Joao notched against us as well when we played Reading. In fact, this is the second week in a row that we have played, midweek, away, against a team managed by an ex-Rovers manager and containing 3+ ex-Rovers players on the books (think it was 3 of them against Reading and 4 tonight). The last one went badly...so for this one, fingers, legs and testicles crossed.

6 ft 1 according to the internet.

It would be desperate, I should think we're getting a bit late in the window for an appeal to be sorted out? I can certainly picture it though...'yeh we signed him in principle, expecting him to be approved at the appeal, but it was rejeced so what more could we do huh?' Not sure if appeals for this can be heard at quicker notice than I realise though.

Not seen this posted, apologies if it has: https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/he-can-score-goals-if-he-plays-regularly-nottingham-forest-set-to-compete-to-sign-blackburn-rovers-star-the-verdict/ A claim that BBD is a potential target for Forest. In an article that seems to fail to notice that we bought him from them in the first place...they're quoting TeamTalk, who casually mentioned it in their article. So far, been linked to Sevilla, West Ham, Forest, Everton, Nice, Villa and Bournemouth. That's 7 clubs. Am I forgetting/missing any? Get your bids in if you want him, we've no time to piss around.

So basically their strongest side. Yeh this could be an embarassing evening. Our odds with the bookies tumbled after the lineups were announced.

Easy to forget, he didn't really have anything to do.

I fear those words may come back to haunt you.

People have different opinions, that's the beauty of the forum, but you're baffled that some people have a different opinion?

'He probably'? You've no actual reason to think it then, just the notion you present here. If he waits until summer, there's no guarantee his stock won't have dropped, interested clubs moved to other targets or a major injury be suffered. He could as easily end up with a lot less from his wage offer. He will also have just spent a year earning the relative pittance we will be paying him compared to what any Prem side would pay him right now.

I'm confused why this keeps popping up today. I'm sure he's perfectly willing to leave. Has there been some statement today that he doesn't want to leave? All I've heard is he won't even talk about signing a new deal. Sounds like he wants out to me.

If we did it's the first I'm hearing about it.

Absolutely baffling to see anyone saying we don't need to sign a CB. The last week has shown emphatically that it's the number one priority. Thankfully the manager seems to agree.

None of them are earning anything right now.

Personally I think that's a very weak reason to send him to newly promoted Sunderland over an established Championship side where he already fit like a glove.

Kaminski clearly the man of the match. When you lose 3-0, that's damning.

Fee? I doubt there will be much of one. He's 14 isn't he? Don't think you get a decent fee at that age. Dunno if you even get any.

The same way they magically get done in the last 12 days of most windows for most clubs. Selling clubs bend on valuations, buying clubs get more serious. Most of the window is usually brinkmanship.

They must have had nothing but class CBs at Reading over the years then, maybe we should look there for a signing, as I've seen many, many worse CB performances sadly.

It'll be a worry when we fail FFP or they get bored of their toy. It'll be a worry when we can't afford the other players we need because we've used all the budget on one.

That first sentence is a serious straw-man argument. I never said anything of the sort. I'm saying paying 1.4m plus wages (probably another 750k or more) for one of your CBs as a middling Championship club with a small budget is poor economy unless you get a resale of the same value or more after those 5 years. Which would be doing a Brereton. The post I was quoting just said that 7m for 5 good years was good value, it didn't mention a resale, and I was discussing it on that basis alone. That said. Buying a young striker for 7m was a serious gamble that very nearly failed (and still may end up in a loss, but that's due to negligence). Strikers sell for a lot more than CBs. 7m is too much, as much as I love JPVH, and as much as we may still end up with a profit. Absolutely we should invest properly in a good young defender. 7m would be investing improperly. It would be terrible value for 'average Championship form'. If that's what Brighton want we are right to hold back until they get more reasonable, which they probably will.

If it was rising to 7m I wouldn't want it to cost more than about 3m guaranteed. As a flat fee I'd say he's worth about 4m based on his career to date and what he showed last year. 7m and 5 good seasons would mean we were paying 1.4m per season in fee alone, before wages. I wouldn't pay that for a loanee. So no I wouldn't consider that a bargain unless we sold him on for similar or more at the end of that.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

I wouldn't be paying anything like 7m tbf.

Nope the Szmodics fee has been reported as 2.5 mill from the start. Occasionally a poster here claims to know the makeup of the deal and that it only reaches 2.5 mill if certain clauses are met etc. But 2.5 mill was mentioned even before the deal completed. Brittain has consistently been said to be at least a mill. As someone said, not a few hundred grand. You may have been right about what leagues we would shop in, but you were very wrong about what we would spend. You should just admit it, you lose credibility every time you fail to.

Well we certainly fell to them.