bluebruce

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.

Not a debate, nor relevant. Swansea away this time was a lot better than Swansea away last season. That's not relevant either though. Same goes for West Brom at home.

Yep, at least people were in their correct positions. Was a rarity under TM to have 11 on the pitch all in appropriate positions.

You already know the answer to that really. If he's a first team player at Rovers who is first choice pick for his position, Chaddy rates him. Equally, if he's a first team player at Rovers who is first (or second or third) choice pick for his position, Sparks doesn't rate him. Them's the rules.

Aye, supplement your argument by suggesting I've never played the game, good one.

We'd have no players left if you were in charge.

Wow, that's an odd move for him...has messed us up a few times

You implied he would lose 'the ability to run around at high speed'. That's pace. Do you mean he will lose stamina? Also not guaranteed. You don't see his skill with the ball at his feet then? Can show plenty of clips that prove he has it.

@Roth@StubbsUK Unfortunately this only seems to be mostly fixed. Most of the time it seems to work, but when I click the quote contained in Exiled Rover's post (currently at the top of page 531 of the transfer thread, and quoting windymiller7) it goes to page not found if I use my laptop. When I use my phone, clicking the quote works fine. However, both my phone and laptop crash attempting to click the quote contained in the post at the top of page 530, or the second one down. Very weird. So it's better but it's not fully fixed. I'm struggling to see what the pattern is, as some posts at the top of the pages work just fine, and others crash it, and results seem to vary slightly based on what device I'm using.

That doesn't sound like they're too keen, if they're still deciding. Ash needs to remember the grass isn't always greener.

That's not necessarily true at all. Plenty of players haven't lost pace at 25. It may or may not happen. He will have learnt more about the game in general by then too. His game also involves exceptional footwork and a hefty dose of flair, and if he learns how to use those more effectively then even if he does lose pace at 25 it may not matter. He already has made it. He has 75 Championship appearances, 7 goals and 7 assists at age 20. Even just carrying on like that for 5 years before he supposedly loses his pace is making it. Certainly compared to your non-league claims.

You're welcome, of course, to your utterly blind view of his standing in the game. But any team in League One would take him with open arms, calling him non-league is preposterous. Talking about whether he is good enough for us in the Championship would be a lot less ridiculous. I don't get why people have to jump to extremes when they talk about players.

Utterly ridiculous hyperbole to say Dolan belongs in non-league.

JDT apologised to the fans. Not sure I can remember Mowbray ever doing that, even after the 7-0. It doesn't mean anywhere near as much as a response on the pitch of course, but it's nice to have some common courtesy to the fans again, instead of the disrespectful shit we got from TM at times.

Yeh I can't imagine why people would feel down tonight...

I'm just reflecting on comments I've seen lately about our squad and our transfer needs...and the most ridiculous is definitely that we don't need to sign any more players. Can't remember who said it though.

I feel a 5-3-2 would probably have worked better tonight in hindsight. Probably against Sheff U too. Then again, we simply don't have enough defenders for it to work.