So what are you saying? That we should be afraid of Brentford or that we should be selling our players to them? Their crowds and income are smaller than ours and we will have to finish above them next season if we want to go anywhere. As it happens I wouldn't be against selling Raya, if that is what Mowbray has decided to do. I certainly think better keepers will be up for grabs this summer if we are shopping in that department with decent cash. I do however have concerns. Not about losing Raya but when I see things appearing on Sky about selling players to divisional rivals I get flashbacks of Cairney being offloaded behind the managers back at the 2 year mark of his time at the helm. I just hope if there is truth in this it isn't being done in an underhand way or Mowbray isn't being forced into it to satisfy the accounts people in India before he arrives for his meeting.

We can be sure Brentford wont be spending big on goalkeeper. Talk of 5 or 6 million is laughable.

Completely agree. Sadly I don't think the accountants do. Even though the likelihood of a major profit is surely higher with those sort of players.

Not yet he hasn't. He's been offered terms or is in discussions over a new deal and is thinking it over whilst also being free to talk to other clubs. Pen hasn't touched paper yet.

Yeah, he'd get the perks up there - closer to home, more money, a proper chairman who can make decisions when needed. The drawbacks would be that there would be more pressure and expectation and less independence for the manager. Also perhaps a few characters in the dressing room harder to handle than here. In theory Middlesbrough should be in trouble with FFp but wouldn't surprise me to see them do a Derby and attract some decent players without selling much and appoint someone like Hughton or Jokanovic and be up there next season

I'd be concentrating my efforts on finding players who know the Championship and know how to get out of it. Not enough of them in our ranks. We've done the whole thing about signing younger end lads and hoping they make the step up. For those observing Sheffield United, how many League One players did they sign last summer? They signed experienced pros who knew the level. First port of call is to go through the free agents from Premier League and Championship clubs and see who we like. Sadly we'll be towards the back of that queue because our manager and entire executive staff are spending the next week in India trying to persuade the owners who are losing 15 million a year to back them to get promotion. Then Mowbray goes on holiday. Deservedly so. But unlikely any serious offers can or will be made until he's back in June. Mowbray's stated desire to get his signings done and dusted early won't happen. Mowbray needs to have a system and stick to it and build on it. Too much chopping and changing personnel, formations and approaches last season to have the consistency required for promotion.

Interesting that as the game went to penalties two police officers intervened and appeared to inform the referee which end the penalties would be taken at, which so happened to be at Charlton's home end and not the 50/50 split stand. I wouldn't be happy in the slightest if i were involved with Doncaster.

Strange old career that lad. Seemed to be a favourite for Huddersfield as they won promotion. Then gets loaned out to Oxford down in League One before joining us. Then goes back to League One at Bradford where I've not heard or seen much of him as they got relegated. EDIT - sounds like he might be joining Barnsley now Huddersfield have released him.

Don't think Barnsley are really in the business of signing players on their last legs. They're a very clued up operation these days with their new owners and structure in place and I think will be signing players from all over the place, most of them young end. A similar recruitment policy to Brentford. Someone like Rotherham or Doncaster would be more likely for Conway.

Conway and Smallwood will be on a Championship level wedge or at least top drawer League One wages. Stanley will be paying bottom half League Two wages.

They will be going harder if their manager knows his budget and has the ability to get decisions made now rather than in 2-3 weeks time. Our manager it seems is limited to scouting and tentative discussions with potential people rather than being in a position to put money on the table and get agreements in place.

Really? So there's a 16 year old kid who is still trying to make a career for himself and is in our academy but riddled with injury issues which have prevented him from having a run in the team. Do we keep him on forever with the view that it's the right thing to do and if we let him go he will struggle to get a deal elsewhere? How many players do we do it for?

More like Sheffield Wednesday are ahead of us in the process and are in a position to crack on with negotiations whilst our senior management team don't know what the score is and have to get back from India before the button can be pressed.

Can't believe it is so open to manipulation or we could fiddle our way right through it. Why not just move the club between different members of the Venky family or different companies under their umbrella? Villa have got away with it just like Wolves, Brighton, Fulham, QPR, Bournemouth and Leicester all did. Spending massive amounts to go up and all succeeded. Villa/Derby will too. Neither will be punished. None have been other than QPR who after about 4 years of talking accepted a fine of less than they should have had.

Has Sharpe said this or is this just the rumour? I keep hearing about Rangers which would be class but I'm doubtful about it. They will have Champions League qualifiers around the time we have gaps in our schedule. I also don't think there's much appetite at Rovers for a home game given the 'showcase' games against Everton and Liverpool last year weren't exactly well attended. I really hope the missing 2 friendlies are going to be against teams to get an ounce of anticipation up for. The ones announced so far are very uninspiring.

Sheffield United owners are in a Court battle this week. It has been disclosed that the club were funded using a £3 million loan from the family of Osama Bin Laden.

We release or reject countless players over the course of a season right through the academy to the first team. Each time we turn down a 16 year old prospect or free agent it could potentially end his career or stop it before it even begins.

If we're the sort of club or manager that goes handing out contracts to players like Gladwin (who likely both isn't good enough nor fit enough for where we want to be) and for whom the decision should be a straightforward one, then it's fair to assume that similar emotional decisions may be made in respect of other players, who might be better or fitter and easier to justify keeping. Put another way. Every man and his dog expected Gladwin to be shown the door this summer. Mowbray (judging by his comments in the paper) seems to be in the business of keeping players out of a sense of duty or loyalty. As such it sounds as though a stay until January is possible. If he can apply his emotions to decisions for someone like Gladwin then he can do the same for other players. Do it 4-5 times and you've a lot of players and money tied up when they might not be up to the job.

The time, money and resources used in negotiating and potentially agreeing a new deal for Gladwin could be allocated elsewhere, as could the cost of his wage. It may 'only' be one player but if true it gives a snapshot into what might be happening on a bigger scale. When Waggott and Mowbray are telling the Telegraph and Fans Forum about how hard up we are, how hard it is with FFP rules and how tough it is to attract quality players then this becomes relevant.

I'd rather we focused our efforts on getting promoted asap and with it sorting out our crippling finances which could jeopardise the future of the club than spent our time worrying about being nice and 'doing the right thing'. Good old Rovers eh. Do the right thing, don't break any pots or upset anyone, just carry on being nice and sign/keep players to help them out rather than the club.

£16,000 could go towards something the club will benefit from. A contract even for 6 months (do they even do 6 month deals these days?) is 24 weeks. If he's on £2k per week that's going to end up more than £50k before anything else gets going. For what purpose? To be nice? Or because Mowbray thinks he might be good enough to fire us to the Premier League? Or because his bosses might not be too impressed if he walks away for nothing after 2 years of a wage so he has to try and get something back from it?

If I picked up an injury that prevented me from being able to do my job between now and Christmas 2020, yet I still received full salary and benefits between then and now, I would not expect my employer to offer to keep me on any longer than they had to. I would understand that 18 months of full pay and benefits was more than honourable and that my employer didn't owe me any more.

Hmmm. Two ways of looking at it really. On the one side Gladwin has had a hell of a lot of money out of Rovers whilst also benefiting from excellent facilities to try and get through his rehab. A 2 year deal even at 4k a week is worth way more than most people could ever dream of being paid, never mind for little in return other than trying to get fit. On the other side I can see the human element. Of course it isn't nice to chuck an injured player onto the 'scrapheap'. But this is a business. People on a lot less money than Gladwin have been made redundant from Rovers and other football clubs. People who aren't loaded. Waggott and Cheston wail about low incomes and the need to generate revenue yet we're on about using up a salary to give him more time to get fit? The question though it whether he is good enough when fit. I don't believe he is if we are serious about moving upwards and progressing. On that basis the injury issue almost becomes irrelevant. If he isn't deemed good enough for what we need then he shouldn't be retained.

They were back up players last season. He isn't progressing or building if all that happens is we keep the same players out of a sense of loyalty, unless we keep them AND add even better ones which I find unlikely given the financial talk. Until I read Mowbray's comments on Gladwin in the Telegraph I suspected that Mowbray was playing some sort of game with that one. In telling everyone he's in discussions over a new deal it might strengthen Gladwin's wage demands with other clubs or even encourage an interested side to offer us some cash to 'step aside' and let them sign him. But his comments suggest more that he feels a sense of responsibility or loyalty to the player after his injuries and that he'll be staying so he can try and get fit and earn himself a longer deal. Worth remembering that the only player to get a new deal is Leutwiler so far, so not the end of the world but again, improving the GK position is relatively high up on the list of things we need to do so it doesn't bode well if the first step we take is to hand out a new deal to him. I can't see Raya being sold and I expect that will be our lot on the GK front.

Building to get out of this league is fine but doesn't involve keeping people who have shown they aren't up to it or are so injury stricken that they haven't played a single minute in 18 months. Building to get promotion means you methodically replace and phase out the above with superior players whenever the opportunity arises. Early days yet and I'm still hopeful Mowbray is playing games without seriously intending on keeping these players. But his comments especially on Gladwin are very strange for a club supposedly restricted on finances.