A bit pie in the sky but could the £7m reference be to Patrick Bamford? Be a bit crazy if Rovers were after him but that figure used by TM was a strange choice. I also remember Phil Hay the Leeds journalist saying we were interested in Kemar Roofe. That may be one possible target.

I just get a sneaky feeling and I hope I’m proven right on this but I think Mowbray might be a lot more ambitious in the targets he is pursuing than we all think. That article implies that Chapman and Armstrong are on the D list, or the C list at a maximum.

4 minutes ago, Tom said:

Hmmm not sure it sounds like anything major is close and Chapman and Armstrong will only be considered if all else fails.

I suppose that means that players we are targeting and still haven’t moved are considered better than Armstrong and Chapman. Can this be considered a good sign?

We all just want a proper permanent deal that everybody can be happy with. Will lift the whole place I think.

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Ok, well its time to get carried away so. Surely that means we are signing him? Otherwise Sharpe can feck right off 

This is gonna be a huge anticlimax. This transfer window is agony.

Has Duane Holmes gone anywhere yet? Sky linked us with him a while back.

Ultimately Mowbray can’t win in this situation. We all know that we need a nasty centre half. If he goes out and gets one permanent some will moan about ‘wasting the budget’, but if we get a loan some will say ‘why are we relying on loans?’ and ‘we should have kept Wharton instead’. Who’d want to be a football manager eh?

All of this “if nobody else came in” is quite a pointless exercise. In honesty none of us have the foggiest idea of who we’ll bring in, in what positions and the number of permanent additions. Only Mowbray, Waggott, Silvestre and other club officials know that. We only know that we won’t be finishing the transfer window having added no players to the squad. There is no evidence of this happening.

1 minute ago, Neal said:

So... If local reporter in direct contact with the club is saying we're not in for Nmecha... Does that make Alan Prixon Billy bullshit? 

We never knew that did we!

Diaz isn’t a striker though? We need 1 or 2 out and out centre forwards!

Rich Sharpe saying the City player isn’t Nmecha. Who is it then?

41 minutes ago, Stuart said:

With “some level of commitment” Warnock would have probably had us promoted instead of relegated.

We agree on that.

6 minutes ago, Neal said:

A lot of talk of loans, resale value etc... Are people forgetting who owns the club in this Mowbray euphoria? Are people forgetting how they sold around 40 million pounds worth of players in 18 months and reinvested 300k in Derek Williams? If we get a decent player be it a loan of perm, be happy cus the bottom line is it doesn't really matter as sales are highly unlikely to be reinvested. 

I’m not saying we’d have spent loads in the summer of 2016 but I think part of Coyle being given the job was that he agreed to work with practically no budget whereas almost all other managers would have looked for some level of commitment, especially Warnock.

The reality is we can speculate, guess and moan at hypotheticals but Rovers business is done strictly under wraps these days. Even when players are correctly identified such as Davenport, they said it was a loan when actually it was permanent, and for Palmer they got the length of loan incorrect. The reality is it wouldn’t surprise me if we signed someone that we haven’t been linked with and catch everyone off guard. Let’s hope that is the case and if so let’s hope it’s a good permanent addition.

14 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Signings are only one option, especially with a price increase. Williams did the opposite. Reduced the price of tickets and got bums on seats. Played the longer game of making money through the league position. Granted it works better in the PL but for what we actually make out of that 17% hike, one, we’d have probably made the same by increasing footfall and, two, for what Venkys are already putting in to cover losses it adds very little in the overall scheme of things.

Add to that 13-14,000 potential ST holders (cheap tickets after the feelgood of promotion) and a couple of thousand walk-ons (at reasonable prices) and we could have been looking a 20k+ gates at a bouncing Ewood.

As it stands we are going to be lucky to get to 12k all in when we aren’t playing a Leeds or a PNE with a massive following.

Waggott has opted for the worst and laziest option, fishing in the barrel. But thanks to 8,000 or so hardy fans he has just made 17% additional revenue so who cares right? Wouldn’t surprise me if Waggott is a trained accountant. An entrepreneur he is not.

I agree and would love 13-14k season ticket holders but I believe we can achieve that with a longer term approach of slow and steady growth. I think we all know the only way the support base will get a shot in the arm is if we are playing Premiership football again.

41 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

With the greatest of respect that's one very simplistic,almost naive business model to me.Keep hitting the loyal few even if results don't go our way?... even the diehards have a limit I do believe.

No Millions for transfers...why not,is that unreasonable to ask of the great ones of Pune?.Are the Raos still living by their ridiculous Champagne tastes on Beer money ideology ?

Why we ask is the Manager and Club not being backed by our so called owners.... I digress I know but it's a question that burns deep.

 

 

It’s a question we’ve all been asking for a number of years now, but we are nowhere nearer the answer.

8 minutes ago, Stuart said:

He should try to grow revenue by growing the fan base not biting.

I agree, but the club isn’t in a position to grow fan bases by shelling out millions upon millions on transfer fees. Therefore the only way the club increases revenue short term is by increasing ticket prices and securing as much sponsorship as possible. Then look for thousands more ticket sales as results on the pitch follow. We’re an unknown quantity in the Championship this time around, and our season could go either way.

9 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Was 10,500 the figure quoted he wanted sold come kick off time?...we're miles off.

'Increasing revenue substantially in this area'...I really doubt that JeffRover if the increase is minimal! 

 

I acknowledged that it was a price hike for most fans.

8 minutes ago, pomster said:

ihttp://www.skysports.com/football/news/11694/11454677/birmingham-city-confirm-transfer-embargo-by-english-football-league

Long long overdue. One of the clubs we should be looking to finish above.

5 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Interesting that it has finally emerged via Birmingham's website that they are not allowed to sign any players. Don't think they concede they are in an official embargo, just that the League are not approving any transfers, and that they are working with the League to resolve the situation, no indication given as to how long the embargo is for or what they have to do to lift it. 

Also no mention from the League themselves what is happening, in stark contrast to the blaze of publicity they made when Rovers were under an embargo.

Also odd that Bolton are now paying money out despite being in dispute with players over unpaid wages and bonuses and QPR are rumoured to be trying to sign Jackson from Stanley for more than £1 million. 

If ever 2 clubs should be embargoed it is those 2.

Whole thing stinks.

A Birmingham fan messaged me earlier saying 12+ Championship clubs have broken the rules but only 4 have been embargoed, so that's 3 beyond Birmingham. No idea who they are but would assume on business done so far that 2 of them are Villa and Sheffield Wednesday. 

 

I’d heard that Wednesday had been embargoed on the sly and the club aren’t telling the fans.

4 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

So in reality we are just a few hundred up from where we were after Christmas last season.

A 17% hike in price across the board was always a gamble and it looks like it hasn’t come off...

I sort of agree with that but despite price hikes we’ve still sold more, so the club will be increasing revenue substantially in this area. Waggott’s objectives are to increase club revenues. I agree we would have all liked a higher number to be sold but in reality if prices were slashed, how many would we sell? 12,000 - 13,000 if we are being generous. The club could actually lose money this way, so it’s a difficult balance to strike.

2 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

If we are looking at a figure of around 9,000 sold then that must be disappointing for all concerned.

Yes I would have hoped for 10k. The slow transfer window and price increase probably stopped that happening. Hopefully we can get close to 11k including half season tickets if we’re doing ok in the league. Gives a foundation to build upon.

4 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I did a quick add up last night and reached 9000. 

Did you stop when reaching 9k or is the actual number sold just over 9k?

Lots of mixed messaging at the minute. One article implies 2 more signings earlier last week but then the latest interview with Mowbray indicated “a few before the deadline and a couple before the loan deadline”. That sounds like 5 additions including Palmer to me. I don’t understand an earlier comment that the way Mowbray is speaking means we won’t fill the positions we need, but we’ll have to wait and see.