JHRover

Maybe, maybe not. Two sides to every story yet I'd tread carefully where the likes of Waggott are concerned and would certainly not jump to conclusions of the player being the one in the wrong.

Sharpe gets everything from the Club. He has no other sources. Of course his line is going to be that the manager wants him to toe.

I could have called an estate agent and agreed a fee for a million pound house earlier. That doesn't mean I have the money. I can't/won't pay it, so the deal doesn't happen and I don't get the benefit of the house. We can go around making bids for players left right and centre. Remember Assombalonga? Means nothing if we can't or won't close the deal.

That's very easy to say. Anyone can claim to have money. Spending it is the key. Familiar theme here though that despite claims of it being there for one reason or another it doesn't get spent. Still - gets some free brownie points for the owners who must not be criticised or questioned. When Rothwell's girlfriend is on social media responding to vile messages saying how people don't know the ins and outs and truth of things I suspect this is what she is referring to. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was some pushing from Mowbray/Rovers end as much as Rothwell wanting to leave at this juncture.

Even if we ignore our current league position and the need to strengthen with promotion a possibility you would expect - at a club with a plan - more business with one eye on the longer term. Hedges and Markandy OK but a quick look at the summer we have 10+ out of contract/loan. Might expect a few more with a view to plugging that considerable gap.

I think Giles will happen, they are just delaying the announcement until the last minute rather than disappointing fans with an early announcement and no more business after that.

Undecided on this one. Usually a Saturday away game is a no brainer and the team deserve the support, but have to admit the journey, cost and kick off time is testing me. My mates are going to the pub for the afternoon watching the football there. Tempted to join them and save a lot of time, money and hassle.

Its clear that they are shuffling the numbers on the wage bill to try and make room for additions. Chapman out, Butterworth out, McBride out - the sort of moves that would suggest someone coming in but I suspect are actually late attempts to free up wages to do a cheap last minute deal. Venkys have set an annual budget and that involves a strict limit on the wage bill, no pay increases and very little scope on transfer fees. Loans the order of the day to avoid any long term commitment or fee. My suspicion yesterday was that Mowbray had decided he was going to sacrifice Rothwell shipping him off to Bournemouth for a few million on the basis that cash would enable him to do business today. That move collapsing means no money in the kitty other than for Giles for Wolves which will be heavily subsidised as they will want him to play regularly with a view to progressing next season. I had wondered whether our lofty position and with a prize tantalisingly close whether there would be a change in approach but this seems to be a January like every other. Lots of talk but come deadline day little action. No prizes for trying and failing. Say it every time. I did say at the start of the window that retaining the players that had got us here was the priority and no major departures would be a success if we used our budget to resolve the contract situations. But to be here with no progress on contracts, a growing injury list, very weak bench and options at Luton and short of the business claimed to be getting done - disappointing but not surprising.

I've just explained why. If we have no more money and clearly need some reinforcements perhaps Mowbray has decided this move is worth allowing to generate funds to enable him to sign a couple. I think it is common knowledge that Mowbray and Rothwell perhaps haven't seen eye to eye in the past. Of course any manager or club employee is going to portray the player as the problem rather than themselves. I'm not saying this is or isn't the case - I was just pointing out that there are always different ways of seeing things and all we are doing on here is interpreting what has been said by others. Someone said I didn't have proof for what I was saying - of course I don't - none of us on here do.

Nobody can say anything with certainty. Everything on here is either opinion, interpretation or based on what they have been told. My interpretation, based on what I have heard and read, is that the owners and their patsy have mucked a lot of people around with mixed messages, no communication and general incompetence when it comes to contracts. Lets flip this right on its head - all the furore about Rothwell stems from Mowbray's comments to Rich Sharpe yesterday. We are assuming Mowbray is being 100 % honest there. As I've shown already today Mowbray often says things that are exaggerated or don't happen. So it might be the case that Rothwell was willing to play yesterday, and isn't pushing for a move. It might instead be the case that Mowbray wants to sell him and is driving this hoping to get the cash from his sale to fund other moves. I've learnt not to trust anyone or anything around here and whilst I'm not saying this is the case it could be. Depends on whether you take Mowbray's words as the accurate truth because we haven't had Rothwell's version of events and won't do if he leaves. It has become clear there isn't much if any money without sales, which seems very strange to me, but we have seemingly now reached a stage where the only chance of money being spent on new players is by selling him. Maybe Mowbray knows this and feels it is a sacrifice worth making to bring in the 2-3 that he needs to fill out the squad? We just don't know. Lots of speculation yet as ever people are very quick to see the player as the villain and very reluctant to look closer to home at how the club has dealt with things. I see a pattern emerging on players and it isn't a good one.

The point of course is that rival clubs will have only taken serious interest this season as he has been integral to the side storming to the top of the division. Prior to that he wasn't getting serious interest from elsewhere so will have been much easier to tie down to a new deal. Everything you say is a product of us not either selling him at a more convenient time or resolving his contractual situation. Not doing either has put us into this vulnerable position where we have few choices and no time. Could we have offered more money? Almost certainly yes - and I come back to the central issue here - it isn't just Rothwell in this position. He has come to the fore this window because of his performances this season and interest from elsewhere - but there are many others in the same/similar positions - all because the club hasn't offered enough to keep them under contract. Don't pay the money = be left wide open to predatory clubs. I think with billionaire owners funding 8 figure annual losses we should be well protected from that sort of thing but instead we seem to want to operate as an academy to develop players for others to poach when ready. No problem if that is like Armstrong - off to a PL club for substantial money - but to Bournemouth? Embarrassing is the word I'd use. I thought after trying to knock our training ground down this lot could sink no lower but flogging our best player to a Championship rival on deadline day during a promotion push I think takes it to a whole new level.

This is the crux of the issue in a couple of sentences. The shenanigans of the last 48 hours are just the outcome or product of us not having our house in order. Get our house in order = this doesn't happen. Its another 'told you so' moment from me - I've been banging the drum about contracts and the dangers of allowing them to run down for many many months - this is why - it has put the club in a vulnerable position where we exposed to predators. A player - whether that is Joe Rothwell or anyone else - wants security. If clubs are offering him good money and a long term contract and are professional in their dealings whilst we have mucked him around with derisory offers then it is obvious which way he is going to go. The club has had time and opportunity to avoid this situation - and has done nothing. And if anyone really expects Mowbray/Rovers/Venkys/Waggott to have already lined up a couple of proven quality permanent signings to replace him tomorrow I think you are going to end up disappointed. My expectation is a couple of loans and the usual spiel from Waggott about why things were all lined up but fell through.

Ok maybe - so how does that explain Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis and Kaminski who are all going the same way?

'Going towards FFP' doesn't make the money disappear. It doesn't just vanish into a hole somewhere. Presumably when people say it has gone towards FFP what they mean is that we are using that cash to run the club for a while avoiding the need for the owners to do it. therefore the money will still be there - perhaps in instalments or drips coming into the accounts - but we know it is coming and can use it for accounting for FFP on the income/expenditure sheet. But the money is there - it is real - and could be used towards new signings now if we really wanted given the position we find ourselves in.

We are supposed to forget about Armstrong and the massive fee we received for him. Gone. Forgotten. Anyone explain to me how we are going to be paying these experienced quality players to replace Rothwell when the reason Rothwell is leaving is that we can't or won't pay him more?

That's all fantastic if you measure success on a balance sheet. He's a football manager not a director and he now needs to work very hard just to keep the squad as strong as it was last week - let alone strengthen it. We've a threadbare squad and are losing one of our biggest contributors and most dangerous attacking players to the side directly below us - there is nothing fantastic about that. It is a massive blow not just to the playing squad but also the message it sends out to rival clubs, the media, our players and fans that we are open for business and there are no limits to that. I don't think Mowbray or the staff have the ability to bring in 4 players tomorrow including some permanent additions and at least one of equal quality to Rothwell. I'll hold my hands up if they do but if they don't then there is going to be carnage.

Dack and Poveda have been injured for months and we cannot plan on either contributing over the remainder of the season. Poveda should have gone back to Leeds. We've always been told that Venkys will do what is needed if we are in with a sniff of promotion. So far not much evidence of that and the clock is ticking. We can do what we like - the wage budget is self imposed. My view? Since last summer the club has had to wash its own face on contracts and transfer spending and Venkys have turned the taps off. This is why no contracts have been extended - because Waggott can't increase wages - and why spending has been at an absolute minimum - a couple of cheap deals, frees and loans - whilst selling another couple of substantial assets. I'm not saying that big spending is a guarantee of anything or that turning a profit whilst strengthening the squad is bad - far from it - just that if the owners were so interested in their 'baby' and knew it was 17 games from the PL I'd perhaps expect more than we've seen culminating in a sale of our most creative player to the side directly behind us. I just find it interesting that we've had a decade of being told Venkys will spend to get us up and yet here we are - no sign of it and incomings set to be covered by outgoings, as I predicted they would be. And I don't understand how Mowbray plans on paying these 23 and 24 year old proven quality players the wages they will want when we have been unable to pay our existing players the wages they want. Probably means it is nonsense and we will end up with another couple of kids or loans to replace him.

So it looks to be another window with a net transfer profit not requiring the owners to sanction additional funds - all our business will be covered with interest by the Rothwell fee This is relevant because I had wondered at the start of the month if we would see evidence of the owners 'going for it' this month with the prize of promotion within reach and unless something drastic happens in the next 24 hours we can safely say that hasn't happened. 3 incomings so far - a loan and two cheap deals for players out of contract at the end of the season, soon to be another multi-million sale. Whatever business is now done will be covered by the outgoings. Without trawling through Mowbray's interviews again how many incomings do we need now? I seem to remember Sharpe saying he expected 2-3 to be done and that was before the Rothwell development and then Mowbray seemed to be saying he wanted a couple of proven signings to replace him. He said last week that "permanent and loan deals are being looked at and should Rovers get deals over the line following positive talks this week, the squad would be looking strong for the final 18 games" OK so Hedges is one of those. Other lesson is to not take what Mowbray says seriously. Only this week he declared in the Telegraph that Rothwell wouldn't be leaving and that Hedges wouldn't be joining this window. Yesterday he said that the owners were adamant he wasn't being sold implying the only way he would be was if we could add two talented players in his place. Looks to me like on those numbers we should be expecting 4 to arrive yet I have no confidence it will happen. Hope I am wrong but this has 'monumental f*ck up' written all over it and could torpedo our season. I don't trust them to reinvest because they didn't reinvest after selling Rhodes, Gestede, Cairney, Armstrong, Raya. But even ignoring the Rothwell situation I don't think the business we have done so far is sufficient in view of the absences and lack of depth we have - the bench yesterday was the weakest I can remember and this is at the back end of a transfer window sitting in a position of strength.

So this would have happened had Rothwell signed a new deal and been under contract for the next 3 years?

It will be Rothwell out for a few million and then a couple of loans and if lucky another cheap buy in. Successful January for the bean counters delivering on the Venky cutbacks. Prove me wrong but anyone expecting serious business done at this late stage costing substantial cash clearly hasn't been paying attention. Also find it interesting how quickly they can get Venky approval to sell someone - almost instantaneous if the Bournemouth deal is to be believed - yet when it comes to getting things done the other way the manager can't speak to them and it takes an age to get done.

If decisions are being made for footballing reasons that would be the case. Trouble is I am not sure decisions here are made for footballing reasons, certainly not since last summer.

I'm not sure that he will. Of course Rovers fans won't be impressed but that's about all there will be to it. A few nasty social media posts or jeers when he comes to Ewood. Doubt there will be any repercussions among the players. This Venkys 'promotion bonus' will have been in his deal since the day he joined Rovers - contractually unless the players have signed new deals since the start of the season incorporating increased bonuses then they will only be due what they were entitled to when they signed their original deals. All clubs and all contracts will have promotion bonuses. Lets look at it another way. Maybe on £6,000-7,000 a week at Rovers and due to expire in the summer. Waggott probably offering him 'improved' terms of an extra £500 a week to sign a 3 year deal with an option of an extra year in the club's favour. Bournemouth offering him £16,000 a week, signing on fee and 4 year deal. £10,000 a week extra, £2 million over the life of the contract. Obviously those are just rough estimates of what we might be dealing with here but the point remains that had we gone to him with a £10,000 a week offer some time ago before this season's progress then there's a good chance it would have been signed and sealed and none of this happening. Looking beyond the finances of course there may be other issues in play - he or his partner may fancy moving to a different part of the country but more importantly here I suspect is an element of unhappiness at how Rovers have conducted themselves and behaved during the contract saga. I think something happened later last season and bridges were burned. Since then I think he has been counting down the days and playing for a move.

For what its worth I have no gripe with Rothwell. Can't really blame the lad if a Club is coming along offering him a game changing deal for him and his family. No for me the responsibility lies with Rovers who have had time and opportunity to avoid a scenario like this unfolding but either due to poor management, idiotic owners or both have allowed the clock to tick by and then have made insufficient offers too late in the day. Get used to it because the same is going to happen with the others. We signed him on a free from Oxford fresh out of League One. He isn't going to be on big money by Championship standards. Clearly whatever we have offered him isn't enough and we can see from the standoff with other players that we as a club are falling well short of the figures needed to get these deals done. In 5 months he is out of contract and unemployed. He probably only has one big move and deal left in him before he is in his 30s and thinking of a life after playing. Suitors might well be offering him 3x his current wage, a signing on fee and a 4 year deal. Imagine not being interested and then come the summer he has no contract, a serious injury and the best he can get is a shorter deal on a fraction of the money. Despite Waggott's claims of making 'improved' offers to these players I simply don't believe that they are even worth the time of day and are probably insulting to those players. The proof is in the pudding there - nobody is signing them and haven't been for months - now they will start looking elsewhere and other clubs will come a sniffing. Get your house in order and that doesn't happen. We saw with Connor Mahoney - another one criticised for leaving this Club after we had offered him a derisory deal and others were offering him much better terms - if you don't like it then make better offers. If a club is offering him substantially more than Rovers are and Rovers have mucked him around over the last 2 years (and with Waggott and Venkys at the helm who haven't they mucked around?) I can't blame him at all. The timing isn't good but that isn't his fault but the other clubs. Again if we had resolved the contract situation in good time this could be dealt with simply with a rejection. In the unique circumstances we find ourselves in a move to Bournemouth this month is simply unacceptable for so many reasons. We would be better forgoing the cash and dropping him into the reserves for 5 months than selling him to the side right behind us in the table.

I can't help but feel we supporters are being played somewhat in this unfolding situation. Mowbray's comments earlier in the week - that we had supposedly rejected bids of double what Bournemouth were offering and that we wouldn't be selling - I thought were quite strange at the time. Unusually clear and robust from Mowbray when in times gone by he will say that players won't leave unless their valuation is met and won't deal with specifics. Then a couple of days later for this to happen suggests to me that Mowbray knew what was coming and was getting his/the clubs position out there in public first before things kicked off. So then when Rothwell is left at home it seems the manager and club have had no choice, the responsibility lies entirely with the player, the club and manager have seemingly done all they can by rejecting the bids but the player/agent are causing the issues by wanting to talk to clubs. And it is working - a quick scroll through twitter this morning and most of the talk is about sell and replace, get rid, don't need a bad apple in the camp etc. etc. This is I think exactly what the club want - anger of the supporters directed away from them and towards the player/agent who will soon be off elsewhere one way or the other. That might be fine with the majority but for me I see the bigger picture. I see a club that has allowed this situation to develop by neglecting contracts for so long and squandering funds on wasteful deals and is now in a weak position with valuable players - not just Rothwell - and remember we've probably been quite lucky this window that the only serious interest seems to be in Rothwell and not the 4-5 others who will be off soon. And I'm not falling for the talk of reinvesting the money and replacing Rothwell this window - I have no faith that will happen both because we didn't reinvest any of the Armstrong cash in the summer and because I don't think they are capable of rushing deals through in 48 hours. Expect more talk of players lined up ready to sign but not enough time to get them done and we go with what we have.

Can't help but think we are in for a repeat of Januarys past. Lots of talk about multiple deals being worked on, expecting 2-3-4 arrivals, no plans to let anyone important leave and then come deadline day we get the usual Rich Sharpe tweet about tea time 'that will be it, not expecting anything else' I would hope with the rewards on offer and position we are in would change things and see us get stuff done but I'll believe it when I see it. Remember a transfer window is only a success if you actually strengthen and get better. Trying but failing to get better is not the same.