OK well he hasn't according to the LT. I'm surprised too, but that's the case. And yep I'd definitely take 1-1.5 million for Bennett. I like him as a squad player, but the manager being unable to start him every week regardless would be the main benefit. He is probably in our higher tier of earners too (albeit at the lower end of that tier) given when he signed and being one of our 'senior pros'. It'd also be good value for him anyway. Don't see us being offered it.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9229634/aston-villa-brighton-blackburn-bradley-dack-love-island-olivia-attwood-transfer/ Villa, Brighton looking at Dack. Also a mention of Spurs. The Sun, so avoid clicking it if you can ?

So it begins...(The Sun, so take it with a couple of bags of salt of course) https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9229634/aston-villa-brighton-blackburn-bradley-dack-love-island-olivia-attwood-transfer/

That's what I was saying.

Matt Jansen I assume? Bit harsh! Don't think the lad took his foot off the pedal...in fact you could argue the opposite was the problem. He was never the same after that and I don't think it was anything to do with desire.

We have exactly a couple of players considering an offer. Rodwell and Gladwin.

Followed by our chief exec actively talking about our interest.

Ouch...and I wouldn't really want to pay him 10 or so tbh. I don't believe I want us to pay him any amount he would actually come for, although I do think he'd be an upgrade on Conway. Rather get someone younger. I feel like the wing is probably the absolute most vulnerable position to becoming not good enough overnight when your legs go.

You must be watching a different Adam Armstrong then mate if you reckon you've never seen it, or you're grossly exaggerating. No, he's not a winger. But let's not make things up.

That's categorically wrong, he's beaten plenty of full backs. Largely due to being faster than the vast majority of them. He doesn't do it with trickery, it's mostly kick and rush, but he absolutely can do it. Not much of a crosser though.

Yep, never get tired of showing people this. Starts slow but wow. Show your lad Jack.

It's been made very clear that Rodwell wants to play centre half not midfield. Unless he's changed his mind. Waggott's words also seemed to imply to me that we were about to offer him better terms. If so, I don't understand why. His decision will be based on where he will play as much as he needs to, I suspect, much more than the money aspect. He hasn't convinced me enough yet to just throw more cash at him in either case, but if he's going to pick based on career path, we risk giving him more cash for no reason. If I'm right.

Aye of course, no offence meant to Scotland by the league being poor relative to English football. You have about 10 percent of the population of England so it's not remotely surprising. In theory you'd probably expect it to be a bit worse than it is, by that figure. Scotland used to have a decent national team too. I'm sure it will happen again some day.

A funny thing, this statement of the budget is 'similar' to last season's. Things to consider... 1. We supposedly didn't spend all of that budget. This means the budget is, in theory, larger than what we actually spent last summer. There may also be funds left over which are added to this budget, or we could be including those funds already, or those funds could have been pure fiction. 2. 'Similar'...that could mean a few million more, it could mean a few million less. 3. The 'flex'. This isn't all transfer budget. Not many of our new signings last year would have been on big wages. A couple of experienced players on bigger deals could eat into the budget much quicker than you'd think. 4. How much of last season's budget was taken up by the new contracts we dished out? 5. Venkys have been known to suddenly sanction a marquee signing on occasion, outside of the budget. Some speculate this is what Brereton was, but it's definitely what Rhodes was. So this might mean we can knock about 7 million off what our 'budget' from last year was, or that we don't, yet could potentially get an added Rhodes-like signing on top. As ever (even under the Trust) the real budget is going to remain a bit of a mystery until the end of the window or beyond, as it should be in fairness. Based on all the above, we could see just a few million spent on fees (if we focus on better wages), or we could be splurging 15 million or so, or anything in-between (most likely). All assuming no sales.

It is pony, absolutely. But there are still good players as you say, and even good teams there. I expect Celtic would kick our arse. He outscored every Celtic player, whilst playing for a worse team, in midfield, at 19. A goal every 2 games. 4 or 5 assists too (depending on the source). That's definitely eye-catching. Obviously it won't tell the whole story...maybe his pace or physicality would be shown up in this league. But got to be worth a closer look you'd think. If he was English and did that in League One at his age you'd be talking more than £3 million.

I think very little of the Scottish league...but I completely agree. First my eyes took in 16 goals (actually 15 turns out) in the SPL, and I went 'eh', then I read onto 'from midfield' and thought 'ooh interesting' then that he was only 19 and suddenly I'm very interested. Not a player I know, obviously, but surely worth scouting and considering. Sounds like 2.5 million from the article you put up, and maybe could be obtained a touch cheaper. Try to make a chunk incentivised etc... Also worth considering 'midfield' covers a lot of different roles. Anyone know more about whether he plays in that Dack-type 'midfield' role, the wings, etc?

Injuries to the defence, I'd imagine.

That's crazy...I didn't mean he'd be destitute though, just that with his injury troubles his stock would fall further by January. There'd be no point holding out for a better offer because he'd get a worse one. Don't really want him anyway...partly because I consider him the most overrated player of his generation (or at least one of them). The info you posted there being a good indicator of it.

Sure. That's not what people mean when they say pay as you play deal though. They just mean it's very heavily weighted towards appearance bonuses and not very much in guaranteed wage. I'd be surprised if anyone is being literal enough when they say it to mean the player doesn't get a bean unless he plays. That's probably actually illegal anyway.

It sounds fucking awful, so you're in for it if you're right!!

Any chance we could get a 'transfer links only' thread like last year, for the people who only want to view that, and have the discussion here? I don't know why some people moaned about that system, I thought it was far better. I'm going to try to summarise the players I've seen us linked to, best as I can recall (no links sorry, cba): Stewart Downing (Winger, predominantly left-sided) Scott Carson (GK) Frank Fielding (GK) Adam Maher (Midfielder) Sam Gallagher (Striker/shunted onto the wing) Patrick Bauer (CH) Liam Lindsay (CH) Daniel Bentley (GK) Bassala Sambou (Striker) Joe Malkin (Striker) The last two are clearly for the youth team initially. I assume we are scouting a few European countries but the only one I've heard confirmed is Holland.

And if nobody offers him a contract with a sizeable guaranteed wage (I assume you mean sizeable, as obviously he'll get some sort of guaranteed wage regardless)? Do you think he'd rather retire? Probably can't afford to wait until January for someone to change their minds.

Didn't last year's India trip actually get cancelled or something? Maybe I'm misremembering. There was also lots of excessive pessimism about what we were going to spend, very early into the window. I don't remember anything from TM last year implying we were going for it. Sounds very like last summer so far (maybe better if I'm right about the India trip).

Didn't you post something the other day about how you would be patient for at least X amount of time? Instead a day or so later you've given up because of one rumour. Come on Adam, you seem a good lad but you do jump from one extreme to the other like this a lot. Be patient mate, let's see how it all actually pans out.

Then there's that time we didn't even make the play offs with TWO strikers who passed the 20-goal mark.