The Head of (formerly work experience) Popcorn, hotdog, ushers and bog cleaning has spoken.

Alan 'pin the tail on the donkey' Nixon.

Parkinson was the guy i watched on a podcast recently and he spoke really well he didn't sound like a guy ready to leave Plymouth he clearly had a plan in place for the expected relegation and rebuild. Talked about the 200k plus population of Plymouth and the huge catchment area they have and his plans to build the club. I don't know whether to be worried or positive and them being after a guy like that but the reason will be he is cheap because of relegation and their small budget. What does he know about turning an ailing big championship club into a promotion contender on no budget though ???

Thousands already have.

I don't recall Broughton saying we've made him a great offer it's up to him now etc etc, if i'm right he just said the whole thing is on hold because Dolan is changing agent but i expect it to be concluded in December (2023). And that was it i don't think they've tried very hard at all to keep him because like other players they couldn't at that point commit to a good long term contract. Maybe Gestede has made a big last ditch attempt but it's nothing more than a token gesture now and all along i think knowing what we know of the penny wise pound foolish Suhail he'll have been eyeing compo and the chance to swerve a 15k a week commitment.

Entirely plausible but the name of the game for players is make as much as you can as quick as you can, short career and all that so there is no way he's snubbing 2/3/400k in lost money to gamble on a big signing on fee 2 years later. I just cannot for the life of me see that happening and there'd be no need for it either you'd just instruct your agent to come up with something that suited both parties and take the instant pay rise. What if he's best pals with Nyambe ? Surely he'd get the opposite advice. There will always be players who slip away for nowt but it's like it's part of model here now its happened that much. There are a couple of common denominators and they hold ultimate responsibility for some of it if not all.

I don't think they'll spend money on Trav and he'll be looking for a long term deal as well so they'll not tie that type of brass up in him i don't think. Batth i think that will happen, not sure about Weimann at his age and injury status he'd be daft to walk away from here.

If you pay someone enough for a doddle they'll keep their mouths shut and let others run it whilst fronting it up so external or internal doesn't really matter as under this ownership the same script will be followed.

And has been for ten years.....

'Derby/Boro get 27k at home, our fans don't come, that's why players leave and they pay more' Is the standard club defence mechanism for the deluded masses. Pointless pointing out Dolan was a first team player a few years ago earning £325 a week whilst this club has thrown £20k a week one or two year deals at the likes of Downing/Rodwell etc now Cantwell for very little in return. That isn't investment, the likes of Dolan are. Is he going to turn down even a two grand a week pay rise two years ago to stay on his current money to the end of his deal and just write off £200k so he can walk out into the unknown ? Is he bollocks but if people want to swallow that more fool them. He's been lowballed initially, changed agent and they've asked for big money, the usual stand off has happened, Broughton has left and its been shelved. SwagHail have eyed a bit of compo and the chance to swerve handing out a good contract. And here we are another asset worth a few million off on another sideways journey.

Job share.

So an itk account now putting it about Dolan has gone from lowest paid player to been offered to be one of the highest but snubbed it. Predictable rubbish rinse and repeat from the Lenihen saga when after 18 months of nothing he was apparently offered to be one of the highest paid a few weeks before his contract ran out. The player himself had a very different take on it. Always the players who want out no matter what they are offered according to 'sources' but nobody ever asks why.

If 33 clubs are in the frame i'd say it's the rules that are the problem in this instance.

Going into the season with Toth and Pears as 1 and 2 gives us the best couple of keepers for a while and whilst Pears is saleable i dread to thing who they'll replace him with.

Not sure on the state of play with that but i presume they are much smaller self sufficient operations. I do know something bit the dust over there and i don't think the big Swiss vaccine plant plans they had ever got off the ground.

Hmmm knowing how things work over there i think they've every right to be worried they'd never see their money again regardless of the outcome. Main danger though is it could just go on year after year and tie up tens of millions although their alleged mega generosity due to being double billionaires seems to have disappeared these last few years.

It just means they were desperate to get him off the payroll so probably took a small fee in return for adding a big sell on.

Well if mine's correct i think it was our mate Nixon putting it about so how true it might have been is up for debate 😁

But giving a govt who are actively trying to nail you for something they presumably haven't yet found is a massive risk for anyone. Again not defending them it's just the harsh reality every time they hand some over or provide guarantees they might be waving goodbye to it if they govt turns something else up or comes up with an excuse to pilfer it. It is to my mind an impossible situation that could go on and on, there is only ONE realistic outcome unless it all gets canned quickly and that is Rovers go bust. There is only two realistic ways to counter that under their watch pay up when needed or SELL !

Aye wasn't that Derek Shaw's thing last time to taps were off, running around offering a big discount on future add on's paid up front ?

They got rumbled for the House and Akon misuse of funds listed as football investment but how ? Surely they had to be being looked at for suspicion of something else for that to flag up after all these years. Something else kicked all this off and what we are seeing now is collateral damage and iv'e often wondered if there's ever been a request over there for the British equivalent to comb the books over here. I presume they'd have to present some strong evidence or suspicion though but seething as Starmer has allowed himself to be penetrated by the Indian govt you never know if doors could open.

I expect V's finance people will say ok we'll send half the 4.9 because we still have to bond some of it so you will have to find the rest. I predicted a Tom Cairney style cut price emergency sale this summer and i still reckon it'll happen, anyone who can stump up an instant up front 1.5/2m can take their pick. Highest earners only though.

They always avert disaster it's the one thing they seem good at so i expect that bloke from Bolton will be getting another call for one of his high interest short term special offer jobbies.

Well yes but if he was being offered a significant rise then he wouldn't have done that unless he has a cast iron big offer from somewhere else. 3.5k to 7k for arguments sake is a hell of a lot of money over 2 years for anyone let alone a young player who'll be nowhere near millionaire status yet. So in my mind he just wouldn't turn that down he'd sign but have it negotiated in a buy out clause or something or other. So i think he was either lowballed or offered the same but with a rolling extra year option or - a long shot - he was on enough to not bother when he was only offered a modest rise. As you say 'who knows' but the pointers aren't particularly good on the clubs side knowing what we know and i don't think for one min they took a kid from £325 pwk onto a ten grand a week contract knowing the way they do things here. And i'm not saying that's wrong i believe kids should have to prove consistency and improvement to jump up the pay grade but once they've shown it and future potential sales income they should be tied down accordingly. I mean they threw a 5 year contract at Buckley after a few decent games and the difference between him and Dolan has always been night and day.

From their point of view in terms of clinging onto the club the best thing they ever did was ditch Barclays and move the banking to India. From our point of view that probably wasn't a good thing.