Have to correct myself actually, I've been convinced for like the last week that I had, but unless there's some weird processing period at Coral on manager bets, it doesn't seem to be there. I must have not got round to it. As to the why, when I saw Mercer's post I did think it's not a bad shout at those odds, so I took a look. I did put a small amount on it, but I thought Dyche was more likely (just the odds were more like 2.5 to 1) so I wanted to put a little on him to cover the Sam stake, seems I forgot. For clarity, I know better than to believe Mercer's predictions, I just thought for myself that it would be a sensible appointment for Everton and the odds were nice. What I should have remembered is that any bet Mercer posts he has made is cursed to be wrong even if the logic holds up, seems to be a law of nature. If he put money on the sun coming up tomorrow I'd have to consider how to spend my last hours of life.

Good, I had a small flutter on that.

If the club would insist on £15 million at this stage, with his contract running down, his form running down and a rundown budget stopping us landing any targets, they're even thicker than I thought. I'd take £5 million in a heartbeat. The £15 million tag we've heard about, which may only be a rumour, if true will have been a negotiating stance when we hoped there would be a bidding war.

We're talking the 3 from last season, plus BBD, right? BBD on his own had a worth of about £15-20 million this summer if he had been properly under contract. Rothwell, we were supposedly offered 4.5 or 6.5 mill last January with just 6 months on his deal (though I suspect the 6 months was balanced out by the buying club being promotion rivals and wanting to unsettle us, so his fully contracted market worth was probably about what we received). So just those two you're looking at more like 20-25 million (being a bit rough with values as you can't know for sure). It's been shoddy business, I don't care what flimsy excuses anybody wants to throw at me.

There isn't 'no chance'. If they want, Villareal could now give us a lowball offer for him to move immediately. I doubt they will, but it's possible until we hear otherwise.

At the same time, it can't be anything too high either. He will be 30 by the time his existing contract runs out, and both his knees have had ACL issues. He's doing great right now but there's always going to be a risk that one of them goes again. Much of his current contract was spent on the sidelines, and we don't have a great budget. A quick google suggests he is on 18.5k p/w (may be wrong but I'd bet it's in that area). Any sort of pay rise should probably be off the table in all honesty. But yes we do need to be proactive with the negotiations.

Second time he has had his own thread on here, I believe.

Would this Krasso even get a work permit? Ligue 2, only one international cap, doesn't seem likely he would get anywhere near unless I'm missing something.

I don't have a good enough memory to give you the examples, but I've seen it 2 or 3 times at least. He's usually right when he dismisses one though (although, since most transfer efforts don't result in transfers, most of us on here could also be usually right if we dismissed a bunch of them).

Generous. I'm sure he'd rather put him on a pedalo.

Sharpe has said it's not him.

But you don't get why people are so negative ever, in any scenario. Because your own reaction to any Rovers news is almost invariably to view it positively, whether it is or it isn't.

The reason people are going off stats is because we need goals right now. Someone who can put the ball in the net, because our main guy for doing that is off form so we are relying almost solely on Dack. The only way to see that is with stats of goals records. Maybe he comes along and does a Gestede, or a Brereton Mk II, who knows, but we can't really get excited about something so hypothetical, as that happens less often than it doesn't. When you say he knows how to header, do you mean on anything like a Gestede level? As that, linking up with Thomas' crosses, could be a weapon. But since Shearer the only player I've seen for us who could header like Rudy was RSC. They're rare beasts in modern football.

Nah it's a nonsense point. Gallagher is basically an average Championship player. On his day he can cause problems with his attributes and score, on his bad days he couldn't trap a bag of cement. The league is littered with inconsistent players like him. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been told a new player couldn't be worse only for them to, indeed, be worse. I don't know what your bar for 'isn't very good' is. If you mean someone who isn't very good by Prem standards, sure, somebody like that could turn up and be considerably better than Gallagher. If you mean it by Championship standards, I'd say any such player will be similar or worse than Gallagher, and certainly not 'considerably' better. For someone to be 'considerably' better than him I'd say they need to be decent or fairly good for this level. There's just so much hyperbole on here it can be hard to tell what people actually mean. I get that Gallagher is often a frustrating player to watch, but truthfully after a while we'd get just as fed up of the next guy if he 'isn't very good' either.

My entire initial point was, very obviously, being literal. People like to say new players can't be worse, but they absolutely and very obviously can, and most of the time when we hear that, the next player is indeed worse. Hirst was worse. In a less literal sense, 'X player is shit so I'll take absolutely anybody else' is a pretty stupid approach. Thank god you don't work in recruitment.

So Vale and Gally are literally the worst two strikers in football then? Whatever you say BankEndy Boy.

People love to say this sort of thing, but no, he doesn't have to be better than them.

If he had said FB isn't his best position, fine, but he said he will never be one as long as he has a hole in his arse, when he just won MOTM playing at FB. It was an odd post.

Was he not playing as a fullback?

Yeh if he hasn't engaged with supporters for 5 years and his under his desk, I don't reckon he's about to agree to take such a message to Pune.

Then we need to bring in a tough-tackling midfielder...to injure him in training.

Buckley got dropped because he was playing very badly. Adam Wharton is the one whose path has been blocked by Morton.

In the 'substitute him' sense, or by sniper rifle? At this point either sounds appealing...

Until that's announced I won't be taking it as fact. This Juve lad, reading between the lines of your post, it's just a name that you've heard we are looking at rather than one we are close to signing?

Scoreline was 2-1 to Manure if anyone is wondering. Ben Fyles with our goal.