Matter of opinion and striking the right balance I think. Team spirit is good and you don't want to disturb that too much but at the same time I think we are still very light on numbers in the event of a few injuries. I thought Butterworth looked sensational when he came on against Birmingham personally and I don't think Carter has done too much wrong either when called upon.

Striker definitely needed for me, where are the goals coming from if BBD picks up am injury? Plus keep Gallagher further away from the starting line up. I'd also like to see someone coming in to give us further in midfield, a bit of stardust, our 2022 version of Berkovic ideally. Otherwise leave well alone. Think it goes without saying we shouldn't be letting anyone leave in the position we're in, I wouldn't be letting Butterworth and Carter leave on loan either

I thought we had been reliably informed by the itk's it was imperative he signed it one minute after midnight on Jan 1st in case he entered into a pre contract agreement with someone else?

Absolutely massive three points. I genuinely thought the ridiculous postponement against Hull would be a real momentum stopper and they'd have a lot to answer for so we've done really well to get the three points. Loving the ten point play off cushion having played a game more or not.

Nail on head. This was basically my point last night about PL managers which was wrongly perceived to be an attack on foreign managers. As it happens they tend to be the most vociferous about the fixture list as they hail from Countries with smaller Leagues though. They just don't get it. They are so handsomely rewarded because in this Country they're expected to fulfill a certain schedule. If they're prepared to do that, best of luck to them they've earned every penny. If they aren't, fair enough but take the corresponding drop in salary. Wonder if they'd be quite as vociferous then?

I don't know for certain but I'd have thought we can offer our players whatever we want whenever we want. However if we subsequently run into FFP problems further down the line as a result that's our bad. As regards this latest story again I'm surmising but if true I'd have thought the players would already have had bonuses of some sort written into their contracts but these are vastly improved sums being offered in an attempt to get the soon to be out of contract trio to stay and just to give everyone that little bit of extra incentive bearing in mind this looks to be our best chance in over ten years.

Wharton's currently the best for me. Still never lost when he's started.

Can't see what either he or Hedges would bring to the party if I'm being honest, they both strike me as not being as good as what we've already got. I'd be quite enthusiastic if two of the other players we've been linked with Doyle and Maja joined on loan initially to give us extra options though.

Sorry, I think it does. It may sound harsh but it's nothing to do with them being "foreign" I'd say the same about an English manager making similar comments. Basically they're quite willing to accept the vast rewards on offer for fulfilling a specific set of commitments, then as soon as they get here they want to have their cake and eat it by playing less games for the same money. The problem isn't "the League Cup" it's the amount of money on offer. Hypothetically if new sponsors came in and offered more money for competing in and winning the domestic Cups than the Champions League they'd soon stop complaining about the League Cup and be moaning about having to play too many games in the Champions League. The managers of the top 6 Clubs need to realise the game isn't all about them.

Too right chaddy. There is a reason why the Premier League is regarded as the most watchable League in the world and the broadcasters pay copious amounts to the Premier League to ensure the players are in general the best paid in the world. Part of the reason is the massive amount of televised games and a major part of that attraction is the hectic Christmas schedule. If the foreign managers don't like it they should **** off back to Europe where no doubt they'd be on half the salary. Klopp always moans about it this time of year but Rangnick is particularly annoying. Only been here 5 mins and Man Ure aren't even in the League Cup he wants scrapped! If these managers were genuinely concerned about playing too many games per se them there's a way to solve the fixture congestion at a stroke - cut out all the meaningless Champions League group games and make it a knockout competition as it was when it was the European Cup. Of course you'll never hear any of them suggest that because they get paid too much for participating in the "Champions" League.

Great result. Just need QPR to oblige now.

I don't agree with the Covid rules anyway but that's a discussion for another thread. If they're to remain in place for the time being however a few basic rules regarding postponements due to illness/injury should apply. 1) If there is any chance at all that a request to postpone the game is going to have to be made this should be made public a specified period of not less than say 24-36 hours before the game. Therefore if fans decide to travel knowing this they do so at their own risk. 2) Any decision on postponement must be considered and made a minimum of however long it would take the away fans to travel to the stadium plus say two hours. There's no need for example to call off Blackburn v Preston as early as Carlisle v Plymouth. 3) After that cut off point no requests for postponement can be considered and if the team making the request refuse to fulfill the fixture they forfeit the three points. It would be interesting under the current rules if some fans tried to sue the Clubs/EFL for their travelling expenses and inconvenience in the small claims court. Technically I can't see how the Club's would have a leg to stand on. They're committed to put on a fixture and it's clearly a breach of contract and/or negligent to have a mechanism in place which allows for postponement after fans have arrived at the ground.

Doesn't say there they didn-t have 14 available players, says they didn't have 14 'senior' players. I thought they were meant to utilise under 23's if they were short on numbers?

Good performance by Middlesbrough today. Wilder seems to have turned them round pretty well.

Not wanting to turn this thread into another covid thread but absolute rubbish. imo. A short break would have practically zero effect as relatively high levels of the new strain will still be about at the end of it. This is why the decision was correctly made to play on wherever possible. The overly oppressive isolation rules are the root cause of the problem together with the footballing authorities being too soft on the Club's. Are we going to bring the Country to a halt and ruin everyone's lives and businesses every winter from now on because people are exhibiting flu/cold like symptoms?

Spot on. In the hypothetical case that only one game could be played that's better than a blanket ban and none being played imo. One less game to catch up on were there to be a complete break.

Glynn Chamberlain wasn't of the same opinion before he left. Why, what's Nyambe done wrong recently?

I know these sort of things seem fairly mystical and beyond our capabilities at times but is it completely beyond the realms of possibility we might have one or two contacts based in France?

What "budget cuts from India"? Don't know how many times this needs explaining to you, to the extent we ran into difficulties last season that was due to Mowbray and Waggott running us into FFP difficulties over the course of a few seasons. There "should" be a lot more leeway in the budget now given that the owners took remedial action for FFP purposes with the training ground exercise in the last FFP cycle and the Armstrong money hitting the books in the current one. If there isn't I'll be with you in querying the lack of funding.

I would imagine Mowbray and Waggott have been bollocked by the owners over the contracts farce and the only real reason Gallagher has been offered a new deal is that it has been determined that similar situations should not be allowed to happen again. However imo each situation needs judging individually on it's merits and Gallagher needs writing off as a bad job. Even if we could only persuade someone to take him off our hands for free, it would free up the wage budget to the tune of around £1m p.a. On it's own, how far would that hypothetically go to persuading at least two of the out of contract three to stay?

Few points: 1) We don't know that there isn't much money rattling about. 2) We don't know that improved offers haven't been made to try and get the players to sign. I rather suspect they have and that there has been a lot of toing and froing to date and that that is still going on. The problem imo has been not prioritising the right players and not getting the deals done early enough. 3) I agree if Brighton decide at the end of the day they want the players back there's only so much we can do about it, that's one of the many downsides of signing loan players. That doesn't prevent us putting forward a compelling case for them to stay and/or offering Brighton improved terms for the second half of the season etc.

Obviously I don't know how much we've offered these players and the offers that have been made have seemingly not been enough to tempt them to sign. (Yet) That said, the offer that has been made to Gallagher seems to be acceptable to him (unfortunately). In devil's advocate mode, it flies in the face of common sense doesn't it to assume that Gallagher has been made a decent offer yet the other three have been offered buttons?

I'm not sure if cover for Nyambe would be my top priority - if he stays for the time being at least (and stays fit) said cover is unlikely to see much if any action at all. If we could only afford to bring in 2 players I'd much rather they be players who would be likely to feature regularly and give us extra options. Obviously I don't know what the January budget is. If it stretched to two players who could possibly make a difference when needed and cover for Nyambe then that's fine. Otherwise it'd be number three on my list of priorities.

It 's up to Waggott and Mowbray to convince the out of contract three to stay. I'm sure it wouldn't have been the owners choice to end up in a position whereby we face losing them for peanuts now or nothing in the summer and I doubt they're busting a gut to sell them for a pittance in January. Similarly if there's any doubt about Brighton wanting to recall their duo, it's up to Waggott and Mowbray to persuade them and the players to extend their deals here. I'm even more certain Venky's won't be pressing for them to be sent back

I haven't I'm afraid as we have the full cable package on Virgin which includes both Sky and BT sport. I've just heard it advertised regularly on the radio.