Yep, sounds pretty pissed off at us, and he's right to be. That said, I think he's foolish to assert it isn't their fault whatsoever. It's at least 90% ours, probably more like 95% or more, but why would you keep your player in training when an offer has come in on deadline day that he needs to decide on, and travel, do a medical and sign forms?

And I think you're reading into it what you want to. Why would anybody, and I do mean anybody, be stupid enough to go and have a sitdown meal a couple of hours before the deadline when they still need to travel? Extremely unlikely it was something like that. Eating from lunchtime to 8.30pm? Wtf are you talking about? He was in Nottingham at lunchtime...they only got the memo that the wanted to join us at 1.30/2pm. Then obviously he had to travel to Manchester, and do a medical. Stop making things up. He made a passing reference to making sure the lad had some food in his belly, you're trumping it up into something it's very unlikely to be. The whole process has been enough of a fuckup, there isn't any need to fabricate things in order to criticise it.

Interesting. Take whatever we were paying for 6 months of O'Brien and slap it on top of BBD's contract offer. Unlikely to make any difference but might as well try.

I should think that's exactly the sort of thing they did. Nothing in the quote says or implies otherwise.

Don't listen to Sparks. He didn't say they were 'having a meal', he said 'we wanted to make sure he was okay and had had some food'. Whilst those might technically be defined as the same thing, there is a large difference in inference. I took it as they brought him some butties or a pizza or something, probably whilst waiting on something else, rather than they went and had a nice cosy meal on Curry Mile. I'd be astonished (and annoyed) if it were the latter.

Christ, do you take valium or does your body naturally produce it?

I think it's understandable to a degree for Broughton to be reactionary. He's new in the role, let alone at the club, so it was probably always sensible to go through the club's processes for now until he was fully used to the role and had at least a year of experience to accurately identify shortcomings in the process. If he came in thinking he knew better as a rookie DoF and fucked it up, that'd be worse I think. And yes, this is also a reason it would have been far preferable to appoint an experienced DoF and not a rookie to the role, for a club of our stature. Recruitment has been let's say flawed for years, we needed somebody who knew exactly how to fix it, with a proven track record. That said, there is such thing as initiative, and as you rightly say, one of my first instincts when watching the interview was 'why the fuck did O'Brien finish his training at Forest?'. As soon as he said it that was my reaction. If he isn't going to play with them for 6 months he doesn't need to train with them. Pull him out of the training as time is of the essence on deadline day. Forest should have been pulling him aside anyway, but if I were Broughton I would have definitely been asking them to take him out of training. Perhaps another sign of him being a rookie, not being sure if it was his place to tell the big Prem club what to do.

It might almost be worth the whole debacle if this were the outcome...until you remember they'll just be replaced with another couple of shady shysters.

Not in the literal sense though I shouldn't think...

I probably wouldn't admit that in public, some people might take the piss knowing that.

I read that somewhere too.

In fairness if we were the only clubs making offers, he was going to end up not playing whether he gambled or not. If he had said nah I wanna stay he would be in this same position. It does suck for him though, and it's our fault.

Perhaps it suits all parties involved to keep it quiet until it's resolved.

If there really are a bunch of delays for other clubs (still yet to hear actual details of that) then this seems a reasonable hypothesis. Something would have to be wrong on their end if it's the case.

I'd point them to all the clubs who successfully flaunted FFP whilst we got punished for it.

If they weren't even willing to soften that farcical 3 match ban given to Buckley, I struggle to see how they approve these deals for which paperwork wasn't submitted in time. They adhere to the absolute letter of the law, common sense be damned.

I feel for those fans who were 2 during the Mark Hughes era...

We're two days in. But the sounds do suggest it isn't happening.

Rovers: Hilton, Saadi (Montgomery, 83), Phillips, Gamble, Edun (Gilsenan, 70), O'Grady-Macken, Garrett, Thomas (Burns, 70), Szmodics (Fyles, 46), Gent (Pratt, 83), Leonard Unused Subs: Eastham

It wasn't a freebie or additional two weeks. It was two weeks like any other two weeks. You keep raising this World Cup thing and acting like it made any difference whatsoever to our recruitment prospects. It didn't and you've been unable to remotely prove it did. And we both agree we should be more on the ball with doing our business and move faster. So on the first point, I can't be bothered with your pointless intransigence anymore, and on the second we agree, so we'll just end this discussion here.

Well presumably we will still look to sign him, but for free, in the summer when his contract expires. Since he was only a prospect who was hardly likely to have an immediate impact, that one might actually work out better if it happens that way.

Sorry I'm just gonna be blunt- I'm not missing the point, you don't have one that stands up. We can do early business whether there is or isn't a world cup break. We just don't.

Must be the second one (Edun), as the LT feed says the first goal was from a Gent cross. Goals just 2 minutes apart.

Wrong thread mate. Easily done!

Recruitment's position was only changed in the sense of not being able to scout domestic games live for most of December. If our first team coaches and manager need a break in games to realise what the glaring inefficiencies are in the team, they're not fit for purpose. Also, we were still training I think (might be wrong on that) in which case staff probably took a break at the weekends anyway. It shouldn't take a lot of meeting time for the manager to convey to recruitment where his priorities lie and what type of player he wants. And recruitment/GB can put out feelers whether we are playing or not.