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.

Indeed, it's stating the bleeding obvious but I was about to say, that's only Lenihan, Rothwell, Nyambe, Brereton, Van Hecke and Khedra off in January then. Time for Waggott to earn his £300k p.a. for once.

Think you can safely wager that we'll initially be promised it's only a fortnight then at the end of the two weeks all the talk will be '"Well that hasn't worked as well as we wanted" and it will be extended for another 2-4 weeks. From a footballing perspective it's essential we carry on playing as there's no window to finish the season late next year given the winter world Cup.

And that in itself is a scandal.

Every result that falls in our favour makes it all the more imperative we don't lose anyone in Jan and indeed add a couple if at all possible. Hope we can keep it up. Vaguely remember a season under Bob Saxton when we went top at some point over the Christmas period then barely won another game.

Can you not get a Now TV day pass or something?

That's good, hope you enjoy it!

I think he is saying that if you did so voluntarily you missed a treat. Obviously doesn't apply to anyone in your position who was obligated to miss it having unfortunately tested positive.

Me too. Thought I was the only person in the Country. Not only does it ruin every boxing event I have to endure it at at Rovers as well.

Unbelievable, Jeff!

We were already 1 up weren't we?

Absolutely, 100%. A mate of mine up from London for the game who only gets chance to watch us from time to time couldn't believe how poor he was

Agreed Gav. It was a terrific fight. Parker has looked a bit insipid at times in the past but I think he's a bit under-rated. He's extremely durable and I thought he was exceptionally unlucky when he fought Joshua as the only chance he had of winning that fight was to try and get inside but the referee (Foster) broke them up every time he attempted to do so.

Not sure why not, in normal times our turnover is £11m or £12m plus a £20m annual contribution from Venky's is £31m or £32m in total. You're actually allowed to lose £13m p.a. which would give us around £25m to go at. Why couldn't we have 15 players earning around the £20k p.w. give or take two or three thousand either way?. What is needed is more quality and slightly less quantity as we've seen this season and not the vastly overblown and padded out squads we've maintained in previous seasons.

Great Post.

How much would it cost to replace them with similar quality? Even if we could find three quality players on a free I doubt they'd be playing for nothing. Then there'd be agent's fees etc etc......

JRC when fit isn't remotely in Nyambe's class imo. I'm astounded anyone thinks he is.

Is Nyambe any less crucial to the success of the side than anyone else? What's the going rate for a top Championship player these days? He surely has to be worth at least £15-18k p.w. if not a bit more. If all 3 are asking for substantially more than that, then I can see that that is where problems might arise.