I fail to see how it would. Don't we tend to recoup a lot more in fees than we spend?

No, you've weakened my team by refusing to play. We will loan someone in and see how they do, or just tell the owners we'd like to gamble. The club will survive. Not sure your career prospects are gonna be good after 6 months of refusing to play and being unfit though. If we go up, we don't want you anymore. If Bournemouth go up, they probably won't want you either. Every club in England knows you're a selfish troublemaker. Probably should've just knuckled down til summer, given your all, earned bonuses, not lost friendships you made in the last 3 years, had a promotion on your CV, got a big promotion bonus, and moved somewhere for a huge signing on fee and even bigger wages, eh?

Who said you're going to play? The players hate you now, and you won't be attending any briefings other than your daily tactical one. Your contact with the team will be highly minimal, and you might want to start wearing a gum shield for when you do have any.

You will have to prove you're injured. Besides, if you're injured now you will fail your medical at Bournemouth so not sure what you're complaining about. Ok, in the room once a day, all day, you pop, with full salary but no bonuses, no phone or other entertainment, but I'm not strengthening a promotion rival. Tell the lads what you want, they know how much you've let them down and how letting you go could have jeopardised all of their careers. If Travis nuts you, I didn't see it. Speaking with Scott Parker daily won't be allowed, you're under contract here and we will file charges against Bournemouth for tapping up players.

Alright, we will get a scan done on those tomorrow and see if you have a tear. Otherwise you're coming in for training. And if it's a tear, you're coming in for training, we will do tactical work with you. By which I mean you'll sit in a room waiting for the coaches to be done with training in order for one to give you a 5 minute debrief at the end of the day. What you want to do after your contract is of no relevance to us whilst you're under contract btw.

Mowbray (or me, anyway): Ok then no problem, we will fine you every week you refuse to turn up to training. Hope you've got some savings. We'll see who wants you after 6 months of refusing to honour your contract and not playing or even training.

Excuse my probable naivety about NI, but how come when I'm paying it, it gets taken off my wage, but when wealthy footballers are contributing it, it's apparently on top of their wage?

Ok, that wasn't what I thought you were saying. You said something about the offers to the out-of-contracters not being on the table anymore, which sounded like we withdrew them.

Does that mean Sharpe won't be free to do his own usual deadline day updates on the LT, or is he multitasking?

I'm sure a significant portion of their thinking is that they will weaken a promotion rival though. They also seem to be trying to buy more than just Rothwell.

You have missed something. Mowbray has already said Hedges is not Rothwell's replacement.

I'm not interested in how good a stripper he is.

In fairness, players of Rothwell's style are rare beasts. I'd settle for someone of overall similar ability (or better/more consistent) and with an attacking mindset. Ideally with a bit of money left over to fill other trouble spots.

Fee agreed apparently but he hasn't officially moved yet. 2 days ago Birmingham were said to be making their third bid for him, 1.5 mill. Article same day said Birmingham's bid was higher than Bournemouth's, but the player wasn't interested. So although theyve presumably made a higher bid since, it sounds like they're not paying much given how highly he seems to be rather. Also may be a case of Bournemouth making lower bids than other clubs were willing to make, to get star players from teams who have a lot on the line.

Eh? Waggott said publicly the contract offers were no longer available? Not so sure about that, I'm sure we would have heard. It would also be stupid.

I disagree it has been well handled because of two things. Rothwell should have been forced to hand an official request in, to lose his bonus, and we should have told Bournemouth the price for them is a lot higher than the price for a team we aren't competing with.

If I were in charge at Rovers, the only thing that would do is get the deal cancelled if I couldn't get a replacement through. Course if I were in charge there's no way we would be selling a key player for 3 mill to a rival for promotion at this stage of the game. No way whatsoever.

Great post. Too many people soullessly seek money. That's understandable when you barely have any but a bit sad when you have plenty.

Stop comparing normal jobs to ones where the person is already being paid exceedingly well and is potentially jeopardising the prospects of all of his teammates.

Saw an article before that said Bournemouth have agreed a fee for Dembele, rumoured by some to be our Rothwell replacement. Don't they already have quite a lot of attackers? If that's true, I don't think Bournemouth are really interested in Joe Rothwell at all, they just wanted to unsettle us. Previously I just wanted to get promoted and didn't have any feelings one way or the other about who else went up. Now I really hope Bournemouth stay down here for the foreseeable. Fuck them.

Unless it's 7 million of add ons, I couldn't give a shit.

I will be absolutely fucking furious with that. I wouldn't sell for 3 million to a team that don't directly compete with us, let alone to the main fucking team we are competing with right now!!! If Mowbray forces the owners to accept that he has gone right back to being a fucking moron. Better have an exceptional replacement lined up.

If the LT article is accurate, this saga should basically be over immediately. He isn't interested in Chicago Fire, and there is absolutely no way we should sell anyone to a direct promotion rival for anything less than absolutely ludicrous money (I'd put it at 10+ million in this case frankly, which won't happen). Tell him it's not happening and he can either man up and give his all, or sabotage the quality of the move he will get in the summer.

Well, look how quickly opinion has changed on wanting Rothwell to stay. And they've had months of knowing Hedges wanted out.