Wonder if Eustace will be on their list. Ex-player, Midlands based, I'm sure he'll be keen to make a move out of here and to a respectable club, and if they are focused on survival then improvement his record here and at Birmingham makes him ideal.

There's a blindingly simple way to deal with this situation. If it is true that Dennis is on £20k a week contribution from now to the summer, or that Sigurdsson is one of our top earners on a rumoured £18k a week, then come the summer if not before the money allocated to either of those two should be divided into 3 or 4 and split between Travis, Tronstad, Brittain and Carter and they be offered 2-3 year extensions with that as a pay rise. I'm pretty sure that they would all grab a £5k a week pay rise and an extra 2-3 year on top. Job done. Spine of the team secured for the foreseeable, some good news to give everyone a lift, this would not require budget increases or money from the owners as it would simply be reallocating cash that we have, allegedly, found on deadline day for Dennis or have been paying Sigurdsson to do nothing all season. Waggott wouldn't need to go cap in hand to the owners to do this. But I think our problems run deeper than getting more money from the owners, I'm convinced that there is instruction to slash and burn, cut costs and downgrade at every point possible. Pay rises are therefore out of the equation despite the nonsense they will come out with an an effort to convince the fans that serious efforts are being made. It is going to hurt when we watch these players and our manager doing well at other middling Championship clubs with an ounce of ambition but nothing new at Venky Rovers.

I'm curious as to how or why anyone thinks we are going to be so much as trying to keep any of our key players on new contracts. Even signing a handful of loans / short term deals in January has been a huge undertaking, leaving it until 11pm on deadline day, sacrificing key January fixtures, just to get three players here for 15 games until the summer from clubs desperate to be shut of them. Contract renewals a totally different ball game to that. People like Travis, Tronstad, Brittain are into their late 20s soon, they are going to be getting advised that they should be looking for a minimum of 3 more years and on a good salary, better than they are on at the moment. Is there any reason on this earth to think Venkys or Waggott are suddenly going to be offering 3 or 4 year contract extensions or wage increases?? Everything we have seen has been short term, make do, no substantial long term commitments, cut costs wherever possible. I anticipate the only thing on their minds will be saving another £10k a week by getting rid of those players in the summer and replacing them with more dross from the bargain bucket on 12 month loans.

In order of preference (and by that what I believe to be in the best interests of this club) 1) Venkys run the club properly and invest - after 15 years we know that isn't ever going to happen 2) Venkys leave and let someone else run the club properly and invest - I hope and pray that their legal issues/funding cuts in the last 18 months are a precursor to this 3) Venkys stay, but don't invest - we get the worst of both worlds - negligent owners whose appalling oversight cannot be balanced out by money invested. Over the last 10 years their ability / willingness to send over £15 million a year has at the very least allowed us to remain an average Championship club. Nothing to be grateful to them for but at least it's allowed us to do something. If that money stops they are absolutely no use to anyone, and aren't needed here. If the club is to wash its own face then the very least it needs is competent and engaged ownership and management to maximise its capabilities. My ideal scenario is that the legal and financial pressures they are under become unbearable to them to the point that they are forced to relinquish control of the club. It would be a nice bonus if their business empire and fortune collapsed with it.

By my count that's 16 wins in 90 Monday-Friday away Championship games since 2012.

Still trying to work out which bright spark decided to agree to bring forward the game to this week, just 24 hours after an inevitable last minute transfer deadline and knowing that we had 4-5 key players out injured.

Making out like Eustace has got everything / more than he asked for with SIX new players. Whoop de doo. Some, myself included, would read that and think that Nixon has an agenda to praise that slimeball Waggott and make anyone unhappy about our business to be unreasonable, Eustace included. It almost suggests that Eustace has been given more than he could ever expect or ask for therefore if we slide away it is nothing to do with the 'supremo'. Sickening stuff. Of those six two Eustace publicly admitted we signed because they were cheap squad fillers and replace two outgoings arguably of at least equal if not better quality in McFadzean and Baker (definitely in the case of Baker). One Eustace admitted in public that it was a club target and suggested that it was nothing to do with him in Kargbo, who certainly doesn't fit the experienced proven quality requirement. Same goes then for the LB.

I think we have entered a new era from that we had pre-2023. Back then when we lost people like Lenihan, Nyambe, Rothwell due to contract expiry I think it was probably at least in part due to inept management and poor organisation, trying to force those players into accepting lesser terms and leaving things until the last minute. Then Broughton came in and to be fair to him he went about renewing those contracts that needed sorting and we also signed a few on reasonable term deals - Hyam, Szmodics, Brittain. Since the 2023 change however I think we are firmly into new territory. Not only are we unable to renew terms but I genuinely think there is an instruction from the owners down to not offer medium to long term deals and to drastically cut the wage bill. We can see indications of this in our recent transfer activity. With the exception of a few very low cost people like Kargbo (who will have been on relative peanuts in Italy) there are no proper contracts being handed out. So rather than this being down to typical Venky/Waggott delay/poor organisation I think they are now following a clear plan - let the contracts run down, get the wages off the books, don't have anyone tied down beyond a maximum of 1-2 years, no long term 3,4,5 year deals, no wage increases. It is deliberate and planned. So every summer we are going to at best be in the loan market and adding people on 12 month contracts. The 'core' of the squad that has excelled this season will be out of here.

I don't believe the club has any intention or even desire to retain people like Brittain, Hyam, Travis, Tronstad or Hedges. They would only do it if those players agreed to substantial pay cuts, which isn't going to happen as they will all be looking for their final 'big' contracts and certainly the first four could walk into most other Championship clubs and get a better deal. The clue is in the fact that all were signed / contracted before the 'change' in the summer of 2023 when they overnight slashed the budget and the legal issues came to light. Since then with one or two minor exceptions, such as new deals for Szmodics and Wharton so they could be swiftly sold off, and a few of the academy lads, renewals have totally dried up. There's an iceberg up ahead and the club won't or can't do anything to avoid it. The happy clappers who ignore all this and pretend everything is wonderful might think they are 'super fans' but they are going to be in for a rude awakening when we are stripped bare of all our remaining quality and assets within the next 16 months.

What % of our squad is out of contract / loan in the summer? Must be over 50 now.

I was actually referring to posts on Twitter a couple of which spring to mind, one explaining how Rudy has managed what Broughton couldn't do and another saying that Venkys had come up with the cash when needed. Laughable really so fits quite well with our transfer business.

Quite incredible to see some of the reactions to this, people talking about 'happy days' and even one or two applauding Venkys and Rudy. At best we've signed 2 more loans/short term deals who are going to be here for 3-4 months and 15 games. They've taken over a month since the January window opened to get this 'proven experienced quality' and here we are, 11:30pm on 3rd February, not even certain both have joined and people making out like we've just climbed the north face of the Eiger, not potentially got two short term deals over the line with 2 clubs desperate to be rid of them. Dismal stuff.

Maybe he will be astute but he's only going to be available for 15 league games then he's away again and we've to rebuild our left hand side in the summer.

I keep coming back to Eustace's comments after signing Sanderson and Forshaw. All about it being a means to an end as it reinforced the squad at basically next-to-no expense therefore allowing us to concentrate our resources on getting our main targets and 'proven, experienced' quality in the door in the more pressing positions. Since then we've had an unknown from the Italian lower divisions and, allegedly, are close to signing cover at LB on loan (I'll believe it when I see it). Eustace has made it quite clear that he had nothing to do with Kargbo and even if he had it clearly in no way shape or form suggests proven experienced quality. I'd be surprised if he had much at all to do with the LB loan. If that's about it then it's clear to me that they've played him for a fool just like they did JDT and the rest of us. People don't like being lied to or taken for fools. It breaks trust and can be impossible to recover from. As a coping mechanism some delude themselves into thinking that its all fine and normal or that things will change.

But but but it's a hard window to do business in! Middlesbrough must not have got the memo about money in from sales only coming in instalments making it impossible to spend anything on new signings. One club that tries, another club that couldn't give a flying fcuk about what happens, the gruesome twosome's jobs are secured with Championship status.

I suppose the loons trying to defend this shambles will point towards 'no big sales' and not giving our captain to a rival club as a step in the right direction....

What irritates me is Jackson stating we 'pushed very hard' for Danns. He doesn't know that. He has been told that by a club employee. Some of them are liars and have arse covering to be doing as the inevitable January failings become clear. Yet Jackson putting this sort of thing out in the media helps create the 'poor us we tried' impression. It just isn't good enough and isn't acceptable, no matter what sob stories they spread.

'Didn't progress' basically means that we rang Liverpool up and asked what % of Danns' wage they were prepared to cover in return for him coming here and playing regularly. The minute other Championship clubs come along and inevitably offer far more then commercial reasons will see him go elsewhere. That's the end of it. Our interest amounts to a hope and prayer that come deadline day the parent club will cave in and allow their player to come to us as they'd rather take a financial hit in return for the player having game time as opposed to being sat around their training ground playing academy football for another 4-5 months. That's our transfer policy in a nutshell. Sometimes it comes off, often it doesn't, but the less and less we are prepared to contribute the harder it is and lower quality the player that arrives.

So where are Eustace's 'two or three' quality experienced players coming in?

The hastily and insanely rearranged QPR fixture and preparations for that meant that there was insufficient time / opportunity to concentrate on getting deals over the line.

See Waggott's 'update' from the other week. Take your pick from: It's always a difficult or slow window to do business in The current players have done so well and deserve the chance to finish the job, it wouldn't be fair to bring in others Other players could disrupt team spirit and camaraderie We'll only sign players if they are the 'right level' and 'right fit' Injuries are returning so there's no real gain in signing more now and then having 'too many' players We've only got space in the squad for one more so we can't add plenty. There's just not enough time left on deadline day with agents, clubs and players changing demands all the time.

My prediction is we will get one Premier League academy loan, possibly Danns although if Sunderland are even slightly interested they'll beat us to that one, or another option in desperation, and then we will big that and Kargbo up as serious transfer business. Laughably bad if so, and only more evidence if ever anyone needed it of the urgency with which we need rid of the rotten regime and charlatans working for it.

I was saying last night to a friend that what ought to have happened at some point in December or early January is that one of our 'wonderful, kind, generous owners' who 'never refuse to sign a cheque' would have phoned John Eustace and applauded him for the job done so far, wished him all the best for the rest of the season, expressed a wish for him to extend his deal, and then offered to support him in January with an increased budget to allow him to buy or loan 3-4 top quality players this month. Such a conversation would have taken 5 minutes. That's all. Not a lot to ask of them at all, but it could make all the difference to the club's future. I don't believe for one second that such a conversation has occurred or that the owners will even know or care about our league position and it is clear by the tightrope we are walking on incomings and outgoings that the budget is maxed out and we are shuffling around trying to free up wages by offloading one or two here and there. It is totally pathetic. There's no chance on earth of us finding the required cash to pay someone like O'Brien and we are being used and conned again. The only leverage we will have is the hope that Forest eventually agree to us paying something daft like £10k a week of his wages on the understanding that we play him every game and this puts more value into him than him being sat on a bench somewhere. It's not even a gamble at this stage because worst case we miss out but we know they'll be selling whoever they can in the summer to recoup cash anyway.

So less than 48 hours from the window closing and it seems nothing is happening bar we are probably the most likely destination for another Liverpool loan (if they are being generous and don't prefer to send him elsewhere) and still 'attempting' to sign another couple of 'big name' players on loan who we know won't come because we won't pay enough of their wages.

I'm convinced they are just playing games with the O'Brien one. Even if our interest was genuine I'd be amazed if he would even entertain coming here unless Eustace can talk a very good game and persuade him to do it. The scars of 2023 will still be there, he will know what sort of amateur outfit he's dealing with. What should have happened of course is that if he was such a target that we are prepared to contribute heavily on wages he should have been in the building in the first week of January so he was able to play in midfield over the last 4-5 games and make a difference ahead of Forshaw.