On the contrary if we are waving them off on free transfers like Lenihan and Nyambe after years of development and effort it leads me to question whether it is really all worth it. Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Reading, Norwich, Swansea, West Brom also have Cat 1 academies so we are not unique. None are immune to having youth players poached just like we weren't when Callum Wright was snatched away by Leicester. It's a fact of life whilst we remain at this level. All clubs are vulnerable to it. Not a lot we can do other than try to persuade him to stay. IMO it is a far bigger concern that we have allowed assets to depart on free transfers - established first team squad members not kids - to league rivals and lost millions in the process. Phillips is a work in progress. If he'd rather go an do that at someone's academy than our first team squad that's his choice. I want ready made players for the Championship battle right now. It's about time we got our act together and brought in a couple of external signings. I am getting fed up with waiting.

I'm not going to get in a fluster about a youth prospect. Of course I'd like to keep him but it is what it is. For once I don't think Rovers can be criticised or blamed for the situation if he's getting attention from PL clubs who can obviously offer him a lot more than we can. He's not in indispensible team member - he's a kid who might well turn out to be a good un but is only anywhere near our first team as a result of incompetence and negligent management running up to this summer whereby we haven't recruited properly in that position and are now turning to kids to fill in. I have two far greater concerns - the loss of multi-million assets this summer for nothing, players who had developed and were worth millions, and the lack of signings, which is very alarming.

Since when should the club makes its decisions based on what people on here might think? Of course some people on here would have questioned giving him a big new contract at that stage, but at the end of the day the Club has an investment to protect, so if they had given him a new deal to do that then that's their decision and they have to do what they think is best for the club, not what might keep a few people on a messageboard happy. People who brought him to the club and persevered with him for 3 years obviously saw something in him and fair play to them it was well placed faith. I'm unclear on your views on wages. Simple reality is that we've lost 2 assets to Middlesbrough and Wigan, and have signed 2 lads from Barnsley and Peterborough. We haven't been shopping in the overseas or Championship market for a while. There are rumours we have made offers of substantial value to the bloke from Malmo and to Lenihan but those are meaningless rumours when they don't ultimately come to anything. I don't know where we rank in the Championship on wages. In years past we were quite competitive but in terms of what we have been doing for the last 12 months or so I wouldn't expect it is that high up the division. Who will be on 'big' money? Dack, Gallagher, Ayala - anyone else? The rest of our very small squad are nearly all academy graduates or from the lower divisions - I don't understand how they can be that high on wages.

Again - I'm not really interested in the ins and outs of those situations. Your account might be absolutely correct - maybe Nyambe was 'kippered' by his agent (has he sacked him yet?), maybe the players did lead the club on a merry dance, maybe it is ultimately the players decision on whether to sign. None of it actually matters. My view is that the situation is much more complex simply than poor old Rovers doing their very best but struggling against FFP/richer clubs/greedy agents. I think Rovers are at least partly to blame for those players leaving and much of that comes down to the way Rovers have gone about their business over the last 2-3 years. I'm not going to go through what I mean by that again suffice to say that the fact so many players have all rejected Rovers' terms points to a serious problem on the part of the club. The fact that those players would prefer to go to Middlesbrough or Wigan is alarming. I don't know what you are going on about with the £20k a week wage ceiling. I can assure you that had we offered any of those players - and indeed Brereton - close to £20k a week in the lead up to or during the summer of 2021 all of them would have signed up without a moment's hesitation. The reason the Brereton situation has ended up in the way it has is because having committed big money to him, persevered with him for 3 years, done nothing on his contract and then he's suddenly come good quite rightly he's now in a different stratosphere on his expectations and demands. But had we had one eye on the medium to long term in the summer of 2021 we'd have extended his terms if we were so confident of his ability and the investment. Anyhow I think we are drifting off topic. The point I was trying to make was that we have lost a lot of money already on players that we should have made a lot of profit from. If the Club was serious about protecting its investments and delivering a return on them then that wouldn't have happened. Likewise people online saying we need to sell Brereton to emulate Brentford need to wake up - we don't do what Brentford do - we don't keep our assets under long term contracts and we don't reinvest when we sell. So to my mind it is clear - the chances of reinvestment are slim to zero. Broughton and Tomasson may well have a plan to replace him if sold but Venkys are still in charge here. I'm sure Mowbray had a plan for reinvesting the Armstrong cash but he wasn't allowed. Finally - having failed to keep Lenihan, Nyambe and co. out of the clutches of rival clubs due to not offering acceptable terms to them what are the chances of us both finding and then paying a Brereton replacement? We could have £20 million to spend on transfer fees but if we have a wage ceiling akin to League One clubs we ain't getting better.

You might be right there, but then Rothwell would have been worth a lot more than Bournemouth offered if he was under long term contract. So increase that figure for Rothwell drastically. Then you don't need much for the other two to hit £10 million. Point remains that we aren't 'doing a Brentford', far from it letting assets walk for nothing. It also suggests the chances of replacing Brereton with proven quality is almost zero. Our 'wage structure' has seen those departures and will prevent us offering competitive terms to proven quality.

Well according to reports in January Bournemouth were offering £4.5 million for Rothwell with only 5 months left on his deal. So yeah if all 3 had been under long term contracts I'm pretty sure they'd have been worth over £10 million combined.

Seen a few people saying that we 'have' to sell him and reinvest the money in order to further our replication of the Brentford model People have short memories. It's as though they have completely forgotten the track record of NOT reinvesting transfer funds and also the loss of 3 major assets already this summer for nothing which is NOT remotely like the Brentford model

Same reason they didn't reinvest the Rhodes, Gestede, Armstrong cash. It disappears into running costs, or supposedly 'used' towards FFP. Or, if by some miracle it was provided for new signings, we would then move onto Chapter 2 of the book of excuses- lack of time to get signings done, richer clubs coming in and offering what we can't, our self imposed wage structure which essentially means we can't get players from above League One level irrespective of transfer fee. We've seen and heard it all before.

We sat back and allowed £10 million to go down the pan this summer by neglecting the Lenihan, Nyambe and Rothwell situations, even when presented with a chance to claw some cash in for Rothwell in January. So it seems to me we can afford to let his contract run down. If we aren't going to reinvest the proceeds and spend on quality does it benefit Rovers in any way?

Looks like our dingle friends have come completely full circle. Under Dyche clinical, efficient, little possession but got the job done. No plaudits for style or passing but results consistent. Now getting the plaudits but not for the reasons that really matter.

There's a camaraderie in the camp that you'd struggle to quickly replicate by bringing in even a quality outsider at this point. People like Brereton, Dack, Buckley, Travis, Gallagher have been together now for years and seem to get on well off the pitch too. Sometimes you just can't buy that even when you get to reinvest.

I think the benefit of having Brereton in the team for the next 43 games is at least as great if not greater than receiving a few million quid profit that won't be spent.

I could not care less about bids made that failed to come off. As I have said many, many, many times, it matters not who we enquire about, make bids for or try and fail to sign. Just like the stuff about Assombalonga, Kipre and the others in years past. Hard luck stories about how tough it is and how we've tried and failed to get the bodies in won't be good enough for me, and I'm pretty sure won't be tolerated for long by an ambitious manager. Fully agree - we've time left yet to do things and I hope, pray, that things develop soon on that front. But the point remains - we've had months to sign a CB and haven't done it - despite claiming to have a good budget So what are the chances of getting a Brereton replacement in? Slim I would say, at best. I don't blame Broughton for this, it is the finance people and owners. In the Brereton situation I am asking myself will BRFC benefit from the money from a sale? Will it make a difference to the bills being paid on time? Probably not. Will it see substantial cash released for reinvestment? History tells us probably not. It will be the same stuff - we've tried to get the players in, made enquiries but got priced out and ran out of time.

It has been blatantly obvious since the start of the summer, and even before then given the loan status of Van Hecke and uncertainty on Lenihan, that signing a CB was essential. Yet here we are, 2 weeks from the window shutting, having not signed a CB, and seemingly the only significant progress on that front has been to try and get another loan from Liverpool and we now have to sit around waiting for them to decide what is happening. Now if after all that time and opportunity we still can't or won't get a CB in - of critical importance - despite claims of a good budget regardless of the Brereton situation - then I don't think the omens are good for a Brereton replacement to be completed in a matter of days. For all of Broughton's work - and I am impressed with what I have seen from him so far - it is clear that getting bodies in is still an issue here, with only 3 signings to date. The key of course is that ultimately he might be the best D of F around but if he's working on Venky time or with no money then he's not going to be able to get the job done. Anyhow - the media crew will be happy as they can divert the positivity of our excellent start away and turn it into panic stations about losing our key man. That's the way they like it around here.

Nice owned by Ineos and one of the richest clubs in Europe. £10 million laughable in this climate. Better off sticking and hoping for promotion.

Rhodes. Gestede. Armstrong. Anyone who thinks the Brereton money goes back into the kitty or that Venkys will reinvest need to go back and look at their track record.

If this manager isn't backed in the next fortnight given his fantastic start to life, scaled back wage bill and gaping holes in the squad then we've got serious problems. I'm not interested in the slightest about the usual excuses of 'asking' about players, or lining deals up that then don't materialise. The shortages are there for all to see - the manager wants and needs signings - excuses won't cut it. This guy isn't a dolloper who is going to sit here for 4 years and be mucked around every window.

Spot on and fully agree. Of course I'll be delighted if I'm proven wrong within the next fortnight and we get these players but my money is on more of the same as you say - a couple of loans and excuses as to why we couldn't get deals over the line.

But is the £10 IFollow thing in operation - and is this the same as Rovers TV? I'm completely lost on this now

Can anyone clarify the situation with broadcast of this game? I'm finding it very difficult to understand if it is available and if so where. Mixed messages as to whether Sky are doing the 'red button' thing or not.

Yes I know, and as I said earlier it almost certainly won't be an issue for this fixture as we will have a large allocation should we want it and the ground will be half empty But the gripe I have isn't with the availability of tickets, it is with the fact that I have been effectively forced into paying extra for 1875 membership. How is that? Well the Club have said that if I don't pay that extra money then I'm 2nd in the queue and as a result might not get tickets for away games. I also can't get seats next to my mates who are members because they can buy as soon as they go on sale whereas if I'm not a member I can't. Then having sold me that membership, which I didn't really want in the first place, it is absolutely worthless when getting cup tickets for Bradford. So why did I bother? If we progress and play Barrow, Fleetwood, Dingles in the next round tickets will be highly sought after. Will my membership count for anything then or will it just be 'tough luck'?

I'm afraid that is an overly simplistic way of looking at things as ever. You appear to be under the impression that Bradford are allowed to just do that and there's nothing Rovers can do, which I don't think is the case. The more likely situation is that Bradford have offered to do it this way and Rovers have happily agreed to do so as it saves them a job. Rovers should not be selling membership on the promise it secures priority on away tickets if they can't guarantee that. That is a quite simple principle. You don't sell something, take people's money and then turn around a week or two later and say 'sorry about that but Bradford are selling them, not us'

I don't know, but I'm certain that had we drawn against Dingles, Stanley or similar and there was a ferocious demand for tickets then they would have introduced a tiered system and sent tickets over no problem. As I say it won't be an issue with Bradford but there's a few gripes - i feel like membership delivers very little and has been falsely advertised, and also if we are buying tickets via Bradford then we won't get credit on our database for buying which is always something I'm keen to get for when we get high demand fixtures.

I see Waggott's 1875 scheme is up and running well. Having spent the last month trying to force people into paying an extra £10-15 on top of their season ticket costs on the basis this will secure priority on away ticket sales, I discover this morning that Bradford cup tickets are on sale with no priority window for members or season ticket holders. Now this isn't going to be a problem for most as the allocation will be sufficient to ensure all those who want to go will be able to, and it probably won't be a big following during a busy schedule. But I'm not happy that I've bought this membership on the basis it achieves priority on tickets and then I find that actually that doesn't exist.

I'd hope and expect given the seriousness of the situation that rapid progress was being made to sign at least one permanent CB. The transfer window shuts anyway in a little over 2 weeks. It wasn't long ago that Sharpe was suggesting not 1 but 2 CBs were being sought and since then we've lost Barnes and Wharton to injuries which only escalates the urgency. That there has been little to no suggestion of any permanent CB being sought, with only links to the Liverpool lad, this makes me wonder why, yet again, we are resorting to 'solving' the CB issue with a loan signing. Why not invest in this position? Ayala will be out of contract this time next year and I suspect is highly unlikely to be renewing, at least not close to his current wages. Question marks too over whether Barnes and Carter are the solution. I'd expect to see steps taken to deal with this yet it seems little is happening. As for Phil Jones - I wouldn't touch him with a bargepole. Completely at odds with everything we are supposedly aiming to do here - build a squad for the longer term, develop assets and focus on younger players with good fitness levels. He's had his chance with Rovers.