So I take it you’d be annoyed if we signed Cyrus Christie then? Or any of the other free agents who haven’t signed anywhere yet. They must not be rated by other clubs either.

If I was a young player at Rovers I’d be a lot more bothered by the fact we don’t pay our academy graduates enough to keep them here. What message does it send about our pathway when Lenihan, who has been here for years, played over 250 games, become our captain, and gained international recognition has just walked away to a team of similar stature? They know that they will have to leave at some point to get what they are worth, why not now?

I was looking at fees brought in by Venky’s from academy products. Its definitely a cost effective way of fielding a team when you have a crop of players good enough. We look like we are in a purple patch currently. Beats paying loan fees for sure! Its a huge asset for us, no doubt. If we’d managed to retain Lenihan and Nyambe we’d have a strong team made up of majority graduates. Unfortunately, we also seem to see it as a way to underpay wages. We need to quickly get better at retention.

Still just about in profit from Jones, Hanley and Raya. With Wharton, Travis, Carter, Buckley and Vale (at least) looking like they will play a big role this season, it makes sense. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we had scrapped it though. Would be typically shortsighted and idiotic for us to baulk at the couple of million a year it costs and spend that on one or two loans instead.

No, I don’t. But history suggests that it’s within our structure, and has been on the table for some time. I doubt I’d be far off with my grand a week prediction. I’m certainly not going to start presuming Waggott has suddenly become proactive and pragmatic while dealing with contracts.

Obviously it becomes difficult once the big clubs start circling, but the point I was making is the club need to actually do all we can, instead of the usual trick of claiming to have done so while in fact doing the bare minimum. He may well go, but we should make the choice as difficult as possible with a competitive offer and compelling argument. No, you didn’t see any post about Haddow, because the club haven’t spent the last couple of years saying he was the next incarnation of Bobby Moore and would be here for years to come. He was a lot further out on my radar (and the same can be said for the big clubs too). I did make a post last week predicting that the Bosman ruling would soon become the route of all evil in some peoples minds though.

With Phillips, we can’t just be offering him a grand a week, then saying “we did all we could” when he disappears for a pitiful fee. We need to be operating outside our fabled structure, plus offering some decent performance based incentives and raises, as well as giving him appropriate assurances and selling the club to him. No doubt this would be seen by some as “being held to ransom”, but doing so isn’t going to lead to us “doing a Derby”… seeing him go though would just be another step in our journey to becoming a dysfunctional 1990’s Crewe Alexandra.

Very highly rated, and another being looked at by big clubs.

We have to replace Nyambe and Lenihan or we are in real trouble.

Today shows we aren’t a million miles off being a good side, but we have some glaring problems that if not addressed will put us in trouble. There’s an obvious issue if Brereton leaves, but our options up the top end look ok. An experienced central midfielder would be nice, but we need 3 good defenders through the door asap. We’d have won that today with Nyambe and Lenihan.

Nyambe can’t cross… well Pickering can’t defend or run. I wonder what the biggest hinderance to a full back is?

Is it not also from the horses mouth that we spent a couple of years lowballing him before finally caving after he’d decided he was off? If there’s nothing we can do to keep our best young players then our model is all wrong, and it makes recruitment from other clubs all the more important. If a take it or leave it offer dictated by “the structure” isn’t cutting it with Phillips, we need to go back and engage and make a better offer. If he is the top young talent in the country then pay him accordingly, not a standard deal the same as players who will likely drop into the non-league system. All the noises from the club have been about how great he is and how he’d be signing a deal as soon as it was his birthday. They have follow through on it.

They had to be released or a fee agreed between the two clubs

Never mind recruitment, we can’t even get retention right. Maybe we need a head of retention too. If the rumours about Phillips not signing are correct - and let’s be honest, that contract will have been offered ages ago in the hope he signed the day he turned 17 - we might as well just accept our fate as a modern day, slightly better (for the time being) Crewe. But even they tended to get a fee. Can’t blame Phillips. We have heard loads of people argue that we couldn’t pay Lenihan more as it would upset other members of the squad. Well what message are we sending to the young lads? The situation with Nyambe and Lenihan tells them that before long the will have to leave Rovers to be paid a going rate. I’m sure some people will soon decide that Bosman is the route of all evil 30 years after it’s inception, and peddle the myth that it somehow penalises Rovers disproportionately more than any other team. More excuses for our incompetence.

This speaks volumes. You are normally massively optimistic on our chances, non-committal is as close as you get to doom and gloom. You clearly don’t fancy our chances, not that you’d ever say so.

You are inferring we can’t sign players because we haven’t got a head of recruitment. But apparently we are busy trying to bring players in. So which is it? You were claiming we needed a new manager and signings in within a fortnight before last season even ended.

Can’t agree on Pickering. He’s got a nice left foot and can do a bit going forward, but I think he is way off it defensively at this level. He needs to drastically improve that side of his game this year. I’ll never buy into the idea that a full back, or wing backs primary job is anything other than defending. Huddersfield away last year really stands out. Magloire got all the criticism, but Pickering’s performance was as inept as I can ever remember seeing from a fullback.

I’ve been quite impressed with Edun in the friendlies so far. Big difference to league games I know, but I think he’d be a better bet on the left hand side.

We all might have to develop strong addictions to make it through the season if we don’t sign a right back!

If we don’t upgrade significantly on Brown and JRC we will get absolutely ripped apart down that side every single game. I’m still hopeful we move away from that formation, though the friendlies so far would suggest not. I think we will be exposed in the league without strong addictions, and if Brereton goes I worry about our goal threat. It would be interesting to see how Gallagher would adapt to being a focal point of it though, if it wasn’t for the urgency of results.

With Nyambe still not finalised anywhere Broughton should be on the blower to his agent, apologising for Waggott and asking how much he wants again. Right back is the huge problem for us as things stand.

Serious question, is Davies really all that? I can’t say I’ve seen that much of him. Looking at the stats he managed 20 odd games for Sheff Utd last season. Is the fact Liverpool signed him to make up the numbers in training inflating everyone’s opinion of him? I don’t think there’s be so much clamour to pay a sizeable fee and make him our highest paid player and captain if he was coming from PNE.

I’m 99% sure it’s not their fault but ours.

We are in desperate need of a right back. I really dislike this formation. Still waiting for JDT to put his stamp on things… they still seem Mowbrayesque.

He was absolutely horrible tonight.