Just seen you're on android version so stats could differ, but Dolan is meh on mine with bog standard potential. I've kept Walton and tbh he has been fine. I was going to bring a better goalie in for the Jan window, but my budget got squeezed by me buying a fuckton of promising youngsters to loan out then turn over for a profit, my usual tactic. The first thing I did was snap up Martin Olsson on a free and he has been fab. Although Bell has actually played very well in the midweek games when I usually rotate nearly the whole team.

On my version, same edition as him I think (FM 20, it was available for free a few weeks ago, first one I've played since FM 11), I just sold Ben Brereton for 11 million to Everton after he notched a mighty 2 goals in 4 starts and 10 sub appearances. Sam Gallagher, on the other hand, has 17 goals. It's February 2020.... In fairness I've no idea why he has so many. It's not like the game has given him amazing stats. Finishing, technique, composure and long shots, all at 11 out of 20. Heading at 12. Those are the key goalscoring stats. Not blisteringly quick or super strong either. Best attributes are teamwork, work rate and jumping reach. I have theoretically better strikers who perform worse. I did, however, play him in the middle up front........ I'm currently sat in 5th place, 13 points clear of 7th, but 9 away from 2nd. The playoffs await me too.

Brandon Lonsdale is 5 ft 10, approx 11 stone, plays as an attacker (his dad described it as 7, 9, 10, 11 but mostly 9), dob 03/09/2002, nationality English. He also has Dutch nationality too though, dunno if FIFA does dual nationality like FM. Hopefully his brother Nathan, who is in the younger age group, keeps coming through at Rovers too. Their dad is a huge Rovers fan, used to travel from Holland for pretty much every game when he was working out there.

I know Brandon's dad. I'll ping him on FB.

Nope, definitely nope, and also nope for me. Sorry. As much as I rate them both. Game of opinions of course.

Why does it look like some sort of cardboard cut out is self-harming in the background? Had Joe Pesci just told him he would be paying him a visit tonight, with a vice?

You thought that because he absolutely was. That was exactly when he showed he was the best in the world at that time.

Yeh Duff was unquestionably still world class at Chelsea. I always feel he was slightly better here, injuries robbing him of a tiny bit of his edge, but I'm biased. But we are only talking the difference between being the absolute best LW in the world with us and being one of the top 3 or so after.

Problem being that still puts him in the 11...

On the world class discussion, only been the following since the Prem started, who were just full on undisputable world class players that have played for us. Shearer Friedel Duff There's an argument for Tugay, and his technique certainly was. After that you can only say some players had some world class attributes, as some have mentioned, rather than being all around world class. It's not an easy title to earn (or shouldn't be). For me it more or less means you can get in the starting 11 of nearly any team in the world. None of our current crop, talented and promising as they are, have the possibility of becoming world class as far as I can see. Slight possible exception of Dolan just because his tricks are unreal, but he has a very long way to go yet. Shame we never signed Lewandowski btw, then I could have added another to the list.

Yeh I didn't mean I personally expect it to happen (unless it's with a promoted Rovers) but I certainly wouldn't rule it out. Seems a hard working type and that means his game should improve for a few years yet.

JRC is decent, has potential, could become a Premier League player in time maybe. He doesn't have an ice cube in hell's chance of becoming 'world class'.

JRC is decent, has potential, could become a Premier League player in time maybe. He doesn't have an ice cube in hell's chance of becoming 'world class'.

Yes I know not all of us, I didn't mean that. And I did look it up, I posted the link to the topic and yours was one of the comments I read before doing so.

No. Hoilett left on a free. The others left for compensation fees after expiry. And nobody is having a meltdown, they're just contesting the false claims about how we never lose important players out of contract. The current regime under TM has been fairly good for it though, so far. Only Mahoney lost in this way. Next summer will be a serious test of that though, it's a lot of players that we use, to go out of contract at once. The Nyambe deal only being 2 years was a disgrace though. Which actually makes me about 50% confident that we actually have an extension option in there.

More than a couple. It wasn't universal outrage, but you're definitely exaggerating or misremembering that one. No, he wasn't a key player. I'd say that as a young player who was starting to show good potential and like he was ready to kick on especially at League One level, it was what I'd consider an asset you need to be protecting. Far less so than Nyambe granted, who you don't seem to rate, which may or may not be because the manager wrongly dropped him a few times. Hoilett left us in 2012. King, who was another I'd considered an asset you want to protect, and clearly correctly, left us more recently than that after contract expiry.

I'm not grasping in the slightest. There were quite a lot of annoyed fans. I was one of them. The word was our offer to him was fairly derisory too. His level of success afterwards is immaterial, it was a blow at the time. Luckily he hasn't gone on to all that much since.

Without actually being a lawyer of course...only if there was something in the contract we had breached, or there was a serious circumstance where we had let the player down. If it was just something like he was told we would be in the Prem by now then he should have put that as a condition of the extension. Neill only did what he was 100% entitled to do contractually, as annoying as it was. If you were right, there'd be successful legal challenges to get out of contracts all the time. I vaguely remember some attempts, but no successes that weren't contingent on contractual agreements. Even if you're right, Dack doing that after Mowbray revived his career and helped keep him out of jail? Nah not buying that.

We were fairly annoyed at the time to lose Mahoney that way.

Only had a year left on his deal, but still...considering a year or two ago they agreed a 700k Euros deal with Olympiakos, it sure is kind. Amongst other likely clauses I think we can expect to lose a large percent of any future transfer fee though, so if he turns out to be brilliant we might not feel they were so kind! I wonder if that was their thinking, that nobody has much money right now and they risk losing him for nowt in a year, but in England he will have higher profile exposure and might sell for a few million...of which they can take a large slice. Dunno.

No need to be rude about Leicester's players.

He signed his agreement to it, so yes, you can. It's not against their will, they willingly consented to the clause.

Yes, nothing. I'm not joking. 'No initial fee'. Which implies future fees dependent on targets. Or potentially a guaranteed payment in future perhaps (like when crowds return maybe?)

We aren't there with all the x, y and z I wanted either, but the main thing missing for me is the LB. We get a decent one in there and I'm pretty content. There are still holes in the squad after that, but I don't think there's a club in the league where everyone is happy with their squad and wouldn't improve it, nor is there ever until promotion is secured (then it's onto where needs strengthening in the Prem). A second prolific striker would be nice, but the Rudy n Rhodes days showed 2 of those doesn't guarantee you jack. Hopefully Dack can come back with a bunch of goals too anyway. So I'm wondering what was your x, y and z? Until Travis got injured I only really wanted a GK, CB, LB, then backup GK and backup CB. I've decided I'm fine with William's and our youngsters to collectively cover the backup CB, partly as I didn't think we would be getting an experienced top end Championship CB in his prime like we have. So all we are shy is the LB. Then my hopes were only ever in 'getting greedy but if we can manage it's territory, for a classy attacker, and Dolan will do for me if he keeps it up. You say he was a bonus and not meant for the first team, true but we have him now regardless of intent and he is mint. The discussion was only about if the squad is stronger, so it wouldn't matter if the government had mandated that he joined us and the club had protested heartily against it.

It's more the 4th tier isn't it? Although described as the third tier, if you get promoted you go to Segunda Division B, and you need to get promoted from that to reach Segunda Division, then from that to reach La Liga. That's what I gathered from my quick check. LT described it as 4th tier too.