Consensus odds/predictions I see have Rovers (usually bottom) competing with the 3 promoted clubs (Portsmouth, Oxford, Derby), Plymouth and Preston as the weakest 6 teams. Gotta hope we're better (luckier?) than 3 of them.

If negotiations are still ongoing, then it means negotiations haven't been concluded, which means the transfer hasn't been agreed. The club may have agreed that it is £8m up front, + £4m in instalments. Eg. Ipswich may want to pay £800k a year for 5 years, whereas Rovers want £2m per over the next 2. Ipswich and Rovers haven't agreed how/when the £4m is to be paid, then they haven't agreed a fee.

I have no issue with whatever cock and bull negotiation "strategies" Maggott and Co use when selling assets. The issue I have is that (due to the abject disaster of the past 4 weeks) we're 26hrs away from the first league game of the season, and our best player is still here and we won't be using him!

Szmodics hasn't played in a (known competitive) game since July 13th, so effectively 4 weeks... There is essentially another 3 weeks until the deadline for this to drag on. What other fecking useless joke of a football club would even comprehend to allow their best player to go unused for perhaps up to 48 days (Tranmere Away -> Deadline Day) JUST BECAUSE a newly promoted team made a bogus enquiry/offer about him way below what you would accept. Imagine the universe Szmodics stays, yet cannot feature until after the September internationals as he isn't up to speed and misses the first half dozen games anyway... Derby should be on the phone today and offer £100k for Carter and JRC. Maggott would then hold them out of Fridays game as not to risk injuring them in case Derby come back in with £10m. The whole thing (club) is an absolute farce.

The bigger problem seems to be that Rovers have...

I'll keep banging the drum for Gabriel Slonina at Chelsea until he moves elsewhere. I think he may be as far as eighth on their depth chart. Jogensen, Sanchez, Kepa (for now) and Petrovic as their top 4, plus Bettinelli as thier "English" option, add two other kids in Bergstrom and Beach - they've too many to keep Slonina. Still only 20 years old, signed 2 years ago for £12m from Chicago Fire, and spent last year on loan in the Belgium Pro League. Exciting prospect to say the least. Loan would be 100% achievable, maybe even a creative incentive based transfer. Alas, the word creative was used, therefore won't happen. Chelsea have around 45-50 players, so will be sending a dozen "quality" players out on loan and should need to sell even more on the cheap.

Off topic, but fair to assume JDT could have made us a Premier League team if not for the Undav and O'Brien incompetence from above. What a difference 18 months make.

But forcing/having a - your best - player out of 80% of preseason and team selection when the offer was so "far below the asking amount". Szmodics should have been in every session and team until the bids came even close to value. That you can 100% be critical of. Didn't see De Lange being held out of training after our 40% of asking price offer.

Oops 🙈. Fingers didn't type what the mind wanted. There are obviously plenty of goalkeepers out there, but still, you've missed out on your potentially season defining GK upgrade for 1% compared to what you've brought in. All eyes fully on Pears this Friday.

Interesting that an article on The72 states that "Reports most recently stated that Blackburn Rovers were still keen on the Dutchman, despite being a fairly significant €1.25m short of his valuation." So it seems like we offered €800k and Go Ahead all along wanted the €2.0m that Marsaille paid. Yet another Rovers example of offering 40p for something worth £1 to appease the gullable part of the fanbase who think that seeing a player we "wanted" move for a £2m fee, mean we have any intention of spending anywhere close to £2m. Rinse, repeat, bullshit.

The one thing I'm 1,000,000% certain those two cretins won't do when it comes to incoming transfers.

I'd actually set the over/under at +1.5 howlers.

September 2nd: "We tried to sign a renowned GK from abroad for good money, but he ultimately chose to sign for a European football chasing team in France instead. This happens in football.... anyway, have you met our new 19yr old loanee from (PL Club), we think you'll like this one better, he should provide good backup competition to Aynsley! We'll keep our powder dry until January."

Can't make it up. Miss out on the GK you really want because you can't find neutral ground in a week of negotiations over £400,000 difference when you've made (or will make) £40m on outgoings in 6 months - or 1% of your net income. Waggott and Suhail out.

Awww poor Steve and Suhail. Must be time to retire then if you can't handle 2 days of "honest" work. Over/under on how many goals/points Pears is going to cost us vs Derby, Norwich, Oxford and Burnley before we get this (any?) proper GK bought/loaned or involved?

Perhaps... but a week ago I was pretty confident that this team (minus Szmodics and Gallagher) didn't have 20pts in them over 46 games. So, despite a half dozen either unknown or old additions (and Weimann), I'm still pretty sure - in fact I'm certain - that we haven't yet got 50pts in this squad - still assuming Szmodics departs. As it currently stands, If you're not fearing relegation, you're in for a shock, as that's still a very likely outcome. Basically 1 month left to improve the squad (and a Szmodics outcome) to prove the writing on the wall wrong.

Let's hope someone somewhere high up at Ewood had the sense to insert add ons, sell on %, first option and maybe even a buy back fee to the Gent deal. Of course, we know Steve and Suhail simply took the £200,000 and wanked on it.

7 career league appearances (2 in the Premier League). Albeit he's apparently been injured the best part of 2 years.

This team is potentially only 3-4 more quality signings/loans (GK, LB, LW/RW) AND Szmodics staying away from maybe not being the relegation fodder I still expect. That's about as positive as I can be.

So that's 6 signings in 48hrs. I know they "fired" their long serving media lady a year or so back, must be paying day rates for the camera crew and getting the monies worth!

I'd put money on our "creative" team going down the "Wey aye man, we've got one more..." route of teasing.

Getting him up to elite L1 speed ahead of the 2025-2026 season.

I'm still hoping that due to Chelsea having circa 15 GK's that they decide Gabriel Slonina is dispensable and he ends up here in either loan or permanent capacity.

I compared them to Wes Brown and Gordon Greer a few pages back. Wes Brown (36) at least had the massive Man Utd (200+ apps) and England pedigree (23 caps), plus had only ever played in the Premier League. Flop. And hell, even Gordon Greer (35) was just coming off being a relative (until final season) key player for Championship contending Brighton for half a decade - and got almost a dozen Scotland caps. Flop. McFadzean (37) has spent around 60% of his career in lower leagues (including a long spell below the National League), Finally Batth (33), who to be fair, is just probably a year or 2 past it compared to what we need at this level. All in all, Relegation fodder signings.