It does seem like the endgame is approaching fast in regards to JDT's tenure with us. If he's been blocked from speaking to the press then he is clearly absolutely furious. It's hard to come up with any other plausible explanation. This means he clearly doesn't rate the business we've done. With that being the case it'd be pretty awkward for him to coach the side going forward, you'd think. I just don't see how this ends well.

Or as he was otherwise known, the Brazilian Denis Irwin.

I genuinely cannot see us spending £5m on a single player right now - but even if we did, would that be a smart move if we do only have £12m to play with over two seasons? Wages taken into account you'd be looking at half of our two year budget essentially spent on one player. If we already had a strong squad then you'd say yeah, that's okay, but we'll need a major rebuild in the summer. All moot in the end anyway, as whether Venky's can fund the club by the summer or not I don't think it's likely we'll see that kind of money spent. Most likely legalities will still be ongoing and I don't see Venky's giving the green light for any major spending until that concludes.

The site is pretty much always calm save for a few brief spikes here and there. Anyone who thinks this place is some cauldron of extreme negativity should try visiting literally any other football forum save for RAWK.

You say this every time you leave and then end up coming back, venting and departing again for a few months. If it's getting you this wound up I would just sack it off entirely. Pessimistic/realistic view aligning with general direction of the club is obviously not the same as 'every extreme negative comment posted is true'.

Considering the club has in many respects been in consistent decline for the past 13 years, and has at best stagnated in other areas, I'm not really sure how the supposed 'extreme negativity' or pessimism of the wider forum is asynchronous with reality. I can understand wanting to take positives and if you'd rather focus on that then the bigger picture then sure, go for it, but I struggle to understand the need to have outbursts against a supposedly negative outlook that has ultimately been almost always proven right for over a decade.

Presumably Venky's having no idea if they'll be able to fund the club by then and limiting any future additional costs. Wharton money assumedly carries us until then.

Had responded to you saying it isn't confirmed yet, but hadn't seen the twitter update... Problem with those three as a forward lineup is that Gallagher is injury prone lately, Telalovic may not be at the required level and McGuire is a young lad moving to a new country having not played at a level beyond the MLS at this point. I'd keep Leonard personally. If Gallagher gets injured again I think he'll be needed.

We've just sold Wharton for £18m rising to £22m and been told we can't spend a penny on transfer fees. To be honest I doubt selling Gallagher for £1m - 1.5m (the ballpark figure Ipswich were reportedly offering) would have made any difference. Just more cash for the running costs whilst we continue to bring in loans and freebies. As much as I can't believe I'm saying this, I'd rather have Gallagher here.

Thanks, it's good to hear that his recovery is ahead of schedule. Just hope we don't rush him back out of desperation and end up causing him further problems.

That's been known about for some time though - so again, why would GB think he could spend a decent chunk on McGuire, presumably as a result of the Wharton sale? Is there literally no communication between our DOF and those above him until the very last second, when a deal has already been made? We've also spent £500k on this Crewe lad and reportedly at least £500k on a loan fee for McGuire, likely instalment based for the Crewe lad at least, but still... some money is there - but seemingly the majority of it can only be spent on players who won't be with us beyond the current season. Nothing good to be concluded from that. Mid-feb return to the first team, or training? Didn't see that interview.

Is Buckley back soon? When is his estimated return? I only know that he had surgery on his shoulder somewhat recently, so assumed he wouldn't be back until around April at best.

Strange in of itself, because if the Wharton money was going towards running costs anyway, why did Broughton think he could spend £2m+ on a striker? Why are we seeing a repeat of the summer where a list is drawn up only to be ripped up by Venky's seemingly without our DoF having any clue that it was going to happen? We're totally dysfunctional and it's being laid bare for the third transfer window in a row.

Doesn't surprise me at all, honestly.

If we're still in the Championship, prepare for relegation. If we're in League 1... probably the same.

Maybe he's been getting tips from old Bucko on how to become our new midfield maestro.

Shebby's Portuguese no-hopers have to be up there as well. Fabio Nunes was here for 2 years and made seven appearances, Paulo Jorge was here for 3 years and made two appearances, and Edinho Junior was here for 2 years and made a single appearance.

Probably a small fee in the low-to-mid hundreds of thousands. I think if they pay enough to cover Ennis' wages and signing on fees - which presumably weren't extortionate - then we'll take it. Seems obvious JDT does not rate him in the slightest and whilst it technically leaves us another man down, the fact is Ennis has - according to Transfermarkt - played a grand total of 338 minutes for us in the league and contributed nothing of note, so tough to say he'd be missed. Assuming McGuire comes in (big if) then we'd have him, Gallagher, Leonard, Dolan and Szmodics as forward options which is probably enough. Scoring goals hasn't been our problem, keeping them out has been the issue.

Unfortunately this was exactly what was said in 2016/17, and they never showed the smallest interest in leaving. I genuinely don't think relegation would make any difference insofar as Venky's deciding to stay or go.

Do they realise we can only have five loan players in the match day squad?

Wouldn't help with our owners. We need to abolish their ownership to have any chance of moving forward.

Well, he did basically nothing for us, barely played and whatever fee we get will at best recoup the wages we've paid him over the past few months and any signing on fee for him and his agent on arrival so... pretty shit by my estimate.

Sounds like O'Brien part 2. I guess we'll see if anyone at Rovers learned anything from last year.

There have been times when he's been out of the team with no obvious news on him being injured, so it's possible for at least some portions of his time here it's been less about injury and more that the manager doesn't rate him, doesn't think he's fit enough or a combo of the two meaning he doesn't fit the way we play. It's possible reuniting with Schumacher will sort him out, and if so then he has upside as an attacker. Simply put, it's tough for any of us to give any serious insight on him as we've rarely seen him play for us.

From what we were hearing yesterday they were relying on his departure to bring in some other fella, but maybe $700k and his wages off the books is enough for them to get that deal done and then revisit selling him in the summer assuming we don't make the deal permanent.