included us paying the full wages before commenting more on that .......... Maybe Alan Nixon will know.

If the O'Brien deal had gone ahead were Rovers covering his full Forest PL level wages? I have it in mind that I read that somewhere but it may just be hallucitory due to sleep deprivation.