Ipswich's wage budget when they were in League 1 was £19.8M which is about average for a championship club, then they would have had promotion bonuses + the wages whoever they signed once they were in the championship https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/24205704.ipswich-town-accounts-2022-2023-financial-year-revealed/ And £5M of transfer fees last season too with no sales https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ipswich-town/transfers/verein/677/plus/?saison_id=2023&pos=&detailpos=&w_s= Luton's wage bill in their promotion season was apparently £27.6M, a £10M increase on the previous season, which I think was mainly on expensive loans https://swissramble.substack.com/p/luton-town-finances-202223

They both had large wage budgets (*) when they were promoted from the championship. This was especially true of Ipswich who had an average Championship wage budget when they were in League One Edit - * compared to pretty much every team without parachute payments

Edmondson has scored for Macclesfield

National League Cup (U21s) & Premier League Cup (U18s) games on Tuesday The Rochdale v Rovers U21 game will be free to stream on https://www.nationalleaguetv.com/

About £500K wasn't it?

Who could you play as actual wingers from the current (fit) squad? I would be more inclined to play a back 3, with Beck and Brittain as wing backs and Cantwell behind 2 strikers. GK Hyam Batth Pickering Brittain Travis Tronstad Beck Cantwell Ohashi Gueye At least Beck and Brittain can put a cross in, and having 3 men behind them would allow them both to concentrate more on going forwards

Starts today for Batty won 2-0 (FA cup game which cup ties him, which implies he will remain there for the rest of the season) Edmondson scored the 4th in a 5-1 win Eastham drew 1-1 Honor lost 4-3, conceding 2 late goals Michalski lost 2-0 On the bench Farkas came on for the final 10 minutes in a 2-0 defeat Not Involved in squad Markanday Not involved in FA cup game, which may imply a January recall (won 3-1) Garrett Not involved in FA cup game, which may imply a January recall (taken to extra time by Weston Super Mare) O'Riordan Not involved in FA cup game, which may imply a January recall (won 1-0) Wood lost 5-0 Davies won 3-0 Edit - Not really worth its own post, Saadi remained on the bench throughout Sundays game in a 3-2 win

The U21s record since the start of October is won 2, drawn 2 and lost 2, far from stellar, but not quite "used to getting beaten" https://www.rovers.co.uk/Matches/u21?view=results The U18s on the other hand have won only once this season and that was in mid September https://www.rovers.co.uk/Matches/u18?view=results

Hamer on the bench for Sheff Utd

U18s drew 2-2 away at Stoke today, Mullarkey-Matthews featuring for the side for the first time this season. He is out on loan at Bamber Bridge until January but hasn't featured for them since early September. Not sure if he has been injured or out of favour Third year scholar Brad Taylor also came off the bench late to feature for the first time since February. I am assuming he has been injured

Goddard on the bench for Dundalk's final game of the season Marine do not play this weekend so Atcheson and Montgomery start for the U21s tonight https://x.com/academy_brfc/status/1852417529064390961

I think Tyjon is still away, no Leonard or Powell in the squad, and only 4 on the bench, so would imagine there was a late withdrawal/injury, and Leonard with the first team squad tomorrow maybe? Edit - Rovers lost 1-0

An interview in the LET with U21 manager Mike Sheron today, Whilst the headline & main focus was Tyjon and his international exploits, he mentions in passing about the reasoning for the outgoing loans “The philosophy of the club is trying to get some of these younger players out there rather than just waiting for 21s football,” he explained. “Go out there and try to show that you are good players, determined, have good physicality about you and can compete. “But it is not about physicality, sometimes it is about your brain and how you can be successful while maybe not having that physicality. “There are always ways of trying to get better and being effective, and that is hopefully what they are learning.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/crystal-palace-adam-wharton-injury-surgery-glasner-b1188794.html Quotes from the Palace manager state he has been playing on painkillers all season

My argument is that it was a ridiculous decision to play an already injured player in that league cup game. That doesn't mean that they had to throw in the towel for tonight's game. I didn't say that they had to play their U14 reserves, and start the game by smashing the ball into their own goal

Maybe I should have wrote "meaningless in comparison to the £100M+ on offer for remaining in the Premier League for another season" They started an injured player for the 2nd time in a few days, and look to have worsened his injury. It was a terrible decision

Even more perplexing is that tonight's game is a league cup match. Hardly a high priority surely? I can just about understand the balancing act of playing him in league games to protect their Premier League status, even half fit, he is their best midfielder, but playing him in a meaningless cup game was madness

Eze also off injured for Palace after 8 minutes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c20nn9ywx2pt#Line-ups Depending upon the severity of those injuries, that half of football may relegate Palace

Rovers get 4 ESC slots (which is the maximum available. Its based on how many minutes English qualifying players played in recent season/s) Ohashi, Toth, Mafoumbi all take up an ESC spot each Gueye & Tronstad qualified for standard work permits as they played enough games in the Belgian & Dutch leagues which are a good enough standard. So we either have one space left, or none, depending on if the admin work has been done in converting Sigurdsson, from an ESC slot to a standard work permit Unfortunately, we know how good Rovers are at getting admin right Edit - I will add a caveat. It is possible that as Sigurdsson signed permanently on 22nd December (having originally been a loan), that we cannot move him to a standard work permit until the anniversary of his permanent move. The criteria for moving a player from an ESC slot to a standard work permit is that they must have featured in 50% of the minutes that they were available to play. This means that: - If Rovers could move Sigurdsson to a standard work permit over the summer (after he had been at Rovers for 12 months), then he qualified for a standard work permit and we now have a free slot to use in January. - If Rovers have to wait until December (after he had been permanently at Rovers for 12 months) to move him, (or if they neglected to do so over the summer) then he would no longer qualify due to a lack of minutes this season https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/arnor-sigurdsson/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/377665/saison//verein/0/liga/0/wettbewerb/GB2/pos/0/trainer_id/0/plus/1 24/25 Championship 9 5 1.00 1 - - 5 - - - - - 57' 57' 23/24 Championship 30 29 1.07 5 2 - 12 12 1 - - - 291' 1.456'

Sigurdsson played enough games & minutes last season to qualify for a standard work permit rather that the ESC place he originally took up, so it then becomes a case of if the powers that be at Rovers applied for one or not

Accrington haven't stated. All that is known from reports and twitter feeds is that he was subbed off after 11 mins. Maybe a precaution, maybe an injury, maybe even, given the side that Accrington put out (11 academy players named in the 18), it may even have just been a case of starting him to get around selection rules for a low priority cup game (EFL trophy sides have to contain at least 4 players who started the previous league game) https://www.accringtonstanley.co.uk/news/2024/october/29/report-stanley-v-everton-under-21s/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cd6vqp2n0vdt?page=6#Line-ups

Starts tonight for Garrett Batty Edmondson Garretts and Batty's games are live on Sky

4-3 to Arsenal, Leonard hat trick (2 of which were penalties) https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/october/28/report--rovers-under-21s-3-4-arsenal-under-21s/

Michalski & Farkas both started as City of Liverpool lost 1-0