bluebruce

If we do actually sign Baradji (dubious at this point) we very likely are paying a sizeable fee by our standards. Unlike the others, in excess of 2 mill probably is his going rate. Richer clubs have been sniffing previously.

Worst part is we are probably losing all of them.

The club have been crystal clear - selling players will not impact our transfer budget. This makes being a trading club impossible.

That is actually everything I need in order to judge him.

Just seen this in the LT article about the JRC sale: 'After becoming an integral part of the Rovers team under Jon Dahl Tomasson, Rankin-Costello has waned. Callum Brittain re-established himself as the first choice at right-back under John Eustace and has remained so under Ismael. Eustace did use the 25-year-old in central midfield, which looked a natural home, at the end of the 2023/24 season. However, the return of Lewis Travis and his partnership with Sondre Tronstad meant opportunities in the middle were limited.' Thought it was ironic that all those players getting in his way look fairly likely to leave now. Not that I'm saying we shouldn't have sold him, he was never going to be robust enough to make it in more than patches.

And we missed him massively during them.

Tavares could be a Buckley replacement, if he hasn't cost 2 mill, although he does seem to be a different sort of player. If he did cost a genuine 2 mill guaranteed I don't think that he'd only be a replacement for Buckley, who is just a squad player. I suppose it would be possible, just to strengthen our options there. JRC is more of a utility player, the new right back is very likely seen as his replacement. With Forshaw to cover any emergency needs. The new CM definitely means one of Trav or Tron going I'd expect. If we get him. We can't have two 2 mill plus mids, if they both cost that, as well as Trav and Tron, unless we are changing formation.

The club, like all clubs, will leak whatever fees they want. And even if it's not intentional PR, the club could be genuinely signing a player for '2 million' when potential fees are added. 500k guaranteed, 500k based on appearances and goals, another million if we get promoted and you have yourself a '2 million fee'. It could be a virtually guaranteed fee, I can't rule that out no, but it would be a bit baffling if it is, given his profile. If we have paid that, he'd really better turn out to be a good un or we've been mugged. To show you this isn't a club bias thing, I absolutely do believe the larger 2.5 million fee for the other midfielder, he has pedigree and has attracted bigger fish to look at him in the past.

The past rumours are not super recent, but I think they were after the promotion. In terms of right now though, I think it's purely speculation on here as to whether his old suitors have come in. We probably couldn't compete with Celtic either tbf.

Let's be realistic, if Sunderland genuinely want him, we aren't coming close to Premiership money and the player won't sign for us until he has talked to them regardless what we offer.

I think you're being a bit unkind. The Brittain one would seal the deal, but saying 2 players would be coming in before the game when only one was out in the open, and after a fairly long quiet patch with no activity, is a decent effort. I'd give him the full sweep if the Brittain one is within a few days, too (club might decide they'd rather spread the news out to make it look like we are still active).

So Baradji, Tavares, allegedly both with big fees, and Forshaw all signed on this summer. All central midfielders. Has to mean at least one of Travis or Tronstad is getting lined up for a sale, maybe both. The fly in the ointment of that theory though is that Baradji can apparently play, yes, DM or CM, but also right wing. I wonder where we intend to use him, though you'd think he's at least a contingency for if we lose someone there.

Probably because most of the players signed don't remotely fit the profile of players who should cost anywhere near the reported fees. Plus the club have become experts at misleading the fans.

Even if the Brittain contract doesn't get announced before the friendly, I'll give Mercer this one. As Meatloaf said, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

I'd be amazed if we could get 1 mill out of Charlton for him. If that was the offer, I imagine it'd be something like 250-500k guaranteed max, over 3 or 4 years, with the rest based on appearances, goals, promotion. With his injury record we probably wouldn't see much of that.

He is a very poor journalist.

Mercer always believes we are doomed (tbf I did after Szmodics left). But yet also almost always predicts we will win before every match.

Somebody at a fans forum really needs to ask Gestede why no amount of sales can ever make a difference to the budget. It's a ludicrous position.

In fairness, and whilst I don't think players should be ruled out when they hit 30, the problem is you don't know when someone is going to be finished once they're in their 30s. There is a fairly rapid loss of pace that everyone gets at some point in their 30s. Sometimes it seems to happen at as low as 31, sometimes it's mid or even late 30s. In a similar way, at some point players will also lose their recovery abilities in this age bracket. So they might start only being good for about half or so of the games in a season. And injury proneness is another factor that worsens. It can be none of these really kick in for years, and some players do manage to work their game around a loss of pace, but it's fairly rare it doesn't become some sort of liability. Some players can also still be very useful squad players even if they're only fit half the time, but that doesn't warrant paying them top earner wages, which is likely what we're talking here. It's fear of the unknown, the unknown being when this player will start to break down. And that's precisely why players usually start getting shorter contract offers in their 30s. Again, it can absolutely work out for years, or it can fail (like yes, any signing), but the degree of risk undoubtedly increases in the 30s. To be clear, I do want to keep Tronstad and would happily offer him a 3 year deal on decent wages.

Eh? Been replaced with who? Have we signed a CB and an AM I haven't heard about? Last I knew we had only signed a CM and a LWB.

Ridiculous statement. I really don't get your problem with Tronstad, it's bizarre.

And not over. My post you're replying to still stands.

It's still pretty early into it tbf. It could get better. It could also get much worse.

His scholarship he signed last year runs until summer 2026. Allegedly we have just turned down a 1 million quid plus extras bid from Arsenal. https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/blackburn-reject-1m-arsenal-transfer-approach-igor-tyjon/ (Original source is Nixon, not FLW)

Difference is we don't have Prem club resources. It also doesn't make it right either way, the system is broken. Someone said we paid a 6 figure fee for Eze if I recall, so I'm not sure we did abuse the system. I can't imagine it entitles a League Two club to that level of compo for a 15 or 16 yr old whatever he was. Sounds more like a fee we agreed. Regardless, we wouldn't have been paying much more than that for him realistically, whereas a Prem club can fart out a fair fee for these players. But they don't have to, so they don't.