Still doesnt explain why he should be captain.

Some players thrive with the armband, some struggle. He falls into the latter. He also doesnt to me show any signs of a good captain. Can be a good player at this level on his day, not a captain though. Still to see any reasoning behind choosing him.

They were on twitter underneath the initial rumours. I wouldnt be able to find them so feel free not to believe me although you have no interest in the the opinions of fans anyway. And besides, he likely wont come here if we are pissing about with loans that PSV have no interest in. Look forward to a veteran hasbeen at the end of the window.

Drommel doesnt seem to have the same positive reputation that De Lange did. Go Ahead Eagles fans all rated him highly, Ajax fans wanted him to join and he came off the back of 2 regular and positive seasons. Drommel hasnt played much and received some ridicule on social media. But he does have some credentials, hes at a good age and hes had 5 seasons prior to the last one of regular Dutch league experience at good clubs. But if he is a main target now weve messed up De Lange, why are we pissing around trying to loan him, its not acceptable considering how small a fee would be relative to the money brought in. The Szmodics situation is for some reason being turned into fans moaning, which some posters love to spin. Ultimately our transfer business shouldnt be reliant on him staying or going, thats the key issue. Im guessing those same posters think that Eustace is just moaning by mentioning that it needs sorted in two successive interviews. As touched on too regarding the sponsor, if we have found a better deal then fantastic. Seemingly its the classless way its been dealt with that is an issue, but thats to be expected with our club sadly.

Why would you want him as captain?

The Wharton fee would be pure profit, the Raya sell on would be pure profit, Gallagher had run down his initial deal so that would be pure profit, Ennis was free so pure profit, and Szmodics' amortised value would be £1m if he signed a 4 year deal or £666k if it was a 3 year deal, so considerable further profit to come. We are well beyond the point of needing to worry about FFP at the moment.

Is that a case of you expecting Eustace to appoint Hyam. He is a decent Championship defender on his day, and probably got a bit too much stick at times. But he certainly is not a leader. Has to be Travis.

Yes. If I was willing to continue to own a Championship club, then I would have to accept that losses are par for the course. If I didnt, I would look to sell. You are empathising but have regularly shown that you dont understand what empathy is.

You can sense the growing frustration from Eustace.

I can't grasp how anyone can empathise with the cunts that own us. Their level of interest is clear. None in the health of the club on the pitch and everything Owning a Championship football club means that you will lose some money. If thats not something you will do, sell. But in the last year they have gone well beyond offsetting losses. And it now leaves us with no real gold to sell going forward. You have to invest to try and then profit which can then be offset against losses. Previous losses werent a result of any ambition.

As predicted, we pissed around over the sake of a few hundred thousand, relative to the millions that have and will be received its a nominal amount to potentially fix a problem position and we have missed out. People still naively who trust the club under this ownership suggested a lack of patience. More fool them. No doubt we will sign a veteran to "compete" with Pears and it will continue to be a position that costs us points. We badly need not only a keeper but players in general for the longer term. Not of interest to Venkys.

Venkys are the problem. Pointing fingers at the admittedly useless stooges doesnt look at the main point which is the lack of funds. I dont get why you are looking at it by comparing players from a poor squad last year and want to just replace. This whole idea of replacing what we had last year is bizarre. It shouldnt be based on who we had last year, Koumetio and Fleck played 17 league minutes between them. But as you touch on, last year our squad was not sufficient, it was imbalanced and lacking in areas. But it shouldnt be ins v out. It should be, what positions looking forward do we need to build a sufficiently deep and balanced squad.

Its beyond conservative to bring in the money we have and spend the peanuts we have. No one is suggesting that we spend wildly on massive inflated fees and inflated wages. If we bought a number of players for cheap fees, cheaper wages etc to polish up then that would be fine, but we havent. Weve bought 2 strikers, one at 26 and one at 28 year olds so limited resale. If we then go on to buy a keeper, a midfielder, a couple of wingers and a full back or two again for small fees, perhaps some from abroad, cheaper wages, then yes there are Its not that he needs replacing. People go down the rabbit hole of comparing like for like year on year. None of the likes of Telalovic, Koumetio etc particularly need replacing such was their non existent contribution. But its more the fact that our squad was and is tiny full stop. We have one senior right back, one senior left back, one senior (and crap) goalkeeper, 3 senior midfielders, very little out wide of the required standard. Those who say x and y dont need replacing, maybe not individually, but that argument would only work if those players were in addition to an already deep and quality squad, and it was just deadwood on top of that.

Most clubs would at least spend a chunk of such big sales though. We do need to rebuild, thats the point, its very difficult to do that under these limitations.

We hadnt got our loans in at this point last season either. So if you are doing a like for like comparison, which as I said is flawed as last season we didnt have anywhere near enough so that cant be the benchmark. Weve lost Wharton, are losing Szmodics, (wont be available to play) we dont have Scott Wharton, we dont have Gallagher, but do have Gueye, Ohashi, Weimann, McFadzean and Batth. So im not sure we are better off anyway, discounting loans.

The thing is, people always compare to how many players we have this season to how many we have in the previous season. We didnt have anywhere near enough last season, that was one of our main problems. In the last few years, we have had massive issues with how many competent players we have had.

Being pedantic but to me thats 4 signings. One is just a contract extension and one isnt a first team player.

I get that Sheffield Wednesday have a really talented manager but I do wonder if they are being a bit overhyped. Is their quality of squad anywhere near the teams who are likely to be around the top 6? Theyve lost Ugbo although he might come back and Poveda. Max Lowe is good at this level but injury prone, Jamal Lowe is average, im not sure many of their other signings stand out really. Burnley have 2 or 3 teams that could challenge for promotion. Their only issue is trimming their squad, but you would imagine that a number of their players on the fringes (players like Twine, Obafemi, McNally etc) will easily pick up new teams, they might lose a couple theyd rather not lose but have more than enough quality to cover (Berge and Odobert being the obvious 2) and they have a few that will be picked up by foreign sides.

Hes crap chaddy. It wouldnt surprise him because presumably he can forsee that even a meagre £1.25m fee for De Lange will prove beyond us. So seemingly that deal is becoming less likely. By "not funding us at the current level" you mean they have absolutely no interest in the wellbeing of the football club and are solely focused on getting in as much money as possible. That is the sole issue. FFP is an irrelevance to the current situation because we are so far away from being in danger of breaching those rules. We are about to get close to £40m of fees brought in during the last 12 months and we are seemingly looking elsewhere rather than stretching to £1.25m for a goalkeeper. Its little wonder that we are expected to be right in the thick of a relegation battle because teams cant thrive under such aggressive asset stripping.

Assuming that the £20m losses prior to player sales continue indefinitely. One thing you never factor in is that a proportion of those losses arent eligible for FFP regulations. But one thing is for sure. We are absolutely nowhere near the FFP line, we will be even further away once Szmodics goes. I suspect there wont be a club in the league with a buffer as big as ours. It is as simple as the owners dont have any interest in the club or reinvesting even a reasonable chunk of the considerable sales proceeds in the way of ambition. Their sole focus is clawing back as much as possible. FFP isnt even worth mentioning in the transfer thread in the near future as it is not an issue whatsoever so that excuse is off the table.

Pears doesnt look familiar not only with his team mates but with what a goalkeeper is meant to do. Has a loan for Drommel back onto the radar or was that initially reported?

That is a big concern, whoever we bring in now that its beyond the point where he can start as number 1. My fear is that we sign a veteran and he naturally falls into being backup. If we sign someone like De Lange who clearly has the credentials to be number 1, I would still prefer him to be put in as soon as possible but it would take bravery on Eustace's behalf. Say Pears keeps a clean sheet, he is still proven over a period of time to be sub par.

I think the likely direct replacment for Szmodics is rightly or wrongly going to be Dolan. He talked in the press about being best suited as a number 10, and Eustace seems keen to bring in wide men rather than central players. He also has been playing there in pre season. Weimann also considers himself in the same position so I suspect he will be back up for him. Dolan doesnt have the pace or the ability to really regularly threaten out wide but he will need to be intelligent and offer much more in the way of goals and assists in that position. It feels like an experiment/effort that if it works, is going to benefit another team at the end of the season.

Seems that way. But still seems very scattergun, young keepers on loan, pensioners on frees and bidding for ones in between. I dont have the most confidence but I just hope we get De Lange, well a player that matches that criteria.

And if we do want Rushworth, Sheffield United and his old club Swansea will be far more likely, so that wont happen.