According to the MEN his deal with Bournemouth was a loan with an OPTION to buy at £12m + £3m in add ons OR an OBLIGATION to buy at £9m + £12m in add ons IF they're promoted. No idea if this particular player is any good but if he is then in theory given the one off position we're in, that's the sort of ambition we should be showing imo. (Elliott?) Not Ryan bleeding Hedges.

I disagree but football's a game of opinions.

Think there's one already tbf. Someone posts an inflammatory comment on here on the contract situation from either side and it snowballs from there. Don't think we've detracted too much from transfer news over the last day or so as there doesn't seem to have been any. Hopefully the calm before the storm!

They would be if they were under contract.

Most of what you say is technically correct of course but that is even more reason for ensuring that your prize assets are looked after at the appropriate time and not at the last minute when all the power is in the players' hands. £30 m worth of talent potentially walking out for free in summer if we don't go up.

Good signing or pretty desperate? I can't decide.

Didn't anyone remember to bring a pen with them then? 🙂

Sometimes works. I branded Grabbi something similar after seeing his first outing in a friendly and remember being rounded upon by Lee Grooby formerly of this parish. (Hi Lee if you still read this site, hope you're well)

Exactly! 👍 Also, in general, we shouldn't be happy with a point anywhere although of course in practice we will have the odd slip up or two. Just hopefully no more than six or seven though! (assuming we get the odd draw as well)

Terrible goal keeping but another £10m on his transfer value. Happy Days. Lovely to see how much enthusiasm Ben generates in Chile. I was reading the first few pages of the Sam Gallagher thread and there are some truly embarrassing comments about Ben on there including one from myself insinuating he may have been a waste of £7m and I always thought I was pretty supportive of him and said I could see a hint of a player trying to get out. 😳

You're missing the point entirely. Every single game between now and the end of the season are "must win" games. (unless we get to 12 wins first and with the possible exception of Fulham away) The team can't afford to go into any game thinking "I'll settle for a point today" so I'm not sure why any of us supporters should think any differently. If however that's what transpires after we've given it our all and as long as we've left everything out on the pitch so be it. Any game we draw from hereon in should be considered a poor result though and not something we'd be happy with before kick off.

JRC has shown nothing whatsoever at senior level to date to suggest he's up to the grade, if you were arguing Lenihan or Rothwell were better than Nyambe at least there's a debate to be had but to claim JRC is better than Nyambe is simply ludicrous. You might as well say Butterworth or Chapman are better.

What are you talking about? They didn't sign Armstrong up to a new deal. They haven't signed Lenihan Nyambe or Rothwell up to new deals. They have yet to sign Brereton, Travis or Kaminski to new deals. All that is fact. You may think there is nothing odd in that . Most rational people might see a pattern emerging.

If they're intent on leaving, the best move possible. Won't do any of them much good if they stink the place out between now and April and we drop down to mid table will it?

So therefore I don't see how you can defend the Club without knowing anything about it. My point is not so much about the amount on offer to the players as I don't know how much they've been offered. The point is Armstrong was out of contract, the current three are coming out of contract and we could have exactly the same problem with Kaminsky Brereton and Travis in 12 months time. That would suggest that it's not just one or two bad apples being greedy but that there's been a systemic failure of how we've dealt with players Contracts in the past. Maybe explains the unseemly haste to extend Gallagher's contract?

Is that a good thing? It might be an incentive for them to perform until the end of the season but to me it would be a disincentive to sign a new deal here. An invitation to pocket the cash at the end of the season then go looking for the highest bidder whilst their stock is high.

Probably more Park and the recruitment department but I believe the budget is there if Mowbray wishes to spend it.

I think the bonuses that have been reported are a new thing on top of any performance bonuses that were already in their respective contracts. As far as the loanees are concerned I don't see how we can pay bonuses to players who don't belong to us and if they want them and they came into force next season then it'd be an incentive for them to sign for us permanently as well. We could afford it if we go up.

I don't think Sharpe has had a clue what the actual situation has been. There's been a (very) decent budget available all along in my view. I have far less confidence in the ability of the people on the ground to get any deals over the line. Here's hoping they prove me completely wrong (like Mowbray so far this season) and that we're all celebrating come Monday evening.

The promotion bonus should only be available to those who are still here next season!

Yes, that's one side of it, but from our side if they leave then we still have to replace them and we have to be very very careful not to cut off our nose to spite our face. We've committed the cardinal sin of allowing all these contracts to run down. That's water under the bridge now to some extent but what we mustn't do is compound the error by paying more for inferior players. We've seen that on this season's form DL RN and JR are top top players at Championship level. Zeefiuck looks like he could be a useful addition to the squad but as a pure replacement for RN he'd cost a fee of 2.9 m euros or £ (can't remember which it was) and be on at least £15k p.w. You could give RN a deal for 4 years at £15k p.w. for half that cost!

True.

Anyone think we could persuade Liverpool to let us have Elliott back, either on loan for the season or with an obligation to purchase for an agreed fee if we go up? That would give everyone a huge lift, he would solve the right sided problem and could probably chip in with a few goals taking the pressure off BB a bit and reducing the need for another striker? 2 birds with one stone?

Take the point on Rothwell. He always looked like he had talent but Mowbray has largely wasted him up until relatively recently. Not much better off with Kaminsky/Travis/Brereton/ either though are we? That would tend to indicate that in the past not enough attention has been paid to securing our major assets. I suspect that partly due to pressure from concerned parties that has now been rectified but it's probably too late for this year's three and possibly next year's batch as well. Unless we get promoted.

It's timing surely. If you make this players sensible enough and improved offers before the start of the 2020/21 season it's hard to believe any of them aren't signing them with 2 years still to run on their current deals.