RevidgeBlue

Championship. Before my time he played for England c 1966 ish at youth levels I think

The last one I can think of with an option we actually exercised is DJ Cambell. Am I right in also thinking that one who came in on loan without an option who we signed after the loan finished was Luke "Reg" Varney. Both absolute dogshit which makes you wonder why we signed either of them. Agents at work?

Yes, you're right there is a 3rd option, he stays fit but just isn't very good and doesn't attract much interest and the option fee is set low enough for us to trigger. Think we all know that if it's was a Gregg Broughton style option to purchase for 7m E there wouldn't be a cat in hell's chance we'd be exercising it.

Spot on USA.

You can force him to sign a document joining the Club but in reality if he doesn't want to play it's worthless. Like you say you'd have to try and flip him for a profit - or if there were no takers you wouldn't bother exercising the option. Either way there very little chance he's here in 12 months time imo. Either he flops and we dont want him or he excels and doesn't want us.

If the player doesn't want to sign at the end of the loan period, whether it's because he's homesick or because there's interest from other Clubs, I dont see how you can force him. Bit like a player being under contract who wants to leave who's under contract but refuses to play. You can stop paying him, make him train with the reserves etc, but it's not much actual use to you.

Plus two strikers.

He was clearly being sarcastic. We have/have had enough snakes to start a serpentarium according to some.

Allegedly back in their father's time the Governor of Pune carved up all the land in and around Pune to their father and another couple of local business men. As such they own much of the land and buildings in and around Pune which is where their real wealth comes from. The opinions I've heard are that as such when someone looks at their Companies and says they're worth £2 billion or £4 billion or whatever, far from overstating their wealth it's vastly understating it. I've never seen anything official to confirm or refute this, would be interesting to hear from those with local knowledge as to whether they think this is true or an old wives tale.

Was this the latest installment of the never ending "Operation get restrictions removed?" I've lost track. Venkys probably slipped the judge a couple of grand to go away for the weekend to save on the alleged £25k per hearing legal fees. DISCLAIMER: That's a joke for the avoidance of any doubt.

Almost 100% he won't be here at the start of next season though. Then we're back to square one looking for a replacement.

Still a Club "asset" irrespective of my opinion on him. I'd have said Dolan, Travis and Brittain were the extensions we really needed to see done but unsurprisingly all 3 gone. Tronstad and Hyam I'd be less worried about but I dont suppose we'll get those done either. As things stand we can't even persuade Hedges to sign a new deal. (Not that we want to but the point stands)

Were you all lined up with your drinks and popcorn just to learn that? How dare they ruin your day! 🙂

The fact that it's been done simultaneously with Travis's expected departure would indicate we couldn't bring him in any earlier for financial reasons. But you're right, it would have made a lot more sense to get him in earlier and sort out any medical issues then. If he needed any surgery why wouldn't his current Club have had it done?

You can't really see if that comment relates to a specific question about the size of the fee. He does say his "information" is that the fee "will" exceed £3m. Which makes it seem extremely odd that he earlier wrote online that it "could" do so. Also relies on his "information" being truthful as well I suppose.

Ah, ok. Always wondered about that.

If he did, they must have ripped it up which would suggest they think the injury problem is worse than let on.

Pretty much. Happy times.

Can we enforce the deal against the player's wishes, if by that time the player has other interest and doesn't want to join us permanently?

100%.

Christ - while that makes sense to a degree, Travis has gone and we haven't actually properly replaced him. When was the last time we exercised an option to buy?

Also if Baradji's arrival is imminent it would tend to indicate the only real reason we couldn't sign him before now is financial and we had to offload Travis first.

Exactly what I was thinking. Don't think people are making enough of this. We're replacing our captain and someone who is the lynchpin of the side with another player who is currently injured. Of course the injury may not turn out to be a problem long term but on the other hand........ Id say he'd have been OK as a punt as an out and out addition to the squad. But if he's seen as the direct Travis replacement it's a massive risk and more barrel scraping of the highest (or lowest) order.

Well done those two guys. EJ floundering like a fish out of water when subjected to any actual scrutiny.

It's a very fair assumption Id say given how transfers are usually structured. Rather than trying to score points off me, Id have thought you might have been more worried about how after several weeks of negotiation we potentially appear to have ended up with a lower initial fee than the one which was originally offered but one which has no doubt been sweetened up with the possibility of increased add ons at the back end.