Even if it does work out, it would still have been a gamble that goes totally against the ethos of trying to develop a club that polishes up and trades assets in the hope of at least being somewhat self sustainable. A club with our resources at Championship level would never dream of loaning a player for over £8m, that is essentially what he has done.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23423406.blackburn-rovers-tomasson-gives-ben-brereton-diaz-injury-update/ Will be a huge blow if Brereton misses out. Could do with Dack on the bench. Pears is going to start too according to Tomasson.

Had we accepted a bid from Nice and the player then rejected it then it is a totally different situation and I don't criticise the owners in the same way.

I can't fathom this argument that we don't know how much we would be able to spend. Of course, it is dependant on some of those funds at least being reinvested. The Armstrong funds weren't because it needed to be use as a crutch due to the general poor running of the club. We obviously can't be that desperate for the money to plug a hole otherwise the owners wouldn't be so stubborn, therefore there would be no excuse not to reinvest some. Sell him for £8m, even if you reinvest £5m (on top of what we had to spend in the summer again to cover our negligence regarding not just player contracts, but moreso the owners being stubborn, any fee for Rothwell could have basically covered our summer spend, and it was reported in the LT last summer that Stoke had interest in Nyambe) it still leaves £3m on top to help with running costs that we now don't have. I can't look far past the question that is often avoided, whether you would ever consider loaning a player even with the goalscoring threat of Brereton (he is our main goal threat and talk of us being better without him is nonsense) for £8.4m for a solitary season? Obviously, it would be very difficult to replace Brereton, I don't doubt that, just as it was very difficult for Brentford to replace the likes of Watkins and Benrahma when a fraction of those funds ended up going back into the club. But you have to trust that you can find someone new to polish up, otherwise the process will never work. Brereton for 1 year compared to a new £5m striker for 4 or 5 years is a no brainer, as it is, when Brereton goes we have to then find further money externally if we want to replace him, and you can't keep doing that. We have had staff members (Tomasson, Broughton, Mowbray) who have regularly talked about polishing up assets, becoming a trading club, comparisons to Brentford etc and obviously none have perfect judgement but I have sensed a desire to work like that for a while and it is the way forward at this level. The owners intervening to turn down bids for players with contracts running down is totally undermining that process and the ability to ever become successful at it. I dread to think where we would be without a first team packed with graduates from a brilliant academy that they inherited. Regarding Nice moving on from Brereton, if the owners batted off the bid out of hand, it is little wonder.

But its £8.4m more than he will go for this summer. If he played for someone else, would you be happy if we paid that to loan him for a year as a loan fee? The Hirst hypothetical deal is a totally seperate deal, it isn't a term and condition of selling Brereton.

I can't see us getting that much, would a Championship club be convinced enough to sign him as a number 1 off the back of a run of a couple of months?

Would you have chosen to sell him for £8.4m in the summer or would you have let him run his deal down?

How much do you think we would get for him? Will be a nominal amount so should only be considered if he pushes for it and with a replacement to come in with experience. In the current market especially, its not as if we would get anything more than a couple of hundred grand for a second choice keeper. Saturdays selection could go either way but Tomasson doesnt lose credibility if he puts in our number 1 back in who aside from a few wobbles when carrying an injury has been otherwise excellent this season.

We had a bid to make a profit on him last summer and turned it down. That was the owners choice.

The acid test will always be with anyone that doesn't want to renew and whether they are allowed to run their deals down due to the owners stubbornness. That I can't see changing unfortunately. But it would definitely be a boost to get Carter and Rankin Costello signed up. Dolan hasn't been mentioned but he should also be a priority.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20671027.blackburn-rovers-reject-ogc-nice-bid-ben-brereton-diaz/ It was widely reported so it seems a bit strange to dismiss it as fictional. Nice spent a lot in the summer especially in wages on the likes of Kasper Schmeichel, Ross Barkley, Aaron Ramsey and Nicolas Pepe amongst others. £8m is a substantial amount (half of our transfer spend over 5 years) even if we may have wanted more in an ideal world. We could have signed at least a couple of players on long term deals.

No one has advocated selling him last January. Nice bid £8.4m in the summer for him. This £8m doesnt matter to Venkys line makes no sense. Firstly, we have spent about double that across 5 seasons so it would be a very significant amount to us. Secondly, there is FFP to think of. That £8m could have been invested in a couple of very significant signings that could have helped us this season (it's not either gamble and keep Brereton for essentially £8m on a seasons loan or have nothing) and not only that, would mean that if the 85% likely non promotion season happens at the point of making that decision, we are in just as good a position in the following seasons to compete again. Managers and now Broughton have mentioned having assets on long term deals with comparisons to clubs like Brentford who trade assets and get stronger. When the owners undermine the supposed process by not allowing assets to be sold and money reinvested then it prevents that process from coming into play.

I still don't think the owners should be intervening, and I still don't think even if we do get promotion that the owners should be making such risky decisions, so no I wouldn't credit them. When we have spent probably a tiny bit on top of the potential Rothwell and Brereton proceeds on transfers right across the last 5 seasons since promotion, it gives you some perspective on how much money we have squandered just to keep those 2 for a combined period of 18 months, and even if the owners were willing to write off that expense and add it to the budget which they obviously wouldn't, but with FFP it makes it an even more foolish risk. It also undermines those below the owners who seem to understand that the key to a club of our resources (as teams like Brentford have shown) is to sell assets on and reinvest some of that on a continious basis. Before the season, probability wise the chances of promotion were quite low, even now they are less than 25%. Can we afford to throw over £8m on Brereton down the drain in a gamble? No. Obviously the key would be to use much of that money to reinvest.

They like with Rothwell intervened preventing a potential substantial sale. We now go into a summer having to try and replace him with no money to reinvest.

Still an absolute joke that we have let this happen. All down to one family.

Qualifying for a 24 team tournament is pretty much a dead cert. Spain are 2nd as it stands so will qualify, even if they don't finish in the top 2 there are additional places through nations league places.

Is what he said particularly controversial? Kaminski is our best keeper as is proven over a period of time, he has kept us in numerous games this season and his form this season aside from that last few weeks prior to injury when he was carrying a knock has been excellent. Pears is our second choice and it is a position that managers tend to revert back to their first choice as soon as he is fit again. rigger praised Pears and acknowledged his good form, I think it is a tough decision either way but to suggest putting in Kaminski hardly warrants the response you gave. If Kaminski does come back in, it means we can at least trust that should Kaminski be unavailable again, we have a reliable back up.

I think it is an easy assumption to say that his head is "half way back to Liverpool" but he has it all to prove to justify even a squad place back at Liverpool next season. Loan players are often easy targets and are not treated equally on the assumption that they won't be here next season but I don't doubt that he is trying and that it massively benefits him to perform well between now and the end of the season as where he is next season may partly depend on that, and a promotion on his CV would send him back in very good stead personally. He isn't and never will be a blood and thunder type of player, he is not on his own as Adam Wharton has a similarly laid back style. He lost the ball and presumably intended to try and win a free kick which was a very poor decision but to remove him from contention completely would be a huge overreaction. As I said, he was tenacious in playing a huge part in putting us 2-1 up and his general level of performance over the last 2 games has been good so with Buckley out and the transfer window fiasco, as much as I don't think that Morton is anything special, it would be cutting off our nose to spite our face to make an example of him by just totally removing him, leaving only Travis and beyond that, Adam Wharton and Garrett who have started 10 league games in their career between them and Harlock who has never kicked a ball in senior football and himself will be leaving in the summer.

I was also too young to really remember Heskey breaking through but to be fair he was definitely more than a bit better than Jason Roberts, for all of Heskey's faults. Back during Heskey's career 2 up front were common and he was an excellent foil for the likes of Owen through his unselfish play, he could bring the ball into his body and link play much better than Roberts who had as poor a first touch as you will see at that level.

I am not his biggest fan and he was soft for the winner at Sheffield United but prior to that and also against Reading, he played pretty well and was instrumental both in the goal we scored to go 2-1 up with anything other than a shirk of a challenge and also the winner v Reading. You have mentioned promoting Harlock a few times, do you rate him or is just a case of next cab on the rank? I am sure that it was reported last week that he is about to be released and even if Morton didn't feature we would still have Travis, Wharton and Garrett.

If it is anything serious then it will have a massive and potentially even terminal impact on our hopes of promotion. Bloody international break.

The team will get a good turn out again with already over 1k sold. It isn' that the team doesn't deserve it if we don't sell out.

No but coaches were subsidised and people who cannot attend every away game are always likely to cherry pick games they would prefer to go to, that doesn't need to be spun into outrage. I presume you have attended every away game this season which is fine, fair play if so. Sadly you arent on your own with such rubbish. Twitter is full of people spouting similar drivel, often teenagers living with their parents with minimal outgoings on cheaper tickets and with no responsibilities. Do I deserve a play off chasing team in your eyes? I was in Sheffield, the only other away games that I have done this season were the local ones, Burnley, Blackpool and Wigan. I have a season ticket but I took one look at the trains for Birmingham and decided against it. I will probably do 2 more away games including Preston but would struggle to afford any more, even they are a push at the moment.

Just general qualification, boring. We all know we will qualify for a tournament especially now they are so big, its just going through the motions and for most fans waiting for club football to return.

😂 deary me. I know it wasn't, its just a question. Never mind.