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.

Surely that's where Lenihen will be playing tho?

Just waiting for Boro to announce Mowbray as their new head of recruitment

That isn't my ambition.But do you really think a Bradley Johnson or a Hourihane are firing us to promotion glory? Throughout these years of the championship we have had plenty of "experience" and where has it got us? Buckley looked a lot better last season.Why? Because he had a run of games Similar with Brererton. We have had plenty of 30/31 year olds here or given new deals at that age and we got nothing but mid table with them. Buckley will be alongside Travis next season

Id be against doing what we did with Bradley Johnson and others like him. Giving them 2 or 3 deals here.If lucky we get six decent months out of them. It depends on the player.The ones we have signed up to now achieved nothing with us.I dont think this is a league with a lot of quality and it doesn't take much to finish mid table so I would rather see a younger player brought in.Unless we are spending money and taking a 30/31 year old from another club who don't particularly want to lose him then the likelihood is we will just end up with another who doesn't contribute enough to justify their wage and the 2+1 year deal we most likely have given them There is a reason Hourihane ended up at Derby and it won't be money as they are under restrictions.I noticed earlier you would have been happy with him signing?Out of interest where would you have played him? The club has been burnt many times with contracts we have given to players coming to the end. Agree about the experience but they have to be able to contribute on the field aswell and over the period we have given them contracts for. Plenty of 27/28 year olds are experienced.

We ain't going to have half the side as teenagers. But why can't Batty or Garrett make an impact just because they are in their teens? Other teams in the championship blood teenagers and our academy is amongst the best in the Championship. Garrett and Batty both played/play underage for England, not seen too much of Batty myself but seen a bit of Garrett and think he could be capable. I'm not advocating we don't spend any money and I agree we need some ready made players brought in but I would rather a young player get minutes than sign and give a 2/3 year deal to a player on his way down like a Hourihane or Bradley Johnson

Garrets 19 and would probably contribute more than Bradley Johnson did last season. Do the Rotherhams, Birmingham's Readings etc of the league have squad depth? Players will come in but hopefully Dack will be back fit and functioning, I'm excited to see what Markanday can do, hopefully after a second loan Carter can come back and have an impact like Wharton. As it stands I'd disagree with you that we would be in the bottom 3.Players will come in

Then you ain't looking too deep into other teams squads. Birmingham,Reading and Rotherham at a minimum have worse squads than we do and other teams are worse off than us imo. Players will come before the season begins

Which doesn't look like happening any time soon if ever.As our external debt isn't big enough for the Indians to cut and run. Not directed at you but being put into admin is mentioned nearly every summer on here. Hopefully some day soon they will have had enough and look to move the club on ,one good thing about the wage bill being cut and becoming a little more sustainable we will be more attractive to prospective buyers If the club is ever put on the market. I just don't think administration Is the way it will end .

So then our position is nothing like Derby's in the main our debt is owed to the owners.

Derby owed HMRC £30 million,they owed £20 million to Dell and roughly 10 million to other outside creditors. They even came to a deal with HMRC over the amount paid back. We don't owe the taxman anything like those sort of figures. Do we have any loans with Bank of India?Or is it overdraft facility only?

The creditors are Venkys themselves tho isn't it? The situation isn't comparable to Derby as they and Morris owed every man and his dog money?Including the tax man.

Yeah apparently Tony sent Lenihen a lovely message congratulating him on his move to Boro

Did someone say 6 signings would be brought in this week?

Yes but he would have done some research and would have been aware how many first team players have departed. And agreed he Could have been given False promises just think it is a little early to be worrying no money to spend or won't be any permanent signings of the required quality as Broughton did say that they would have a good luck internally first. The time it took to appoint Broughton and JDT Is the major reason we have inactive so far. IF the speculation is correct and we were in for Anel then we must have a little bit of money available

I agree the team needs investment but I'm not having we are in relegation trouble as it stands. There are more than 3 teams in worse shape than us The wage bill has been massively reduced ,in the main by getting rid of players that contributed next to nothing. And I would say our wage bill is still higher than a fair few teams in this division

I'm a fan of Nyambe but don't you think it strange he hasn't been signed by anyone else yet? Maybe he just isn't rated as highly by people within the game as WE do on here or by his agent The wage bill needed cutting final offers should have been made to Nyambe, Rothwell and Lenihen last summer of January 21 and if no give by the players we should have been making the market aware they were available. I don't think it's criminal that the club failed to get them to sign new deals but It is criminal that we got no money for them. I'd love to know what it would have taken to get Rothwell to sign a new deal 18/12 months ago?If he was looking for money that would have put him in line with our highest earners then I'd say the club were Right not to agree to such terms. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but apart from half a season last year Rothwells performances didn't warrant a lengthy contract on good money. Course Travis Money would have gone up considerably since he last signed a contract, he had become a mainstay in the side and captaining us on occasion.He signed on for another 4 year

Yeah but we also overpaid our players for years. Venkys can be blamed for a lot of things but their reluctance to pay bigger wages is something I can understand a little. How many players have been given long contracts here on the managers recommendation (not just Mowbray)for them to either contribute very little or we have ended up paying off their contracts?Many Many millions wasted . I know you have said otherwise and not saying you are definitely wrong but from what I heard Darragh Lenihen was offered a deal that would have made him the best paid player at the club, but his mind was made up and wanted to join Wilder at Boro. And last season you said about players that came through the academy not being offered deals in line with their contribution to the first team. That may have been true but something must have changed with Travis committing to a long term deal.He would have got interest elsewhere if he wanted to leave.

Derby will be In the premier league before we are? Didn't work when Morris tried to buy promotion.