Do you really think if 25m was offered that Venkys would be able to resist? I dont think anyone will bid that amount but if they do, Venkys wont care where we are in the league.

The gap is so big, even Mitrovic struggles every time he makes the step up. Toney has been pretty quiet aside from a few penalties. It is such a risk. Burke is shit, hopefully Nixon is characteristically wrong. We are reliant on Brereton for goals at the moment, the likes of Khadra, Gallagher and Dolan bring other things and will chip in, but any new signing needs to be able to give us extra goal power. What does Burke give us that those 3 don't? Nothing.

Of course there is a question mark after his injury, so obviously I assume that he returns close to if not exactly as the player he once was. He did last time, just prior to the second injury, he was really hitting his stride, he had started to score goals in trademark fashion. I don't doubt that we will need to be extra careful, once he has played a few games for the kids, even then it will be cameos at first. But WHEN he is properly fit, and there is no reason why that can't be this season, he will invariably be in our best 11, he is one of the best players in the league. He gives us a goal threat that aside from irregular contributions, that only Brereton offers, as well as technical ability and flair that no one else offers. As above, I don't doubt that he will need to be eased back, that we will need to take precautions, build him up in the But let's be bloody excited about it, he is one of the best players in the league and he will be a massive player again for us IF he recovers properly. If he is fully fit, the question is how best to fit him in, not whether he will play.

Initially of course it makes sense for Dack to build his way up as he wont be able to play 90 minutes initially but id like to think that we dont have to merely assign him a cameo role for the entire season. Easy to forget how good he is.

We wouldnt be where we are without our 20 goal striker. We shouldnt sell any first teamers though.

Gallagher cant play with his back to goal, therefore he is incomparable to Graham and that wouldnt work. Sell Brereton and weve thrown in the towel for promotion anyway.

Such a tough one. When fully fit, Dack is a class above, and would suit being behind the front 2 in the way that we currently play, giving us a goal threat we lack from that position. Travis has to play for balance, ideally Dack could replace Khadra but he wouldnt suit that position as much so would have to probably be Buckley.

I do think that Brereton's game is developing all the time and it certainly wasnt a dig at him, and he certainly is more rounded than Gallagher even before considering goal tallies. I just think that Brereton and Armstrong are not in different leagues when it comes to their all round game as some would have you believe, even though they are slightly different. Brereton is growing into his body all the time and is becoming stronger, and he also can win fouls. Both are fast but Armstrong was slightly faster and also technically better than Brereton who can be (effectively) cumbersome at times, take his winner the other night which came after a poor initial touch. Armstrong actually had a few assists last year (last time I checked Brereton had one) and could bring others in to play, I remember the goal away at Boro last season, a goal he set up for Gallagher v Huddersfield and one against Barnsley in which he squared it for Dack to tap in. Work rate. Armstrong persona The thing is invariably you find that once you add more than one serious goal threat, anyones goal threat will be maximised if they are the main man and there was so much talk about how we were geared to Armstrong last season, we have the same with Brereton this whereby he carries the majority of our goal threat with everyone else well behind. To have any striker scoring so much is a massive asset and for most teams, their main goalscorer would have far less than Brereton/Armstrong therefore it wouldnt look as bad. I also have never had a serious issue with either Brereton nor Armstrongs work rate, I think one of their main difference is their persona. Brereton is a sensation and comes across really aloof, whereas Armstrong had a more quiet and serious character from the outside, coupled with his best form coming with no fans I think people struggled to warm to him as much. Southampton fans were loving Armstrongs selfless work rate v Spurs. How good would it be if we had Brereton, Armstrong and Dack in behind, yes there may be an element of them all slightly being reduced as there would be 3 main men but theres a trio that would fire us to promotion!

My point is that simply that "Brereton did it" is not a constructive reason to give other players new deals with an expectation that the same thing will repeatedly happen. Different players, different situations, different ages. I dont think that Breretons general game is incredible by any means, its just that he has gone from a really poor striker of the ball to a really clinical finisher, chucking in tap ins and penalties to get the numbers to incredible levels.

I have never really got from where such a prediction has come from, that Gallagher could get 20 goals if played central. I actually think that some of his better games this season have come from wide where there is less dependance on him to bring others into play etc. I dont ever see him being prolific however.

A covid passport does not prove that you havent currently got covid. I just thought it seemed strange that fans have specificaly been told not to interact with players yet the club are promoting a video doing exactly that. Seems an unnecessary risk at a time where games are being called off left right and centre.

Not the main point to your post but we didnt limp to promotion in League 1, we finished 9 points clear.

That scenario would only work though if we were not currently paying Gallagher anything.

You could say that about anyone.

Whilst Gallagher may not return a profit, you could see the 5m as a sunk cost and indeed any fee would be still income. Not only that, but that assumed 15k a week is not an additional expense in that if Gallagher isn't here, then we would need someone in his place, whether he would cost 15k a week is a different question. I agree that there should be a more of a long term view taken considering potential asset value, but in the Fans Forum it was said that we have offered as much as we have in the budget, we have heard the lines about how difficult it is in India so it seems that there is very little flexibility from the owners.

I always found the obsession about his size an oversimplification, for me his biggest flaw was that prior to this season, he wasn't impacting games anywhere near enough. He very much is now albeit he needs to add a goal threat.

The clubs ability to sign up key first teamers on longer term deals is a concern, it seems that we have a very strict wage budget forced upon us by recent cost cutting by the owners, which long term is counter productive. With Gallagher though and I mentioned in another thread, Rich Sharpe said that any new deal will have little if any of a pay rise, the difference to the wage bill will be minimal. He hasn't got the power to demand an increase and is unlikely to get a similar deal elsewhere, he is injured quite a bit, his performances since joining have been unremarkable (not without use but nothing special) and he has 18 months left on his deal. With Nyambe, Rothwell and Lenihan, they all will justifiably want significant increases on their previous deals when their negotiating power was much weaker, and also they hold further power in only having 6 months left. Brereton's rise has been even more sizable and although he has 18 months left, he is in a massive position of power too. Extending any of these makes sense partially to protect assets, but would all considerably increase the wage bill, something which the owners seem unwilling to sanction. The different contract situations are not comparable.

Playing devils advocate, I thought that players are not allowed to chat to fans with the covid regulations? Could be at unnecessary risk of infection.

I wouldn't have given Gallagher a new deal personally, he contributes an unremarkable handful of goals each season and its easy to point to the Brereton miracle but I don't see Gallagher ever being prolific. He also has serious issues with muscular injuries so missed quite a lot of games, and hasn't developed his ability to bring others into play.

I don't get why people don't grasp that the situations are not comparable. Rich Sharpe mentioned recently that Gallagher's new deal will have little if any pay rise, and it makes sense, his negotiating position has not strengthened since he signed his last deal when he joined. No doubt contracts are somewhat circumstantial, he came from the Premier League and it was widely reported that he actually took a wage cut to come here, ultimately your previous club/contract plays as big a part as anything as to what you can demand in your next one. Lenihan signed his last deal prior to becoming captain, Nyambe as he was establishing himself and Rothwell when he joined from Oxford, all 3 are in much stronger positions to negotiate, coupled with the fact that they have 6 months left, they hold all the aces. They can justifiably demand significant pay rises as key players here, so all 3 would cause the wage bill to jump up a fair bit. For what its worth, I wouldn't have given Gallagher a new deal, but it has nothing to do with the other 3. Our current wage bill will have barely if at all increased, and it would have been much easier to agree. It's not as if the Gallagher contract money could have just been chucked at the other 3, as even without a new deal, Gallagher would still be on a significant (for us) contract for the next 18 months, all that has happened is that we have tied him down for the 2023/24 season too.

January would be shrewd. End of season like the other pre contracts pointless.

Butterworth definitely needs a loan spell,so much of his young career has been wasted due to injury. Carter is 5th centre back so only a couple of injuries away from playing but could also probably do with a loan spell. That being said, the club comes first and we may have a decision as to whether we keep them purely to ensure we arent left short with Covid and also being where we are in the table.

Its a fact that we arent offering them enough money, it has been publically said as such. That may be simply the owners not putting enough money in the budget to protect key assets, it could be a case of players/agents asking for unrealistically high amounts, or it could most likely be somewhere in between.

Im not sure there has ever been a suggestion that they arent happy. Just that the budget from the owners isnt sufficient to come close to paying them the going rate.

I would agree and it certainly isn't nit picking. He needs to add a goal threat to his game as an attacking midfielder, in a few years he has 4 goals, 2 of which were pea rollers that got heavy deflections. Another impressive performance from him though last night and 2 more assists.