Only if he is eager to move now. If he doesn't mind waiting til the end of the season, he would still be in his rights to reject us and sign his pre contract with Udinese for example, regardless of if we bid money now.

Prep for Ayala leaving is sensible (although if Wharton, Carter and Phillips kick on might not really be necessary), but if we are signing a CB from 'abroad' with 6 months on their deal, I'd rather pay no fee at all and sign him for the summer. Ayala is still here now and another CB would leave us crowded there. Unless we have an interested party in bidding for Ayala though. Even then, just sign him to a pre-contract and then once it's sealed you can still offer to expedite the deal to now, at which point they'd likely take an even smaller offer.

"You dirty bastard, you followed through Remy? I wish our strikers could! In that way."

Funnily enough, I think we could do with a bit more hoof.

In the interests of fairness and balance, it should be pointed out that he has branded the performance 'embarassing': https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23251111.embarrassing---tomassons-verdict-blackburn-rovers-defeat/ Also I think I should say, there was another time they showed him in the dugout, when it was at least 2-0, where he didn't look happy at all. We have no idea what he was laughing at, but the media love to show little selected snippets to make controversy. Again though, I do agree it's a bad look and he should be more conscious of it when the cameras are on. If you'd put the camera on me today I had a face of thunder throughout the second half just watching at home, but there have been times at games where we are losing, and I'm angry, but somebody says something amusing and I chuckle for a moment.

Maybe the assistant (I can't spell his name yet) is funny as fuck with gallows humour? 😛 I agree though, it's not a good look.

Just the Bristol City game I believe.

77 percent possession, 4 nil defeat. When will we figure out that we do much worse when we try to have the possession? I've been pointing it out for what, nearly 3 years now I think.

Every time Markanday gets the ball here it gets more confusing that he hasn't been playing.

Wtf Dack

Markanday's running is electric, how the fuck are these his first Championship minutes this season? Especially when Vale has had and thrown away so many opportunities.

Lol they're in 19th after this win. 'Go a long way' is generous in the extreme!

Tbf that's not a game plan though, I'm sure they can't finish like that most games or they'd be where we are.

God knows why Rotherham haven't taken Rathbone off, looks much worse than Hyam did and they are a comfy 2 up against a team who rarely even score when behind.

If I remember rightly, when I went through the games not long ago, we had only even scored in one game after falling behind, Bristol.

I wasn't able to get the game on for the first half, but it sounds like we made lots of chances first half. Pretty much always followed by creating bugger all the next half.

Hard to tell if people are being serious when they say things like this, but there are plenty of League One players who would score less than Gallagher in this league. We just got rid of one in George Hirst.

I read this post first, then went backwards to find out who it was in regards to. But truthfully, I already knew it would be Chaddy.

Tbf it sounds like it was until Venkys needed to sign it off.

The strikers are shitter. See George Hirst.

Let's just persevere with all our crap players in the hope they come good then. Sure wish we had stuck it out longer with Chris Brown, Danny Murphy, Jason Lowe, Adam Henley, etc etc etc. Brereton was a boy, Pears is 24. Brereton had also shone in his career prior enough to earn a reputation as a very promising youngster, and a 7 million quid bid from us. Which additionally made him an investment we needed to come good. Pears was a mate's son signed for a few hundred grand. More importantly, Brereton was an extremely rare event - it was the biggest turn around in a player's fortunes I've ever seen, certainly at Rovers. It was comical at first how quickly things developed. It can't be used as a bench mark for future player dealings. Also, there had been talk of loaning him out, but it was actually keeping him around that saw things change. It doesn't really matter what Pears does in League One. It's a shit level we can't make any judgements from. His contract will also have one year left by the time he came back, leaving us with a decision about extending his deal or, if he did come good, potentially losing someone for free again. Fuck that noise. He is our backup keeper, he should stay here as backup so we are actually getting something for our money, and if he gets his chance in the team due to injury and actually takes it, we can have a discussion. Oh, also he has already had a season in a reliable league - this one, with Boro. They then sold him off for not an awful lot. League One would actually be a step down in his career experience.

I see we are repeating the cycle of Pears having a few alright games and people thinking he can therefore be relied on until he costs us games again. Short memories. It wasn't just Wigan, he was crap the season before too.

You could use the same logic about the cup. We ain't winning that either. More chance of promotion (that's slim too of course).

Yes, good point, I momentarily forgot about that. But the general point still stands as you say. Examples I should have used instead would be contract renewals to stop us losing top talent for free, compounding the loss of money with a further loss of money, which would likely have additional knock on impacts. Ie, we don't have the 10 mill from BBD, so we can't afford to renew contracts at the going rate for another 10 mill worth of talent, essentially meaning we lose another 10 mill worth for free, and have to spend to replace them, plus can't afford other renewals...it can be a vicious circle. (Before anyone says it, those values aren't as flat out as that in terms of losing exactly 10 mill again, it's just a speculative example of how the problem can intensify with knock-on effects, you don't end up in some cycle of infinite regress and bankrupcy by next year or anything. I'm also not saying we should definitely sell BBD if we get 10 mill, I'm just saying it's a complicated problem, and a gamble whichever way you handle it, nowhere near as cut and dry as some are making out.) Edit - Actually, it probably is also worth pointing out that although Venkys can fix the stadium and pitch issues without it affecting FFP, if they're simply not going to as current evidence suggests, then we probably do still need the money for those kinds of purposes. Although I agree it's something they should do.

The club can afford to lose a certain amount under FFP. We often skirt close to that line as the accounts show. If we sell him for 10 million, that is going to make a difference to how we operate. I get that football fans are often impatient, don't think of the wider picture of running of a football club, and want to see flashy multimillion pound signings, but not every benefit to a football club is seen, or seen so obviously. 10 million in the coffers might only mean, for example, that we don't later have to also sell Hyam and Kaminski to make up the shortfall. Or that we can afford to maintain the stadium and pitch properly, invest in facilities, not lay off staff, boost the scouting, maybe with a Hyam type signing thrown in, and without failing FFP. Any of that would be preferable to the scenario: have Brereton for six months and still not get promoted. Of course, the gamble is that he does get us promoted, and we all hope so. But if he doesn't, the gamble failed, it's that simple. Same conundrum as the Rothwell situation last winter, but more money on the line.