RevidgeBlue

If Swag was landlord he'd have put the price up to £16.60 and told the locals that if the pub folded it would be their fault for not coming in.

I honestly don't recall a medical ever being done the following day, I thought that part of the deal had to be done and dusted before the deadline but happy to be wrong on that.

Thanks, it's roughly as I remembered, out of that lot I'd only be really worried about losing Dack Nyambe and JRC. Maybe Chapman as well if he comes to. Sod's law dictates they're probably the only ones we will lose.

Why does Sharpe say it has to be done by 11 then? ?

I thought that exemption only applied when everything had been sorted in principle apart from one or two technicalities. I didn't think it allowed you for example to carry out a medical the next day. What if he fails it? We'll see I suppose.

How about the fact that the window closes in 15 mins?

I doubt we'll have to worry too much about contract extensions. Unless we go up I'd be amazed if Nyambe is here next season and if Dack comes back OK from injury, fairly surprised if he's still here as well. Who's the other major one out of contract, JRC?

My point still stands, if the window has just closed, said player knows he has to get his head down and knuckle down until the next window. Under the old system any reported interest from elsewhere was far more unsettling for a player.

True, but if you want a couple of players like that you need a bit more quality and slightly less quantity within the squad. It doesn't exactly help when you're paying Mulgrew £1m p.a to do nothing.

Cracking post. Nailed it. (Or is it the manager that isn't that interested in seizing it? I notice the other day there was a headline to the effect that TM didn't want to ask the owners for more money for a LB in the current climate)

I still hold out some hope for BB myself but blimey. Sadly TM obviously thought the same as you judging by the way he used to mess Reed about and stick him out wide.

I disagree, in the "good old days" you were looking over your shoulder all the time if you had a decent player, as a bigger Club could poach him at any point. At least you only have to worry at specified points now and if you get through them you know you have the player for a guaranteed period.

He makes it sound as though him being fit for part of his contract is actually something people should be grateful for!

So by the looks of it, for about £3m more than the 12 arguably wasted on Gallagher and BB, you could have brought in Reed and Tosin permanently.

Would be a disaster.

Pocket the cash, save the wage, use Wharton as 3rd CH and spend the money on a LB.

Don't think that will do his reputation any good the way they're shaping.

Or £15m and not bother with either of above.

*Puts hand up*

Yes, theoretically as I understand it any deals between domestic Clubs can go through before 5p.m. on the 16th with the exception that PL Clubs can't do deals between themselves after 5p.m. tonight. Edit: hope we don't see a big last minute departure then the cmplaint that we couldn't bring a replacement in because all our targets were allegedly European..........

Slightly harsh on Bell, given his recent form, completely agree with the rest, I think someone's having us on about the European scouting system.

I'm agreeing with you. What I meant was, headline prices will be the same for everyone next season but the renewers this season will get a credit against the price. I do however think it would be naive in the extreme to think that there won't be a corresponding price hike over the next 1-2 seasons to compensate for the "refund" meaning that anyone going back to it after a season's break faces a double hike in prices which is a massive deterrent. For me prices should have been (at the very worst) frozen for this season and anyone renewing at a difficult time should have had the promise of a price freeze for next season as well. Other prices for new customers next season could have gone up but at least anyone who didn't renew this time round for obvious reasons wouldn't have been facing such an off-putting scenario next summer.

I don't buy that line. Dolan looked flat on Saturday but then they all did. Physically you should be capable of playing seven days a week at that age I've heard it said that younger players find it harder to achieve consistency at that age which is fair enough, but I'd say that about any player, if they're dipping below their normal levels, take them out of the firing line for a bit. Not leave them in indefinitely because they're "experienced".

Allegedly. I think the sooner he goes the better before he causes any more damage.

This is key Stuart but I can't see any alternative the way he's done it, he's locked us into an extremely slippery slope. The way it should have been done is to charge for season passes at i follow rates whilst there's no attendance then upgrade to the full price when fans are allowed back in. Not hike up prices massively now but attempt to sweeten it by a supposed credit against next season's ticket which will no doubt be cancelled out by price increases over the next couple of seasons anyway. That "refund" would only have had any real value used in conjunction with a promise of a price freeze for next season as well. Meanwhile, anyone who decided to give it a miss this season for whatever reason, faces the prospect of a double increase for next season when prices are hiked again to cover this season's "refund" as obviously you can't let a new customer in cheaper than an existing one. In a ham-fisted attempt to get a bit more money into the building on a very short term basis, he probably doesn't even realise the extent of the damage he's likely to have done yet.