RevBlu, we simply can't afford Butt. His wages are likely to astronomical, even if he takes a cut, and £3 million we don't have. Birmingham can bid in the knowledge they'll have the financial perks of staying in the Premiership next season.

Butt would cost at the very most half the transfer fee now, and half in 12 months, and in the event we did go down he could easily be sold for roughly what we paid for him.

If we go down it'll be £20m "we don't have" not just £3m.

Don't know about everyone else but I am left feeling devastated by the fact that we have been left standing by a club only in their second season back in the Premiership. If Birmingham are in there making an outrageously low £3m bid for Butt why aren't we?

Similarly the refusal to even countenance a bid for Sutton (three players in one) at £1.5m didn't make much sense either. Would have boosted attendances and morale for the rest of this season and if it had helped stem the inevitable haemmorage of season ticket renewals in the summer, the deal would have been self financing.

Personally I don't want Souness to be given any more money to waste on unproven "never seen them play before's" or thirty somethings and it would be almost reassuring to think that Jersey have pulled the plug on the funding for Souness rather than for any successor due to his questionable use of the Duff/Dunn money but doubt that is the case really.

Perhaps they are of the view that we need to get more out of the players we have already (which is fair comment) and make better use of the Academy (which is  definitely fair comment)

One final thought on this, has GS been definitively ruled out of the running for taking over at Spurs in the summer?

BobF - In a swings and roundabout way you might have hit it on the head there -in my opinion he should stop his SKY appearance and concentrate on our problems (if that makes any sense)

I was one of those who thought GS should reduce his Sky commitments whilst we were struggling and to be fair I was recently thinking it's quite noticeable he has done so.

(Unless I've missed him every time he's been on.)

some of the players that have been playing recently are reserve players at the best of times: mahon, danns, douglas, johansson, taylor.

Taylor played more games than Berg last season, and as many as Short.. and we kept a good few clean sheets.

The problem has been never being able to pick a settled side from one game to another.  

Of course Souness will sound miserable - he'd just found out a player he'd been chasing for weeks had turned him down.  Hence the "it feels like a kick in the @#/?" quote.   What do you want him to do, go around smiling like Yorkie..

Yellow card for Ste please!. Saying something complimentary about Taylor. Not allowed on this board.

Taken from a press release by

PFA deputy chief executive Mick McGuire

"The players are offering some form of financial support should it be required, when all other avenues have been explored.

"It is a constantly changing situation, we will keep monitoring it and when we know exactly what the club may need to make up the shortfall then a decision will be made.

"The players are very mindful of the need to stay in the Premiership as that would stabilise the club."

McGuire stressed that there was no possibility of the players agreeing to a wage cut.

Which roughly translated out of jargonese and into plain English means

"We're greedy barstewards who'd prefer not to take any cut in wages if there is any possibility at all of the Club raising the money through sales, but we're not totally stupid either, we'll agree to the deferment if there is absolutely no alternative."

There was an interesting comment from someone at the Leeds Business School today who said that the situation could cause a huge rift in the dressing room and on the pitch between players like Smith and Matteo who immediately came out publically and said they would do whatever they could  to help, and others who should we say are less charitable in nature.

if getting relegated will cost us 20 mill, could we not buy teh Leeds team for 15 mill, ensure they get relegated and make ourselves 5 mill?

     

I wish you'd stop this Bryan.......giggling in the corner isn't a good in-company image for me.

(Revidge sits grumpily in the corner)

Paul how come you've got SEVEN smilies in your post when us mere mortals are only allowed 3 per post??  

.....and the latest from Leeds........players arent prepared to accept a 30% deferred wages cut to save the club the required £5million.

I bet they all back down if other Clubs don't come up with the £5m by way of  transfer dealings though.

Latest news from Leeds is that they've lost the remote control for a JVC Home Cinema surround TV Dolby pro-logic system (installed in the canteen), some Krugeraands and a small kitten.

If anyone has a spare remote could they please send it on.

Nothing as tinpot as that, it would be a 42" Plasma Screen at the very least surely  

The wages aren't the problem at the moment American, they need £5 million in a weeks time.  Milner is one of very few who they could sell for a reasonable amount at the moment.

The £5m and the "financial stipulations" referred to in any future arrangements probably means the players agreeing to take the necessary wage cut which frees up £5m to keep them going until the end of the season and allows a slightly better price to be realised if any sales do occur.

Anyone with any sense though would be in with a cheeky bid for Smith and Milner before the week is out.

I still reckon the only way Leeds will go into administration is if they do so voluntarily as a precautionary measure to avoid the 10 point penalty imposed on Nationwide Clubs who do the same. (The possibility of them being a Nationwide Club next year is looking increasingly likely.)

If I was a creditor I would ease off slightly ensuring the maximum return from any and all saleable assets whether now or in the summer, pocket that, then bail out with at least some return leaving them to it.

It appears that Leeds have gained a 2 week reprieve from their creditors.

No surprise there then.

Although possibly seeing what money (if any) is realised during the transfer window?

Surely, If Leeds can't (or don't) pay their players, then that is breach of contract. I'd assume that the players would then become free agents.

Anyone else got any thoughts?

They would eventually but I suspect it would have to go through court, just because one party breaches the contract it doesnt necessarily terminate the contract.  Footballers contracts might be different though as I know some other aspects of law dont apply either.

It does if it's a serious or fundamental breach going right to the heart of the contract. Non payment of wages for any sort of period would probably constitute this.

The Sporting Life Article is interesting in that it seems to imply that despite the deadline Leeds are not under any particular pressure from the creditors, and the only way they will go into administration is as a tactical move to avoid the possibility of being docked 10 points under Nationwide rules.

This corresponds with my view on the matter that as is generally the case, the creditors will be only too glad to accept something rather than nothing.

I'll delete as well then!  

Beer's a bitch isn't it.

Isn't it the manager's decision who to sign and a good Board's job to back him up?

Apparently not in that case. A number of sources (including Chalres Lambert the author of 'The Club that Jack built' and Mike Jackman author of the Rovers history) have found that the transfer of Kvin Davies happened mainly because Jack Walker wanted it to. There isn't any evidence at all to suggest this wasn't the case. This goes along with the account of Roy Hodgson and also what Tony Parkes told the press not so long ago. To be honest it's generally accepted the Davies transfer went through because of Jack. Not wonderful to hear I admit because Jack Walker was the greatest thing that has happened to this club for a long long time but what can you do?

Rev- my comments were because I thought you were suggesting sacking Souness to bring in Shearer so my apologies.  

Have just dug out Lambert's book which simply says:

"Roy Hodgson now says that Jack was a major influence on that signing."

Hmmm........ he would now wouldn't he!  

Not necessarily saying it isn't the case but if Jack did make a mistake he was in good company as we pipped Arsenal to the signing as I recall.

Did Jack then also "force" Woy to spend £4m on Blake and £5m on Dailly?  

If the worst came to the worst I'd be very happy to see Claudio Ranieri take over once Roman loses patience, still don't want Souness to leave though.

Speaking of Jack getting it wrong, Kevin Davies anyone?

Isn't it the manager's decision who to sign and a good Board's job to back him up?

Errr......... no that was me.

If you read what I said properly I didn't say "sack Souness and get X Y or Z in." I gave my preferred options in the event he were to leave/retire.

What I said was it's unrealistic to expect him to hang around if anyone came in with a "Double your money" offer.

Why on earth would you want Shearer to be the manager of Blackburn Rovers?

Just a personal view but I feel he'd be good management material, a view apparently shared by Jack Walker who offered him a long term player manager role before he left for Newcastle.

You're probably too young to remember but 25 years ago we once gave a completely untried player manager his first real break and he turned out to be one of the most successful Club managers this country has ever seen (before sadly succumbing to the bottle)

Name was Kendall or something.

Regardless of whether Souness is the right man for the job, I feel everyone is making a huge mistake in assuming he has any particular loyalty to Blackburn Rovers. Unlike us he is not a fan, it is just a job. If Spurs or anyone else for that matter come in for him with a "double your salary" offer and a decent transfer budget I'd imagine he'd be off like a shot. As would most people.

So who's it to be then ?  The Yorkshireman Tony Parkes ?  The experienced Ronnie Clayton ?  Simon Garner - he must be a fan, he's got an LET column ?  Not sure if his motivational skills will improve on what's there now though !

If our results stay the same as they have been it's unlikely anyone would come in for him, making my point a hypothetical one.

If he did ever leave in the long term the combination to get the place buzzing would be Shearer under the guidance of a more experienced hand.

If it was in the more immediate future Hughes or Coleman would be my current choices.

The squad is clearly far more talented than the Ward/Frandsen type squad that took us down but the results are scarcely any better. How does that work?

The squad tried for the manager today, they didn't v Villa. I just want to see 110% effort every week like today.

Thanks phil, I understand the theory of it all but am struggling with the automatic assumption that Leeds would turn in a profit in Div 1 as a result of being able to reduce overheads so low they they would be in profit as soon as fan 15,001 came therough the turnstiles.

Can't see it happening in practice myself, but hey, what do I know, I haven't done the projections!

We are now into a period of rumour, counter-rumour and perception managing. Trevor Birch has made a good start by suggesting four consortia are looking to bid whilst a story hit the papers yesterday suggesting that the American lenders would accept £25m to go away. The latter is moonshine and the former is highly suspect.

Surely the American lenders would be willing to accept any sort of decent lump sum in an attempt to cut their "losses"?

Can't see Leeds doing anything but lose a shedload more money whether in the Premiership or Div 1.