Exiled_Rover

Who cares at this point? It could have been £300m, none of it would have been reinvested. The worst thing that can happen now is he moves to a bigger club and we get a juicy sell on fee to keep the wolves from the door for another 6 months.

Is it their money they've put in?

We get a tribunal fee if he joins an English team.

The Academy is the only reason we continue to exist as a club. Without the likes of Carter, A. Wharton, Lenihan, Hanley, S. Wharton, JRC, Nyambe, Travis, Buckley et al we'd probably be in L1/2 if not folded completely. Jack's legacy has propped up the Venkys for a decade.

He's on record as saying he wants to play in the Premier League, so it's pretty clear he vastly overrates his own ability. I'd suggest it was a fair offer for a 21 year old player, but he wanted parity with more established, better players and so talks broke down.

It's about development - getting first team minutes into the likes of Montgomery (I doubt he's good enough, but I haven't seen him play his natural position yet), Duru, Batty et al will bring them on. As we're seeing though, the vultures of football (alas not just English football as Juventus are after one of our players and I know another went to Spain a few years ago) have identified that we're a carcass to be picked clean and they're doing so. Any talented players will be gone before you can even remember their names - Phillips, Finneran et al. You're left with the next round of Buckley / JRC / Travis type talents if you're lucky.

I raised this point in the Academy thread - I don't know how the likes of Sunderland, Boro, Bristol City et al hang on to their Academy graduates and they aren't poached from the crib like ours seem to be. Sunderland have just sold Watson (the guy who scored the winner in the Playoff final) for £12m to Brighton and everyone seems to think Rigg is the best thing since sliced bread.

Inter embarrassed themselves last night. Heads went down at 2-0 - the other three goals were scored against players going at 60%. I also didn't appreciate Ferdinand trying to paint it as a win for football - PSG have the biggest wage bill in Europe and have spent over £600m in transfer fees the last two years alone.

Having dealt with HMRC in the past it doesn't matter if it's their mistake, you'll still end up paying.

I genuinely think the Celtic and Rangers fans would eat him alive, but he'd earn a fair whack.

Again, Broughton tried to re-up him and Dolan billy-big-balled him. He's left a lot of money on the table the last two years because he's backed himself to do better. Let's see how it plays out for him.

If his decision making was better I'd be happy with 7 from a wide man with Dolan's skill set. He works his socks off and can hold up the ball, but he doesn't stretch the field. Hedges is a L1 player at best.

I'd have too much professional pride and respect for myself to even do that at Burnley.

Is that their plan for the whole stadium?

135 years of existence, really. The last 15 years we've been in purgatory.

Eustace literally walked out of a club in the playoffs for a relegation threatened club in January. Why anyone thinks we'll spend any money in the summer is beyond me. The writing is absolutely on the wall.

Yes, but they listed Neville's house as a company property for farming et al, which it obviously wasn't, for a massive tax break. If you stumbled upon that sort of casual fraud wouldn't you thoroughly investigate the company too?

Yep - players and HMRC are still being paid so there's nothing to see here as far as the EFL are concerned.

As I understand it we're at the inconvenience stage, and have been for 2 years - it's become an impediment for the Venkys because of the money that would sit in a Government account awaiting the resolution of this trial. They clearly know they have a very, very good chance of losing this case and that money, which is why they're so reluctant to pay it. Which again begs the question, why not just sell Rovers if you're so reluctant to fund them? It's one less overseas liability you have to worry about - and one that absolutely detests you to boot.

Broughton tried to get him to re-up from that improved offer (whatever it was), but he turned us down. By the sounds of it he hasn't really been interested in renegotiating since then. Who knows how much money he's left on the table in the short term by taking this approach - certainly several thousand pounds a week for two years.

What is there currently to celebrate?

What are they spending the money on? Certainly not the team.

I'd be absolutely astounded if he gets a PL offer, he's miles off that standard.

I think he's Plan A. A 6'5" aggressive, athletic CF who wins the vast majority of contested balls and brings others into play. You build around that and let the others (Cantwell, Winger, Winger) start taking over the game.

Easy enough to resolve, fire Ismael.