Today will either be a tonking or a masterclass snatch n grab. First goal crucial, if we get it we can defend quite well & use the counter to good effect, esp as I think Watford are quite powder puff like us if they go behind. If they get it however... 🙈 I've got a sneaky feeling we can do this, 0-1. Here's hoping...

It's gone half past 10!! I take it you don't have young kids... 😅

I guess this subject deserves its own thread now, can't see it has one. Lancs live reporting that the deadline to submit papers for the appeal is 4pm, with a decision hoped this week for the players' sake. Apparently the appeal will be considered by the EFL board, comprised of different people from those who were involved last week. Fingers, toes & everything else crossed that we get this over the line...

That should give you plenty of time, 24 hours in fact before the match starts. Maybe you can do some litter picking whilst you're waiting.

You actually understood what I typed? It looks like I was drunk when I did it, but I wasn't unfortunately!! But you're right, it's irrelevant information whether correctly completed or not, so ought not to be a bar to registration.

The only reason I can see a players nationality / ethnicity being relevant on the registration form is to ensure clubs are abiding by set quotas re foreign players etc. But that's more something to do with bigger fish who are playing in European competition, as opposed to us signing a 19yr old novice from Rochdale. Pedantic just isn't the word; this lot give the county court money claims centre a run for its money.

If what Nixon is saying / quoted as saying is true, & there's nothing more to it, then it's a new low in jobsworthness. Should paperwork be filled in correctly, & checked? Yes, but come on we're talking about the careers of 2 young professionals. The EFL should be hammered for that if true. But we'll see, on both counts. There's always two sides to every story...

Your dislike of GB is so ingrained that you even take accidental pops at suggesting what his next career move should be! (I disagree, just to be clear!)

Not really bothered what he thinks, bearing in mind they bought O'Brien in summer for £10m & are letting him go already (well tried to). How's that treating him well (other than the monster pay rise I guess)?

Frying pan & fire spring to mind there Mercer...!! 😉 So now we know a little more. Kudos to GB for fronting up, that can't have been easy after all the positive noises he's made & shows good leadership. I get some detail has to wait pending the appeal. There are plenty of lessons to be learnt here. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but getting Forest to pull O'Brien out of training seems like a massive missed opportunity to free up time, with less than 12 hours to the deadline. Why did we do the medicals in Manchester? Is that always the case? Seems weird if they still had to be at Brockall for paperwork & PR purposes anyway, why not just do it all there?? Why did SW not make an exception to the norm of going to the match? It was deadline day, he knew how important this one was to the club, he knew big deals had potential to happen (be that O'Brien, a striker, or an enquiry about BBD or another outgoing)? It should have been all hands on deck from a senior management perspective, stuff whether or not Birmingham would feel that we were snubbing them. Why is SW not fronting up now? Why is it left to GB, who it sounds like was doing all the running on the day to fulfil the potential of a top signing that HIS recruitment team had brought to the point that a deal could be done? There do need to be consequences here internally it seems. Sacking? Maybe, depends exactly what happened, who was at fault and what their track record is. Maybe final warnings and a "shifting of responsibilities" (aka demotion) is appropriate. IMO though, GB would be the wrong one to go. He appears to show passion, desire, insight & and leadership. I get the feeling he really wants to succeed here, rather than just enjoy the ride (well, before Tuesday anyway). Same with JDT. I also think the decision to go for O'Brien (and Thomas to an extent) indicates that contrary to last Jan, we did actually look to take advantage of being in the playoff race. The medium & longer term plans still exist (hence Brierley), but the short term plan had enough flex in it to be able to stretch to a potentially game-changing short term signing. I think that bears out what I've suspected all along, which is that privately GB and JDT realised the opportunity they had to go up this season, but publicly played it down. I've no problem with that, and they even managed to get it all agreed, if not signed off literally. So there's more to come. The appeal will almost certainly fail it seems. We'll get more detail then I guess. In the meantime we need to hear from SW. He has some explaining to do as CEO, that's why he gets the big bucks, he should earn them and own this himself. I will be chasing for a reply to my email to him on Monday.

Update: a lady on behalf of SW has acknowledged my email and says my comments have been passed on. Fair enough. I've thanked her & asked to be updated further in due course. Thanks for the positive feedback on the email by the way, from everyone across the positive / negative spectrum. I guess it goes to show that we have more that unites us than divides us, which is hard to believe sometimes. Not mean feat getting cross-party support for something concocted on my phone whilst tramming home from work!!

My email to SW: "Dear Mr Waggott, As a season ticket holder of 30+ years and as a long time silent member of the fanbase in terms of showing outright displeasure at the many failures at the club in recent years, I feel compelled to write to you to express my disbelief at what has occurred these last few days. We are long suffering fans who have seen this club become a figure of ridicule, both within the fanbase and outside of it. To top off losing 4 top talents at this level for nothing across a 12 month period, we now learn that 2 signings (1 an ambitious short term one to try to help fire us to promotion, the other a long term one to further the "project"), failed to be registered in time due to incomplete and / or unsigned papers being lodged with the EFL in time. There must be some explanation from the club to the fans as to exactly what happened to give rise to this scenario. I get deals need to be done in a short time sometimes, but to miss 2 deals in one go seems very shoddy indeed. The statement mentions issues beyond the club's control & that independent legal advisors were brought in to assist in the dealings. The club needs to provide more info in that respect. I have been one of the more patient and understanding fans, accepting the period of transition the club gas gone through since our slide into league 1 was arrested. I've accepted the journey, I accept the project, I'm even at peace with the loss of star players for nothing IF Ben Brereton Diaz is the last of them and new foundations are built to grow the club into the self-sustaining premier league force it supposedly wants to be. But to now be in the situation we're in with these two transfers is, quite frankly, unforgivable and does nothing to breed confidence in anyone in any authority at Blackburn Rovers. Please can you assure me that a full investigation will be undertaken to determine what happened, how / why and what lessons will be learnt, and that the findings will be made public as soon as it is possible to do so without prejudicing any appeal process? There must be transparency & accountability for what has happened. We are a town club that has dwindled in significance in the last decade, fans have left in droves, we're competing against big city clubs with much larger fanbases, or with larger income from commercial activities, on field success or tv money. We cannot afford slip-ups like this, reputationally this is a huge own goal. I would appreciate the courtesy of an early acknowledgement. I'm sure your inbox is filling up rapidly but I feel I deserve that at least." Was as polite as I could be. Was sent at 6pm, no reply yet obvs.

This is without doubt the worst news. Both deals off. A full explanation needs to be provided asap, though I doubt none can until the appeal process is exhausted. So depressing.

Absolutely. Sounds like this Sylvestor fella might have some awkward questions to answer.

Why on earth would I say that an error by a club employee is not the fault of the club on a vicarious basis?? That's not a legal concept, it's common sense. My point, which you can't seem to grasp, was that the last-minute nature of the deal was not the club's fault. There's been no shifting goalposts on my part. I really can't see what your difficulty is in accepting that when it's there in black and white on my post, other than it being a reluctance to accept that you misunderstood my post and refusal to accept that you went in at the deep end unnecessarily. Anyway, night, let's hope we get the news we want in a few hours time and not the news we fear.

They're not good lawyers, they're mercenaries. Good lawyers see a dispute, understand all sides of it, and advise their clients on the merits of their particular viewpoint accordingly within the context of the law applicable to the dispute so that the client can give informed instructions.

True, but GB hasn't and nor has JDT, yet according to some they're useless, don't know their arses from their elbows & should be summarily dismissed. I don't think Rovers want to be going back to court or a tribunal against a manager do they, didn't work out too well last time.

And it always is for others. I'm not a blind defender of the club, as my initial post made clear. I always try to look at things objectively, from all angles, just like any good lawyer should.

Hang on, the whole tenor of my post was that if Rovers have dropped a bollock, then legally they're in a very tight spot. I was in essence agreeing with Rev but, in his insatiable desire to blame the club for everything & explicitly stating it was a deliberate act of sabotage to drop said bollock (by who, goodness only knows), he misread my caveat that the fact that O'Brien's deal was last minute was not the club's fault. And it wasn't. Put it another way, could a deal for O'Brien have been done earlier in the window? No it couldn't; he only became available to us once WBA and Sheff Utd thrown their hands in at what, 3pm yesterday. Then Rev chose to antagonize by making it personal in questioning my ability as a lawyer to understand the situation correctly, despite me having stated that in my legal opinion we were in a tough spot!!! The mind boggles.

Read the post properly before making knee jerk reactions please. I said it looks like it is an error on a Rovers employee's part (therefore if so Rovers fault vicariously - we agree) but the fact that it was a last minute deal wasn't the club's fault, it was down to the player's late availability & him dithering on whether he had other options. The only nonsense being spouted in this is you stating the situation is deliberate.

Give over.

Been busy all day, have read Nixon's saga and not much else. Taking that as correct, this is really borderline & depends how legally-minded the EFL are. As a lawyer myself I know that service of all the right documents at the right time in the right method is imperative. Minor errors or omissions are, more often than not, fatal. Eg if a document (or documents) are not served in a prescribed way, service will be deemed ineffective even if the oppo admits they were received in time but in a non-prescribed manner. Or if a document is unsigned, or if a key document is missing, good luck arguing it in a relief from sanctions application. Sorry if that worries folk more.... FWIW, it sounds as though an admin error was made by a Rovers employee brought about as a consequence of the last minute nature of the deal, which in itself does not sound like it was Rovers fault. This is why last minute deals are a risk, but doesn't mean they should be avoided. O'Brien was clearly worth trying for, hence why we agreed to all demands, and it wasn't the club's fault that that situation arose.

Well I hope that's not an omen!!

You've got to admit this is all rather exciting. Never thought I'd ever be staying up waiting for a Rich Sharpe exclusive!!

Oh no, this site is starting to glitch under the pressure!