islander200

Agreed and Lenihen told the fella That told me that if our offer had been as high earlier he would have signed the contract with us. He liked the area and does care about the club

He isn't a RB/WB he might have a place somewhere else and impress but he is diabolical in that position

I'm Irish and I have it from someone who knows Lenihen personally the last contract offer that was made would have made Lenihen the highest paid player at the club. 22 grand a week .At that point his mind was made up to join Wilder at Boro.

We don't know how much we have to spend to be fair . If that was true about us bidding for Anel then if that money is available could pick up Brittain from Barnsley for £1.5- 2 million to replace Nyambe. We got Van Hecke on a loan deal last summer who imo is a better player than Lenihen. There will be players available within our price range or on loan that won't be too far away from Nyambe and Lenihen in terms of quality.

Lenihen and Nyambe big losses but they are replaceable. If Dack can get back to anyway how he was pre injury then he will get more goals and assists than Rothwell could manage. 6/7 out of that team I posted were regulars last season.Markanday who is highly rated comes in and Dack who was one of the best in this division pre injury comes in. A centre back(Ayala Is a better defender than Lenihen just can't trust his fitness), a RB and a striker coming into that side and we be no way near relegation.

As it stands our squad Vs Brums, Readings, Blackpool's, Rotherham, Wigan is better. Agreed on JRC

You said we wouldn't win a game.Surely that would lead to relegation. I'm disagreeing that our squad would go down as it stands. Signings will be made anyway

And you think those clubs I mentioned have benches brimming with experience and quality? I'm not saying we don't need new signings but if you believe those other teams I mentioned have better than us then I'd say you haven't even looked at their squads 6/7 of that line up I mentioned played most the games that got us into the top 6 last season

Why have all those players gone to league one so?For a team that can pay new signings a maximum of 8k a week? There are enough things to slag the club off for instead of taking it as fact that Hourihane turned us down when it has come from one poster with an awful record with information.

Kaminski Carter Ayala Wharton Pickering Travis Buckley Markanday Dack Brererton Gallagher That team is better than at least 5 or 6 teams in the division

Yeah and those teams I mentioned have Cafu and Maldini playing full back. Yes we need quality added but as it stands other clubs in this division are worse off than us

Is it being grateful? Or is it responding to post that relegation is a forgone conclusion with the squad we have? We had all this last summer being said we finished eighth. There are poorer squads than ours .Wigan have a team made up of league one players they are yet to make a signing this summer. People are acting like we won't make a single signing this summer because we have been inactive so far

Signings will come in. Our squad is still better than those 4 teams and you can add Blackpool to that. I'm sure all those clubs and others have poor options in certain positions. Costello is a poor Rb but if he was to play there it wouldn't guarantee our relegation.

Yeah and as it stands those 4 clubs and a few others have worse squads than Ours in my opinion. Sure all this was being said last summer too, that we would go down with the squad we had.

So Reading, Brum, Rotherham, Wigan etc have better squads than us?As it stands. Disagree

Mate Mercer had Ferguson as the new manager. He sold Jordan Rhodes to Wigan and Bolton more times than Alan Nixon. For years he had it we were on the brink and going into admin but he got bored with it after about the 7th or 8th summer Why would he pluck Hourihane out of thin air?He was a freebie with a not too shabby past who had just signed for Derby When Mercer has a story he is never slow to share it so why wait until he had signed for another club bit odd considering I'm sure he was one of the posters bemoaning the lack of activity so far Even if he had talks shown around the training ground ect that is no proof a contract was put in front of him .Didn't unleaded say (who has by far a more reliable record than mercer) that Hourihane was on Park's list that JDT and Broughton had moved away from?

Did we miss out on Hourihane?You know for a fact a contract was offered to him or are you taking Mercer's word?

Well they have been away in Portugal and the person who would try asking the questions is away. Be a worry if no comment by JDT after the game Saturday

Sharpe mentioned an interest in him last season. I'd take him and Styles from Barnsley altho Styles fee may be a bit higher now he switched allegiance to Hungary and is playing international football.

He is only on 4k a week at Brighton I'm sure we could manage that.Surely Brighton give him a go next season tho.Duffy started a lot of games for them and Van Hecke has all the tools to be a much better player than him if he isn't already

Brittain at Barnsley could be picked up for a reasonable fee and after watching him a fair bit he would definitely be an upgrade on Nyambe attacking wise and he defends well enough aswell

Didn't we finish ahead of two of those clubs last season? Derby threw loads of money at promotion and where are they now?League one. I'm not being funny but Stoke have spent a fair bit and I look at their squad and I ain't too envious to be honest. Stoke and Boro have owners who are better than ours and care more about their clubs I doubt you would find any on here who would disagree with that. Not sure if this helped Boro's Ffp situation but how much did they receive from Derby and Morris last season when Gibson took legal action against them?(just checked and I can see £3 million was the settlement so didn't play a part)

Again I said I'd like experience but it has to be the right player.To me Hourihane isn't what we should be targetting.He has gone to league one for a reason. You give loans back after a season so not comparable to giving a 30/31/32 year old a 2 year deal lm

We don't need 8 or 9 signings.Trying to stretch our budget to that many players we will be signing dross. 4 permanent signing and a couple of loans.Dack fit to play a bigger part, Markanday fit and Hedges who did ok in his last couple of games weren't available for us the majority of the last season. If you read my first reply to you I said I would like experience but they have to be able to contribute for the length of their contract and plenty of players 27/28 have experience. More often than not signing past it players has done f all for us. 8k a week is still money that could be used elsewhere rather than bringing in Hourihane who is finished at this level. The chances of us getting promoted next season are slim to none so build for the next season.

And now Hourihane has joined a club in league one.He isn't doing that if he was getting offers in this division.As we have seen plenty of times a player that age can lose it overnight (Mulgrew being the prime example). He would have wanted two years here, this is one of the reasons are finances are as poor as they are, giving out contracts to these sort of players. So we sign Hourihane,give him the 2 years get similar levels as we did with Bradley Johnson the majority of the time he was here and end up mid table next season while Hourihane drains the club finances further by paying him his last year for nothing. A younger player could be getting those minutes will be beneficial for us in the longer term.We definitely need new signings but not just for the sake of it.Iv seen you mention we need 8 or 9 in?Crikey on our budget...we end up with 9 Hope Akpans and we wouldn't be going anywhere near promotion. Hypothetically we have 10 million to spend on transfer fees alone(I know we won't spend that much) I'd rather that money was spent on 4 players.Couple of 3 million and couple for 2...I wouldn't want that budget stretching to 9 players. Add a couple of loans and use the young players who the management feel can contribute.There will be a couple like in seasons past that can play a part.