roversfan99

Sigurdsson is a reasonable finisher, but otherwise, hes slow, he cant take people on, hes not technically great and he is soft and doesnt work hard.

Hutchinson is 8 years younger though, thats the key difference. Szmodics is a more effective player now, but Hutchinson has another big sale or two if he does well, Szmodics doesnt.

Excuse being the operative word. And never one that has actually come from the club. Even if the appeal is a success, its not going to make any difference to this window, or likely at all. Even if anything is spent in this window, it will be just a fraction of the Szmodics money irrelevant to this case.

I touched on the cash flow issue, totally understand how accounts and FFP calculations are done on an accruals basis rather than the misconception that installments of fees etc make a difference. FFP isnt anything close to the problem, as you touch on. Even if say we prior to fees in and out make a £20m loss a year, another thing that people dont mention is how many expenses are exempt from calculations. But going back to cash flow. I get that other expenses wont be on the same generous payment terms. But we have made so much in sales that we will still have a substantial sum already received. And crucially, any purchases would also be in installments so say we spent £6m we might only need £2m now. And even if it did still require a bond to reinvest £2m, then it would be with the significant collateral of definite fees coming in consistently due to those sales. So no excuses for Venkys.

They surely wouldnt have to even put an equivalent amount in a bond. We have brought in so much in sales, well beyond the usual losses that we would make, in the June 2024 accounts we will show a profit and thats before the Szmodics and Raya money. I know people will mention installments as it might be seen as more of a cash flow issue but we would also be buying in installments.

Adequately as in to the same level? It will be Dolan playing there it seems.

The ripping out of anyone of any value continues, another gutting loss to the club to lose by far our best player. Thats £40m ish brought in over 12 months. At most, £2m is spent. There is absolutely no excuse not to get spending, and absolutely no chance of it happening. If a team is gutted of its best players and the money isnt reinvested then it only leads in one direction. This is all on the owners. Again.

Why Dembele? Lacks an end product, doesnt work hard, couldnt get in the Birmingham squad towards the end of last season, and will be seen as dispensable by a League 1 side. Just feels like the same names repeatedly banded about regardless of quality.

Someone compared us to Hull recently. Theyve had their 2 best players in Greaves and Philogene picked off. Theyve started a flurry of permanent signings. Now im not commenting on the individuals and their quality. They are signing Burstow from Chelsea who I dont rate and the keeper theyve bought made a big error yesterday. Theyve also bought Giles permanently, theyve bought Liam Millar, an attacking midfielder from Germany, they are getting Hughes from Wigan, another midfielder and are in talks to buy a few more. Investing in a number of assets, some of whom in particular are young and can grow.

Not in this instance, because they have totally different objectives, Venkys dont want the same as what we want for the club. Whatever the fee is, its very relevant to Venkys. Doesnt benefit us.

The problem with accepting it is it means that our standards have just dropped to the floor. I dont mean that we can do anything about it, but it still rankles. A club receiving the amount of money that we have at this level in 12 months, £40m, it should be not only a platform to somewhat balance the books, but to build the foundations of a new side, a new squad. With players that you can then potentially sell on down the line, keep improving, keep profiting and crucially keep reinvesting. We as a football club have not done good business. The owners have because they have absolutely no interest in the wellbeing of the football club. But we are just letting key player after key player go, signing replacements with buttons and that will lead to decline. Its not about being a realist. It shouldnt be unrealistic to spend even a quarter of such significant money in, even an eighth. No other club would see that as unrealistic.

Without Szmodics and also the downer that losing our talisman will potentially cause, our chances have significantly reduced.

£9m. £10m. We likely will never know. Makes no difference to us as a football club anyway.

Who is it good business for? Rovers or Venkys? People arent overstating his ability, his goals tally would have been incredible for a promotion chaser and he leaves a massive void. I feel like you are understating his importance. Unless we buy a few players to try and improve a side that has lost its 4 key players in 12 months plus others around it, at some point we wont be fine and that may well be this season. Lets hope we buy a few players and it doesnt become a reality. Im not being argumentative, im merely laying out that it isnt remotely acceptable if we only sign 1 permanent player. Not because you said it, more that it wouldnt be in any way acceptable if Venkys only allow such little reinvestment. I know it is the way that Venkys are operating, thats what I am calling out. £40m of sales in 12 months and as of yet, about £2m max spent

No but you said if necessary as if it would be acceptable. It wouldnt and ultimately it wont. He has come a long way from you wishing that he broke his leg.

There is no excuse to only get one permanent signing from here.

What are you referring to in terms of FFP, do you mean in our accounts or in the buyers accounts? For us, all of the fee will have gone into the 2024 accounts as a profit, as we didnt pay anything for him. For the buyer as far as I am aware, installments make no difference. The fee would be amortized over the lesser of the course of his contract and 5 years. So say £20m, it would be £4m amoritisation per year, so £2m for the January to June period.

Has absolutely nothing to do with our manager. Its a last shot at the Premier League and a big pay rise.

Gutted. Especially after a glimmer of hope that the deal had started to go cold. Szmodics will leave a massive hole in our side, we will be massively worse off in his absence and looking down the table again. I dont get why people are so fixated on the fee and desperately hoping for a couple of million extra. Are people genuinely thinking after all that has happened that a couple of extra million is to the betterment of the football club? Normally after a big sale, you would expect a chunk to go to running costs. Considering the crazy money we have brought in already recently, we should expect every penny to be made available. We will be lucky to get a slither. You keep letting your best players go over a short period of time (Kaminski, Wharton, Brereton, Szmodics) and it doesnt tend to go well.

He might kick off, either way he will be very disappointed that a potentially final chance at playing Premier League football will come and go. Its not about whether he would be right to do so, he will think about it from his persective. We dont know why the deal hasnt been agreed. Maybe the bids are too low. Maybe weve moved the goalposts and its little wonder why people assume that we have messed them around considering our history under these owners and their stooges. So equally, you are saying it definitely is just that the bids are too low. We dont know what has happened. But it doesnt mean that people actively want us to accept bids if they arent very high or that people actively want him to sell. I havent seen any one who actively wants him to go. I think people fear a last minute sale and "no time to replace" situation so are bracing themselves.

But neither of those things you mention equate to people saying we should just accept what Ipswich have offered. Szmodics would potentially kick off if he didnt get his move, it quite likely would never come again. And there is probably a chance that our incompetent owners and those 2 clowns running the show for them will have messed around, we dont know but certainly have form for it. But neither means we should just accept what they offered, youve jumped to that conclusion. But I firstly assume that we would be alone in not getting any players in should that happen. And also those sides have more senior players than us beyond the first 11, they arent very good but not as much of a drop off as us going from players who are better than the starting line ups/first 14 or 15 players that they have, to total novices or players out of position. Its very much a case of if we dont get anyone in, I would like to think we will get players in

Marc Guehi was born in the Ivory Coast so unfortunately he wont be available going forward then.

But we are particularly thin, hence why any superior quality in our starting 11 over the bottom sides will quite possibly be negated by having such a thin squad. We have one senior keeper who is awful, one senior left back, one senior right back and three senior midfielders. So I say this only if we dont get any more signings, a couple of injuries and we are having to play players out of position to avoid using totally untested kids.

Which people want us to accept anything for him? Sounds like hes doing the negotiations. I did, and we have an obviously superior starting 11 compared to them, although 3 go down, not 2. But I said if we dont strengthen further, our squad is so thin that it wont be able to survive the rigours of a 46 game season.

Eustace is clearly pissed off with the lack of incomings and seems to be unsure as to whether he will get what we need at all. If we try a season with such a small squad and with only Pears as a senior keeper, we will inevitably be favourites to go down as we dont have enough players.