JHRover

I'm not playing anymore. I've made my thoughts on this clear. There are 8 clubs in the league getting parachute cash, several of which are in trouble financially. Other than Derby and Forest the rest we can compete with on wages and income. Mind you the way things are going here we will soon be looking up at Wycombe, Barnsley and Luton as clubs with bigger gates. Maybe that's the plan.

We could if Venkys wanted to. I don't expect or demand them to. But if they were serious about it and prepared to chuck the cash in they could do what they did at Leicester and Wolves. FFP won't stop that. But they clearly can't or won't do that so we have this hybrid approach of massive losses and a competitive wage bill but inability to sign certain players. I do not accept on what I have heard and read in the accounts that we cannot compete with half the Championship. When losing nearly £20 million a year we can compete with most in this league.

Proper blue

I was asking you to identify the clubs you thought we couldn't compete with, in response to the suggestion that we couldn't compete financially with half the division.

Where did I say that we should be able to compete with everyone in the league? I disagree with the claim that 'we can't compete with half the teams in this division' We can compete. If we can't there is something seriously wrong with our income/wages ratio and our annual losses, which are massive for this level. Let's not get onto reasons for income being low at the club refusing to sell tickets and without a shirt sponsor.

So why are we losing £20 million a year to not even be able to compete with half the second division? Seems like a mystery to me.

Your source for this wage cap and how it compares to others? Care to name me the 12+ clubs in this league we can't compete for on wages? By my count there are 8 clubs receiving parachute cash. Including Middlesbrough who are in their final year of it and Swansea and Huddersfield who are struggling financially. Cardiff are another who don't spend big. I would hope we can compete with everyone else in this division. If we can't then what exactly do Venkys bring to the party and why are we losing the neck end of £20 million a year whilst all these other clubs lose a fraction of that?

Not necessarily. Parachute payments are there to soften the blow of adjusting to much lower income, not to blow other clubs away financially. Bournemouth's parachute cash will be all earmarked for existing players on big money that they need to be rid of before making signings. Even if it did, how many of those clubs are there? Watford, Norwich, Stoke and Bournemouth. Swansea and Huddersfield are skint. Who else?

Thursday afternoon the Telegraph headline is that a deal is almost done and Sharp was on twitter denying any issues or West Brom bid. By Friday morning they are in pole position and Rovers might struggle to match his personal demands. That's a U turn. When did I say we should have gone in early with a £2 million bid? Patterns emerging here. Interest in players leaks out via the Telegraph and then the deal doesn't happen. Assombalonga, Bauer, Kipre, Darlow, Atsu. I'll reserve judgement until the first game of the League season but we havent done anywhere near enough as yet and excuses won't earn us points next year

I agree with parts of this but I'm curious as to why we cannot compete with the 'top half of the Championship'. Our own Chief Executive is on record as saying we are mid table on wages in this league. Our owners are allegedly billionaires eager to invest in the club hamstrung only by FFP. Derby have demolished those rules opening the doors to clubs to ignore them. We've just slashed £100,000 a month off the wage bill. So who in the Championship can we not compete with?

Let's not make up stuff about finances to soften the blow of missing out. Nobody knows what WBA are offering or how that compares to Rovers. Obviously they can and probably will be offering substantially more. We don't know if that is 'double' what Rovers are offering. West Brom are run by businessmen and I very much doubt will simply chuck double your money at a Championship player. Just like they could have gone in weeks ago with £2 million for Kipre and got the deal done early but have waited. We had similar stuff last year with Bauer and the frankly ludicrous suggestions that he was demanding £40k a week to move here. That was absolute drivel fed to try and make people feel better about a missed target and not getting a proper defender on a contract yet many accepted it as the truth. He later turned up at PNE. I just hope that the alternative isn't another last gasp loan deal. Season starts tomorrow and no defensive reinforcements yet.

Hummel, Macron, Kappa, Under Armour would all be very nice. They put effort into each kit. Umbro, Nike, Adidas, Puma - no thanks.

Sharpe on the biggest u turn of recent times. Having yesterday nailed his colours to the deal being virtually done in less than 24 hours seemingly West Brom are now in the driving seat. He mentions that personal terms may have been a stumbling block. That is strange because you would hope that Rovers would have worked out what he was after and whether we could pay it before making the bid and letting news of it out in the paper.

we need two. My understanding was that it was Kipre and someone else, not someone else as a backup if Kipre didn't happen

Me too. But I'll award credit when it actually happens and people are in the building, not when we are linked with people or try to sign them unsuccessfully.

We take a long time to get business done. Just look how long Tosin took last summer. You have to act quickly or risk missing out when others come in.

How Nixon works. He knows that we are well along with Kipre. He wants a slice of the action so goes on twitter acting like he knows his stuff. Dangles stuff for the fans over Thursday and Friday. By Friday night I guarantee that he will be saying 'update on Sunday' or 'bit in the paper on that one'. This will get people clicking onto the Sun website or buying the paper to read his drivel. It will be extremely frustrating if we don't get it over the line but seemingly this wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened.

You'll note my point earlier, that in the last 6 weeks through Tosin, Walton, Downing and Graham going the club will have shed £500,000 from the payroll which comfortably covers Kaminski and his fee. Let's see in the others happen and who goes out the other way to enable it. We need 8 first team ready defenders IMO. If Mulgrew is frozen out and Williams being sold then we need minimum 3 to come in, realistically on permanent deals to avoid another mad dash next summer. Kipre would be a good start yet as expected the tubby Scotsman is pouring cold water on it

Our choice not to sell tickets. Nobody has forced us not to. Bamber Bridge can sell them so why can't we? The sponsor news whilst unfortunate in this climate was always a possibility with their termination clause and will have happened months ago. So a lot of time to secure something else. Yes we have lost income. So has every other club in the world.

Mowbray says a lot of things that aren't true. The fact is that it seems very likely Williams will be out the door before the new signings are in. Call it coincidence if you like. To me it shows that yet more funds need to be freed up to have a chance to get others in. Our wage bill is already a lot less than last season so the explanation seems to be either they are reducing costs or need the lump sum transfer fee to pay for someone. As above wage savings for August alone by releasing a mass of players ought to have raised the cash needed for the keeper.

Quite alarming to me that bringing in essential defenders appears to be contingent upon getting shut of one of the three experienced players we have left who can play at CB. I sure hope Mowbray knows what he is doing here because it could easily go very badly wrong. Also quite disturbing that having slashed almost £100,000 a week off the wage bill since July and added only the keeper who won't be on more than £10,000 at most there isnt the scope in the budget to bring in reasonable signings without further outgoings. A quick calculation for August - if we've saved £400,000 on wages by offloading Walton, Tosin, Smallwood, Downing, Graham and Samuel then we can see where the money has appeared to get the goalkeeper.

Stockholm syndrome

I thought Stanley had said that the first 770 purchasers would get priority. Probably as clear as they can be with something like this. There will inevitably be people not happy either because they can't go to the earlier games or can't sit in their usual seat etc. Clubs have to do the best they can with what they have and Stanley's approach seems to be sensible. So it encourages people to get them asap or risk missing out. These issues are not a reason to simply do and sell nothing like Rovers have opted to do. This isn't a problem for us as we have the luxury of a 30,000 modern stadium and at best about 8000 season ticket holders. Knock off the staff and player complimentaries and just allow entry to paying season ticket holders and that number drops significantly. Knock off those who won't renew for various reasons and I'd be surprised if we could sell more than 6000. The discussion as to whether we blame covid 19 for that or inept management of the club is for another day.

Not a chance that I'll be paying £10 per game to watch on I Follow. Not when foreign based people were getting gsmes for £5 last season. I feel that I am still in credit from last season. If they don't want my money for my season ticket then fine, but it isnt going on I Follow.

I dont think Williams to Swansea is that odd at all. He's a good age, experienced at this level, played for Ireland and I suspect Mowbray would drive him to Swansea if it meant getting his wages off the books. He's not great by any stretch but reasonable cover for defence and won't cost much. It seems clear to me that him and Mulgrew are the make weights to enable a couple of defenders to come in. Its also obvious that something has been amiss with him since January with his mysterious injury.