RevidgeBlue

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.

Broadly agree Gav. The only thing I'd say is "FFP" but even so you've got to recognise who your better players are and pay them accordingly and not waste money on giving the likes of Bennett, Evans, Downing, Gladwin deals and pay Charlie Mulgrew £2m quid over 2 years to play for Fleetwood.

5 people (yourself included) indicated they'd take a point on the first page! 🙂

I was wondering the other day why we never seem to get any striking sensations coming out of the Academy. It always seems to be either centre halves or even more predominantly slightly built technically gifted midfielders.

Simple answer yes - because the players or possibly their agents have decided the deals aren't good enough. The fault on this lies with the Club. It's down to the manager to prioritise and identify which are our really important players that need rewarding accordingly and those which aren't quite as crucial. Mowbray has failed to do that over the last few seasons and has thrown silly money at players who aren't up to it and squad fillers. Then, when you've successfully identified your key players you need to get the deals done in good time. By the time you've left it too late as we did with these 3, all the power lies with the player.

Or perhaps the offers on the table aren't good enough because for example the manager, like you, holds the ludicrous view that JRC is better than Nyambe?

24k p.w. allegedly. I have my doubts he's "only" on £15 k p.w. now personally.

Spot on on both counts.

Need to nip all this "I'd be happy with a point" talk firmly in the bud! We're the ones in second and Luton should be the ones worrying about us. We need to target the three points so that after Saturday it's one down, eleven to go. If we play really well, give it our best shot and only come away with a point so be it but we shouldn't be happy with it.

Seems fairly widely accepted our wage cap is around £15k p.w. but it seems that we were prepared to pay Armstrong a lot more than that to sign a new deal so I doubt it's completely inflexible.

Not sure the bonus is weighing that heavily in his thinking. If Rovers have any sense he'll probably have to sign a new deal to be eligible for it anyhow. By now, he's probably thinking he's better leaving his options until nearer the end of the season. Unless it looks like we're going up automatically the bonus isn't guaranteed and if we don't go up then he'd probably be able to get a better deal financially elsewhere. If however we are looking likely to go up its unlikely he'd get a better deal anywhere else.

I think the point is more that Bournemouth have been playing silly buggers to try and unsettle us and the player but haven't offered anything like the £2.5 m sum they are reported to have done. Either way, as a few of us have insisted all along, none of the three are going anywhere (bar a completely nonsensical bid) and that's exactly the way it should be.

No chance for me. Whether he wants a new deal or not or whether the current situation is keeping him on his toes is debatable, but it seems to be working just fine as it is. Why risk rocking the boat. Plus why on earth would you want to keep him if we don't get promoted? The only way it should even be a conversation is if we do go up. I could accept under those circumstances he'd earned a crack at managing us in the PL but even then I think we could do a lot better. This season has been much better (not difficult) but let's not forget what went before, plus if we don't go up we still face the prospect of Rothwell, Lenihan, and Nyambe walking for nothing in summer then Kaminsky and Travis next summer due to the failings of management.

Well, we certainly seem to have played a blinder in trying to convince everyone that money is tight, my only reservation would be over the competence and ability of those on the ground at Ewood to get the necessary deals done in time.

If we get twelve wins it doesn't matter what WBA, Boro, QPR or Forest do. Hopefully not Bournemouth either. That's how we've got to approach it. Then the others can knock themselves out!

We definitely still need as a minimum decent back up for Brereton, Travis and Kaminsky imo. Arguably also a loan to cover the Poveda/Markanday injuries.

One thing that worries me is the possibility of Ismael and Parker getting the sack and new men coming in and getting their teams firing. We could do with them both floundering for another month or so at least so we can build up an unassailable lead on them.

Not sure how this season's loss would be at previous levels having lost eleven players from the squad in the summer and even if that were correct there is still the safety net of a Brereton sale in summer should we fail to go up. Would get £15m for him even on a bad day surely.

That was indeed Gerald Ashby (now deceased). Something definitely not right about that decision and rumours subsequently after his retirement pointed to him having an allegiance to Manchester United if I can put it that way

Is Elliott fit to play yet?