Rovers wage bill has rarely made sense and the continued cutbacks of it yet losses always around 20 million mark are another source of intrigue. Hopefully the Indian tax investigations will at some point be going through that lot with a fine tooth comb seeing where some of the 200 million has actually gone.

Advancing into the next round and getting hopefully a money spinner takes on more importance than usual right now. That's why we are almost guaranteed to flunk it but then again probably the lowest crowd in a long time means only one thing. Rovers 4 Cambridge 0 4,785

Sense. They'll probably just take out another finance loan secured on something until summer when it'll be a fire sale or they'll be able to cover it themselves.

There is the football wage budget and overall wage budget so are the two being confused ?

In the case of the keeper dept no lessons were learned whatsoever and we are back to the Steele/Jake Keane days after waiting years to actually improve it. To lose someone like Kaminski they should have looked for proper experience and as has been said surely there was someone out there who might have cost a bigger wage but maybe a loan or free. That should have been the target then there is a safer pair of hands to call on and a more experienced guy to work daily with the others keepers, learn from their peers. This 'model' might be lower risk money wise but it is very high risk in everything else and too late when we end up in the shite.

Nobody cares and it isn't full of Bolton fans either.

To be fair Steele was terrible at Sunderland and hounded by their fans after he was here and he spent a long time as Brightons no 3 then no 2. When he was here he came from being Boro's no 2 and 3 and was expected to instantly replacing former England number 1 Paul Robinson. So no he wasn't really good enough as we regularly saw and he was awful in the relegation season and replaced by a rookie. Well done to him but lets not rewrite history.

I don't care if it's on the moon Parish snobbery doesn't mean anything to most people and half the people who go in there probably live in Houghton which is about a street away.

I'd be more likely to say wtf are we doing paying 800k for him and expecting him to back up or take over from a lad who is barely out of his own novice pants. The best thing any keeper dept can have at this level is an experienced number one to learn the ropes from. The scouting of this kid leaves a lot to be desired but like i said he might have looked a great prospect in a mostly dishwater weak league and hardly any fans in tiny stadiums. Then he comes here and looks like a rabbit in the headlights in the full glare of one of the toughest leagues in the world. It happens even to good prospects and unfortunately its happened here.

I don't think Leos issues are anything to do with Ben Benson the player has only been here 2 mins and although has good reflexes he's always looked like a schoolboy flapping at crosses etc. He doesn't know the Championship/British more physical football style and is clearly struggling to adapt and his nerves are probably shredded. I think playing in front of bigger noisier crowds and raucous away support is a bit of a problem for him as well, he looked like he was visibly unnerved in front of those PNE and Leeds followings.

Probably but not been in for 6 years or so although i remember most of the local young lads used to be Preston or the usual plastic tv teams (sometimes one and the same 😁) Quite a few Rovers but of the over 35 variety, landlord was Chelsea if i remember right. And it was always regarded up our way as the Black Horse in Greggy Lane, Houghton !

That may be correct but i don't recall a sign on the door saying only residents of Gregson Lane allowed in.

It wasn't when i used to go in the Black Horse about a decade ago it was majority PNE.

The only gaping hole in it is your assumption that somehow loaning a kid on a few grand a week for 4 months is somehow cheaper than the 1.5 million he is likely to end up costing us for diddly squat return. It's likely that any talk of a spurs contract was just so they could get us to jump there and then and squeeze money out of the naive Rovers set up. It has all the hallmarks of an agent pal of someone doing a number on easy pray when a simple loan with a view to buy should have told us his potential is that of a lower level player. And it would have cost about 100 grand in wages or we walk away.

He just looks like a guy who should be sat in Wetherspoons all day refilling his cup of £1.50 coffee whilst gazing out the window at the same old passing world everyday.

Look Mr Pedantic it doesn't really matter does it and i stand by my point as try before you buy means we probably wouldn't have doffed out a 3 or 4 year contract on Markandy plus fee plus add ons. Meaning that if he goes for nothing after that he's cost us about 1.5 million and i doubt very much Spurs are charging 500k loan for a kid they are going to let go anyway. Nor would it be costing rovers over 10 grand a week to loan that kid for 4 months. Do we really need to be trying to point score on this when all the other stuff is going on ? If you want Broughton on the evidence so far to be running about throwing fees of 500k to 1 million on young players with no pedigree at this level on 4 yr contracts then lets see if it works. All so we can pretend it's cheaper than loaning similar or better pedigree players then fine. I don't.

Not the first one either i bet.

But that's not taking into account the 3 or 4 year thousands per week contract we doff out on an instant signing. The idea of having a look first guards against that. If Markandy stays for the duration of his deal and doesn't cut it hes cost us maybe 1.5 million in fee, wages of say 4k pwk and maybe an add on or two triggered. That's the risk with untried kids.

Eh ? Hedges we'd agreed to sign him in summer when his contract finished but bizarrely then jumped in and paid a needless fee to get him straight away with no intention of using him properly. Markandy again his contract was running down and we stepped in and offered 500k to take him straight away, no need at all at that point. I doubt very much it would have cost the thick end of a million quid to loan both for a few months and in Hedges case it should have been just left until summer. The Mowbray brothers obviously had other ideas though.

About half that at best i reckon but with him being out for a few months with surgery i'm assuming insurance will cover his wages.

Markanday will never cut it at this level that's pretty clear by now and if we'd loaned him at first then that wouldn't have been 500k down the tubes. Hedges they should have loaned him for that few months then got him for nothing in summer like was already pre agreed. There is a flip side to loans especially if it's loan to buy, we certainly could have done with having a look at Leo first !

If Hill goes back that might free up 10k a week.

Exactly the vibes i get from it giving off a whiff of a little clique trying to protect someone else and lay everything at the Head coaches door. Now lets be right he has to shoulder some responsibility on match days and i'm the first to shout that but there is a different agenda from some.

Yet most of them don't 'get behind them' in the stadium they sit and stand there mute as fed up as everyone else but then complain when people do make their frustrations known. Maybe these types should practise what they preach but then again half of them probably stream it anyway.