2 minutes ago, islander200 said:

If what you say is true then why is Broughton wasting his time and ours enquiring for the likes of O'Brien?

If no money then you set your targets realistically.

Btw Coventry are want £20 Million for Gyokeres and even if he isn't sold the owner is giving money to Robins regardless 

Yep their new owner has managed to finalise a deal to buy the stadium at a good price so can now invest.

6 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

That's a huge statement in bold? Where's that info come from?

From a friend inside the club, might not be accurate but says all plans changed after meetings with Venky's in December to cost reductions.

7 minutes ago, Mercer said:

I think Broughton is struggling and clearly out of his depth.

The ability of 'a fixer' to get the deal over the line is key - we don't want excuses just feckin results.

Let's not forget, the window lasts 31 days and here we are scrambling about with 36 hours to go...........so much for planning!  As the saying goes, fail to plan plan to fail.

There are something like 130,000 professional footballers world wide yet our recruitment team seem unable to find at least 2 or 3 players who would improve our team.   There is simply no excuse for our recruitment team - I think they are shambolic. 

Ok I will pop it back to you.

All the funds they have is £10k a week from the release of Hirst to bring in the players that's it this month. No additional funds from Venky's. 

The recruitment team and GB must also knock a £100k a week of next season's players budget, so no new deals for Ayala and Dack I would expect.

So how would you pull the rabbits out of these hats you expect all these amazing players to come from within our budget.

1 minute ago, Mercer said:

Nail on head.

If you've a limited budget then you wheel and deal.

Broughton should have successfully managed upwards on this issue.  If the Venky's said no then he should have fecked off as clearly wasting his time here.

Remember for investment signings such as Rhodes, Venky's were raising finance for these offering a guaranteed 100% return if a player is sold. I don't know if they did for BBD but would explain their insistence on not selling for less than X.

So unless we received offers above £10m we would have had a reduced budget in the summer if we had sold.

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

I've read it all now. So according to you, the job of this army of 15 is to identify players who theoretically might possess the qualities we require but who we can't afford?

What's the point in that? Surely they need to be identifying players who would be of benefit who we can afford?

Maybe you should look at it this way. This is the first time since they have taken over that we have got the scouting and analysis departments back to where they were before Venky's took over.

Setting these things up takes time and also working out the data models for what you want also takes time. 

By doing all this, if we do get new owners in the next couple of years or if Venky's invest to get us promoted then we will be better prepared to spend the cash. 

Behind the scenes we will have spoken to all of the players agents who will have said they are interested in joining at this wage. If more clubs join the race the wage requirement increases, which seems to be the issue, we haven't any wage flex to increase to match the other clubs. 

With Undav it seems he backs himself to get into the Brighton team now and is happy to probably sit on the bench than playing regular first team football. Not a lot we can do about that.

5 minutes ago, JHRover said:

It doesn't require magic. Just requires the replacement of Waggott with a decent CEO who is going to be allowed to do the job properly. Oh and a Commercial Director for the first time in 7 years might come in useful. 

Once again the problems we have on turnover and commercial aspects are at least in part created by our own negligent approach. So the Club cannot use that as an excuse on the old turnover/wages calculation. Take it seriously, do something about it, appoint competent people, then you can use it as an excuse.

Any normal business or wealthy person would, so why we haven't I have no idea. 

31 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

It's now almost a week since we were fed that crap about simply "waiting for the green light" from Brighton to close the Undav deal. I called BS on it at the time. How can you agree a financial package when the parent club haven't even decided if they want the deal to go ahead in the first place?

Also is it not extremely worrying that one of our main targets this window has rocked up at errrr......the Club managed by our former manager? It would tend to suggest that the pool of talent from which we are drawing in terms of agents and agencies is still the same foul smelling cess pit it always was?

Say this every transfer window and been saying it for years now, working in our recruitment department must be the cushiest number in the world. I used to put the inactivity down to Venus being in charge of getting the deals over the line and Mowbray's "You'll have to wait your turn and learn how Corry and Richie play" pep talk. But things don't appear to have improved recruitment wise with the change in structure and the acquisition of a new DOF. In fact if anything they seem to be even worse.

We have what the budget is that was agreed in the summer, that's it.

With Modi's crackdown at the moment on outside India investments to shore up the India economy during the recession, Venky's will struggle to fund anything more at the moment.

The thing is we are still operating at a 105% player wage to turnover %. Unless we can magically get Waggot to increase turnover with a decent commercial department we are always going to get outbid by competitors on players.

Also if we want to go down the Brighton and Brentford model, they do everything through data models and analysis for scouting. Brentford's owner also owns one of the largest statistical data providers for Gambling companies which feeds into Brentford's tools. 

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Change the staff around yet the same issues linger. 

Everything has to go to Venkys for approval still on transfers and then when approval is given they need to wait for funds to arrive.

It's a long drawn out process which unfortunately means we miss out on most of our targets as other clubs step in while we are waiting for approvals.

1 hour ago, 47er said:

Once again its not just Diaz we have lost/will lose for free is it? Inconvenient to recall the others? Which club has done worse?

The thing is with the way investment signings such as Rhodes, BBD and Armstrong were financed, we never receive any cash from their sales so it doesn't matter if they go for free.

The only player who has been sold and funds reinvested has been Raya and that's it.

All these arguments about selling are valid in a normal club but for us it doesn't matter we don't see the funds.

Hopefully Greg and JDT can change this with the new signings we are making and we will become a trading club again.

2 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

why are we messing around with goalkeepers when we don`t score goals and don`t create many chances,get midfielders and strikers in ffs,im`e leaning towards the view that jdt and broughton don`t have a scooby doo

It's called forward planning and for once actually having a plan. Our 3rd and 4th choice keepers are not being offered new contracts, the new guy is cheapish and available now. It is a good bit of business and exactly what we should have been doing with our forward department for the past 2 seasons.

If a player is available that improves the squad/team we should sign when we can and not when we are desperate.

58 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

That £8m (the bid was reported at a bit more, but say £8m) is a very sizeable amount at this level to aid the current season and also the long term. For context, we spent maybe £4.5m in the summer, £0.5m last summer and £1m the summer before, so it is more than 3 seasons worth of budgets.

If there is no consideration of any reinvestment then that is an even bigger bad reflection on the owners. Buying, profiting, reinvesting should be a regular thing.

At a normal club that would be correct, money from his sale would be reinvested. With us none of the cash would be reinvested, Venkys would just give us less cash to cover losses for the year. With them it really doesn't matter. So we may as well keep him.

I lost all interest after the Fulham game last year. After a 4 hour trip to get to Ewood from Northampton, I had to watch our worst ever defeat, after the match complete apathy, no apology for the performance. I was livid and any self respecting owner would have sacked the Muppet after that and I still had what ended up being a 6 hour drive back due to roadworks and detours.

Since then I have been to one home game and a few away games but each time I go there just seems to be more and more apathy about the place and our fans. Also I spend now more time with the family and try not to get invested in us. 

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

How come Coventry need to drastically reduce their wage bill despite a new owner coming in?

New owner doesn't have a unlimited budget and is not in the billionaire category of owner. He also has training ground and stadium issues to fix. 

8 minutes ago, islander200 said:

They are looking for over 10 million for Gyokeres and Premier League clubs interested no chance that will ever happen 

He'll go for around £3m plus add-ons.

Coventry's new owner has said they need to drastically reduce their wage bill by the end of Jan, but like what happened with us and Hyam. 

4 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Gyokeres seems to have Premier League clubs sniffing around him, similar to Brereton Diaz. Could we realistically get him? I seriously doubt it.

We'll never know unless we ask. In reality how many end up at premier League clubs? They are always sniffing but that doesn't always mean a move will happen

18 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

I'd go back to Coventry and try and tempt them to part ways with Hamer.

I think i would prefer to chat to them about Gyökeres 

14 minutes ago, DE. said:

Not sure you can compare Cantwell to the likes of Bellamy/RSC. Both of the latter were proven quality regardless of attitude/fitness issues, whilst Cantwell has drastically declined over the past two years. 

Signing players with a bit of an attitude problem can be a risk worth taking if they've proven to be very good on the pitch, but when they've been rubbish and injury prone for around 24 months it's a different scenario.

Agreed but the point is that we have to take some risks with transfers. We can't afford the finished article 

5 minutes ago, TimmyJimmy said:

Farke said "He has missed too many sessions for personal reasons, or problems with his Achilles and ankle. He has to make sure he is working so hard to find his fitness level. You cannot afford to be out for two or three weeks, train a day or two and then be available to shine on this level."

Wagner said "... no secret ... he isn't part of the plans moving forward".

Seems to have personal issues and is injury prone.

Is this really someone we want to bring on board?

In the Hughes days it's how we ended up with Bellamy. We used to be really good at taking this type of player, rehabilitating his career and selling on at a profit.

Now after 12 years of total mismanagement even our fans are scarred of signing this type of player.

2 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

A theory that seems very farfetched to me personally but we can all be free to choose which rumours to believe and not believe.

Nothing that Venkys have done has made sense from a promotion (to the Premier League) perspective over all of these years so I doubt that it was all on Mowbray with such a specific plan to get a new deal.

We should have sold Rothwell, just like Brereton but they don't seem interested in making us a club like Brentford and Brighton that uses clever reinvestment of funds generated to continuously stay competitive.

Agreed on the Brentford and Brighton models should be followed. 

This Jan we should be selling BBD if we can reinvest all of the transfer funds. If we can't and are only getting a fraction we may as well keep him. Which really doesn't make any sense.

2 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

Ah, so Mowbray was talking shite when he said he didn't get those players (Dembele etc) because Venky's wouldn't let him flog Rothwell?

He messed around trying to flog Rothwell for most of Jan and left it too late. He could have easily gone after Dembele earlier in Jan and signed him.

Dembele has now rejected us last Jan and also in the summer, so maybe third time lucky this Jan if we are indeed interested again.

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

It is indicative of how Venkys have run us that in such a strong position, they not only didn't provide a competitive budget but didn't even give the manager permission to trade to raise funds and strengthen the club that way.

Could the signings have been used better? Yes, perhaps. Should we have taken a loanee from the Premier League to boost our strikeforce? Maybe. But are these the main issues? No.

Funds were there last year. The problem was that old Tony was trying to get a new contract and he believed not spending their cash, selling Rothwell and generating funds for his 2 signings, would be more likely to earn a new contract.

The offer for Dembele was made after Venkys rejected the Rothwell offer as funds were available for transfers, although it was only around £3m.

In hindsight we probably should have sold Rothwell. 

15 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

My issue with Venkys has never primarily been about how much. Its about them overruling and having an all or nothing policy, hence why we will never be efficient under them. I wont swallow the FFP excuses when the owners have demonstrated more than once a lack of willingess to stick to a plan and a short term mentality.

Jack used to over rule managers all the time, no one seemed to complain then as it was his money and he could do with it what he wanted. He purchased Kevin Davis without even discussing it with Roy and several others as well.

It happens all the time with owners and even more on the continent.

Just now, Mellor Rover said:

Rule of three at work? Agent trying to force clubs into moving in for him

I think more Barnsley trying to get a bidding war going.

Is Ayala injured or just being rested?

Hopefully Wharton is back for Saturday.