So, with all things considered, what bid would you all accept for Brereton if a bid came in tomorrow? So, before the Armstrong saga is resolved but still knowing he will likely leave too. And not knowing if we will be in embargo, nor whether selling someone in the next few days could prevent one.

Interesting.

I couldn't find bookies giving Championship relegation odds yet, who is that with?

Nope we still employ him.

He only played 2 games in League One. He has played in the Scottish Prem more recently than that, 10 games this year, so it wouldnt be going higher anyway. I expect the thinking is that he needs a run of regular games, and the level directly below us is the closest test you can give really. I'd argue the SPL is only slightly, if at all, a 'higher' level than League One anyway. Some League One or below level clubs in there for sure. We have two other young centre backs on the cusp here, Ayala returning and will probably look to get a new CB if possible, so someone is going out on loan.

He has then compounded that impact by raising prices and thereby slashing thousands off our number of season ticket sales.

The fan reactions show that isn't an issue. Maybe it's more that his teammates don't like the attention being stolen from them. Or maybe the players just need to get used to each other.

Everyone who has been here for long enough to see me post consistently, and you post, will be under no illusions about my capability in batting your nonsense down, but frankly pal I can't be arsed. You're just being tedious as per. There's nothing to be gained by a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

Very strange - does he not need it for the second half like?

Bore off.

I can tell you all of those occasions: Done.

You really confuse me with this 'Dack has never really delivered in this league' thing. There was certainly a valid argument to be had pre-injury that Dack wouldn't be able to compete in the Prem, but any argument that at that time he hadn't delivered in the Championship is the purest of nonsense. And Mols absolutely didn't deliver in the Spanish what was it, 4th tier? Be better to just admit you got it wrong on him too rather than keep looking silly, people would respect it more. Sometimes players shine at youth level and can't make the step up, there's no shame in admitting you got over-excited about one. Mols had a lot of talent, he just didn't make it count.

I didn't even think Cameron Jerome was still playing.

Christ, you drive, drink and eat fast if that all lasted you a combined 15 minutes!!! Maybe you'll enjoy your spends a little more if you just take the time to savour them 😉

In fairness I think some younger people these days mean 'legend' in a far less extreme sense than the traditional one. Like your mate down at the pub who is a 'legend'. Seems like a top bloke, as a person, does Benno, and that might account for some of the hyperbole.

I wouldn't have been furious if he had signed up for another year only, on a vastly reduced wage and only to be used as backup, in his actual position unless a dire emergency. Since I doubt any of those things would have been the case, this has to be considered good news.

The general vibe I get. And the losses we have been posting. The way we seem to be leaving it very late (as far as what I've seen reported says anyway) to submit the final clarification over our accounts, and the league needing clarification over them. Which to me suggests we may have been trying some 'creative accounting' to avoid an embargo (yes I know some will say we want an embargo but I don't buy it). I could be wrong of course, it's just a general impression/expectation. We will see. Or we might indeed be doing creative accounting and it actually work. But the EFL seem to take a very dim view of that kind of thing these days.

Today's (yesterday's now) LT article made depressing reading. What we thought was nearly 2 million for Brentford's promotion turned out to be 500k. Getting rid of five loanees, Downing, Mulgrew, Evans, Bell, and Holtby only comes to savings of 50k per week apparently. On the plus side this means we were paying less for them than we thought, but the downside is it doesn't free up as much budget as we thought. I'm very much suspecting that when the Financial Unfair Play decisions are made we are going to be in an embargo. Which will weaken our bargaining position for Armstrong and other players (including contract renewals) even further. And as has been mentioned, the usual nonsense hard luck stories with zero accountability will come out. Couldn't possibly be things like selling a highly rated keeper for peanuts to a club renowned for finding bargains and foregoing the next season by loaning and sticking with one of the worst keepers ever to wear blue and white. Or raising season ticket prices in a pandemic, resulting in millions in lost revenue. Or fannying about with delayed season ticket and shirt sales. Or signing 12 million quid of strikers who haven't delivered and playing them on the wing. Or signing expensive crocks from TM's old club. Or knowingly paying players to do nothing because we feel sorry for them. Or tactical midgetry that repeatedly cost us any real chance at the land of milk and honey. Nope, it will all be us being the only club affected by covid, and that FFP thing we've known the parameters of for years. Hell if Maggot is feeling especially talkative he might even implicitly blame the working class fans again for not spending enough of their hard earned, limited money to support millionaire footballers whilst the club utterly takes the piss.

I'm 90% sure you've got the wrong end of the stick there. The entire remainder of the contract isn't owed. The loyalty bonus doesn't come close to that amount most/any of the time. It's a prearranged amount separate to that, and is standard in footballer contracts. It's paid for not demanding a move during the length of the contract. If the club sells you anyway, you've been 'loyal' (no matter what chicanery you pulled, as long as you don't put in a direct request) and you get the bonus when you move. Otherwise you get the bonus at the end of your contract, or spread across it in annual sums as long as you're still there. The player's wage-level protection is more in terms of the fact they're under no obligation to sign terms with the buying club. So a club can't just shunt a 100k p/w player onto a conference side for 500 quid p/w to avoid paying the wages, as unless the player has lost leave of their senses they won't move. They're entitled to the full value of their contract if they see it out, not every time they move. Selling clubs might also agree to cover some of the wages until the end of the contract they had with the player to get it over the line if they're desperate enough, but that's more because the player won't accept a huge wage drop.

Because we are not a club that can afford to spend 7 million pounds on a player and wait 2 years for him to start earning the shirt, even if we make a profit somewhere down the line. That 7 million invested properly at the time may have been enough to get us into genuine playoff contention before now. Then again under this manager, maybe it doesn't matter how we spent it. Any future fee would have to be ludicrous, upwards of 20 million, before I'd be willing to reconsider that maybe it was a good move when everything was factored in. This assuming we didn't stick a nice sell on fee in there for Forest, which would be very like us... Or of course, if he fired us to promotion. Either scenario is fantasy-land in my view though.

About the same as Mowbray and Waggot resigning tomorrow with a statement that Tony knows playing 6 ft 5 strikers on the wing is stupid but he just can't help himself.

So is this a guess based on the above, or have you heard something specific about us?

To be fair, he's meant to be absolutely class.

He was 17 when we signed him I think? Maybe 18. That's a fair age to take a punt on someone's potential. The weird ones were White and Lyons.

I wonder which Premier League academy he belongs to... (If Nixon weren't frequently full of shit)