alex l

Our Championship version of Santa Cruz? As we're getting the band back together and members have called for full backs, surely it means the return of Martin Olsson and the new Denis Irwin, Bruno!

Don't show your hand if you don't have to. Man Utd for example have to let shareholders know, but do you want other clubs to know what sort of budget you have? In the extreme, if he cost £10m, clubs will then be raising the price for any other enquiry we make. For the selling club - don't let others know how much you've just had as a windfall. If Southampton bid for a player, they don't want the other club raising the price by £5m cos they've just got that from us. Also, if the price is low, don't piss off your own fans. They wont be happy we got him for £250k.... So varied reasons why you don't disclose it if you don't need to

For those criticising the contracts given out, have you forgotten when for around 2/3 seasons, we would finish the end of the year with hardly a match day squad still on the cards? The squad then needed quite a few new faces, inevitably bolstered by loans, which resulted in the same situation the following year. Players were leaving at the end of contracts or final 12 months, meaning it was hard to get any value out of them. Whilst bigger wages and renewed contracts may mean we are stuck with a couple of players (for which interest is not guaranteed anyway) I would rather be in this position than losing the likes of King & Mahoney on frees, while 4 members of the first team leave every year due to their loan ending.

Yes it was either on the official site or LET explaining he had been given permission to stay behind for the birth of his first child

There is a lot of criticism of late bids and even had they succeeded I get impression they'd have still been labelled panic transfers. Does the same apply to Everton with Mina and particularly Gomes? Fulham, West Ham and other Prem teams also had very late, left field deals. I don't understand why so many deals are attempted on deadline day when as many have rightly pointed out there's been months to deal with it. But pretty much every club does it. Last year we got three in on deadline day and 2 have been terrible. If the squad doesn't cope in the league then TM will need accountability.

Are we weaker than the squad which finishes with promotion? I don't actually think we are. Palmer is a direct and hopefully better replacement to Payne and for all the love for Chapman, he wasn't part of the run in. That's not to say I wouldn't have been happy for a return at a million or less. Davenport and Rothwell are unknown quantities at the moment and yes of course any promoted team needs to strengthen, but the jump from L1 to Championship is nowhere near the difference of Championship to Prem, where it seems you need to shell £30+ million to have a chance. Squad depth could become a concern, depending on injuries etc, but our first xi should be adequate for a decent (mid/lower-mid table) finish. Dack aside, our best transfers last year started as or were loans. I'd be a little concerned if we don't sign anymore by the end of the month, but it wouldn't be the level of anticipating relegation.

No one can deny Venkys turned the club from a solid Prem outfit into a league 1 team. However, those with comments along the lines of Venkys light is red or funding had been stopped may have to re-analyse the view if we spend some of the funds mentioned. Even last year, some argued they didn't finance the team much as Steel offset Dack. The sales didn't materialise and this summer I don't think there was a single semi-serious link of a key player leaving. TM has brought the club a decent way back; if he doesn't want a winger enough to pay the rates asked, have to trust the squad he assembles.

In respect of various points raised over recent days: Armstrong/Chapman not being main targets - this may have been true, or IMO, it was TM being astute. Had we been promoted and he come out and said he wanted them signed up, this would immediately have given their respective teams cause to hold out for a higher fee. The same applies to Bauer with the comments we are moving on. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up landing him, but it's hardly a position of strength to negotiate if you come out and say the player is your main target. Sharpe/LET coverage - some say they know nothing, others that they're tied by the club. I get the impression they only publish when something is close to being confirmed, the club think it may help push a deal, or a genuine scoop is broken elsewhere. A high percentage of traffic to the LET will be about Rovers, if they published everything they know straight away, I'm sure the club could make things much more difficult for the paper in terms of access. In turn, they'd have less to publish, less traffic and less revenue. It's a fine line for them to tread.