RevidgeBlue

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.

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.