Ben and his advisors are not daft.... what does he get out of that? He will get a better signing on fee and wage if he is a free agent. Why sign on for us to only then be sold? The only reason would be some sort of loyalty to the club that developed him, but if that was a motivating factor surely he would already be tied up to something.

I am not that convinced Dack and Brereton being out is such a big problem tbh. Brereton has been rubbish for ages now, and while Dack has been largely very good we actually played better in the second half on Saturday either side of him being on the pitch... He's a quality player but can be a real passenger if the game is not flowing in a way that best uses him. It's may well be that we, counter-intuitively, actually play better without them. I guess we will find out. Team for me... Pears JRC Carter Hyam Pickering Travis Buckley Thomas Dolan Hedges Gallagher Subs : Youth goalie, Ayala, Morton, A Wharton (hopefully back), Szmodics, Vale, Leonard

I salute you're bravery in facing the luddites! Stakeholder is a totally normal everyday word that's used all the time by lots and lots of people. Any organisation will have stakeholders. I think probably if we pull up the BRFCS terms of reference or whatever the foundational documents are the term "stakeholder" will feature somewhere.

I don't want him to stay personally, I think we are better moving on, which tells its own story.

I would say he should be just as worried that at a higher level with better players he is going to get found out. He's had a decent amount of chances over the last 12 odd games and hasn't been able to finish. I don't think that would be tolerated in the Prem (as Armstrong has found out), and I imagine it is similar in La Liga. That he hasn't signed a pre-contract with anyone yet suggests to me the offers have not been as good as expected, and he's having a real slump in form at the wrong time for him.

Yeah I suspect thats it. His wife may not fancy moving so soon after having the baby, or maybe even moving to Spain at all. I get it could be convenient for him, but it isn't convenient for us I think - 30k a week is around £1.5M a year. If he was guaranteed goals then great, but he isnt exactly that. Its a lot of money for a player who blows hot and cold who will be worth nothing at the end of the contract.

Dont think so, their TV contract is a lot worse as they all need to negotiate separately so Real amd Barca hoover it up but everyone else struggles. I wouldn't be surprised if our offer is better. What I dont get is why offer a one year deal? How does that help us? Very odd. Surely just letting him go and spending the money on a proper replacement makes more sense?

Um, Morton? I mean I know Morton has not been great recently but for a while he was really decent. A lot better than Davenport ever managed. I doubt Morton will ever be released by Lincoln..

Hes a great defender and not too bad on the ball, bur we definitely were poorer getting it forward when he came on.

Yeah... if we had a decent central striker I think a lot of the flack that the midfielders get would melt away. They look poor because they have very little to pass too. Up front Dolan put a really good shift in, scared their defenders a bit which is always good to see, but isn't someone who lives to get on a cross or a through ball and score.

I wonder if having Carter and Wharton at the back has helped a lot. Both of them can move the ball forward better than Hyam and way way way better than Ayala. Makes it easier to transition forward. Also I wouldn't really say we missed Ayala that much defensively which is a bit of a surprise. Carter particularly is very cultured with ball for a centreback.

Team for me : Pears Brittain Hyam Carter Pickering JRC Buckley THomas Dack Hedges Dolan

Yeah and the ones that have had parachute money.... Im not actually that sure he wants to football it out. Hes not going for possession football I think, we end up having a lot of possession not through design but rather we just run out of ideas. Instead he wants to play it forward accurately and quickly which we should be able to do really. Dont need to be barcelona.

I'd say it makes perfect sense what he said - it was factual. If I was in his shoes I'd do much the same - call out I thought we had a good case, but also that no one has succeeded in an appeal before. Both relevant information. I don't think just because no one has won a case before it is not worth appealing. Indeed if we didn't appeal and came out and said "we thought we had a good case, but as no one has won before we decided not to appeal" then I think the torches and pitchforks would be coming out.

Business to Business and Court of Arbitration for Sport

Id say with Brittain back the thinking will be how to get him, JRC, Thomas and Dack all into the same team as they look the form attacking players. Could go 442 .and drop Brereton with a classic little and little front line? Our striker options are so rubbish. Kaminski Brittain. Carter Wharton. Pickering JRC. Travis. Buckley Thomas Dack Dolan

Watched the whole game. Thought it was pretty even overall, we played pretty decent stuff at times, defended well. Carter particularly stood out - did everything really well in the air, on the deck, physically, how he distributed the ball. Looked very solid. Watford had a couple of sitters, but we also had quite a few decent chances beside the goal. Travis had sort of a good game - snapped in and took the ball well, but then struggled in terms of how he used it. Morton was pretty quiet. Dolan did much better than Gallagher or Vale have recently, and agree BBD needs to be dropped. I was quite surprised he wasn't dropped today. Think maybe he will be on the bench at WBA. I do think a lot of the criticism that people are putting JDT's way could equally be applied to pretty much any manager at any club in the Championship except the top two. Everyone has poor runs then good runs, have times looking decent then looking terrible. I doubt Watford fans will be thinking they've got a definitively better manager than us after today... It's an easy narrative to sell yourself that if we just had a better manager everything would happen for us, but realistically it's more complicated than that. He's still doing okay for me.

Given JDTs comments post match against Birmingham about the movement in the box being poor and Leonard bagging twice in the under 21s I reckon he's going to get a crack yes. Whether it's a start or not is to be seen...

I'd say they are roughly on a par with each other at the moment, but Buckley does have the advantage of at least being our player.

Yeah - I remember maybe his second ever start for us and he was really dynamic. Looked a very exciting player. But then got injured and when he came back was appalling.

Yeah, one of the innovations JDT has introduced which I quite like is dropping players down to play in the 21s regularly. Let's everyone know where they stand in the pecking order, and gives them a platform to perform to get back in the side. Worked well for Dack and JRC. Less well for others... but better than players just disappearing into a blackhole and not appearing for months.

Maybe grasping at straws here but looked back at our home meeting with Watford and Hedges had a good game in the central striker role, albeit in a 343. Id be tempted to stick with the 4231 but play Hedges up top. Vale is pointless, Gallagher offers more of a physical capability but so many attacks break down because he can't control the ball, Dolan and Szmodics can't physically compete centrally, BBD is bang out of form.... Its not ideal but willies we have etc... Kaminki JRC. Carter. Wharton. Pickering Travis. Buckley Thomas Dack. Dolan Hedges Hedges is a smart player with a decent left foot and ability to retain the ball on the half turn.... Can sort of see it working if his instructions are to stay central and get into the box.

Only comfort I can see is I fully expected both Watford, WBA and Norwich to all easily beat us earlier in the season, but we somehow beat them. So maybe things will surprise us. Its strange really as the playing staff seems slightly improved with Thomas joining but I think our confidence has gone out the window.

Surely giving Leonard a crack at Watford, at least for 30 minutes, has to be on the cards? Agree Dolan should come back in for Brereton on the left for Watford. Maybe we move Brereton central, or start Gallagher, or start Leonard. What we should absolutely not do is start Vale. Or..... given the desperate state we are in wonder if we could end up playing Hedges centrally thinking about it? Can hold onto the ball, link up, has a bit of presence about him. But... no scoring record really. 1 in 6 for Aberdeen. But if we were going to makeshift a established player into a central striker I'd go for him over Szmodics or Dolan as I think he could physically handle the centrebacks the best with his back to goal.

If it happens I'll eat everyones hats on this board. I am ever an optimist, but given the EFL has never accepted one of these appeals before I do not think they will be changing that habit now.