No apology necessary fella. I agree, it's one project after another with this lot. Without some insight from the very switched on Watson the approach would be mystifying to me.

The podcast Elliot did with Andy Watson recently was quite telling about the scouting of these relegated clubs. It seems there is at least a strategy at play, albeit one pushed by a lack of spending power.

I'll not kill you, but will point out that incoming funds mean next to nothing to this club. Taking punts on cheap, young replacements is exactly what the club is doing and we'll see how wise it is to have those types of players as starting midfielders soon, I'm sure. I'd rather they stayed and left for nothing next year. I'd rather the club didn't earn a penny in transfer fees for the foreseeable, to be honest.

They simply do not want to renew either contract, as they didn't want to renew Dolan's. It's not about it being "right for both parties", they don't want these players at the club, period.

No, but we can use reason to deduce that this club, under this ownership wouldn't be paying £2m for a player, and if they were, spending that on this player would be ludicrous. I'm begging you to employ some critical thinking.

I always find being condescending as hell is a good way to get my point across, too.

Partey charged with what everyone - Arsenal hierarchy obviously more acutely than most - knew. Absolutely despicable.

Pretty sure rules are different below the championship so in effect they have ungoverned spending for a period of time due to not having been in the league.

We are so unbelievably fucked this season unless our freebies and cheapos then out to be better than Champions League regulars

I'm so pleased we can add the loss of Batth to the many, many other cases of players walking away from Rovers for reasons unrelated to how poorly the club is run and absolutely aren't a trend. Weight off my back, which is welcome as I've got neck strain from my head being so firmly planted in the sand.

It's a biased view but I can only imagine that if the LET were to go on the attack and start reporting on Shebby, Anderson, the Indian courts and the litany of other scandals related to Rovers in depth and with conviction they would far outstrip their current readership and click through rates. As @Rover1984 said, they very rarely break Rovers news; I'm all over Rovers content online and I can't remember the last time I learned something from the LET. Aside from that, if I were a journalist I would rather be doing some investigative journalism than be a mouthpiece for a club that I don't even support.

Mbappe will be the undoing of this Madrid team

What would you say is the best signifier of someone's potential impact this season?

Without doubt. Insert artificial pauses into the game and fill the void with advertising.

To admit that you would rather have either of our current keepers over TK is to admit that in your eyes the club can do no wrong. Fwiw I quite like Toth, but let's be objective about this.

Wow. If journalism is getting people to pay you to give them cryptic one sentence answers to questions while eating biscuits he's fucking nailed it.

The funniest scene was Sunderland's scouts listing Ibrahimovic on their target list.

The Scottish fella? He seemed competent but exactly the kind of guy you'd turn to manage a club with close to zero money.

Elliot said in his last podcast that it's generally accepted we are "comfortably in the bottom half of the championship" when it comes to financial heft. It's common knowledge, if you choose not to believe it you're only betraying your own naivety.

I was wondering the same thing. I thought you sounded (compared to your usual tone) really quite enthusiastic about this one.

Foreshaw signed on for another year. Forgive my excitement, it's hard to control myself.

People are entitled to change their minds based on changing circumstances. You would do well to remember that. He won't be signing for Rovers.

So of our current options you'd rather have Pears start as our number 1 this season?

I can't help but feel it's a contrarian take.

I don't think there's any evidence at all that Toth is worse than Pears