No, facts are facts, a proven truth, and as you have no actual insight into what occurred with that signing, your *opinion* is no more a fact than those saying that he was a jobs for the boys signing.

If Pickering and bloody Edun are pushing 10k a week then this new fabled wage structure looks to be built on dubious foundations already.

Diaz is on substantially less than Pickering and Edun? Two nondescript young lads brought in from the lower leagues. Hmmm. But obviously a totally legit site to have accurate salaries of every player in the division.

What’s all this I’ve read today all on the likes of… ‘well, the forum would have gone mad if we had sold/signed x, y and z’ ? So bloody what! The club should do whatever it needs to do to protect its assets, the opinion of anonymous posters on here doesn’t even come into it, and it shows how weak the arguments are if that’s all you can think of as a defence of the club’s approach to contracts.

Then we all need to ‘get real’ to turn a phrase. And that includes some honest speaking from the club hierarchy. If the new wage structure and a drive to 70% means we can’t compete with run of the mill Championship clubs, for run of the mill Championships players, how long do we have left even as a run of the mill Championship club?

He was a recent top England international when we bought him. He then improved from that whilst here? Did he buggery!

Unless your pal was involved in the negotiations, he obviously is hearing it second hand, or third hand. Even if your mate is the most trustworthy bloke you know, he’s still only passing on what he’s been told, even if what he’s being told is a load of tripe. So it all ends up very Chinese whispers, especially when the ‘first hand’ will be agents, or certain club employees with their own agendas - as everybody will have, that’s just a typical negotiation.

Even if that’s true (it isn’t), the fella could hardly dive by 2012 and he was only 32, a bloke with 40 odd England caps no less, so doesn’t exactly say much about either of them. Rather have Benson.

Chaddy - don’t take up professional poker! 😁

Must be joking! PR got worse every season. I didn’t say it did, I was just using post-Brad 2008 until 2012 as context, as that was the Mimms spell as coach.

So you just take at face value anything you get told? Don’t take anything with a pinch of salt? You don’t try reading between the lines? You don’t look at somebody’s track record of being economical with the truth? Certainly a novel way to approach life.

Did our keepers improve under him between 2008 and 2012? I.e from Brad leaving to relegation?

In what way are Stoke ‘a shithouse club’? They are a historic, founder member, just like us. You are obviously of ‘mature’ age, due to mentions of the 70s and 80s, but you really don’t post like it.

Didn’t you keep asking for Bobby Mimms to come back?

Certainly can, so it’s testament to our fans that at games he has been so well supported throughout his time here .

Yep, what’s a few million here and there ay? Yet, supposedly Swag has had to beg them to extend out a ST deadline by two weeks and the £30 surcharge that goes with it. Only in the penny wise, pound foolish VenkyWorld…

Brfcs posters don’t draw up and offer contracts, so it doesn’t matter one iota what any of us on here thought 18 months ago! The club however does, and they have once again not protected their assets. By reading ‘well a load of the few dozen posters on brfcs.com said he was crap’, ‘this obscure internet page would’ve been really really mad if he signed up’, is luckily not how professional football clubs make decisions on new deals . So a few of you trying to absolve the club of any blame because ‘DaveyBlue69’ and his message board pals thought he was a bit shit is all a bit of a stretch.

Is SG signing a new deal a sign of the club’s dysfunction then? Not particularly, he’s a young-ish forward, team regular and he’s best signed up then letting go out the door for nowt. But again, a few dozen folk on brfcs don’t matter one jot, hindsight or no hindsight, BB was still a mainstay of the squad, young and was a big purchase, just like SG. So you get them signed up as a matter of course.

So? Who gives a feck what ‘roverboy82’ and his pals thinks about anything? It’s for the club to ignore noise from message boards and the like and to protect its assets. And I don’t think that’s even true, SG renewed his deal and there was just a collective shrug, no minds being particularly lost.

Oh some will, some examples of that are posters on here. But many won’t, and it isn’t necessarily due to being disillusioned, or the price. A good chunk of existing ST holders walk away every summer regardless due to all manner of personal circumstances, some football related, some not, whilst newbies/returners sign up to, in essence, replace them - the churn.

‘A lady’? It would’ve been the Radio Rovers legend that was Wendy Howard… wonder what happened to her?

I would be absolutely delighted with c10,000 (yep, that’s what this regime has done to my expectations) considering we had only just scraped past 7k a couple of weeks back and we haven’t had 10k+ since the club decided to torpedo the season ticket base, first with appointing Coyle, and then massive price hikes post Covid. But I personally don’t see it, as the mood music from Swag doesn’t point to hitting those kind of figures, he’s just happy with having more than 7k by the sounds of it, and I don’t see vast numbers of the non renewers suddenly doing so just because the deadline has been extended for a second time. But of course we’ll see at the weekend.

‘Cha’?! Keep your weird Preston-isms away from here!

If he isn’t the ‘greedy type’ of agent, RN needs a new one.

He has a big Scouse accent, so unless DB somehow ended up living in Bootle about 18 years ago…