Widely reported £2.5m for Szmodics 😳 £1.5 m for Brittain and £2.5m for Hyam. In fact Nixon thought we'd have to go far higher to get Hyam but we'll go with the lower figure.

I completely agree Glen but the thing with the three that left is spilt milk. It is what it is now. I just can't see the economic sense in refusing to give someone what they want in terms of wages then paying a fee/agent's fees and similar wages to another player who at best is no better.

Really really hope we end up with SVDB and not Caulker. Signing Hyam must mean we were unable to agree a fee with Brighton for JPVH. We were prepared to pay quite a bit more for him as well seemingly.

Must have been frightened off spending money on CB's after being relieved of £7m for Scott Dann.

Well if a better manager can keep a worse squad afloat then that's all fine and dandy but that's not really the point!

If you rate Hyman that makes me feel a lot better about that particular deal. Be happier when it's confirmed though. Memo to Gav and JH: That would be £6.5m spent so far this window? Shame there was no money made available. 🙂

Not just ready yet though, are they?

Exactly. I don't think there's much point trying to reason with someone who thinks we're stronger after losing ten players and bringing in three Of those ten, five were fairly key members of the first x1 last season and I'd venture to suggest we've replaced one of those five. (Nyambe) Of the other five, it's probably not unreasonable to say they either didn't contribute much or were downright crap. No matter how bad those five were though, if no-one comes into replace them, you can't say we look stronger as a result!

I'd like to see Mowbray minus Nyambe Lenihan Rothwell JPVH Khedra and no other loanees brought in to bolster the squad. Well, I wouldn't, but we certainly wouldn't be finishing 8th or above. A better way to judge JDT would be that if he is given £7m to spend on a player or players from here and finishes higher than 15th he'll have done better than Mowbray in his first full season in the Championship.

Does saying Gally's crap earn you a ban? There'd be no-one left on the board!

Plus the financial jiggery poker with the training ground. Can't do it more than once but it should have freed up funds this time round.

Wow. Just wow. I'm not going to make the obvious insinuation as I'll just earn myself another short ban

Rothwell - not replaced - Szmodics totally different type of player and worse anyway Nyambe - early days but possibly the only half decent bit of business In the window. No worse. Lenihan - not replaced - Coventry lad possibly a downgrade IF he comes which is probably doubtful anyway JPVH - not replaced - Caulker- you must be joking Khedra - not replaced Poveda - not replaced Johnson/Davenport - Morton might be a slight upgrade but none appear to be first choice picks Giles/Zeefuick - not replaced If we were deliberately trying to mess up the transfer window we couldn't be doing a better job.

Good point.

You have to be kidding. Lenihan and JPVH v Hyam and Caulker. And all this crapola spoken in general about how the reason there'd been no signings was that we had to take a bit longer to ensure we got "the right sort of quality" in. Absolute joke.

Can Gibson afford to put the maximum allowable under FFP every season into the Club without even blinking like Venky's? And does he? Genuine question The differential in income between 22.5 k fans and 13k fans doesn't seem that great to me.

Disagree. Been good in August but getting older and generally very injury prone. Someone to get off the wage bill, not chuck money at.

Them's the rules. Not Brerrton's fault.

Just as an example, who is really worth decent money out of the current squad, I'd say Kaminsky, Scott Wharton, Travis and Brereton. Maybe Buckley if he becomes more consistent, maybe Dack if he got back to his best and (for his age) Phillips based on his likely transfer value. The rest - meh - if they don't like it they know where the door is. That's 6-7 players at best not 25. Ought to be room for a few more higher earners.

No way they'll go for Mowbray, their owners are ambitious and won't be hoodwinked by hogwash about journeys with no end. The game should give an insight as to how close Everton are with BBD - he plays they must still be some way off, if he doesn't a deal may be imminent. For the purposes of Saturday's game let's hope they are still some way off.

I don't know how the new FFP rules will operate but IF that's the case then we might as well give up in the long run and enjoy BBD in the short run for 12 months then as selling him won't make a ha'peth of difference.

This is the crux of the matter. I know you're loath to believe it but I'm fairly certain we have a decent budget available for transfer fees now irrespective of a BBD sale but still can't seem to get players in. Unless we look at the wage structure we won't be able to spend any monies received for BBD on anyone half decent either.

Worsen, without question. We needed a heavy positive net spend this window irrespective of what happens to BBD.

100 %.

(Hypothetically) Ben: Sorry to hear you think that way but I can't afford to turn down £7m over 5 years and neither would you. If that's your decision then I'm happy to play at under 21 level for the season but of course if you require me to play for the first team I'll always give my all for them as well. The ball's in your court".