I don't see how it matters. Babies are expensive by normal people's standards but not once you're on a few k a week. Does the baby need Gucci bibs or something?

Lmao! As if Nyambe and Ayala's injury records are comparable. You've scored an own goal there, RoverRB.

You don't reckon he can afford to raise a baby on just a few grand a week?

Because our offer wasn't good enough.

Worryingly high. If he does, it means getting nothing next summer, or best case scenario, roughly our initial transfer fee back in January. The odds he stays because he signs a new deal are virtually non-existent.

If you didn't understand that, then yeh I'd just swerve any new technology if I were you.

Wh...what?!? Surely...surely it isn't your place to say! 🤣 N.B- I'm highly amused that he didn't want to ask the CEO of the football club any questions about signing players, but will pester every two-bit journalist on Twitter about it who more often than not doesn't have a scooby, or even a scrappy, doo.

Well that's an odd perspective, since we loaned them all out because they weren't as good as the players in their positions last season. They were assets the club didn't need at the time and in most cases still don't, not stars that we loaned out for large loan fees to bigger clubs. Magloire and Butterworth clearly have no future here. We can argue Carter was a squad player and may have improved a bit with his loan, but he's still not better than JPVH or Lenihan based on current evidence. Vale may have improved and be worthy of a squad place (or more if he takes his opportunities). Everyone else loaned out was either too irrelevant to mention, or too irrelevant for me to remember. So at best it's 2 players who need to have improved in order to be good enough.

It won't be much of a chance if they don't have the right support around them on the pitch with at least a modicum of experience.

I wish people would stop saying this. I don't give a fuck how much bigger clubs are interested, I and anyone with eyes and common sense wants him to stay here because we have seen him with our own eyes. If he is struggling to get a good pay, I'd say it's at least a bit to do with his agent being dogshit. I dunno how he accepted the wanky terms we offered him previously, players who graduated at similar times and had similar roles in the squad seem to have been on far more. To me, that says his agent is crap at his job.

If that's true it's absolutely fucking appalling.

I for one hope no such thing happened.

He (his agent) is probably playing interested parties off against each other to get the best deal. Stories in the press have said Boro and 2 French clubs interested. Where have you heard he reopened negotiations? The last I heard on that was probably about 2 months ago. If we are still engaged with him, that only adds to how hard his decision would be to make and why there is a delay. He will get fixed up, no doubt.

Tell him it's a false economy not to pay Phillips another grand or two a week if that's what his agent is asking, as it's absolutely dwarfed by the potential lost transfer fee.

Aye, to encourage clubs to nurture their own players some sort of FFP easing on graduates should be in place. Something like if someone graduated from your academy, only half their wages count towards FFP, or their first professional contract doesn't count towards it. Something like that. I'm sure it won't happen though. Probably not enough clubs affected anywhere near as much as us by it, and some clubs like Preston don't even operate a full youth program (no U-21s in their case). So they probably wouldn't vote for it, and Waggott wouldn't have the nous to suggest it.

Problem with that, in terms of this season at least, is that we will probably buy an RB who will be expected to be the starter, then have JRC and James Brown ahead of him in the pecking order. I'm not a fan of JRC and Brown is pretty untested, but the friendlies do suggest they're ahead of him for now. Then there's...is Batty an RB? Some posters on here rate him very highly indeed.

Christ, in that case he probably gets to speak to the owners more than most of our managers do! If he moves into management one day maybe he'll end up managing here...which would be great if he's any good, but bad for many reasons if he isn't.

Utterly. That means he was above him, but also below him. No wonder nothing got fucking done.

One of the best volleyers of the ball I've ever seen. Sad watching that and seeing celebrations with all the cracking players we had then. Also sad seeing Steve Kean celebrate one of them...

If so, I'd have to file that under 'worrying'.

Or it might suggest he wants to get on with the job without distractions. We would only hear the usual repetitive soundbites anyway. Personally I don't think he should wait until the window closes though, we could do with at least one interview before then to let us know how it has been going generally. I don't see much point in it being right now though. The same calls would only resurface in a week or two and there's clearly not much to say yet. Anything he says will just be branded as excuses, so it's probably the smart move to not do interviews just yet. I'll judge him on incomings not interviews though. I'm not saying 'chill there's no need to panic' btw, I'm just providing balance. We have plenty of past transfer windows shambles under Venkys to point to, and we are definitely late in the day (again) with no signings in the building. I think a little more leeway should be granted this time for now, due to all the changes we have had in the management structure and personnel, but this is a disappointing start to the window. 'Panic' is almost by definition something it's never beneficial to do. But criticism and concern will be very warranted if players don't start arriving very soon. It won't be unsalvageable still, unless we don't have enough decent players in by the window's close, but the sooner the better.

Where are you drawing the conclusion from that he is starting to feel the heat? There haven't been any interviews in order to make such a judgement.

I don't think it is, personally. I'll be very surprised if we don't bring in a RB, a CB and a CM who are all expected to start as long as they prove up to it. I don't see any reason we wouldn't. I'm not saying they'll be perm deals, and 3 certainly isn't enough, but I can't see a universe in which those won't be the 3 main priorities for JDT and GB. Ok well they might plump for a winger instead of a CM if they only brought in 3, depending how impressed they are with Wharton and Garrett, but only a madman would think we don't need a CB and RB. Links suggest we are after midfielders too.

If we didn't own BBD and we were offered to loan him for one season at a cost of £8 million, would you do that? Because in essence that's what you're proposing. I agree we should be able to land 15 mill for him though.

Haha, let's be fair though, he did find Van Dijk, so they clearly shop around. They shop on the continent more than we do anyway. And they don't just sign players to smash poor SPL sides, they try to compete in European comps.