If a player sounds like he would be excellent for us, and has other clubs sniffing, that's how I can usually tell they're not coming. If barely anybody has heard of or seen them, they may turn up. That's not necessarily a bad thing, our history is littered with players who seemed uninspiring signings and turned out to be fantastic, as well as many overpriced flops that really seemed like they should work out well on paper. We've long been a club that needs to hunt out the unpolished gems and shine them up.

Are you coming around a bit on Dolan then, or are you just making a style comparison? I thought Gelhardt was a bit more of an actual striker, but that's just off FM (although his profile will have been suggested by Wigan fans and maybe scouts on my version). He is reasonably pacey on it though, and a good dribbler. Only know about him at all as I signed him, loaned him out and sold him for a profit without ever playing him.

Those contracts are very much enforceable as things stand and are fairly commonplace. They don't literally prevent the player from being dropped, but they impose financial penalties if the player doesn't play a certain amount of games (I assume if the player is injured or otherwise suspended there is no penalty). I'm not sure on the ins and outs of real world penalty arrangements, I'd imagine they vary, but on FM (20 at least) there is an option for a monthly fee if the player plays, and another fee can be set for if the player doesn't play (on the game, clubs will almost always accept the same fee for both, but I think that's an oversight). Loaner clubs don't attach those clauses where they can't play against the parent club anymore, because NO players are allowed, by the rules of the game, to play against their parent clubs anymore. This was introduced to prevent conflict of interest. Imagine if you borrowed a club's goalie, and he let in a couple of howlers against them, you'd be suspicious as hell.

With talk of Mola going back to be loaned out elsewhere, and our only other left back being Pickering, no stranger to injuries, surely this means we will be in the market for a left back.

The fact they immediately sent him out on loan with an option to buy tells me they were just trying to protect their investment and maximise their return. He had a year left on his deal before he signed it so his market value was reduced.

He has played for them previously, it's where he started. Will have an affinity. Not breaking into his parent club's team and needs to get his career going...his old stomping grounds makes some sense.

Playing every game this season (or close to) in a playmaking role, this is to be expected surely.

*because the manager didn't like him

Another striker...maybe Hirst isn't going to be guaranteed games there either. Unless they've sold someone, are changing formation, or have truly dogshit strikers at present.

Not the only issue. Yes he has played well recently, but time will tell if it's a purple patch or if he has finally clicked. He doesn't exactly have a lot of credit in the bank. But yes I'm expecting him to break down imminently.

The Transfermarkt website valuations are frequently miles off. Really just someone's stab in the dark guess most of the time.

We 'interview' players now? That's not how things are normally done in the game is it? 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years?' 'Fucking off on a free transfer when my contract expires.'

It's much worse than that with BBD of course, we aren't just making nothing on him - we are making an enormous loss, amongst the largest in our history.

It isn't that simple, thanks to FFP, which puts hard limits on what we can lose. Not recouping let's say 10 million on Brereton means the budget is 10 million smaller than it can be, even if we assume Venkys are willing to cover it.

I can only think the arrangement suited us, Leicester, Ipswich and George Hirst, as IMO it benefits all of us. Even if it didn't come from within Rovers, I can't imagine we put up much of a fight about it. If we rated him, he'd have been playing more, and Leicester would have been much happier with him getting a decent amount of games at this level than League One.

I'm glad Broughton and JDT have accepted that he isn't good enough even after hanging their hats on the bizarre 'number one target all summer' quote. There's nothing wrong with admitting a mistake, in fact there's a lot wrong with refusing to.

Took me a second to figure out what you meant here, for a moment I thought you meant he was looking the slimiest he has ever been in a Rovers shirt.

True, the only thing we do poor defensively is suicidally pass it around at the back in dangerous situations. Other than that we've become solid. Hyam has a lot to do with it though.

Or 'Peers' as the commentator annoyingly kept calling him.

You don't sub players every time they get a yellow.

Slabhead really does irritate me.

Not quite sure how we won that one, but I'll take it! Thank fuck we haven't continued our horrific FA Cup run that Mowbray subjected us to.

I don't care that much if 3 happens, if 1 & 2 do. But they won't of course. I'd sell for about 10-12 million at this stage. And then I'd spend the rest of the season wondering what would have happened if he stayed.

I'm becoming worried by JDT's newfound liking for two defensive mids forming the entire central midfield. Like when he implemented it whilst losing to Boro wasn't it? We played that under Bowyer for ages and it was terrible. Probably his biggest recurring tactical mistake.

I'm not just gutted - I think it's a joke.