I can't remember ever losing our star player for free though. Let alone one who cost 6-7 million and in a strict FFP environment.

I'd say they're worse than the odds of signing Ronaldinho were. We put a pretty hefty offer on the table by all accounts, and he went to a Brazilian side for what I'm sure I heard was less money. If he had just followed the money like most footballers, he would probably have signed here. Funnily enough he ended up suing Flamengo for not paying him for four months. There's a lot to be said against Venkys, but they'd have paid his wages. With Brereton, our offer isn't going to be anywhere near the best money he gets.

You mean the 2 minute highlights though?

Sky website or tv? I don't have Sky. I don't usually want to watch the full match again when I know the result either, although it's good that's available for those who do, or live overseas and can bear to avoid knowing the result first. If we are allowed to show the entire match again then we are definitely just being lazy about putting an extended highlights together.

I think 6 minutes is enough, though longer would be nice of course. Hell, if the first team beat Manure we would probably still only get the usual 2 minutes of highlights, so 6 is a serious improvement! On that note, it does bug me that we do such meagre highlights for senior games, and with no replays. Some other clubs post 5+ minutes as extended highlights of our matches with them, but we never do. I'm curious why. Perhaps we have to pay a tiny bit more to the league or whoever to post longer highlights? Or just our staff can't be arsed to compile it? Or Waggott trying to keep as much of the 'product' behind the paywall as he can under the misguided impression it will help generate more sales?

Best I can come up with... Loyalty to a club who took a big financial risk on him (which they'll lose out on if he leaves for free), kept faith with him even when he couldn't finish his dinner for two seasons and was only 'decent' for the third. He is still probably getting offered a substantial pay increase here even if it won't be as much as elsewhere. A new manager in the building who has fresh ideas and has us in 6th place even though he hasn't been here long. None of these big rich clubs fancied him enough to stretch to even £10 million this summer (don't tell me about how 'well they could get him for free next summer' because only one club can do that..if they really did rate him they'd have been bidding at least 10-15 million and they didn't...he will likely be someone's bench option if they're signing him for free). It took him two years to start settling properly here, could there be a risk of a similar issue again, especially abroad? And he clearly loves it at the club, loves his teammates etc. And no, I don't expect any or all of that combined to be close to enough for him to stay. The only way I see that we might keep him is if we somehow get promoted. Even that will hinge on him having not signed a pre-contract in January (even if we are 2nd in January, he has seen us drop out of the playoffs from there).

He means that my comment was a joke. The day I see you predict a Rovers loss, let alone 3-0, I will pinch myself to check I'm awake.

Nah I don't think Cardiff will win by that much.

He scored on his debut then had 4 pretty shit performances. He's our most expensive summer signing. It's a bit premature, but it's hardly laughable. It's pretty standard fare for this situation at any club up and down the country. There's not something special and negative about Rovers fans. Go on the FB page and ask them about Szmodics and I'm sure you'll get a very different response you'll be happier with. Here, things are allowed to be criticised, it's not just a suck-off-the-club's-decisions jamboree.

Truly shocking confession from Chaddy there.

Millwall finished below us actually, albeit only by one GD.

Yeh Hedges seemed an odd buy from his profile, and hadn't impressed after half a season. But he is really coming to the fore now. Sometimes players just take time to feel comfortable in a new area, club, formation, managerial style (or two already in Hedges' case, well done him...maybe JDT suits him better), league and set of teammates. Understandable as we're all human and that's a lot of change at once. Some people adapt faster than others.

I guess we'll have to never not rate a player again then, because they might turn all Brereton Diaz somewhere down the line. (I do think it's early for writing off Szmodics though...but it's not weird, he just hasn't played very well)

Wow, are you trolling him or really this obtuse? He said if you don't know, stop answering, and then you answered him again that you didn't know!

Maybe not the best abbreviation. The positive candidates might be HIV positive 😛

Not 2.5 mill guaranteed. The 'plus add ons' suggests it could still reach that. Still, a relief that it wasn't the full amount guaranteed, he hasn't looked worth 2.5 mill (or 1.8) so far.

I don't think anybody disputes that he wants it this way. That's why he is doing it this way, because he wants it. I and some others think the logic is very questionable, and that's what we're discussing - the merits or demerits to Blackburn Rovers FC, not whether the manager is happy with a decision he himself has made. Thinking it's the wrong decision doesn't mean I don't support him anymore or want him sacked, everybody on planet Earth gets things wrong sometimes, every single person. Personally, I hope he changes his mind on this one over time, but we're all aware it won't change on the basis of this messageboard decision. I've actually half-considered emailing the club about it, but I know it wouldn't even reach JDT's eyes if I did. None of us think our posts are going to change club policy (I mean, there was that time I gathered all the possession data near the end of the season to show we did better with counter-attacking football than when we controlled possession, then after the summer we changed to counter attack...but I'm not naive enough to think that's why it happened!). But we'd still like to discuss all these things we can't change, otherwise there's not much point in the forum? Even yourself, I bet your output on here would drop by about 90% or more if nobody disagreed with the club's decisions, in order for you to disagree with those posters.

Careful now, Tony Mowbray will be quoting you as an example of Rovers fans thinking it's still 1995! Shearer was something else. When he went one-on-one with the keeper you were almost already celebrating.

This exodus of staff to Sunderland is really starting to take the piss.

Agree it would be great for your colleague to see that, but, goal drought? He's gone two games without scoring and has scored 4 in 10 games. I don't think that qualifies as a goal drought! Again, 4 goals in 10 isn't bad, but we never had a £12 million offer. Broughton is on record recently saying that none of the offers reached 8 figures.

Yep, being able to see is really conducive to learning.

If the U21s played on a different day, he could go and have a look at a few young players playing an actual match instead of training.

The new regime, all the noises suggest it came from JDT personally.

The chances are at least one or two will come through who aren't being highly anticipated too (and probably that one or more of the three you mentioned won't make it how we hope). Just the nature of the game I expect you'll agree, especially with young players who can improve or stagnate suddenly. I don't get to see much of the youth teams sadly, but what little I do see, and the plenty I hear on here, we seem to have a good overall crop, and a few players' names keep cropping up as having potential. Hopefully one or more of them surprises you. Garrett and Harlock (or was it Haddow?) don't seem to be too far off the first team picture as they've made matchday squads. I thought you really rated Burns?

Smacks of adhering to the rules.