As far as I am concerned the club and Nixon are just laying the groundwork for their excuses. I'm not interested in semantics of "have offered" "are willing to offer" "open to discussing" etc. Either they are signed or they are not, end of. Until club signs them I don't care what comes out in the press.

I would worry that even if we do offer Trav/Tronstad/Brittain etc contracts at market rate they would still want to leave because of the shitshow at board level. The players aren't stupid and I maintain the Eustace situation will have woken them up from any last vestiges of hope while Suhail and Venkys are in charge. We only have ourselves to blame, not only for not offering contracts until now, but also for creating an environment that any sensible/good player would want to leave.

ESC Slots become important though, per Andy Watson, Toth and Kargbo both use a slot, as will De Neve, so we would only have one slot left, not even counting Mafoumbi, who we will surely get rid of if he is using a slot. But surely De Keersmaecker, Al Sahafi and even Terho would all use an ESC slot, so we could only get one of them, in which case I would want De Keersmaecker. Unless somebody knows a way to circumvent the 4 slots or one of them qualifies another way.

Agree that as a 150th kit it's nothing special, but it is a nice home kit for any other year, and I like Macron, our home kit this past year was one of my favs in at least the past 15 years... Really hope they release a proper anniversary kit however, especially since they have teases the Maltese cross.

Someone quoted earlier that the Indian Gov has like a 95% win rate in cases they take to trial for financial stuff, so we can be pretty certain that: A - Venkys are guilty of what they are accused of and B - Venkys will lose the case; hence no funding for us

The wage bill staying the same is a 25% cut in real terms over the last 5 years, which means we cannot compete on wages. Women's team cut, maintenance budgets gutted, fan engagement funds cut, coaching staff budgets cut, transfer budget cut. Only budget that hasn't been cut is the directors wages for Waggot, Suhail etc al. That's increased exponentially to the 3rd highest in the league despite the 3rd worst revenue.

Given they have explicitly stated any incoming money is not going to be re-invested in the transfer budget, the only answer is as you suggest, to cover day-to-day operations because Venky's can't/won't send us any money. Cutting every budget and neglecting maintenance as well, yet somehow Suhail's salary increases...

Do we read that as he wants out of this shitshow? Flip him for a profit is Suhail's dream, consequences be damned

Its a concerted policy by the owners to make sure they don't have players contracted beyond 2 season in case they want to further gut the budget and risk having players on higher wages from a previous deal.

"Pessimistic" about resigning Batth and Weimann, so predictable. We have low-balled them with 1-year contracts and they want to leave. Club to spin as greedy older players/wanted guarantees to start. Replacement a toddler from the Belgian D tier.

It's probably a good thing we got him in early, the coaching staff can drill his positional job into him and hopefully bulk him up a bit for the championship over pre-season.

Ohashi was very good, but you're being unfair on the others, Kargbo is an unknown after a couple of cameos, but Gueye was our best player in Jan-Mar until Ismael joined, and Toth looks a much more assured keeper than Pears.

Would be similar to his Barnsley side which made the playoffs, so would make sense. Was also on a strict budget there. Kargbo was a 10 at Cesena, so deffo fits there, and can imagine he'd be a good foil for Cantwell.

Well its a signing and we paid a fee; perhaps uninspiring but his pace could be useful and he gives some flexibility to change formations. And as a rule always back a lad when he plays for us unless he gives us reason not to in his play/attitude.

LT has never had any interest in the court cases and funding issues, too happy to repeat Suhails line.

3rd highest director remuneration in Championship despite 4th lowest revenue; despicable. 11th most debt in England is also frightening, and entirely the fault of the owners as far as I am concerned. Their management is debt-loading the club and giving them an excuse to keep cutting budgets while trying to increase revenue. But this will only decrease revenue and competitiveness in the long term and risk further losses. It literally makes no sense.

Globally famous club, celebrity owners who are rich and more than willing to spend both on facilities and players, with a clear goal at reaching the premier league within the next few years. Wrexham are a million miles ahead of us at the minute for any player worth their salt. A complete tragedy of our own making thanks to Venkys. I wish some US investors would buy us to try restore us to where we belong, founding members of EFL and EPL, and historically one of the oldest and most successful clubs in England.

And so Nixon begins peddling the company line, seems Suhail was his in, not Waggott. Batth will not resign, the post just proves we are trying to find a way of blaming him. As for we'll bring in Nade if he doesn't, the usual smokescreen to make it seem like we are being productive. They're not even comparable players, Nade is 8 years younger and left footed, they fill a completely differently roles in the squad. (Now if we do keep Batth and sign Nade, that is a productive move, so can guarantee we won't)

Hopefully Glen and the Coalition have something up their sleeves, because the 25% cut in wages (in real terms versus inflation) is killing us. The only way we will head on the current model in non-league.

LT reporting the Travis links now, I worry that is the first step by the club before we sell him

I thought Hedges was a right winger? He only moved to the left last season/under Eustace. He's never been fast enough to go outside his man and use left foot, and all his best games have come playing on the right and running diagonal lines. Don't want him to start, but it's not a surprise...

Interesting the Jackson seems to think we are still after Sagnan. There can't be a release clause like we initially thought if the alleged bids from Sunderland are £4 million plus. Even if its just the agent drumming interest we would surely be out the running. I wonder if its the first sign of trouble between Ismael and the board; I'd guess he has a better read on French league players than us and he clearly wants a big strong left footed CB. I fear he will disappointed if this is the case...

Can't say I see Marseille swooping in for De Neve, but could be a useful player just for his pace.

Not saying that, just basing the 11 of the players we currently have in the squad, plus Batth who they said they want to keep (not that I think we will at this stage)

Assuming no signings, perhaps Ismael is aiming for something like: Toth Hyam. Batth, Wharton Brittain, Trav, Tron, Ribeiro Cantwell, Kargbo Ohashi