That isn't how affording things works. Whatever we are offering, if he isn't signing it and is insisting on more, we can't afford him. Regardless of how much a rise it is. Unless, as I said, there are non-financial reasons for him leaving. Your comparison to other clubs in the league is bizarre, how can it be that only a couple of teams in the league have the money to beat us when we aren't close to top 3 for wage bill? I can't find the latest figures but we tend to rank somewhere around 12-15th if I recall, for weekly wage bill. It's our disproportionate wage bill that puts us in enough FFP trouble that we had to reinvest almost nothing from what must have been at least 10 million after Newcastle got their cut, even with a training ground sale exercise to balance the books.

Out of curiosity, where are the usual suspects who call fans 'negative' and suggest they are failing to support the team, reducing the morale of a given player, etc etc whenever an honest summation of someone's talents at the time is given? Shouldn't they all be in here giving pelters for someone daring to question the ability of one of our starting 11 whilst we are 2nd in the league? Or is it alright because that player is probably leaving and it's the club's fault, so it serves as a way to defend the club (by which I mean the poor-calibre executive decision-makers we have at the club, but to some that's the same thing)?

I've pointed out the basic logical flaw here previously and I don't remember getting a halfway effective response to the contrary. Perhaps I did and missed it, so I'll try again. If we have made him an offer, and he hasn't signed it...and we aren't going to make him a better offer....then we can't afford him. Unless of course, he is just unhappy at the club, or signs it in the future.

An alternative take is that their opinions on his performances last season differed from yours. Which is fine. I distinctly remember debate on whether he was now a decent player, decent squad option, or still not good enough.

If he thought he was crap, he wouldn't talk about him in quite those glowing terms though. He would have just said he's a good player, didn't quite happen for him, thanks for your work. That's the usual fare in a situation like this. He has been far more complimentary than that. Doesn't matter, not our player, never was. Wish him well as he's a Rovers fan and a shame it didn't work out, but that's life.

Nobody has called it world beating. But he went from being pretty much useless to being a useful player, and that was a significant improvement. I'm quite sure I'm on record that I expected 10-15 goals this season from him even if he played wide. Which is a 10 to 15 fold increase on what we got from him in his first two seasons. Of course, what has happened since, nobody expected.

Not as much of a beauty as two of the other goals...

I don't know if 'stressing out' is the right phrase, but I'm sure plenty of posters are confused and curious. Surely just explaining it once in here for everyone to see makes a lot more sense than soliciting a string of individual DMs to reply to. That's more hassle for you and for any posters who would like to know.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2021/feb/11/liverpool-to-pay-fulham-record-fee-for-harvey-elliott-after-tribunal-ruling 1.2 mill initially, rising up to 4.3 mill eventually, potentially. Although as it was a tribunal fee and Fulham were hoping for about 10 million, comparing his price to Brereton's is pointless.

If available that seems a good shout. Also reminded me of Hannibal Mejbri at Manure, and wondering how doable that would be too. I'll admit I've never seen either player, but I've heard both spoken about in very glowing terms (Diallo cost Manure nearly 20 million last Jan) and neither of them seem to have played much at any level this season which raises fitness questions....well, Mejbri has played 6 games for the Tunisian senior team between 30th November and 18th December, so I guess his fitness isn't really in question.

We tried that already, it went badly.

Hah, yes quite, I meant to say drop all 3 points.

Fuck what it costs Venkys though, it's what it costs us 😞 Get what you're driving at though.

Wow, real shame they didn't drop points with 9 men.

You wouldn't have been highly disappointed to lose at home to a team below us, and a playoff rival to boot, on the back of a great run of form? I would. But a draw is fine. Got to be getting something from Boro too for me, we are at home.

Dolan is plenty good enough but he is never going to shine in these conditions. He needs a nice smooth pitch to be at his best. He has also not started for a while and isn't match sharp.

I mean, where did he think the ball was, nestled on Dolan's thigh? Clearly a frustrated lunge that should have seen him walking down the tunnel. Not sure Van Hecke should have ended up on the pitch either though, but that was later and probably wouldn't have happened if Hudds had 10 men and had to sit back.

I was anxious about not making any changes as I expected us to have less energy. A couple of the lads had started to look leggy at the end of the Barnsley game and the pitch was always going to be a slog. That said I understood it, as you can't really justify changing a team that had won so many in a row. Besides, Huddersfield had only 1 less day of rest than us and they managed.

Can't win them all, I felt a draw was due. Not the end of the world, need to ensure it doesn't stall our momentum. Don't think the pitch helped our attacking play, we need to be handling these conditions better (in terms of stopping them happening).

Not gonna break through today are we

Ref giving us a free kick when advantage should have been played.

Rothwell and Pickering were both touted as set piece specialists when they arrived. I don't think either has ever scored a free kick for us. Not sure we have scored a direct free kick since Mulgrew? Feel like there might be one somewhere, but even one in all that time is a poor return.

Should have been a red card that

Why do Rothwell's direct free kicks always seem to go over?

No, went into his side. The benefit of replays. I should add though, I've seen them given. However, should have been a free kick on the edge of the box just before it.