Valued where, by transfermarket? If Brighton value Khadra at 250k, get him signed up pronto.

I live in that neck of the woods and know the owner, Haythornthwaite, has a reputation as something of an asshole. Although he has improved the fortunes of the club tbf.

Travis: “You see stuff and comments on social media about just wanting to stay up, I think that’s only helped us trying to prove people wrong,” he explained. Possibly worth quoting next time somebody pipes up with 'don't be negative, it affects the players'. Well, positively in this case.

In fairness we did have some, like Evans, who had promotions under their belts. I tended to think it was a youthful inexperience that did it tbh, and managerial bungling of course. But the current youthful crop do look more fearless so far, and the manager has at least temporarily put his self sabotage to the side. We will have a good idea after this game, as if the nerves hold we shouldn't be losing it when you look at the league places and our fantastic form.

I feel as though we are entering a second testing point. In the past we always seemed to struggle with nerves when we got on the cusp of the playoffs. That duck has been thoroughly broken, but breaching the top two for the first time feels like another test of that ilk. Staying in it for a couple more games too would show me this team has everything it needs to handle the pressure.

A) Offer Newcastle say, 2 million if we get promoted and he scores at least 5 goals (or just the first part if they're not down for that). Offer him a larger than usual promotion bonus. C) Don't tell anyone about these bonuses, and if they find out, point out it will only take effect if he helps them to a career-changing promotion. Might not work, but worth a try.

So the 15k per week wage cap wasn't told in confidence?

Hundreds of extra away fans in a promotion challenge season has more benefit than the cost of paying an extra member of staff to shift them. It's not all about P&L sheets, some things have value beyond money. And I was speculating they might need an extra member of staff for the shop as it could get too busy (potentially leading to less sales of merch too). It may not be required though, I dunno. Either way, keeping the online purchase option going eliminates that need. But hey it is what it is.

Fair enough. A few hundred ticket sales potentially though, not just the odd one. Could be enough to need an extra staff member on what I assume might be a busy day. Still not sure what is achieved by withdrawing online sales though, unless that's a service we pay for on a daily basis.

I can't understand why they would stop the online sales and make people trudge down to the club on xmas eve, as well as having to pay staff to deal with that. Blend of inconveniencing fans and the club spending money we don't need to spend. The only excuse I can think is to allow for older fans who might not use the internet. But surely they've had the chance to buy tickets already?

I was more coming from the angle that the more players they have out with covid, the weaker their team is and in theory, the better for us to get 3 points. I don't see much sense in a blanket ban though. A ban on fans attending again, maybe. As much as that would be a shame, I shouldn't think it's too far from happening, with Wales having already done it. No need for the games to be cancelled too though, except where teams have too many players out.

As long as they can field 14 players, I'm indifferent to how many covid cases they get... (As long as nobody ends up hospitalised or worse of course)

I got the impression from articles at the time that we clung onto our youth players and wouldn't let them go until after the window was shut, in case we needed more bodies. Then sent them on these short-term non-league loans when the window was shut to League One and Two. I don't know about Pike specifically, but that appeared to be the general situation.

It's not legal to fly internationally on your own at 12?

What's to be surprised about though? The reservations aren't over any of that, they're over his back injury.

It was outdoor watching last time it got cancelled for a full season... Outdoors reduces risk of transmission. It does not negate it. If the spread gets bad enough again it will be very surprising if they don't cancel football attendance. Other, more important things will probably get cancelled too.

If that was your point, you shouldn't have quoted my post, as I wasn't saying any such thing. By quoting my post along with the other (which was talking about that), yes, I thought that was the implied argument you were making. As I said, at the time of us failing to extend BBD's contract, we didn't also have three valuable assets expiring imminently. It's an either/or scenario because we have a finite budget and the offers made to the three others don't appear to be enough to get them to sign. Ergo, put Gally's deal on the backburner and offer the difference between his existing deal cost and his new deal cost (even if same pay, it's extra years of cost) to bring the other deals up to what is being asked. As I said twice now, we are almost certain to have the money in the summer to extend Gally anyway. That's how you get both, not by refusing to add anything to the other deals and signing Gally up way ahead of time when there are more pressing contracts to sign. That's a calculated gamble, unlike what we appear to be doing. Tbh I'm confused that people keep arguing against this without actually refuting any of the points or logic I'm using. The only counterpoint I can see is maybe the players are close to signing, or maybe they won't sign even if we raise it by the described amount. Without that knowledge though, and being unwilling to credit the club with much nous behind the scenes after the last decade....

You're in the wrong thread if you don't want to talk about it until January. Merry Christmas

So your argument is we should rely on Gallagher having a fluke callup to another nation and go on a totally unforeseen one in a thousand adventure and upturn in form? Hope lightning strikes again? And let three players currently of more importance leave rather than making them a better offer with the money from Gally's extension (and as I said, still having the money to make Gally a good offer in the summer as we are either getting promoted or selling BBD)? Let's say I even buy that, why don't we extend that to Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell? If Ben Brereton can improve by that much, and Gallagher can improve by that much, they can improve by that much. I'm not even dissing Gallagher, I think he is fairly useful and people are harsh on him - some very harsh on him - but it's hard to argue that shoring up his contract way ahead of time instead of putting those funds into keeping three players who are all giving us more value on the pitch than he is, is the right call, especially when our financial situation will very likely improve in the summer and you would think allow us to extend his deal anyway. We also didn't have three valuable assets expiring when we failed to give BBD a new deal.

Not surprised. But if you'd rather lose Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell for nothing in the summer, or nominal fees now during a promotion charge, than lose Gallagher for free in 18 months (a situation that could likely be avoided easily anyway this summer once we have been promoted or sold BBD), then I've got nothing else to say to you on the subject either. I know where I stand though.

It's irrelevant that we signed Gally from a PL team on high wages. At the end of the day, he is less valuable to us right now than any of the other three, and we are presumably throwing more wages at him, than them, to keep him on. If we can do it for him, we could do it for them instead.

Rovers first. Always. England is more like a side hobby. I only even watch them at proper tournaments these days.

People are very quick to rush to accuse others of writing people off these days. Mani suggested what his best position is. He didn't 'write him off'.

Do you just have a ridiculously good memory or do you have a book or something with all the old games in?

It was before Christmas, and 19 as BBD has done, but I'm guessing Andy McEvoy is still the answer?