Having started him as captain in the past few pre season games and stressed his importance in interviews I'd be questioning Eustace's competence if he's done that despite 'wanting shut' and thinking he is shite.

That would depend on other factors including contract length and fee. If Stoke are happy to be shut of Baker and his wages and are willing to give us some cash on top then Rovers will be tempted. I don't think putting people on reasonable wages is necessarily a problem, but getting a lump sum of £1 million+ will be tempting.

I suspect this goes way above JDT and Eustace. I think he knows that he's on 'the list' of people identified for departure due to a combination of his wage, contract and market value. The 'powers that be' will see a 7 figure fee and relatively large wage out the door and will be conspiring to make that happen. Many others been in a similar position over the last decade under this group of people. Hard to come back from that whatever your thoughts on the manager/club.

I find it odd that you consider signing a number of players in a short time period to be a barometer of whether you think things are bad or not. I don't see what the relevance of this is or why it convinces you that things aren't that bad at the club. I think we are all relieved to see some transfer activity at long last after nothing all summer and getting alarmingly close to the start of the season without reinforcements. We are a long way off being able to say whether these signings are any good. But whether they are good, bad, middling - it still doesn't tell me that the club is in anything other than short term firefighting mode in dealing with a major financial crisis. We are signing people who are big gambles and people who are coming to the end of their Championship careers. Some will say that's just the way it has to be for us. But it doesn't, our activity as recently as 2022 with Hyam, Szmodics and Brittain shows that we can actually spend some money and sign people from Championship rivals or top end League One players. Getting a few signings over the line is good, necessary and hopefully these players work out ok for us. But that doesn't mean the club is in a good or healthy place. It just means we've used a very small % of our income on some attempt to strengthen what was a woefully short squad.

I believe the desire for Szmodics to be sold is likely greater at Rovers' end than Szmodics. They want their next heap of cash to pay their bills until January.

Barnsley were offering a six figure cash sum for Gent The only surprise to me is why anyone is surprised when we take the money. It seems the financial crisis engulfing the club has passed some people by.

Because he'll be either the biggest or a top 3 earner now they've got shut of Gallagher And as we know our approach to incomings and outgoings is determined by who costs the most / least. Combine that with him being able to command a fee of some description from other clubs and the Venky stooges will likely have their eye on him next, regardless of what manager or player want.

Anyone else notice the discreet passing mention that moving forwards tickets for all away games will only be available online? https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/august/01/ticket-news--norwich-city-v-rovers/

Who's moaning? I think Batth and Weimann are solid signings. That doesn't mean I have to be pleased with the overall window and nor do I have to believe there is any sort of plan or method to what is going on other than to ensure costs are lower come deadline day and funds brought in.

If either leave it will be because Rovers want their wages off the books / a fee for them because another Championship side will want them Which is more than we can say of any of our signings which are very much last Championship chance saloon / unheard of In the state this club is in I very much doubt Venky stooges will be keeping big earners or rejecting cash bids for players regardless of Eustace's view of things He'll stand in line and take what the stooges serve him.

One glance at the Facebook and Twitter replies to these signings is enough to want me to question my own sanity. I am so grateful that at least on here there are people of sound mind. Since our current financial position appears to be similar to that of Oyston's Blackpool and we are now operating a model requiring a departure before an incoming can be approved letting Garrett go out on loan is a sensible move. Sensible in the scheme of things because one look at the squad demonstrates we do not have the required depth to be loaning people out. But better than selling off an established player again.

Carter was given the captaincy in Austria. Suspect Eustace will be keeping up appearances and holding an 'audition' for the part in pre-season. Personally I wouldn't be giving it to Hyam

I really do wonder at times who is behind some of these signings. O'Riordan handed a 4.5 year deal and then hasn't played since he arrived. Who was behind that one? Not JDT I'm sure of that. Broughton? I doubt it.

Why 15th? I thought a few weeks ago you said you thought Eustace could have us in top 6 contention? What has changed? If you think we now need a season of 'stability' (a.k.a plodding along going nowhere like under Bowyer and Mowbray) then why when prior to last season we'd had 2 play off pushing campaigns? Why the regression?

Excellent work, many thanks

Another 5/6 to do what Chaddy? Survive? Mid-table? Top half? Play-offs?

Whatever people say about JDT he had the ability to get us firing in the 'cup' style fixtures. West Ham away, Leicester away, Norwich away, Sheff Utd away. On each occasion we were comfortably second favourites yet overcame the odds (or very nearly did and should have done at Sheff Utd). I'm pretty confident that if we'd have got into the top 6 that season he'd have found a way to navigate us past Coventry, Luton, Sunderland etc. But there was never any intention of getting promoted. They got JDT by accident, one of those once in a decade right decision right time moves stumbling across someone who had what it took to haul us into contention. But as others have said this was an accident, never part of the plan, and events since then have proved what the agenda at this club is and it has nothing to do with being successful or getting better.

That isn't what I'm doing. I'm expressing what I feel to be reasonable concerns at selling proven Championship level performers and replacing them with unproven foreign players. If we were keeping Szmodics I'd be fine with losing Gallagher, but to lose both in a couple of weeks before the season starts and replace with nobody of any pedigree I think is one almighty gamble, motivated by finances rather than a focus being on what is best for squad stability and depth

Didn't answer my question. If we go down and Stoke and Gallagher stay up will you consider his sale to have been good business? Or might you accept keeping him in our predicament, about to lose Szmodics too, and suffering some loss on him would be preferable if it meant ensuring Championship status was preserved? All of what you have said is true. 174 appearances at Championship level and selected every week by Mowbray, JDT and Eustace. Replaced with unheard of lads who have never kicked a ball in this country. A huge gamble IMO but they've been gambling with our future for years so nothing new.

Hopefully. I'd like our Championship future to be based on a bit more than hope. Another one departs to a rival and we take a leap into the unknown with these foreign lads. Dangerous game.

If we get relegated is it good business to have sold our established proven Championship players?

The exclamation mark would suggest you think these signings are something to be getting excited about whilst sneaking out the back door are more proven Championship performers. The club is in a totally desperate position and will have to do far, far more than this to convince me we are in for anything other than a long hard season. Impressive that they have now taken us to a point where many would take Championship survival as a good season after spending all of JDT's season in the top 6. Some effort by the powers that be to ruthlessly and systematically dismantle the good thing we had and take us to a point where unheard of signings and another season of Kyle McFadzean are seen as a step forwards.

Well if we see off Szmodics and Gallagher then Sigurdsson to follow that would be just about all our goals from last season taken out of a team that just survived. Quite the gamble with our Championship status but then again this has never ever been about league status, it's all about costs. If they put half as much effort into bettering our league status as they do into getting rid of our bigger earners and cutting costs we might have been in the PL by now.

Covers the spending of this week or the majority of it I suspect.

The added Sky TV money will comfortably offset a few thousand difference on adult season ticket sales. The numbers add up for Waggott, not that he'd be in any danger if they didn't, so nothing to worry about. It's those of us bothered about the future of the football club and its support that are (rightly) concerned. The CEO need not worry as he's passing through and just has his bonus to worry about.