We did have budget in 2020 and 2021. The problem was we wasted it. The 2020 squad should have fought for a play off place at the minimum

I think all teams are waiting, teams we are buying from don't want to budge in their valuations especially with us possibly having another £10m to spend if BBD is sold. Last few days of the window everyone will start being more negotiable although with the World Cup and fixture log this year that may not happen. At some point we'll have to move on and switch to signing other players but if we do and our targets suddenly move for £2m on deadline day we'll all say why didn't you wait?

I think around £3-4m is what we have offered and probably what the deal ends up being at but sadly the fee won't reduce till the last day of the window. Info is solid but still keep being told we are still in for Styles and have enquired about a European based Striker on loan but don't have a name as yet.

Funds, they are negotiating for JPVH as a permanent signing from Brighton, once that is complete they will then know what's left at the moment Brighton are after £7m and we are some way off. I sense JPVH may have to be a special request for more funds from Venky's.

He's not head of recruitment but DOF, so far he has recruited JDT, new head of recruitment, new medical team, new analysis team, sorted out updating all of the equipment at Brockall etc. He's done an awful lot, just sadly only signed 3 players so far.

There was far worse under Mowbray, excluding the obvious there was the 3-1 home loss in league 1 to Doncaster.

It still requires Venky's to approve each transfer and send the funds across for the transfer.

I think the issue was heat exhaustion from Sunday for several of the players and it takes a bit longer thank 3 days to get over it unfortunately. We need more players to cover it. 3 games in 6 days with the first game being played in the mid 30s is going to take its toll even with the improved fitness the players seem to be showing. We may have to look at tweaking the tactics and doing less of the high pressing in order to give some of the players an easier game or we may have a bigger injury issue on our hands.

That's the problem though, they haven't had much time. Just over 2 months to analyse the squad and then make decisions on what type of players we need to fit the new playing style before going out and finding. If we wanted this summer to be a success at the very least we needed Broughton to have been appointed in Feb and JDT shortly after. We are playing catch-up to too much delayed decision making.

It's a difficult task bringing in 7-8 players even if we have a budget of £9m. Still only works out at just over £1m a player. I'd be going back to Barnsley for Styles pretty quickly after Pickering's performance today. I know they have enquired about Charlie Goode on loan but been told Brentford want to sell only at around £4m, whether the price or possible loan will change towards the end of the window I don't know. Although I would be worried about his injury record for the past 2 seasons.

At a guess I would say his agent

£15m plus add-ons with 1 year to go on his contract is pretty much accept the bid. We really need to get our signings done before selling BBD as if we do the signings after, clubs will want more for their players knowing we have the cash in the bank from the sale.

New FFP rules from next year, so as long as we control the wage budget, now is the best time to make heavy investments and go for it.

The last update on Van Hecke I read here was that he had family issues and was looking at moving back to Holland.

Very difficult for the 5 games and the chances are that one of the two is likely to get a strain etc is high. However I would still prefer to get the right players in that JDT wants than just getting someone who is available. Although with how well under wraps transfers are kept these days, it wouldn't be a surprise to see a 5 min warning for a player we have never heard of that has signed.

For one, our accepted offer for Dembele on deadline day showed there were funds to spend. Mowbray is also on record saying he turned down the option to sign several loan and permanent signings. They over ruled him on the sale of Rothwell only. They did as you suggested with David Raya and look how badly that turned out for us.

Why? We would be the only club who operate the way you want. For most of the clubs in the entire football league it would be the board or a clubs bankers who will decide if a player is sold or not. Managers/Coaches have very little to do with it. Even Klopp and Guardiola are frequently over ruled by their owners on transfers. Venky's rejected Rothwell because they wanted to keep the squad together and go for promotion. Surely that was a good thing? We'd all be complaining if it was the other way round.

There was at least £2m with Dembele rejecting us for Bournemouth.

Waggott for both. I am pretty sure the transfer spend will be around £8-9m at the end of the window. You have to remember in Jan, Mowbray was trying to do everything to get a new contract. So trying to raise funds through selling Rothwell was him trying to do that. I also don't think he expected us to finish any lower than 6th from our position in January no matter if he signed anyone or not.

Well he did manage to talk Venky's out of funding a double promotion shot after our league 1 promotion which they wanted to and instead went for a slow a slow build. Also if you chat to Waggott he'll tell you that Mowbray didn't once spend all the transfer budget he was given each window and is one of the reasons why Venky's trusted him. Venky's gave him the budget in Jan because they want to be Premier League owners again especially after a Indian consortium looked at buying Chelsea as well as another club last year.

With Rothwell it is interesting because Venky's provided Mowbray a budget of around £5m for Jan signings which he didn't use. He wanted to sell Rothwell to fund his signings, Venky's said the money is there and didn't want to sell anyone who could get us promotion.

All at Ewood know what an offer has to be for Venky's to agree to sell BBD and if clubs don't hit that amount he won't be sold.

At the moment £13m per season allowed by the rules hence why we no longer own the training ground so Venky's could inject the £20m a season. I would just keep BBD, sign 4 more players and go for it this year. We have as good as a shot as anyone this season.

New FfP rules come into force next summer with 90% wage budget and owners allowed to inject £60m over 3 years into the club. So a complete reset starting from scratch next summer. We just need to get to 90% by then.

It's not a nightmare, new FFP kickin next summer, so this is the one time it makes no real difference to us if he goes for free or £20m. Venky's don't seem to care as long as they sell at their valuation. Best to keep him and go for promotion this season.