Where in any post have I declared my mind is made up? (This is a tedious argument, because you’ve knee-jerked at criticism of a move we’ve made. Someone’s going to stop in and tell us to stop bickering, so let’s leave it before they do).

You’re absolutely right, I am making assumptions about a Brighton youth player. The Brighton fan I play football with has described him as “high hopes, time wasted at Coventry, hopeful he can kick on” and I’ve seen 5’8”, 20 years old, Coventry’s form improving after he came out of the team and a lot of comments about a lack of physicality, with a sprinkling of comments about a lack of commitment. Would you prefer I base my assumptions on his YouTube highlight reel?

Fairly confident I can isolate this one deal from the separate Travis deal. In fact, I have.

Absolutely no idea which position he’s gonna play here. Ahead of Szmodics? No. Ahead of Wharton? No. Ahead of Garrett? Maybe. Ahead of Tronstad? No. Feels a lot like Brighton have called us up and said, “Yasin’s not having a nice time at Coventry, can he come and play with you?”

This new lad is 5’8” and will likely be kept out of the side by Szmodics and Dolan, when he’s back. We now only really have Tronstad as a defensive-minded midfielder. Extremely difficult to see what good this does for the team in the short term. January is a long month, granted, but it’s off to a poor start. If it’s true what was learned from Glen and Mark’s meeting with Waggott, about Gregg not really fancying Szmodics initially, then I am beginning to have doubts about the transfer strategy. Got a lot of sympathy with recruitment after the budget cuts, where clearly hands were being forced and the rug pulled from under them. If we’re having to take players from underperforming loans, to replace high earners that we’re loaning to clubs further up the table and there are budgetary motivations for that… well, let’s hope not, because that sounds a lot like the kind of chicanery that doesn’t end well.

Have to assume (hope) this has fairly significant promotion-related bonuses and/or future fee. I do think Travis might have stagnated here a bit, slightly misaligned with the manager. He’s provided some excellent work in his time here and I hold him in high regard. Enjoyed a lot of his shithousery over the years. The logic of this seems mad, though. We’ve done well to keep a lot of deals we’re doing out of the press in the past, so have to assume (again, hope) there’s something in the offing. Losing club captain/current highest apps (I believe) player and Premiership loan player who’d been a regular in the first team and only bringing in a development player from League One isn’t a good first week of business.

Pretty cruel on the player to deny him an opportunity to turn out for his parent club.

Well, if Birmingham really wanted “no fear football,” I know a guy that does that… Any danger they make a swoop for JDT, do we think?

Extremely poor result. Have a good NYD evening, if you can, all.

Fuuuuucking hell, the penny just dropped for me.

You can include Sigurdsson in that criticism, which is fair, but crosses are going to come in and we can probably only handle about 20% of any of them that do come in. That should be bread and butter for a centre back

If you’re struggling against the likes of Rotherham, there aren’t many you won’t struggle against. A loss here is the kind of thing that makes even the likes of me question the manager. This should have been a nailed-on win, they don’t get much more nailed-on than this, in this league, anything less is a huge disappointment.

Stunningly poor. Hill again.

Yeah, heart was in the mouth when he overran it, but an excellent ball after he won the 50/50.

Getting sloppy up top again, seems that conceding knocks confidence throughout the team. Cannot concede again before the half, but if we’re not smart with how we deal with their forward efforts, there’s every danger we end up doing so. Disappointing to see, we really need a win today to stop the rot.

I am convinced we don’t train for defensive corners.

Fans priced out again today (£25 a ticket, I was told this morning). Shame as a lot of people have the day off and would have attended otherwise, but what a moronic bit of commercial again from those on that side of the club. Looking alright so far, but we’ve got to be solid at set pieces today…

Christ, what’s their recruitment like? ”who’s that lad who scored two chips against us? Yeah… he’s top scorer in the league, as well? Banging, make an offer.”

I’m surprised there’s enough interest in him by this stage. Would have thought he’d interest clubs going up from or coming down into the championship at the end of the season. Leaving now to a Championship club (or lower Premiership, even), I’d be a bit miffed at him. Only club I wouldn’t have an issue with at any time, is going as a squad player to West Ham, given what it would mean to him on a number of levels. Leaving end of season, for a good fee: fair play, he’s contributed a lot for a relatively low outlay and been an excellent example to everyone. Actually think he could contribute at a lot of Premiership clubs, as a squad player/impact sub. Obviously missing some attributes, but he’d be a serious handful late in the game.

Forgive me for laughing extremely loudly at the usage of this. Excellent work.

As far as I’ve heard (distantly, mind), there’s a new generation of Raos being groomed to take over.

Since you keep asking the room; I’m a fan of JDT and his tactics.

For me, there are very few people (tealady, ball boys, bar staff, etc) at the club that aren’t at least a bit responsible for what’s happening. The manager is responsible as the main face of the club, the players are making the kinds of errors that come from complacency, lack of effort/discipline or fatigue, the DoF is delivering about the best you could imagine with his budget and remit, but all of them have this run on their records now. I genuinely believe that more players back from injury (Hedges, JRC and Gallagher) and we see an improvement on the pitch. Rotation increases, players can give more, for longer. We all know the truth though - this club has a ceiling, which is imposed by exec level and the owners. This is a nice little earner for the jobsworths (include Benson, Lowe and Johnson, there, by the way) so going above this level barely suits their agenda, least of all Waggott’s. “JDT Out” is understandable after we’ve been watching this kind of football, but this is temporary. Four winnable games in January. Go unbeaten in January and there’ll be very few calling it.

I’d be inclined to agree on the principle, but I think he’s just not met the challenge of being the captain. Probably best for everyone if we can get a good fee for him and he can try and kick on elsewhere.

Sparks, he’s solidly linked with the Palace job, which is basically up for grabs at the minute. I can’t think of a manager with a higher stock and currently out of a job in this country at present, just as a lot of clubs here and abroad will be looking at their managers as disposable. He badmouthed this club’s current administration over the O’Brien debacle to the extent that you could only assume we marched into his living room the previous Christmas Day and pissed on his family. If you think Steve Cooper’s even taking the call, you’re beyond help.