Putting aside that he isn't flavour of the month, Wahlstedt clearly evidences this isn't the case. Pulled out of a move to Brondby when we came in.

Post of the day. Slightly stalkerish too.

Very few clubs i.e. only the elite ones don't sell on their best players. Go support City or Real Madrid. Rovers have had to for 30 years so it's not changing when we're in the second tier. Shearer, Hendry, Sherwood, Sutton, Duff, Dunn, Bentley, McCarthy, roque.... We've not been sustainable for 30 years and we're not the team who wins everything. This is the football food chain.

Now Fabrizio official. Will be sad to see him go, be it now or whenever. But in another way, great to see one of the academy lads get a move to the prem. It's one thing buying and selling an Arma or Kaminski, but this is a product of the club. Well done to him.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/january/30/injury-update--callum-brittain-and-harry-leonard/ Brittain out for a month. We're really struggling with numbers for defence. JRC will be a CB, RB, RWB, CM hybrid at this rate.

So in short, we're really busy behind the scenes, but it could result in nothing or something. Is that you Nicko? Apologies for the sarcasm. I fully get things don't always fall into place when work towards transfers is done but aside from those who believe we're not even trying to do anything transfer-wise, I'm not sure what this tells us that isn't known or would be common sense.

Let's not have the Wrexham keeper on any shortlist, longlist or any sort of list.

It's such an ambiguous post the team news will be interesting either way. Play him and it's a sign we or he may have rejected, not playing and no doubt many will claim he is off. Yet we're playing a league 2 side, so wouldn't be surprised if one or 2 aren't used.

How dare you provide a fact-based argument.

Sell on fees would be replaced by achievement fees i.e. international caps or more realistically, euro qualification and competition wins.

Spurs did nothing wrong and certainly nothing Rovers wouldn't do. They were told Phillips was available at a price they were happy to pay, if they waited until a certain date. If Rovers had the same opportunity but paid more just to get the player a few weeks earlier they'd rightly be slammed. As for not answering the phone to them, if they offer the highest bid and meet the valuation, why would you cut your nose off to spite your face?

At the same time I'm pretty sure GB is on record as saying JDT approves all signings. It's also clear he speaks to the potential signing before the transfer goes through.

This time 12 months ago were you thinking Szmodics and Brittain were a waste of money? Tbf you wouldn't be the only one but both, to different degrees, show it's dangerous to write a player off after 6 months

On a plus side, Dolan looked good for an hour last night, closer to the player who got injured than the one who started the season. Was almost too keen to get involved, was dropping into holding mid at times to get the ball, but perhaps that was to get some running and sprints into him. His movement and pressing had been missed, even if his end product can be inconsistent

Very good post. Off the top of my head the only players in recent(ISH) years who stayed when they probably could have played for a bigger club is Pedersen. Seem to recall there was an instance where he didn't renew until the last couple of months of his contract and so could have gone on a free. As the post highlights this happened when we were a top division side nevermind where our standing is now. Palace may be having a poor season but they're established in the prem and play young players. I'd be puzzled if any of our players didn't give a move to them serious thought and that's before wages are considered. As for Gally I can see why he would be frustrated if we haven't opened negotiations with him - hardly the signal he's wanted. But he's likely in the Dack situation albeit he would play more when fit. Club probably considering if we can afford the highest earner to be unavailable so much.

This will be the test of GB as DoF. It'll be the first time he has had a genuinely significant windfall. In fairness the more expensive signings he has made - Sam, Hyam, Brittain - have turned out between ok to very good so maybe bargain basement isn't his forte.

If we get £20m guaranteed for Wharton and it allows us to spend at least £10m on 3 quality players, I'd reluctantly say we should. CM is probably our strongest area - Tronstad and JRC will probably play and there's Garrett and Buckley when he returns, as well as the Swedish loanee. Sometimes you have to cash in to build the rest of the team.

Not necessarily. Maybe a higher down payment or shorter full repayment period which they accepted, or even other clauses like £350k now, ££200k in the summer and 10% of a future profit. Could be all sorts of ways to find an agreeable deal.

By the same logic Ash Phillips isn't all that to be bothered by as there's no indication any other club wanted to pay 2m for what some believe will be a generational talent?

Turned a Belgian that nobody on here had probably heard of into a Prem keeper whilst getting call ups to his national team? Took a young Spaniard and helped develop him so that a premier league bound team wanted him and he has played for his country and a title challenger? Jason steele is also now a Prem first choice keeper for a top half team. If we did this with every single keeper we signed it'd be a miracle.

Respectfully disagree. If the money isn't available soon it could force us to sell an asset to cover general outgoings and leave the squad even weaker than it is. Relegation then becomes even more of a possibility and the loss of even more players. We go from barely treading water to head under the water line.

Super ITK Fabrizio Romano said the clauses for the Raya deal to be permanent were very basic, implied that it was as good as done unless Raya somehow missed the full season which hasn't been the case. It was due to FFP that arsenal didn't make it a permanent signing at the time.

Bordering on conspiracy. Next to be targeted will be the retail manager and the lottery ticket sellers. Could it perhaps be possible that these people do a reasonable job for the wages we can afford/pay and therefore successive coaches/management have been fine with them remaining in situ? Or must it be something more devious and underhand?

He brought in his assistant and I also think he appointed Ben Rosen. But that isn't the point, if Benson was so poor as some make out, why would TM and JDT have persisted with him? Why would Kaminski have specifically thanked him instead of pushing for a new GK coach during his time here - along with all the other GKs we've had on the books? Benson seems to get a lot of flack for our keepers not being a cross between Manual Neuer and Alisson yet it's ignored he has coached our last 2 senior keepers, both of whom are established in the prem.

Certainly wouldn't be a purchase then. Sounds reminiscent of selling Rhodes and ending up with Graham on loan (if memory serves me) although that ended up well enough, eventually.