Has to be Trav or AA for me. Young, English and playing very well in the Championship. £10m is still a pittance in the PL. Pandemic or not, gate Reciepts aren’t as important to them and they have to spend anyway to remain competitive. Fair enough. Whether we actually sign them or not is not what makes them credible. Clubs speak to lots of players they’re interested in. The fact that we had a meeting with Ben Whiteman who would command a £1m fee tells me that the budget has been set. Negotiating a new contract with Downing having previously held off because we didn’t have a budget, also tells me that they have a budget. So I go back to my original point. They have a budget.

Hartherz and Ripley were brought in here by @J*B before they landed on Lancs Live or any T9 twitter page. If you’re saying he’s not credible then fine. I take people as I find them and have no reason to disbelieve. Michel by @Mercer is the last one. I’m not as sure about this but the way it was delivered suggests he’s heard from someone close to the club as oppose to read it on twitter. Im not saying we’re going to sign them btw but I think it’s fair to that taking it all into consideration with Downing - we do have a budget.

Whiteman is self explanatory as it unfolded on here by @Sparks Rover @J*B has a history of breaking info on here and @Mercer too. Though not always accurate. The links consequently dropped onto those robot twitter accounts but they didn’t start there. I’m not saying the links are right but we have no reason to believe they would lie. But you shouldn’t even have needed those transfer rumours to know that we had our budget. The negotiations with Downing is enough to put it to bed.

Come on guys you don’t need to hang on the managers every word to know that he has a budget now. Rich Sharpe reported that we were ‘still negotiating’ with Downing last week, then we had the meeting with Whiteman confirmed in here by a friend of the family. Credible links for Harthez and Ripley and now Michel a French keeper. They can’t make any of those Meetings without a budget and importantly are not compelled in anyway to tell anyone what it is. What the information also suggests is that we might have a couple of million in cash to spend as all of the links bar Hartherz would have fees attached. Either way I think we can drop the have we, haven’t we got a budget thread for now.

Guys, we can go round and round on this. Imo your point stands up with Raya and Walton as they are both very inconsistent. BUT you will never convince me that signing a bog standard cb over Tosin just so we can call him ours is the way. I find this thought process really old fashioned. its the clubs job to go and find another Tosin standard of player now. If they can’t then that’s on them but let’s not cry over Bauer. Just play Del and you’ve got the same end product. He’s ours btw...?

Sub standard to Tosin!? Absolutely.

We don’t know how expensive Tosin was for us. Totally agree that they have to find a another very good cb and if they can’t then it will lead to criticism. But I still can’t fathom the rationale that we would even dream of wanting someone like Bauer for 2/3 years. Is literally the epitome of decent....average.

Walton has had more clean sheets than he had at Rovers. Does that mean he’s better? Of course not. You can read stats anyway you like. Im pretty sure Raya’s agent has released the story about Arsenal and City on the same day he receives the award to get him a new contract. I don’t see Raya being nearly good enough to get in either of those teams. Just my opinion.

Williams is actually a CB who was converted to a LB but let’s leave it there.. When fit and playing alongside Lenihan he was pretty much a 7/10 guy. Yeah he’s going to struggle against big guys like Stockley but no more so than Bauer does against pace. By definition as 7/10 guys they’re going to have obvious failings. I still don’t understand this “building our own defence” rhetoric...are you saying you’d rather have an inferior player on a two year contract than a better player on loan for a season? If so I’m completely blown away. I just want us to have the best players possible and Tosin is considerably better than Bauer. Replacing the inconsistent Raya with The equally inconsistent Walton was arguable. Signing Tosin over Bauer was a bloody master stroke. The end.

Nah. Not replacing him properly was the mistake. Raya is what he is. Meh

The only money we’re getting from Raya is if they go up. Have you actually watched him play this season? Same shit...sublime to the ridiculous. Will prob get him a lovely raise though. Beautifully timed with his award too ?

Oh no. Bauer is BANG average and I’d have taken Tosin all day over. There is no difference between a fully fit Derek Williams and Patrick Bauer. They’re both middle of the road Championship defenders. As for stats, well our outgoing keeper just had the joint best ever record for clean sheets and is seemingly one of the worst keepers to grace Ewood park. ? All about opinions of course but I watched Bauer at the end of his time with Charlton and probably 5 or 6 times at PNE and he’s basically a 7/10 run of the mill cb. Anyone who says anything different (Including mr elite football lol) Is just trying to further their own agenda. We dodged a bullet last season and got a FAR better cb. Get Del fully fit and a good lb in and we’re in no worse situation than had Bauer signed.

I appreciate what your saying but I don’t really get the difference. What you’re saying only becomes an issue if in fact it is scattergun. But if the plan was to bring in Tosin on loan and spend the money on Downing over Bauer then I’m happy. I don’t think Bauer’s any better than Williams.

Not necessarily. As other posters have mentioned, we do have some players for that position but only one who is a mainstay. IF we genuinely have ambitions of going up AND we have the funds then adding Whiteman to that group to form a partnership with Trav and the others fighting to dislodge them is a bold move. I just don’t see how we plug the gaps AND buy Whiteman without selling someone. Ideally, Raya gets promotion and King goes for £20m which prob generates £5m for us? So we can keep our Crown Jewels and spend a million or so.

Rightly or wrongly they’ve chosen to spend that money on the strikers but that still has little relevance to the actual point. Players aren’t signed in order of importance, they’re signed as they become available. Ergo speaking to Whiteman isn’t a sign that they want a CM more than a CB just that they had a chance to speak with him and took it.

Anyone get the feeling that we’re speaking Whiteman in case we sell Travis?

Ahh that’s different. If they’re spending money allocated for a keeper on a CM I completely get why we’d all be pissed off. My point was that the order of signings isn’t relevant as to who we NEED most because when they are signed comes down to availability which changes

How so? Surely goes like this...Ok guys we are looking for two keepers a cb, a lb and a Cm. The total budget is x and the allocated budget for each position is roughly a, b and c. Here’s a list of players we’ve scouted in each position with choices 1-?. Then it’s a case of who comes available first with the ultimate goal to cover all the positions. ??‍♂️

That’s exactly where we are as a club now. Unless we can get right into that top 4 teams when PL teams will begin looking....as they have with Brentford. Raya is going to benefit from this. Not because he’s any better than he was when he left but because his profile is raised. Imo the link to Arsenal is likely from his agent to get him an improved deal.

Not really mate. Players are signed as and when they become available not in order of importance. We’re not playing Fifa.

Travis does this already. I think we need more ability in CM to play next to him.

Why? What have you heard? The only thing I’ve heard that has any credibility is the link to Whiteman, a 22yr old captain of his club who’d demand a 7 figure fee. If anything, I’m pleasantly surprised. Wish it was a CB but it certainly doesn’t suggest we’re shopping in the bargain basement?

I agree. Must be £45-50k gone inc loanees. But with Whiteman being in contract there must be a chunky fee attached to him? £1m at least?

Fair enough. Like I said, once you mentioned it I took it completely on face value. Why would you lie. Its interesting though. Says to me that there is money to spend.

Haha and THIS is why I’m so confused with the Whiteman link. No reason to disbelieve @Sparks Rover. Would be really weird to imagine he’d made the relationship with Whiteman up AND the rumour. So I’m taking it pretty much as fact that those talks happened yesterday which basically confirms we have cash and are looking to buy a CM. This is big and confusing news for any Rovers fan ?