That's an almighty leap of logic, although that's nothing new for you. I'd suggest it's probably because Leo is much easier to type than Walhstedt rather than some mythical fatherly bond.

Batty is clearly miles off at the moment - they've not given him a look in at LB (think Travis, Brittain and Pickering have all played there this year). He needs to play games - if they can get him half a season starting every week in L2 it'd do him the world of good right now.

Do you think Ireland could ever beat England?

Moran is a good player and I think he'll develop into a very good one. That said, if you told me we could only own Moran or A.Wharton it'd be Adam every day and twice on match day.

I've just seen that Wrexham graphic. Must have used the same geography expert that worked on Robin Hood with Ridley Scott.

And I'd say it's about wrong based on my experiences of the people I encounter at the match. Funny that.

We offered him more money (although not significantly so) and we're much closer to the West Midlands where he's from. Apparently he's a bit of a homebody.

Plymouth were desperate to keep him.

That's entirely wrong.

If he fails to make it at the Premier League club they sell him for more than they bought him for based on his 'Premier League academy' pedigree. It really is a sham.

No.

I'd add an extra £5m on any transfer fee when dealing with Spurs.

As low class as taking a first choice GK on a loan with a guaranteed future fee so you can defer his payment to the next financial window?

Yep - as predicted a horrendous career move for him, purely motivated by tripling his wages.

Ash Phillips has gone to Plymouth on loan.

Exactly. That or I'm going to complain to HR cos I don't get 30-40% of my colleagues wage when he leaves and I pick up his slack. They'll be incremental wage boosts and we don't have Bennett/ Mulgrew / Cairney / Rhodes knocking around the place now. It's mostly kids and a few senior pros.

It is, but I imagine it's like how we tried to start a bidding war for Phillips. Teams are just going to fall back on the release clause in the contract and wait it out.

If Football Manager is anything to go by, you have to pay the release clause in full - if triggering it is the only reason the team will sell him, obviously.

Better shot stopper, better positionally. At the moment he's weak on crosses and is getting no help from his back 4. Hopefully he'll learn to just come and get the ball, regardless of who he clears out on the way.

The apple fell far from the tree then.

If Broughton manages to shift Gallagher off the wage bill this January (with any sort of transfer fee to boot) then he's a miracle worker. I just don't see it happening.

But Pears is literally a worse GK than Wahlstedt...

Not really. He is a good Championship CM, but he's limited to certain systems. He's clearly not good enough for someone to outright pay our asking price, but a loan is an enticing option for many clubs in this league.

I'm convinced we don't need £20m a year just to sustain. That figure hasn't changed for years, yet all we've done for the past 3+ years is slash the wage bill.

I'm not saying he'll be a world beater cos Brighton spent £4m on him as a teenager, nor am I saying he'll fail 'cos he didn't hit the ground running at Coventry. I'll literally wait to see what he does in a Rovers shirt before passing judgement.