The report just today is that it looks like he will leave, to the Greek top tier, but that nothing is agreed yet. I'd leave if I were him, he will look at his two years here as wasted ones. Shame the boss' mate's son got signed a few days after him, we might have actually seen him otherwise. Bet he wouldn't have thrown the ball into the net against Wigan. 4th choice for Tony Mowbray. Forgive me if I don't put too much store in his views. The same man who thought SG should have a stab at RB and that a LWB was an inside forward on the right flank. One of those choices ahead of him was his mate's son, which reeks of nepotism. Who knows where a new manager would put him in our GK rankings. Stergiakis will now go down as a failed Mowbray signing, someone he signed for money and then almost immediately sidelined. We won't get much if any money for the sale so I hope we stick a tidy sell-on in there in case the scouts who initially found him were right about his potential. Not that he is likely to fetch much when he moves from a Greek top tier also-rans side unless he really really shines.

Really? How old was he at that point?

Sounds like he has decent character at least, but I'd really rather he had spent a lot of time learning the football business than the poultry business! Does he strike you as intelligent?

Good news!

Well, not necessarily the case that they're not accurate. Mowbray did say the recruitment team would still look at targets. We need to have scout reports ready for the new man. I just can't see the trigger being pulled on anyone of any significant outlay until a manager is in. And of course he could come along and dismiss the whole list of suggestions out of hand. Chaddy will be delighted anyway, seems to mention Brittain or Styles every couple of weeks!

I wouldn't be that surprised if Ally McBeal got a job here.

Actually six clubs named in there as being interested.

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-transfer-news-heddow-24033523 Jake Haddow supposedly on the radar of clubs in the Prem, Championship and on the continent.

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/marvin-ekpiteta-blackpool-daniels-gay-23989707?int_source=nba Saw this today, though it's from the 18th. A senior Blackpool player has had some 10-year old homophobic tweets dredged up and has immediately deleted them, apologised in what comes across to me on paper as a very sincere manner, and Jake has accepted it. Daniels: "What you said ten years ago at 17 years old doesn’t define the man you are today. I am proud to be your teammate and to be part of the Blackpool family - we are all moving football forwards together." Ironic that the remarks were at the same age Jake is now. Good to see the human capacity for growth and acceptance on display. (If anyone wants to comment on this, I'd suggest reading the article and the full quotes by both first)

I can't imagine the compo would be anywhere near the best part of a million. Wycombe are a poor club.

Don't get our hopes up.

Absolutely. I actually suspect one of our current squad is, though I'm not going to say who and it's only a hunch. But there's a fair chance statistically that amongst our senior and youth teams right now, one or more will be gay.

Thanks as always for sharing what you know. But these two statements seem incompatible? I'm confused how they can never refuse to sign a cheque, yet turn off the taps and require a player sale to buy players. Even if the reason was to avoid FFP rather than not wanting to part with money, that still sounds like not signing a cheque. And was still a bizarre decision (though, bizarre decisions are their forte), as we had a real opportunity to earn the mega money of the Prem and make FFP irrelevant for a while. Even if we had spent a bit more (but not too crazy, say 4-5 million) there is the likely BBD sale in the summer to largely offset it.

No, pitch costs are exempt from FFP.

Feels like back injuries have been unusually common too?

Am I imagining things or do we seem to get a disproportionate amount of injuries all through the club, even at youth levels, which I thought would be rarer? Maybe it's just more common for young players than I think, or it's actually not happening here as much as I think, but I know until I was 19 I never had a single injury (then I became a total Vince Grella ever since lol) and not many of my teammates would either, especially longer term stuff. Granted these lads will put their bodies under more strain than we did, but it seems a lot for young lads who have been used to a fair bit of training for years. We've had 16 year old Ash Phillips miss seemingly about half this season, Butterworth and JRC both had a lot of serious injury issues when they were in the youth team, and it was reading the LT article just now about how Whitehall (who I've considered promising in the past) and Saadi are being offered new deals but due to injury made 0 and 16 appearances respectively for the u23s this season. Obviously the first team had a lot of issues too in recent years. Obviously some injuries will always happen, I just wonder if there is something in our training methods or facilities that is contributing to the frequency of it.

Still not learnt, if that's the case. Tbh I suspect it's exactly because we don't have a manager that this decision has been taken. Thin squad, they have played senior games for us, and who knows if the new guy will like the look of them? I think it's a 'just in case' kind of thing. Magloire should definitely have been released. Butterworth I can see some logic to keeping based on past promise, but personally I'd have released him. Don't think he has the right mentality or the fitness.

It's not weird in the slightest. Players that can play successfully with men at 16 are very few and far between. Of course there are examples, there's examples of nearly anything. That doesn't mean this one will be one of the exceptions. It should be taken into account that it could potentially be too much too soon in this case. The mental effect on such a young lad if he doesn't adjust well under that pressure, and the physical effect on a player who has had injury issues already, should also be considered. As far as I've seen, nobody is saying there's no way he can play in the first team yet. I may be wrong but I've not spotted such a remark. People are merely advising caution, and not to rely on him as a CB option for our first team when counting our squad depth. If he breaks through this year, and he very well may, that's fantastic. If we throw him in, and he sinks, and we didn't recruit a tried and tested CB because we assumed he would be good enough, or if he just has injury issues again, we're going to be feel very foolish. For the record, I do want him introduced this season, but very much on a test-the-water basis at first. Played in some friendlies, named on some benches, played in the cups, and if he impresses see if we can bring him along further. In fact I was hoping, and I think the club were too, that he would get his debut this season just gone. I think the injuries are what put paid to that.

Apart from Elliott - who was evidently special from day one and had been bought at 16 for millions - the only other 16/17 yr old I can recall us loaning in was Rekeem Harper. That was in League One, and he was shite for us.

But his age is 16.

Fair enough, I could have been thinking of Pears' fee. Now you've said this, 150k is in my head. Undisclosed transfers annoy me. I feel like the stakeholders deserve to know what's spent, but that's a whole other discussion. Tbf, Goddard was highly rated when we snapped him up from Man City. I haven't heard about him having shite games, and that in itself isn't bad for an 18 year old in the u23s who doesn't even get to play regularly enough to find the rhythm. I agree the rotation is daft though, at least one of them should have been found a non-league loan if at all possible. Did Raya no harm. We have Pears, Stergiakis, Eastham, Dowling, Hilton and Goddard all on the books and 18 or older. Surely that's very excessive for young keepers and there really isn't room in the first and second teams for all of them. I think they're all under contract anyway, I'm sure someone will correct me if not.

Steve Kean resigned because of fan pressure, Venkys didn't even can him.

Not a clue really. His highlights reel (I know) had some very impressive saves, we paid something like 2-300k for him, and at a young age he had already played 75 pro games, plus a few for Greece u21s, turned down Roma and Olympiakos in favour of regular football and been nominated for the Golden Boy (best young player in Europe) so I think a lot of us thought he was going to be our number 2. Then 10 days later, Mowbray signed his mate's son, who we know is piss poor (though tbf, had played at this level for Boro) and the lad hasn't had a look in. He doesn't seem to have consistently impressed onlookers in the u23s and gets rotated with the other young keepers. I can imagine it being a bit dispiriting for a lad who has turned down big moves before to play regularly, that we almost immediately brought in another number 2. Needs to pick himself up and fulfil his potential or unlikely to make it here.

Greek keeper, Stergiakis, isn't 'gone or out of contract'. His deal runs til next summer and then has a one year extension option.

It's at least as likely, probably more, that we get a crap manager. Oh good thing we don't play any games, let alone the most intensive part of our season, in the winter then. Oh wait...