Don't know about the legal implications, I assume we wouldn't be required to pay up the remainder. Thankfully the matter appears to have been clarified anyway, no indication he is planning to go.

Or he could quit. I hope he stays and is backed financially and in the market to have a crack at the top 6 next season.

Wharton played some great passes today, he's also got some ability to protect the ball and beat a defender over a few yards. He did enough to keep his place for the next game. Caution is required though. It was a game we largely dominated and as such, we had more of the ball. Also it was a midfield three - in a match with less of the ball, or playing 2 in the centre, he'd come under much more pressure. Those scenarios will be more telling in how ready he is or how far he can go.

I believe the idea was to give Pears a loan with a view to creating value. May be wrong but he has 12 months left on his contract in June. If he signs on he won't expect to be benched again. And if he stays in the team TK will understandably want to move on. TK would probably fetch more and reduce the wage budget more but I still think of him as the better keeper. Pears has had a good few months but need at least half a year with the same performance level to have full confidence he can be number 1 next season.

Who knows why it hasn't been signed/announced. In any event BBD has pretty much all of the control, unless he has a catastrophic injury. Even if we go up I'd be surprised if he stays, but never say never. I seem to remember MGP once got to the end of the season without a new contract and it looked like he was going, but then it was suddenly announced he had signed a new contract with us. 12 months ago Mbappe appeared nailed on for a freebie to Madrid, but he changed his mind (with a shed load of cash and control).

I accept your point that the signing of Hirst is hypothetical. But then so is the belief that we'd have spent all or any of the £8m. And had we done, how those signings would have performed and where we'd be. What isn't hypothetical is our league position and, despite a poor run of form for a couple of months, BBD is still our top scorer. Had he downed tools, been poor all year and we we were 15th I think we'd all agree we should have cashed in. As it stands, I think it's worked out fairly well so far.

As the other side of the same coin, how would people have reacted with a transfer fee of less than £9m? Particularly when Arma went for £15m? IMO there'd have been uproar. And if Hurst was instead a permanent...

Having kept him, we go into the last 9 regular season league games with a good chance of making the play offs and therefore a chance of promotion. If we go up, and I absolutely do not want to jinx it, we get 100-150 million, depending on who you listen to. Would you then credit Venkys for sticking to their stance and the result of that?

I'm no Venkys apologist but I wasn't aware they directly handle contract negotiations with the players. More reasonably a statement is they are the reason we had 6/7m to spend on him in the first place.

This guy is generally on the ball when it comes to transfers. As long as he gives his all for us in the remaining games, so be it.

Depends from whose view point. To encourage single match sales it's undoubtedly in the right direction. But every time you run a promo like this it reduces the value of your ST. It's easy to criticise from multiple angles, I don't envy those having to strike the balance between revenue and attendance.

Slightly off topic but the league results were pretty decent for us today. It's the hope that gets you...

Not convinced our Sky live curse is fully lifted, a point will be decent, not least in the context of having won yesterday

Their manager's comments are along the lines that he doesn't think he is consistent. More generally there is the view 'luxury' ie flair players aren't what you need to survive a relegation battle

2nd video of the interview with Gregg gives a lot more insight than we've probably ever had before into any transfer window. Credit to the club and Gregg for being as open as they are in it. Sounds like SVDB really pissed us about in the end given how much of the loan process was completed

Presumably it's still sponsored by RFS. Be thankful we never had to endure Venkys Arena or similar like Newcastle.

It's great he's signed on, but if he has a poor season there'll inevitably be some who say we were silly to give him a long contract.

If we keep BBD, he scores 20 this season then goes on a free, so be it - as long as it doesn't impact our budget next season. Yes it makes little sense to lose an 8 figure asset for nothing, but even if we did sell, now or in Jan, that the money would be available to spend. It's still not clear where the Arma money went. So let's get 20+ goals from him this season and see where it takes us. On the extreme length of optimism, if we go up, maybe he signs on. Even if not, the money from promotion eclipses any potential transfer fee.

Sharpe has tweeted it isn't at the asking price

Absolutely. You only have to look at Mbappe - for all money was leaving, contract practically expired and then suddenly signs a mega deal in which he is apparently player/manager/director of football.

Such as for a certain Styles perhaps? On the other side of the coin, clubs will be waiting to see if we lower our value of BBD. But the Raos seem very stubborn in this regard.

Also goes to show how long a transfer can take to get completed, I imagine there will be others which drag out that don't come to fruition. Maybe those involved need to be cut some slack.

Slightly cheating but Kaminski, given our keepers at that time were from the u23s

Panic signing - Raymond van Barneveld. Great at hitting the target, more trebles than Messi and Ronaldo combined.

We're Going For Gold