JHRover

I didn't think our income was 'poor'. I thought it was competitive. Not big but certainly no reason why it should be lower than many others in this league. I've been over many times that these owners are at least in part responsible for our income levels due to their mismanagement and neglect, which includes years of not taking commercial and sponsorship seriously and allowing thousands of fans to become alienated. So I suppose in a way I accept things aren't great, but I don't believe that is natural but rather created by poor management and shouldn't be an excuse. It isn't that this club cannot compete at this level as history shows we can. It continues today with us being one of a small number not to sell tickets. Either way for whatever reason Venkys appear comfortable pumping £15 million a year in. Whether you like that or not or want it to continue or not as long as it does this club can compete in the Championship. I find it ludicrous that anyone would argue 'we can't compete' whilst surrounded by Barnsley, Wycombe and Luton and owned by billionaires

Can anyone work out what that is on the left which appears to be a flag with a different red rose over it?

Wow. The voice of optimism. Our wage bill, losses and income all suggest otherwise. End of discussion from me. I'll be wondering why we don't just shut the club down if that sort of talk carries on

Reading? Brentford? Give it a year and you can add Huddersfield, Swansea and Cardiff. Give it 2 years and you can add Norwich and Bournemouth once they've adjusted to life at this level

The false claim that we can't compete with half the division.

Thanks. You've just confirmed what I've been saying. They can't compete because they would never have been able to spend that sort of money on players like we have. Nor would most teams in this league.

But we are different to them. We have a larger income, richer owners and losses far greater than theirs. Last time I checked they were losing around £6-7 million per year. So with losses of triple that despite bigger income that means we should be at a sizeable advantage. If you think we are equal to them then why are we losing so much more money?

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