20 hours ago, Gav said:

Houghton spent £25m on new players at Forest, I bet they helped.

Half of the Forest team are quality Loan players signed by Hughton but Cooper really improved the squad  in January Keenan Davis on loan and Cook on a free

28 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Spent half of last season injured and has yet to play a professional game. Letting Carter go on the assumption he will come through would be inordinately risky. I appreciate you didn't say that, it's just inferred a bit from the post you chose to quote when saying this.

Not that I disagree, we should be looking to bring him through, but this should be in a fringe capacity until he shows he is ready. Sub appearances, cup appearances, and some starts if he shows enough in those. He is already contracted for 3 years, which begins when he turns 17. Hopefully includes our usual one-year option too. For now, Carter must be considered ahead of him in the pecking order with the experience from his loans and playing in our first team.

Selling Carter for 500k at this stage would be idiotic. I can only hope Portsmouth are just stabbing in the dark with that figure and haven't had any encouragement. I get the feeling Carter is turning into our next Wharton, hell his loans were a league higher than any of the ones Wharton got and he has impressed both times. We are short in that area, especially if Lenihan leaves. It would then just be injury-prone, ageing Ayala and Wharton. We're going to need to bring in one, arguably two (if we stay with 3 CBs under the new boss) CBs as it is even if Carter stays.

500k wouldn't go very far even if we got it all back to reinvest (spoiler alert, we wouldn't) and a replacement worth their salt would probably be senior and earning more in wages.

Carters future here largely depends on two things

1 If Lenihan goes

2 The style the new manager wants.

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

With JPvH gone, Ayala massively ‘injury’ prone and Lenihan possibly weeks from the door, why on earth would you sell him, especially for peanuts?

Be very strange, but then welcome to VenkyWorld

We should be looking to promote Ash Phillips into the first team and tie him down to a nice long contract. 

It is also unfair that the remainder of Fulham's and Bournemouth's parachute payments are shared out to the Premier League clubs.

Surely this should be given to the EFL clubs

18 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

venus is at swags table,tony is sat on his own,sulking,lowe and benson are on the dancefloor embracing to spandau ballets true

Tony wasn't sulking. He was doing the seating plan. Now Who to put where?

Clubs with parachute payments next year

3 Yrs

Third relegated team

2 Years 

Norwich, Watford  only get 2 years as they came straight back down

Sheff Utd provided they don't win playoffs will be in the 2nd of 3yrs payments

1 year

West Brom in final year  as they only got 2 years

Just to put it into perspective Fulham squad is 3 times the value of Rovers.

Bournemouth nearly 4 times 

Everton is 10 times

Oh and Luton is half

The two teams, who by a country mile have the most expensive squads got promoted. 

No surprises there.

Nobody is allowed to spend what the relegated teams can. Unless you want to risk FFP 

A sad tale of Venky appointments

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Yes the manager should be part of group who decide and bring in new staff to work with him. The manager needs to have a working relationship with this person. We need a manager who has lots of contacts out there where we bring them in without advertising for the position like we do now. 

These are positions that need filling already

1. Manager

2. Head of Player Recruitment

3. Lead Athletic Performance Coach

4. First Team Athletic Performance Coach 

5. Head of Medical Services

and that's before we even get to the new manager bringing in his own staff. Blimey this new manager will have a rebuilding job with the backroom staff aswell as needing 8 to 10 new signings

So we need

1. A Manager

2. Someone to sit in an office watching youtube videos

3. A P.E teacher

4. A P.E teacher who does less work

5. A Doctor

No compensation for Bielsa

Highs

The reigns of Lee, Kendall Saxton Smith Mackay Dalgleish Souness and Hughes

Lows

Everyone else

Only thing left on my wishlist is an FA Cup Final win

We need to win both games now.

We make the playoffs if we win both and

Luton lose both games

and/or

Sheff Utd lose to Fulham.

and

Boro don't Win both

and

Millwall don't score a hatfull while winning both

We could finish level on points, GD and GS with Sheff Utd but would win the head to head.

We could finish level on points, GD, and GS with Millwall and Sheff Utd in which case Millwall by beating Sheff Utd twice would qualify

We could finish level on points GD GS and head to head with Millwall but with a better GD than Sheff Utd. No idea what happens then. A playoff to get in the playoffs

Hopefully not the fair play league

35 minutes ago, superniko said:

Update…

Rovers need:

- To beat Bournemouth (H) and Birmingham (A)

And 2 of the 3 below:

- Middlesbrough drop points in any of their 2 games (i.e don’t get 6 points) against Stoke (H) or PNE (A)

- Luton lose against both Fulham (A) and Reading (H)

- Sheffield United pick up a maximum of 3 points from QPR (A) and Fulham (H)

And Milwall don't score a hatfull in their 2 games

Clubs in receipt of parachute payments

Year 1

Fulham West Brom and Sheff Utd

Year 2

Bournemouth

Year 3

Cardiff and Huddersfield

I'd cut it to one year to allow for financial readjustment and make clubs less likely to gamble on promotion straight away

Cardiff only spent one year in prem so only got 2 years payments so 4/5 clubs getting payments are in the top 6 (currently)

Mark Warburton out of contract at QPR

A pretty even first half spoiled by both teams diving a lot and the ref falling for it. Forest slightly better but if you believe the Sky pundits it's like watching Man City v Liverpool.

"The rest of the playoff contenders should be afraid of these two."

I don't think so

If sanctions were extended to Russian owned clubs Bournemouth would be in trouble.

Still my favourite even though we lost. 

Part one

Part two

Jimmy Hill Verdict

Whilst they are on a good run, in reality they have only beaten Brum, Posh and Swansea this year when it's been 11 v 11. So secret is to not get anyone sent off