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So we weren’t on the ropes for the other half? Are equalisers not valid if we haven’t been on top for the entire game?

Who is saying they don’t want a better defence? I think it’s universally agreed that we need better full backs and a new GK. Poorly performing? Norwich were top six last season.

No leaders after signing Batth and McFadzean..?

We sold him at lunchtime. What did you expect to happen by now?

Wharton is worth a lot more because he’s now proven at the PL. No other teams bid for him in Jan when it was clear Palace were closing in. I’m sure many clubs are regretting not going for him, but ultimately Palace were the only ones who put in an offer. Szmodics has gone for a fair price given his age and lack of top flight experience. With how long this has dragged on, the club clearly haven’t accepted the first offer that’s arrived.

Crazy to think about the career trajectories of SS and Dack. Two seasons ago, they were competing for the same position in the team.

If I was an Ipswich fan I’d be slightly underwhelmed that they’d spent £10m on a 29 year old with no top flight experience after one very good season in the Championship. He’s been fantastic for us and thoroughly deserves the move but can see why other PL clubs weren’t in for him. If he was 5 years younger, clubs would have been queuing up for him. Whether it’s a good deal for us will all depend on the next two weeks. The Gally money was seemingly spent well so interesting to see who we can bring in now.

Stop momentum by selling players? One of the biggest criticisms of the owners in recent years has been them stubbornly holding on to our best players in the hope of promotion and then having to let them go for nothing. Brereton and Rothwell immediately come to mind. Selling our best players on our terms and for a decent profit is not a bad thing. We’ve not done enough of it in the last 5/6 years. SS deserves the move and £10m is just about acceptable when you consider his age and minimal sell on value for Ipswich. What we do now is critical.

Selling our best assets isn’t the problem. It’s what clubs in our position have to do to become sustainable. The bigger issue is not the sale, it’s what we do with the money. Given his age, £10m is about right. We weren’t getting more next year so now isn’t a bad time to sell and it didn’t go to the final day. What matters most is who we now bring in.

The argument is that Szmodics’ value is now at its highest. We can debate what the ‘true’ value is, but assuming we aren’t getting promoted this season (which I think is a safe assumption), his stock isn’t rising any higher given his age. Not selling players at their peak value has been a big problem in recent years. I don’t remember many people wanting us to sell BBD for the c.£7/8m we were offered in the last year of his contract and yet that is now rightly used as a point of criticism given he left for nothing. So now would be a good time to sell. Does it mean we should accept any offer that comes along? Obviously not and no one is saying that we should, but given Ipswich appear to be close to a figure we would accept it feels sensible for all parties to reach an agreement. The alternative to hold out and refuse to sell (which is our prerogative) but accept we’ll get a lower fee in the future.

Low risk? He’s unproven at PL level and 29 yo with minimal re-sale value. Obviously some PL teams might get desperate closer to deadline day but there’s no guarantee and the later we leave it, the less time we have to bring in replacements. I don’t ‘want’ him to go but Szmodics market value isn’t getting any higher. If we want/need to sell, this is the right time. Ultimately he’s under contract and we hold all the cards but given Ipswich seem close to reaching the fee we want it seems sensible for all parties to get it done sooner rather than later.

He’s a West Ham season ticket holder.

Phenomenal. Brilliantly written.

Given where we were at the beginning of the week, I’m relatively pleased we’ve finally got several new players onboard. Not getting carried away, but good to see more experience arrive and Weimann is a decent option up front. Certainly need to see more arrive before feeling remotely optimistic about the season but it’s a starting point at least.

Who’s getting giddy..?

After watching the golf video (all 20 mins of it..) the biggest revelation of the window so far is that Gallagher can actually hit a ball with pace and accuracy. Just a shame it’s not with his feet.

I know I’ve been repeatedly branded a happy clapper or looking at things with a more positive perspective than others, so I’m going to try and take a more balanced view on the situation: This is a burning car crash of a window. What the hell are they playing at. The radio silence from the club is inexcusable. We already deserve to be relegated and haven’t kicked a ball yet. Just end it all now.

If you’re measuring ‘better’ simply by how far we progressed, you have to take into consideration the squads at their disposal and standard of opposition. Sven’s teams faced (prime) Brazil and Portugal twice in earlier stages of tournaments. Southgate’s lost to Croatia, Belgium (x2), Italy, France and now Spain. Whilst Southgate has undoubtedly improved us since the Iceland debacle, we’re still unable to beat decent teams, regardless of when we encounter them.

Southgate had a better side this tournament compared to other major European nations, than most of his predecessors and we looked no better than normal. We got to the final due to a fortuitous draw and as soon as we came into contact with a good team, we were comfortably beaten. Southgate failed to fully utilise the squad and mostly stuck with players who looked fatigued and not at their best. He was relying on our best players to produce moments of magic which was only ever going to take us so far. Gareth has made us harder to beat and took us deeper into tournaments than we’ve been used to, but given the talent available to him and our repeated inability to beat better teams, there is plenty of room for improvement. Time for change.

To be fair I can imagine that being exactly how it’s played out behind the scenes at Rovers.

Glad for him that he got the move as he’d have been a years away from a call up if he’d stuck with us. The price issue is getting tedious. For a Champ player with no PL experience, a fee of around £22m isn't bad money. Bellingham went for £26m in comparison so should Birmingham be livid they didn’t get £100m? Maybe we could have held out for £25m but we’d get nothing like what he’s worth now whilst we were in the Champ. The timing of the move and what happens to the cash are separate questions, and it’s painful to see Palace get recognition for his ascent when he’s hardly played for them. Our biggest issue in recent years is that our best players have left for nothing. £22m is our record sale. Doesn’t mean we should be glad he’s gone but he can’t be characterised as being sold for ‘nothing’.

We’re a Championship club with attendances more commonly seen in League 1. What part of that do you disagree with? It’s no comment on the quality of support or underlying reasons for why our attendances are low. It’s impressive that we get c10k fans each week considering pricing and catchment area, but it doesn’t change the overall situation. I assume other clubs don’t allow such big away allocations because they wouldn’t normally have an entire stand empty of home fans to reallocate. They’d probably also expect to sell out whenever the big games come around which we never do even with cheaper tickets. Oxford is the only outlier and that’s once in 12 years.

10k? We have closer to 15-20k empty seats each week and even with reduced prices, we’ve not sold over 25k home tickets for any game in the last 5 years. We have more empty seats than any other club and given our financial situation, it’s understandable why we offer big allocations, despite the downsides.

If we had enough fans to fill the Darwen End then there’d be no conversation about giving teams the full stand. We’re desperate for the cash and are usually only able to partly fill the home ends. I’m well aware of the underlying causes which include ticket prices and catchment areas but that doesn’t change the reality going into Sunday. If we want to be more financially self sufficient then we have to maximise every opportunity to generate income.

When is Lineker ever talking about Rovers? Thought he was fine and pleasantly surprised by Murphy who actually spoke about the club in positive terms.