Ideally I think we need more than that even. We definitely need 2 keepers. We only have Lenihan and Nyambe contracted as good Championship defenders next season, plus Williams who is below average but ok as a body as cover for LB and CB. I would say a starting CB and LB plus another CB as we have seen in the last 18 months how irreplacable Lenihan is to us. Right back is an area we could do with cover too as we only have Nyambe who can do a job there competently. Central midfield and number 10 are positions we are well stocked in. Out wide we have no one who has proven their worth there, with Downing more useful centrally now. And up top with Graham very much on the wane and Gallagher and Brereton as much use as a chocolate tea pot, we only really have Armstrong. It wouldnt be a realistic expectation to adequately sign 2 goalkeepers, a full back 4, 2 wingers and a forward at the best of times though, even if things were normal. I suspect an added knock on effect will be the interest in free agents may increase with teams unable to pay fees. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/156-championship-players-who-free-4135583.amp There are some useful frees to be had, players like Daniel Ayala and Lyle Taylor but I dont think theres any chance of getting players like that now.

I think you are underestimating the financial situation again. Its ok us being willing to sell Dack but most Championship clubs make considerable losses even in normal circumstances so if you think one is gonna chuck 15m at an injured player then you will be surprised. Even the lower Premier League clubs would struggle to afford that in these circumstances and im not sure he would appeal to Prem teams especially considering his injury. We can have all of these supposedly saleable assets but im not sure if the teams that these players will appeal to will be able to anytime soon. Its not going to be a normal transfer market.

I dont think we will get close to 15m for someone still out with a serious knee injury especially in this climate. Nor do I see him being able to push for a move too hard, I doubt he has got itchy feet during his rehab. The likely buyer would have tended to be a promotion chasing Championship club and I cant see any Championship clubs spending much money this time. Lets also not have short memories. Dack is as important to us as any player, such a consistent contributor of goals. Hes our best player.

I suspect that the priority of any transfer window will have shifted from development and evolution to a conserve and make do approach considering the current economic climate. I suspect that we may be open to selling one or two to claw some of the deficit back but I can only see Premier League clubs being in a position to spend, mainly the top ones and I dont think that any of our assets, an injured Dack, Lenihan, Nyambe, Armstrong or Travis would be on the immediate radars of Premier League clubs. I suspect that we will plug the gaps left by Adarabioyo and Walton with cheap freebies, perhaps Sunderlands keeper or players of that ilk, Mowbray will be typically considerate with new deals, with dross like Bell, Leutwiler and Samuel kept to keep the numbers up, and positions that would have been necessitys to improve, notably left back and out wide will become luxuries that we cannot afford.

Or as you said earlier, football whereby the result is really important. For the 18 months leading into the pandemic we never came particularly close to the bottom 3 and never have got into the top 6. Weve just been muddling in the middle. Chuck in a CEO incapable or unwilling to really push the boat out to get the numbers in the ground up and its not a mix to provoke atmosphere. There were a few games in the second half of our season in League 1 that werent particularly well attending but were more atmospheric IMO.

Haha typical Nixon. Pull a rumour out of nowhere, claim it is now not possible, no one questions him.

I am not sure how much of a responsibility a manager carries towards envigorating the supporters but its an interesting debate. For me the results are always the most important thing, indeed Big Sam was always criticised for his style of play, harshly IMO. Our home form has been decent under Mowbray. His football is not particularly entertaining and we dont tend to beat anyone convincingly and improvements can be made but I am not sure if it is fair to expect those tailored towards improving the atmosphere although I take your point about entertaining the fans. I appreciate what you say about certain tactics he employs which are not effective but I suspect that it really a different topic of conversation. Rothwell is the type of player who splits people but flatters to deceive and gets better when he doesnt play and frustrates more when he does. Im not sure he can be defined as a scapegoat considering how ineffective he often is despite his all action style. That being said his limited effectiveness is still more than Gallagher out wide could ever offer. I still think that whilst I concede that its a difficult task to improvr our atmosphere with a limited fan base, Waggott and co who have managed to double their remuneration in the latest set of accounts published are still at the best of times totally clueless in terms of improving atmosphere and attendances. @Mattyblue is right about some fans potentially breaking a habit but for me the primary additional difficulty will be getting those back who up until now were guaranteed regardless of what they did, who now have to be convinced of their safety to return and may be particularly reluctant at first. That could be fighting almost a losing battle even without the lack of dynamism Waggott and co have shown to date.

To be fair, we were a couple of weeks ahead in pre season and it was just after the world cup if I remember correctly. Liverpool didnt have Salah, Van Dijk, Alisson, (just signed that day) Mane, Arnold, Firmino etc, and both played 22 players, Liverpool gave games to players like Lazar Markovic who scored and loads of kids, and Everton gave a game to players like Sandro and Niasse. You can never take anything from pre season really. Liverpool conversely will be slightly ahead of us I think, they already played a intra squad friendly so suspect it might be a bit different.

They said later during the game that they were trialling it this weekend ahead of the Premier League in which youll have the option to choose it or not. Im not a fan at all I think it sounds stupid considering you can see there are no fans there but a lot seem to be a fan.

You are only considering the importance of the player to the buying team. You are not considering: -the importance of the players to the selling team. Josh King is/was a key player at Bournemouth. Cunningham was loaned out because he was unwanted. -the potential value of the player in general. Cunningham has a year left on his contract and has still not recovered from a long term knee injury. -the economical situation of the clubs. Rovers do not often spend fees on players really, and if they do it is usually for under 25s. United had millions burning a hole in their pocket after selling Lukaku. -the overall financial framework of football during a pandemic. - the levels at which the clubs are at. A Championship club can get a competent left back on a free or on loan on plenty of occasions. A top 6 Premier League club in Europe, they certainly cannot find their answer in them markets. Before Ighalo is mentioned, his loan until January is costing them 10m. If you think that Cardiff are rubbing their hands together with glee because we need a left back I just think thats a little naive considering various factors, even allowing for the fact that we would have no left backs. You say Mulgrew is a shit centre back but if you took finance out of it, just because he can no longer perform at Championship level (although Wigan may argue otherwise) various teams in Leagues 1, 2, the SPL, the MLS, Australia etc would take him if he wasnt on the wages he was. It wouldnt mean that Rovers would be in a particularly powerful position ready to charge lots of money for him because we dont want him anymore.

Just watching Bayer Leverkusen v Bayern Munich and they have crowd noises after a goal and I can honestly say that they sound ridicilious and make a further mockery of it all.

The situations are totally different. Josh King is one of Bournemouths best and most valuable players. Man United are one of the richest clubs in the world, it was a pre pandemic economic climate and it was the very last day of the transfer window. I dont think there is any comparison towards an unwanted left back who was loaned to us last season and subsequently spent the vast majority out with a serious knee injury, one to which he is still recovering, and with one year left on his contract. I suspect if we was interested, the scope for any fee would be nominal, and if it went beyond that, it would become quite clearly not an option to a club that made considerable losses even prior to a pandemic. And we would resort to the free agent and loan market that I suspect we will be limited to anyway. I understand the concept of supply and demand but in this case such a comparison is senseless for so many reasons. You could say if a team needed a centre back and was interested in Mulgrew we could charge a premium but it wouldnt work like that and as it happened, we would probably be willing to pay a portion of his wage to make it happen for free.

Thats another really good point and one I hadnt thought of regarding numerous people in the same households all being sent links.

Holtby and Evans are both back fit. Dack will be a while yet, it was a 9 to 12 month injury 5 month ago and he said last week in an interview that his aim is the start of next season.

I think you are overplaying it. A Championship club especially in this climate wouldnt be able to charge too much for a left back they considered as dispensable at the start of the season and one who has spent all of it out with a serious knee injury.

Interesting to see the approach in terms of seemingly the large proportion of supporters who have no interest in behind closed doors football. I suspect that the attitude towards them will be tough luck. I have never had an ifollow account but I have also heard before that it can be unreliable so suspect the increase in demand may cause problems too.

Is he? Where is that from? Hopefully that would seal Bell's departure.

In terms of looking at the wages, it is important to remember that these figures are for last season and therefore dont factor in the wages of Johnson, Downing, Gallagher, Adarabioyo, Holtby and Walton which will surely push us much closer to the middle. The thing to remember about parachute payments and the difficulties of competing with teams with them is that they are not intended or indeed there to fund an instant return. They are there to help a relegated club cope with hugely decreased income whilst maintaining a large proportion (factoring in contracted wage decreases) of Premier League wages. Of course when we had these instead of being prudent we spent it all. Interesting to see the directors remuneration double putting us at 6th highest. Waggott really proving his worth presumably being paid through the nose for such necessary improvements as the Waggott tax and an attitude of "We're committed, are you?!" Also quite interesting to see that if you took the illogical buy of Bem Brereton out if it who achieved nothing then our spend is near the bottom as expected. One thing I am sure of is that the overall financial situation of Championship clubs including ourselves is frightening. It quite frankly isnt sustainable and I suspect if the whole of next season or even a decent percentage of it is behind closed doors it could start to fold like a deck of cards.

Oh absolutely. I certainly wouldnt advocate his signing, him, Downing and Johnson down the left would be over a combined aged of 100. Was just pointing out that even at his age if it was between him and Bell I would still go for Brunt even now.

All very true. To be fair, even if the governing bodies were willing and had the integrity they repeatedly mention, if most of next season is BCD then even they would struggle to maintain of all its clubs. Never mind what we have now!

Do you really believe that will happen? Even if they were willing, where is this big pot of surplus money coming from in this economic climate to kindly donate millions and millions to do all of this testing?! Id love you to find when I said that. Ive always been skeptical and dismissive of your fantasy world notion that the money solely from a TV deal that itself has presumably been affect will suffice in trickling down and keeping every club financially stable. I am a big football fan like yourself and months into lockdown I am yes watching some Bundesliga football. As you would if had the channel to do so. What you seem to be unable to realise (or just solely are using to try and get a reaction) is that it doesnt mean that I am not brimming full of excitement, or aware enough to realise how serious a situation we are in, obviously overall but in this instance in terms of the going concern of many football clubs. I am aware of why BCD is the only alternative to nothing at all but I can understand that and indeed watch BCD football without trying to make out as if the world is rosy, rubbing my hands together embracing the new "TV sport" claiming that I often dont notice fans anyway and without realising how precarious things are the longer it goes on.

Definitely not a signing id go for and well past his best by all accounts. Just adding 2 and 2 with the Mowbray connection. Its not a compliment to say that hes better than Bell. Its a given.

So has Ben Brereton. Jason Lowe was England under 21 captain! Bell is shite. For me giving him a contact is throwing money down the drain. One player who I can see spending his last season playing behind closed doors football for his mate Mowbray is another ancient player with a sweet left foot, Chris Brunt who has been released by West Brom. Not who I would go for but would take over Bell.

There has to be better players even out of contract or on loan than Bell who has been aggravating us all for 2 and a half years with his ineptness and constant mistakes.

Theres no way that League 1 and 2 clubs already in a constant financial battle to survive can host either part or very realistically a full season of football, paying a squad a wage every month, having to sign extra players, without any ticket money and with the additional headache of testing costs which are huge. The idea of money trickling down is a nice one but a flawed and fanciful one to be honest. Should there be a duty of care to save the smaller clubs? Absolutely. Will there be? Almost certainly not in both deplorable and understandable ways. They couldnt save one club between them in Bury before all of this. How would it all work? Plus with themselves having cuts in TV money, no ticket income, cost of testing etc, many teams might say they cant. Take Burnley, they made a profit of only 4m, they will presumably make a big loss and their usual way out would be to sell a player. But there wont be a market for that The loan idea is hardly revolutionary either. Clubs at that level are already often reliant on loan players anyway, Bolton have had 9 players on loan already this season. Considering that you can only include 5 in a matchday squad, they would still need to sign up some new players and pay them a wage. Ultimately you can naively and ignorantly dismiss the ongoing doubt as moaning @chaddyrovers but ultimately you yourself havent offered any proper solutions either. The reason being that whilst BCD is the only option time may run out on clubs and there is no way of stopping that really. We just have to hope fans can attend as soon as possible. You are so desperate to see some football that you arent looking at the bigger picture.