This must be the stupidest thing I've seen Sharpe post in a while: '6:16pm The talk all month of Rovers not having any money and potentially signing up for what would be a record fee in the summer. What a club. ' It's a record fee if we go up, at which point obviously we will have money. Duh. Unless it's a mandated summer buy even if we stay down, in which case I'd be absolutely and utterly astonished.

They're not through the door though, as far as we know. I thought the LT deadlined day feed summary at the top was interesting...says a striker is our top priority, but the only two players it mentions are a defender and a midfielder. Sounds about right. O'Brien would be an excellent signing though. Shame it's just a loan but a buy is unaffordable without promotion. I just don't think it's much use if we aren't going to sign a striker too. If we don't get promoted, no use paying high wages and possibly fees to borrow him and Thomas when we have a low budget and are meant to be building for the future.

Then we should have been looking in Belgium. I think there has been just one link for us from there? Whichever markets have reasonably cheap players and a high likelihood of passing WP regs, those are the ones we should be looking at. Otherwise, shut down this whole 'European scouting network' we supposedly built, because unaffordable players or those who won't get a permit are nothing but a waste of our time.

Transfer deadline day is 'always refreshing'...

Yeh shortly after the game I reckon JDT will say nothing is happening (or maybe just nothing else...I feel like we will squeeze a player in somewhere, but they might not be any good). So the time we hear it's all done may depend on whether we get extra time and penalties...

Never seen him, but his League One goals record is pretty similar to Szmodics, slightly worse in fact. But he is only 22 so could improve anyway.

I hope they don't manage to go upwards. Their fans are the worst in the country, true scum in every sense of the term.

In that case, I think they should make a move for me. I'll be very happy with 1k p/w. I'm 38 and injury prone but I scored 18 goals across my last two 5-a-side matches. Hang on nevermind, I've just had a call from Middlesbrough...

I've struggled to understand the variety of punishments handed out over FFP over the years. It's often seemed like they're, ya know, making it all up as they go along... (and perhaps also that having money helps you get out of these scrapes..)

Yep, they don't need to twist when sticking will suffice. Because they've invested properly in personnel. Yes, with parachute money from their time in the Prem, which also happened because they brought in the right personnel.

😲😂 Christ, that's dark, but I like dark humour.

A club under embargo still refusing to even consider selling an asset. Perhaps embargoes aren't all they're cracked up to be if you already spent to get good personnel in place.

Fair enough, I don't make much use of Twitter, I think it's thoroughly shit. I wasn't just referring to yours though, there have been plenty in the past posted from Tweeters with new accounts and very few followers, for players we haven't been linked with. I guess those ones were just searching 'Blackburn Rovers transfers' or something.

Tbh I don't see other teams as the problem on this one, it doesn't sound like anyone else is seriously in for him. But I have to question the likelihood of us pulling the finances together. Signed for a Premier League club in the summer, the wages will be above our highest earner. Relying on Forest not wanting those paying in full, or any kind of fee, for a player they signed recently.

It's an illusion. Being linked to someone doesn't mean we are actually chasing them. As Rovers fans, we see most of the players we are linked to. For other clubs, we don't, but I guarantee you other clubs are linked with loads of players they never sign too. You'll see a bunch just today if you look, that won't come off, I'm sure.

I wonder how posters on this board even end up coming across these accounts. Still, even with it being a charlatan's guesswork, I wouldn't be surprised if he's more likely to end up at Boro than us.

JDT said something like we hoped to have most of our business done before the game, avoiding the problem of playing a game on deadline day evening. Not looking likely.

Thank god we are 'assessing' some strikers. Good thing there's not some kind of deadline looming.

Actually on Football Manager by now, I've usually done all of my core business. Fancy that...

It would be piss poor regardless of what Tomasson said. Would be an even worse January window than last January.

Tbf, may just fancy a move abroad to settle into hispanic culture better. Nice weather too.

I think some of our managers have forgotten that too. But tbh I want results first and foremost anyway until we can get out of this league and establish ourselves midtable in the Prem (neither of which will happen any time soon). Those new rules are going to make our player trading even more painful. Shit rules again if you ask me, will just mean we and other clubs find it even harder to renew contracts and lose more players on frees to wealthier clubs. Hardly the sustainable model the authorities claim to have in mind.

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.