Bauer and Whiteman both playing tonight btw

Think he’s naturally a CB...6ft 6, absolute giant

Is absolutely love us to sign Ajayi from Rotherham btw. Absolute beast.

I didn’t say that fans sing about ‘shit’ players...I said they don’t exclusively sing about players based on how good they are. Fans love players for many reasons. Sometimes it’s because they player is amazing, sometimes it’s because the fan base naturally warm to them (like Chapman) and sometimes they love them because the player cares and this resonates with them (like Bennett and Smallwood).

Yeah I get that. What type of player is he mate? Have to admit I’ve never seen him play. He very technical?

I think the reason was more around his suitability for the style of play they want to adopt. No questioning his ability to screen, work off the ball and play non penetrating passes...and it doesn’t make the management at Rotherham right either. For my money, Smallwood was in top 3 most effective players we had in league 1. I also don’t think clubs lauding a player and making songs up about them is exclusively based on how good they are. Smallwood exceeded our expectations that year and he embodied the honesty, grit and determination that had been sadly lacking at our club for years. We loved him for this.

Sheff Wed going harder. Not great technically apparently? Great engine, lad and leader....maybe we don’t really fancy him as TM said we want technical players in their. He reckons TM really likes Ajayi. Talked about him constantly after both games with Rotherham management team. He also said the keeper they had from Fulham on loan is fantastic and well worth a look at for us.

To be honest I was surprised. I thought they’d be snapping our head off to get him back. Stranger things have happened and it ticks a lot of boxes. But that was direct..

Apparently, plays like the ‘crab’ and they like to ‘get it forward’...also referred to as a ‘strange lad’ (I don’t know why) still lives in Rotherham though.

A current member of coaching staff at Rotherham. ??

Rotherham don’t want Smallwood. Vaulks is a potential but more likely to go to Sheff Wed who are more keen. @Sparks Rover how’s the Whitman thing going?

We don’t know who we’re signing though...

Leutwiler is obv now lined up as 3rd choice keeper should / when we sign our keeper target. If he’s happy with that and we are then great. If he wants to move on and play 1st team football then we might pick up a small fee for him.

This is absolutely what I believe he’s doing. Rodwell and Conway have shown that they can come in and do a decent job. If he’s negotiating with them it’s to be back up players to matchday squad on less money from what I can see. This is why I fully expect at least one of those two to go elsewhere. Gladwin is an odd one from the outside. I’m not sure what the thought is on him. They must think there’s a player in there somewhere that is good enough to make an impact at the right price. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if he left. As for the contracted players, my feeling is that they will wait and force a move late on based on players who’ve been signed in their position. The key here surely is to improve quality, depth AND maintain the fighting spirit and morale that they have. I don’t think he’s done anything to the contrary in the last week.

It seems quite logical to me. He’s told the players where they stand in his mind. So they know where he’s looking to strengthen and whether they’re likely to play or not. He’s in no rush to have a ‘mass clearout’ because as Parsons said, he’s building to get out of this league and so for example, Leutweiler will now sit behind Raya and the new keeper to give us depth. Fisher will be allowed out on loan. This approach is reasonable as long as you have the budget (which he’s asked for). Managers can force contracted players out by treating them unreasonably (making them train with the reserves, come in on their day off etc) but this causes animosity amongst the lads. If he’s been transparent then the group will accept the changes. Maintaining the team spirit is as important as improving the players. My feeling is that 2/3 running out of contract will go elsewhere and a couple of the contracted players will seek moves too when they realise they aren’t going to play.

You’re talking about different things. This is not a discussion about whether or not we’ll actually sign the players. The point made was that TM is playing a game and ‘not rocking the boat’ in order to prolong his employment....my point is that anyone in that mould wouldn’t bring expectation and pressure on themselves by announcing that he wants more money for a promotion push next season! (This is what rocking the boat is).

The ‘happy clappers’ (normal people) are genuinely a few years away from wanting him out because basically he’s done a bloody good job ??? It’s also pretty clear that when a manager finishes 15th and immediately states he wants more money and promotion the year after that he’s NOT afraid to rock the boat. I’d say that his statements since the end of the season are pretty much the epitome of rocking said boat!?

They get some right and some wrong. But ultimately he’s achieving his goal and plenty of his signings have contributed heavily to our success and progression over the past couple of years.

Yup, not saying all his signings have been great but consider Bell plays every week, as did Reed. Not to mention Samuel, Payne, Antonsson and Downing who played regularly and contributed to our promotion. Davenport looks every bit a player...Gave several u23’s their debut over two seasons (11 in total I think). Not bad for a guy who blindly sticks with the players he’s inherited, makes all bad signings and apparently never plays them huh?

We do have a budget. They also always scout an option A, B, C etc in each position. In truth, the A’s are usually pretty unattainable because they’re expensive and usually scouted in case the club loses a Dack or Lenihan and suddenly has resources available. The budget is set in line with projected income etc. The difference this summer as oppose to last is that the manager is basically going to India to ask them to sanction his A targets without sales. Claiming that he can challenge for promotion if they do so whilst increasing the values of the developing players. (Highly rated Championship players sell for £15-25m) in theory. It’s basically Tony’s moment. He’s putting his neck on the line.

Amen to this logic ?

Thanks pal. I for one like to hear real info as oppose to wild suggestion ??

Yeah, sorry. You obviously know this. ???‍♂️

How do you know he hasn’t got the foggiest? ?? How do you know he isn’t just going to India to increase the agreed budget in line with his ambition? There’s been a lot of chat (even on here) that we’ve been talking to this person or that person. If he hadn’t the foggiest then how would that be possible? I don’t know what his budget is but going back to abpoint made ealer that we were already behind because Derby had signed Shinnie is just pure banter.

You’re assuming that we’re actually looking at free transfers? We’re not behind anything lads. We just probably didn’t want Shinnie or any other freebies right now It’s really THAT simple! ??