Uh oh...

Do you really think he won't start Bennett?

And certainly no strong personalities as gaffer, like Souness or Hughes.

Can you imagine selling our best player for the same as we paid for Brereton? The profit on him being even less than that fee? And then giving a chunk of it to Newcastle as I'm sure they have a sell on? No fucking thanks. Would be spitting feathers.

However, they all had Premier League experience. Hanley and Duffy only signed for Championship sides, who got promoted. Nyambe's CV makes him more of a risk for them, especially whilst his final product still lacks.

Middlesbrough-born too...TM will like.

I don't think the fact he still doesn't know his budget bodes well for that budget being half-decent. I know Venkys always do this lethargic budget reveal crap every year, but don't we usually know it by roughly this point? Surely it has been impressed upon them how much work we have to do in a very short space of time this year, and it hasn't helped. Just a feeling that, combined with corona hitting their core businesses, they'll not give us much of a pot this summer. I'm not saying I think we're going to have to sell to survive, but sell to recruit in all the areas we need, and throw out pointless extensions to dross like TM will insist. A 1-year FFP delay would mean it will be two more full seasons before the penalties kick in, but it's not a 'free' year as such. It will still be welcome if it comes, and if Venkys are feeling generous enough they'd probably match last season's budget then, yeh. I'm not saying it's justifiable, I'll actually be furious if we sell any of Armstrong, Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis or Dack for anything below what I think they're worth to us, corona or no, and without an adequate replacement. I just think it's likely to happen that one of the crown jewels goes this season, and I was asking Chaddy which one he'd pick, especially given he seems to feel certain it'll happen. I don't personally feel the sale of any of them is likely, in the real world, to benefit us on the pitch overall. Yeh we always hear the Venkys want to invest thing but apart from three marquee signings (Rhodes, Gallagher and Brereton) it seldom materialises. Have we ever paid more than 1.5 million (Arma, though that could rise to near 3) for anyone else since we came down? I can't remember. I've always seen Venkys as in a face-saving exercise with the vague hope we might get up to the PL and hit the jackpot for them, keeping the club afloat as they know how they've wronged us, and with only vague actual interest. I've never seen them as 'desperate and determined to invest in the club and get it promoted' no matter what their sycophants tell us.

Speculation at this stage until we hear something official from the EFL. Most of the speculation I have heard seems to suggest it will be a postponement of FFP, not a 'write off your losses this year everyone, it's fine'. Ie, the losses we make will still be counted, but probably a season later. As I say though, we'll have to see, all speculation. Either way, it seems pretty likely the club is going to decide it needs to sell players, whether it's FFP, or Venkys reluctance to fund us with meh results and their own business being increasingly uncertain. And yes, I know that's also speculation, but I'm sure we all have the sense that there won't be any money unless we sell.

I agree he won't attract a Prem club yet, I wasn't suggesting otherwise, I was just saying if it did happen (you never know in football). As soon as he starts being able to put in crosses even reasonably though, you're probably talking eight figures because Prem clubs probably would be interested then. Personally I think he'd be fine in our team if we went up though...assuming we got a real winger so we stopped relying on our fullback to put crosses in, and maybe got strikers who actually know how to get on the end of crosses anyway. I'd expect us to sign competition there obviously, and that may or may not be someone better in the end, but I don't think he'd be getting embarassed defensively by relegation-battle Prem standards. Not that we are going up of course either.

Well no, I offer him a new contract obviously. Partly with money I didn't spunk on giving pointless extensions to players who never feature, and the pointless signings of Gallagher and Brereton. In fact I'd have had him on the 4-year contract (3 years, extra year in our favour) I'd have signed him on last season so that no wage bump was needed now. But in absence of all this, yes I'd try to get his contract extended first and take it from there if we couldn't. Tbh the club are big on 'and another year in the club's favour' so I won't be surprised if we have that clause in Nyambe's contract already. Nobody knew Bell had one until well after it was activated. What sort of club do you think is paying 5 million for him in this climate, in this league? He's a full-back who doesn't score and doesn't consistently assist, and everybody is feeling the covid pinch. Elliott Bennett has sat in front of him for stretches of the last two seasons. We got 3 million for our talented keeper who played every game for 2 seasons. So again, who in the Championship is going to want to pay 5 million for him right now, even though I personally think he'll go on to be worth a lot more? If you can name me a club with the money, the need at RB, and who would consider him the right option for them, I'll be surprised. Prem teams being relegated will likely be happy with what they've got there, or just go and buy the 3 top-rated RBs in the league. Yeh I hope we get a King windfall, that would be a big help right now.

If a Prem side did, you could probably look for closer to 10 million tbh. If they were serious and not just looking for a development project (they've paid more for less developed projects though). Selling to Prem sides is an entirely different market. It's precisely because I can't see a Prem side coming in, which is purely because of his limited end product, that I put the values down there. Clubs in this league would probably start the bidding at 1.5 or some derisory crap. Aka, probably Gally's wage and bonuses (appearances, not goals...) for one year. What's the point?

Ok but how much do you think we would get for him? In the current climate, and with 12 months on his deal, we would be lucky to get 5 million for him (and I wouldn't entertain selling him for that personally) which would make almost no difference to our FFP situation. We would also need to buy a replacement with that. It's probably more likely we would get about 3 million, Raya style. Look how that turned out. It's true we will see what happens with FFP but as things stand, this just wouldn't cut the mustard and would very likely leave us weakened in the weakest area of our team, defence.

But, who can afford him, at his age, in the current covid climate? He has had a fine season but it's not like he has scorched the league. Probably on upwards of 20k per week. Nobody is going to pay that right now for a lad who is 36 this month. He is probably going to have to nearly half his wage demands whether here or elsewhere.

I'd settle for someone who just doesn't play as poorly as Gallagher and Brereton.

Yearly, at that. Keeping category 1 status means continued investment, you literally can't just rely on investment from years past. If you don't spend a certain amount each season, the rules say you lose the status. One of the few things they've done right.

I'm not talking about the entire books. I'm talking about getting straight with FFP.

Well, since Nyambe probably wouldn't fetch much and would leave a glaring hole at RB, who would you sell to balance the books this summer?

Travis should be captain.

Bit that got me the most was when Arma got shoved in the area and ok, one of those that can go either way a lot of the time. About a second later they got a free kick for a similar level of foul. Now if you're not giving the first at least let the second go. Then two players shove Travis in the chest over it right in front of the ref and no cards. Decisions didn't screw us today, but it was still the usual amateur hour officiating.

The eternal question. But in this case, precaution against injury to JRC. We could have moved Downing there though.

Yeh it's not like he assisted the second goal.

I love that little lad!!

What an assist that would have been from Travis! Shame Samuel is...Samuel.

Maybe we were spoilt by how exceptional Mulgrew's are though.

3rd bite of the cherry for Samuel but he has done it!