1 minute ago, Butty said:

To be fair we’ve already spent over 3 million on transfer fees this summer, the only problem is we need to spend another 6 or 7 if we want to be competitive this season and like you, I have my doubts that much of any BBD transfer fee will be reinvested into anything other than keeping FFP at bay for another season.

FFP can be ignored for this season. New rules begin next summer. The important part is keeping wages to 90% of turnover and this has to be factored into the signings or we'll need a few sales next summer. Signing loans is probably easier as here for 1 year and off the wage bill for next summer.

1 minute ago, R0verb0y said:

I'm not getting at you, @philibut what does this actually mean?

Does it mean you're guessing (hoping? praying?!) that Venky's have set £20 million + add-ons as a sum below which, they won't sanction BBD's sale? Or that you've read someone who claims to be in the know - but of course can't reveal their sources - has said it.

Time for all similar statements to be treated with a lot of doubt, methinks. What'll happen will happen, whether or not we speculate about it.

They have set an amount rumoured to be £20m that they will sell at. If no one meets it he will stay for the next 12 months and leave on a free next summer. 

Which was confirmed to Glen by Waggott and Gav heard similar. I still think the likely hood is he leaves on a free next summer.

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

If they are that rigid in their price of him, which is ultimately conjecture and nobody knows for sure, then they are idiots. Well we know they are, but it is reiterated.

I do wonder if there are any players at Everton we would be interested in to make up the numbers in part exchange.

2 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Good move for Brereton I'd say. Stays in the North West, good chance of getting game time and if he does really well, bigger clubs will circle. 

If he goes, I think he'll go for around  £12.5 mil plus add ons.   

Broughton  made a big deal about our budget not being dependent on Brereton going.  That tells me we won't be seeing any of it reinvested.

Venky's have supposedly set the price at £20m plus add-ons, so he's not going for less than it no matter what clubs offer.

1 minute ago, Gav said:

Rich Shape recently said we don't, not under Mowbray in recent years, a direct quote from the club.

But this is all immaterial, we need players in and quick, or its a relegation dog fight that we could lose if Saturday is anything to go by.

What we have paid in the past doesn't help us at all now. We do need more players and I still think 6 at least are required.

We also need Venky's to approve deals in a few hours instead of weeks and Waggott to increase turnover. I still can't believe they turned down the Bet365 sponsorship this year and went for what they did as the difference is probably the wage of 2 new players..

In all honesty I would like us all to sit down and see the clubs real accounts because I think we'd be shocked what we have been paying for over the last 12 years and the income we've declined.

1 minute ago, Gav said:

This has been dumbed down somewhat phili with respect, anyone would think the original intention was the fool posters into thinking we actually had a £10m transfer budget, with extras on top, or my mistake maybe.

I'd seriously dispute the Mowbray claim also, we paid less than £1m in transfers fees last summer, we don't pay loan fees for players either, just partial wages and they would be nowhere near £6.5m.

 

We do pay loan fees for players and Clarkson was a particularly good deal as we had to pay Liverpool an early termination fee etc as well.

4 minutes ago, Gav said:

One or two keep telling us we have £10m to spend Jim, hold your never, players must be coming and decent ones at that!

Yep around £10m which includes transfer fees, loan fees and signon bonuses as well as any agent fees. 

It's precisely £3.5m more than Mowbray spent in total last summer. So is a balancing act.

1 minute ago, Gav said:

Didn't you tell us yesterday he already had? and was on well over £5k a week now?

That is what the reports on Saturday were saying and he would be announced on Monday.

Just now, davulsukur said:

Rich "I pour cold water over it" Sharpe

Sounds more like he doesn't know and the club are telling him nothing.

9 minutes ago, Devon Rover said:

Would Brighton sell both Clarke and JPvH?

Depends if JPvH will sign the new contract. If he won't they will sell.

5 minutes ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

LaLiga side hatch Ben Brereton-Diaz plan that Blackburn will be furious with (teamtalk.com)

This would explain what has been going on the last few days. Rovers want to sell now, Sevilla want to sign him on pre-contract in January. 

This is Venky's they don't care. If a club meets their £20m valuation he is sold otherwise they are ok with him leaving for free next summer.

Any other club the writer of the article would be correct but here normal practices don't exist. 

13 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Especially when it's someone who has been bought with significant investment as a development project.  Much like developing our own youth to then leave for nothing it's utterly pointless in terms of building a team/club for future success.

There has to be some caveat in there to protect these assets and bring the club some kind of compen should they leave at any point.

When it's happening with good player after good player it is pretty indefensible.

At a normal club alarm bells would be raised, with us it seems to be Venky's not caring about the cash. Up until they show interest and understand what a trading club is we have no chance.

All this talk of turning into Brentford misses the point that up until their promotion Brentford were a trading club and all of their fans bought into this. All their players had a price and if a club came in the player would be sold so long as the club made a profit on them, they also made sure players had at least 2-3 years remaining to maximize the selling price.

With us we buy them and let them go for free, their must be some Indian tax benefit that we don't know about because otherwise very rich people normally learn from their mistakes and change course quickly.

4 minutes ago, islander200 said:

He is currently on less than 5k per week at Brighton 

He has signed a new long-term contract with Brighton before going to Sunderland. I think he is now on substantially more than £5k

11 minutes ago, Gav said:

Spot on.

Sheff Utd have brought in a central defender for £3m and 4 loan signings already, now thats a team going places and it showed on Saturday.

If we're not careful we'll be fighting relegation this season, the current squad are simply not good enough. 

Agreed but they have spent getting on for £7m doing that and you have already ridiculed the £9-10m budget.

So far we have spent around £3m, I am hoping the £10m is right because if not and you are correct SVDB will be our transfer business completed and we'll have signed 4 players and have gaping holes everywhere.

31 minutes ago, arbitro said:

And how long do we wait? Right now we are desperate for players as confirmed by Tomasson. He sounded as frustrated as the fans in his interview yesterday. Besides that and more importantly nobody knows how much we have to spend.

They have to be the right players and fit into our budget. At the moment that feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

5 minutes ago, arbitro said:

It's absolutely irrelevant how little business other clubs are doing. If we have a 'healthy' budget how on earth does the lack of activity affect us?

Well if we sign Styles, Bowler and Van Den Berg that is our budget gone for the season. I think they need at least 2 more players on top so at the moment they are trying to balance the requirements of needing 5-6 more players with £7m and pretty much all players we need are in the £3-5m bracket. 

13 minutes ago, 47er said:

We shop in Barnsley, Crewe and Peterborough these days but hope for promotion!

 Does not compute.

We ask why do we have such difficulty signing players every window? Why do they end up somewhere else?

The answer just has to be money--both in terms of wages and fees. 

I don't see anything changing with Venkys in charge.

The caching and planning can be top class but you have to have the quality to start with.

Seems we can afford the transfers ( offers been accepted for Dembele, the MK Dons lad who went to Celtic etc) just a very strict wage budget we won't stretch.

2 hours ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Thing is. We must have shaved loads of the wage bill. The squad is chock full of kids.  Surely there must be room to stretch to a couple of 20k plus wages for a couple of quality players. 

 

The wage budget is a huge concern.  How do we get players to sign new contracts if there is a low ceiling? Nobody of any quality will hang around.

We have to be at 90% total wage budget by next season. Loans you can do higher wage budget because not here next season but by the looks of it we can do 6 players at £10k a week. Do £20k for 1 and you can only sign 5 etc.

Its a fine balancing act

5 minutes ago, whalleyrover said:

If they want PL football, why did they not strengthen in January, remove TM during the death spiralas would have happened anywhere else or hired a proven manager this season.

They put a new system in place and did hire a good manager for this season.

Their issue is if they like you they are very loyal.

6 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Fair enough. If you choose to believe and judge baseless rumours, adding on speculated rumoured bids for players we didn't sign etc, then you seemingly will be with the majority on here, but I will continue to judge the owners on what is spent, not on what apparently could have been but wasn't.

I believe the last bit about loans, no idea on whether they were "very good," I presume you know the names? Connolly and Forss were linked, neither of which could be described as such.

Venky's want Premier League football. Several Indian consortiums have looked at clubs in the past year including Chelsea and Leeds. The amount of abuse, mocking etc if that happens in Indian media for them will be huge. Only way to stop that is if we go up or look like we will.

Also in the past 2 seasons we've spent close to £10m on loans so not a trivial amount as you seem to think.

1 minute ago, glen9mullan said:

£10 million does not include the "special request" for the special player. 

This request was granted for the lad who went sheff utd, but the wages blew that deal straight away.

The request button is for a player though, and not a transfer budget top up!

Special request will be van Hecke and LB and Striker will have to be funded by the remaining budget

3 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

I expect £10 mill to be spent (heard this is the healthy budget), which will include loan fees. If BBD is sold I suspect that half of that will also be reinvested.

The stumbling block is and will remain the wage budget, under no circumstances will the wage budget be increased. This certainly makes the pool smaller, given kids in the prem are on £20k plus PW.

Which has us shopping championship, League 1, Europe or Prem loans.

I believe the budget last season was the same budget, but we failed to spend it, with again wage demands either thwarting us, players chosing to go elsewhere, or in other cases targets not being deemed an improvement on what we had.

With what we've brought in so far including Morton loan, we've probably already spent £3-£4 million. Regardless how the payment arrangements have been agreed, this will not be deferred from this seasons budget.

The 2 Vans will use all of the remaining £6m so can see a request for additional funds for a LB and a striker being submitted. It seems everyone signed so far is on £10k or so. Getting quality in within the wage budget will be difficult.

7 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

No, sorry.

So not Styles either,  by process of elimination ......  

I can't see it being Van Hecke, so only other player we have been linked to is Bowler.

We'll have to see what happens in next couple of weeks

Just now, Sparks Rover said:

Neil managed him at the nobbers

Yep and did a very good job as well.