He's got these players sweating blood for the shirt - he's clearly a very good motivator. If we're interested in Kent (I'd be worried about what type of contract he wants more than anything) and we can get him in a room with Eustace I think we have a pretty good chance of signing him.

I'd take that first window with a loaned striker - which would only be £3m in transfer fees (plus obviously significant wages).

I'm talking about making the decision in the summer - so the Kiwi would have 6 months to bed in / impress.

There's 'experience' then there's 'one foot in retirement'.

I hope all of these links are just the Scouting team doing their due diligence and things being linked. Absolutely nobody is getting excited for the likes of Hanley, Schlupp et al holding up a Rovers shirt in January. Go buy that CB from Reading. Convince Kent that we can rejuvenate his career and go and loan a big, strong, fast CF from a Premier League team that we couldn't possibly afford. It's not rocket science.

If he's as good as everyone says he is you relegate Batth to the bench as cover (if you extend his contract) or you sell Hyam. If you stand still in this game you're dead.

Anyone going to suggest any permanent transfers, or just loans?

He's not very good. We have experienced players in Hyam, Batth and S. Wharton. If we're investing at CB we either need to see what the highly rated Academy CBs can do or go and buy a young one from L1.

I think the accent is less likely to be off-putting to them - so I hope the gold chain and the tracksuit works it's magic and they go for a suave chino-clad Italian instead. We need someone to point out how much he says "you know" to them in media interviews. Once you hear it you can't unhear it.

For what purpose?

He was a 70 minute man and you could tell very early on in a game whether he'd been told he was expected to play the full 90. If he'd been given that instruction, he often went hiding for 20 minutes - it was like clockwork. Similar to how you could tell whether Emerton was going to have a good game by his first encounter with the opposing LB. If he could knock it past them and run he'd have a stormer. If they matched him stride for stride he'd spend the rest of the game passing it backwards and sideways.

I don't think the O'Brien transfer breakdown was an admin error either - someone saw the future fee (£10m on promotion) and nixed it. We had McGuire in the building and sorted, having had to agree to pay more money after the initial move was scuppered. I think Broughton went rogue here and they fired him soon afterwards.

There won't be. As I said earlier in the thread, I was surrounded by fans I've never seen before - all filled with utter hatred for Burnley. This was their cup final, they won't be back, sadly.

Manager is the most important decision you can make - well worth the compensation package. We were discussing this after the Burnley match - the big advantage we have over most teams in this division is that we simply have a better manager. Most have better squads.

Much, much quicker though.

Honestly it was always the right decision to sell him. Yes he was an important player for us (up until that point) but they'd spoken about how tight budgets were and how we had to be a trading club for years. Bournemouth were offering well above his market value and he had 6 months left on his contract. It should have been an easy sell. Easier too if those inside Brockhall had any inkling that he was going to down tools for 6 months. Similar to the BBD situation (and the Dolan situation now) - you simply can't let First Team players run their contracts down. It's bad business.

Twitter.

He won't die wondering that's for sure.

No problem - they sold the wheels and the engine over the last few years. It was rusting anyway after 15 years of neglect.

He's just not the type of player we need. It's a sticking plaster (an expensive one if he wants a permanent contract at the end of the loan when he's 33) at best.

Losing a manager to the likes of WBA would be a kick in the teeth.

Glad to see he's doing well. I thought he was hard done to here, but two separate managers didn't fancy him so it is what it is.

Massively helped by a referee that let them cynically break up play every time we beat one of their players.

We wouldn't. We operate with more class - even if our boardroom is full of talentless chancers and our owners are scum.

Of the two I'd take the chance on Kent, even though he probably won't be match fit until February at the earliest.