Doubles a very different game than singles. England lose to Germany in the last 16 of the World Cup and Littler has a very quick handshake and gets off stage in a bit of a huff. Crowd may have got to him, but he needs to remember how the crowd have been against his opponent early in his career when he was a novelty (see Fallon Sherrock). Needs to learn how to lose.

There’s loads of other sites that say the same thing , but here is one. https://www.sportbible.com/football/what-is-pre-contract-agreement-transfer-deadline-day-923365-20230130

You’ve posted the regulation that says the player shall be free to seek registration with any club of his choice at the expiry of his current contract. Which is correct. But you can sign a pre-contract agreement with another club. Plymouth wanted to keep Ennis and offered him a contract, but he rejected it to move to Ewood. He signed a pre-contract with Rovers and Rovers announced it. His registration moved to Rovers on the 1/7/23 For overseas transfers you can sign a pre-contract with 6 months left. For UK to UK transfers it’s within the final month of their contract. If Derby had agreed with Batth and it was signed off they could announce it.

Don’t think so. He can just sign a pre-contract agreement at Rovers. Nothing Plymouth could do about it.

Plymouth wanted to keep Ennis. He rejected a contract offer to sign for Rovers. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65730082 You can sign a pre-contract agreement earlier, but the registration doesn’t officially change until the end of the current contract.

Imagine Wharton pinging balls through a year older. But it wouldn’t have happened as the club wanted to sell him, just as they wanted to sell Szmodics. Therefore I’d have said it to whoever objected and said to me whatever Bohinen1983 said. Let’s not pretend we were hopeful he would stay. As a club you can’t try and flog a player and then moan if he doesn’t want to get injured in pre-season to ensure said move happen. Another quote from Szmodics “Blackburn wanted to sell me for as much as possible.”

“I was still training, sometimes with the team and sometimes on my own, but I was going in and being professional.”

And then I'd have said "Fuck it then I'll stay and you can get Venkys to send the £11 million over you need, and also stick another £11 million in their matched bond. Don't forget you want me gone just like you wanted Adam gone earlier in the season - to actually fund the club. The fact is you are hanging on for a bit extra money but there's no chance you are going to keep me. And I actually do want to go to the Premier League but if I get injured in pre season it fucks me up. But as you are being a set of nobheads, I'll stick around and watch you sell everything you can to raise funds elsewhere. Without that £11 million you will be that skint you will probably end up doing something really drastic and embarrassing to save funds - like making the entire women's team redundant."

Maybe having seen the circumstances around Eustace’s exit, and the clubs hierarchy refusing to even discuss contracts with established senior pro’s, Batth simply thinks “fuck that”.

Szmodics didn’t want to play in pre-season games. He went and discussed it with his manager who was fine with it , hence the quote "I went to see him and said listen, I don't want to disrespect the staff, the players, but I don't want to take any part in the preseason games and he said that's absolutely fine, I'll protect you and I'll help you with whatever you want. Therefore he refused to play in pre-season games but played in the first competitive games he encountered. Let’s remember that the club were probably active.y trying to sell him, but squeeze every last penny they could because we were skint. Also I’m not sure why people are suddenly bothered about this today as he told us all this when he left in September 2024. Rudy meanwhile refused to play in the middle of January whilst we were just 6 points from the play offs. We ultimately drew at 23rd placed Wigan in the game he missed. We weren’t desperate sellers as we didn’t sell him until the summer. Very different scenarios for me.

Good performance and a good watch but not sure we should get carried away yet. Ian and Scott dominated but Brighton were shocking. As bad a team as we will play all season. Still, If we can do it again in the next round then I’ll start to believe.

After being unemployed for 11 months, Ismael will align on anything Suhail and Rudy say.

If he was French and Rudy’s mate he’d be getting his two years. I still think it’s under-discussed that we gave Ismael, a manager on the scrap heap, a longer contract in 3.5 years than Mowbray, JDT or Eustace when they were brought in on. This at a time when money is completely dried up.

Dion Sanderson

You beat me to it. In April, focus might have switched a bit to Europe, but they were in the bottom third of the league already by then. There’s very little evidence to back up that they gave up on the league.

To be fair he’s played 84 times in the Belgian top flight and he’s 23 so he can’t be passed off as ‘one for the future’. It worries me that he started the season as a starter for Kortrijk but from February on was getting subbed a lot and by the time of the 6-game relegation play-offs had been benched. So it’s not like he was one of their better or more trusted players during their relegation season.

Dolan and Hedges are 79, which tells you all you need to know.

https://x.com/HancockAnalysis/status/1860771068153049593?s=19 There's a chance.

If we don’t lose anyone under contract we will be ok. I don’t mean comfortably, it might be nervy, but I think we would have enough to stop up. If, for example, Travis and Brittain left I think we would have major problems,

I’d say there will certainly be a percentage of rovers fans who would either renew or purchase based on Rovers making exciting signings. Do you disagree?

The likes of Tronstadt , Hyam , Pickering, Cantwell and Ohashi will probably see us safe. The season after will be horrendous.

The club puts stories out to encourage fans to buy season tickets and stay invested. The likes of Jackson and Nixon peddle them to the fan base and some people lap it up. Nothing new. Of course we will bring new players in, but if there's a significant fee or other comparable interested parties we will lose out and not get them. I'd be surprised if any of the main players sign a new contract. If we can't get Baath and Weimann back in it tells it's own story. Reading between the lines with the player liaison lass that got let go, that was the final straw between some players and the clubs chiefs. Unless the recruitment team can pull some absolute gems out, next season is stagnation and the season after could be one of the biggest shitshows we've seen yet under Venkys.

In your context the customer is told "The price is £xxx" but pay for it now and you get a percentage off. Therefore it's all transparent. In Rovers case (and other football clubs), it feels like you are told "The price is £xxx, and it will go up by an as-yet undisclosed amount in so many days time. They clearly had no definite plan other than see how many we sell in phase 1 and that will make them decide how much to put them up by.