The players you want to sell wouldn't bring in enough money to bring in replacements that were particularly any better, not with our scouting. Let alone bring in the additional ones you mention.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/24355889.middlesbrough-example-may-offer-hint-sam-szmodics-future/ LT claim Galatasaray's reported interest is real. Personally I think Ipswich are the most likely destination. We like to get rimmed off freshly promoted teams who haven't been heavyweights for a long time (or ever in Luton's case) and Ipswich have already been sniffing around us this season, as Travis and Gallagher show. Given no real re-sale value, his transfer profile suits a side who can afford him with freshly acquired Prem money to boost a low wage squad, and know they are likely to come back down to this level, at which Szmodics is a monster. If he shows his worth in the Prem he could keep them up or earn a move for a similar or better fee, or they come down and he helps them make a fist of going back up. If they're interested I think that's where he will probably end up.

The point was to show his goals in the same number of seconds as there were goals scored though. I think there's a clip elsewhere of all his goals this season with a bit more time spent on them. What a finisher!

As I've covered in the U21 thread, I'm confident Phillips would have played as many or more games here than he did at Plymouth. He was awfully young last season and was bound to develop and get a chance when injuries and suspensions hit. No need to sign McFadz then. Then he could have moved to a club for a proper fee and been earning about 30 times his salary, with more chance of breaking into the Prem team he moved to. Ya know, like a certain Adam Wharton.

I've literally never heard of him. I see he has played 47 league games this season for Leeds though, who are a better side than us, at the age of 18. So I can see why they'd be asking for a lot, and they have more financial power than us so can stick to their guns more comfortably. That's nearly double what we got for Wharton though. I'd be surprised if anyone pays that for a Championship midfielder, in which case it won't matter how much they demanded.

I can't go quite as far as to say it's pointless. Not when so many of our first team are academy graduates and in the last year we have made enough profit from some of their sales to fund the academy for over 10 years. But it's massively frustrating when we could have had double that in the last few years if the rules were different (and on occasion if the club had more planning or spine). If we do lose these latest two for bugger all, I'll understand the sentiment of it being pointless, but in a literal sense it's still not true. It would also leave us with nobody to get heavily excited about coming through. Best bets would be Gilsenan, who we've already seen a bit of, couldn't break through when he was on fire and got injured I believe near the end of the season. Whitehall, who is very injury prone so will need some luck to make it. Gent, who has come on well but it would be surprising if he ends up being more than an average Championship LB at best. And Batty, who once had serious promise but seems to have gone off the boil. I guess Duru might be able to push on to be a squad player. Decent things have been said about one or two others, but those seem the most promising, and none of them on close to the hype level we had for Wharton, Phillips and Finneran. Our most promising crop for many a year could end up all elsewhere in very little time (the golden portion of them I mean). Whitehall could be a hell of a player if he somehow stays fit though, he's seriously impressed me whenever I've seen him. And you never know who is going to rapidly improve. Seems to be better they stay under the radar until they've been secured on a proper pro deal anyway.

Yep but it won't have benefited us in the slightest to scout and train him if we lose him for nothing. I can understand kids being able to move around for nothing when they're 14 and under, they need the freedom to do so and their potential is much less certain. Once they're 15 and 16 they can be prodigies on the verge of, or even having made, first team breakthroughs and then they get snapped up for nothing just when the fanbase is getting excited. It was Rochdale wasn't it? They'll get better money relative to their level for future moves than we will (that thing, can't remember what it's called, where you get a tiny portion of future fees if you trained them between certain ages). Think he was 15 when we took him, so what I'm suggesting would have also benefited them a bit more. It's almost a disincentive to move these kids along quickly at those ages because you enhance the chances they attract bigger fish. Also, frustrating that when we take a good player from lower down the food chain and they quickly move on, we get squat, but when Palace do it, they'll reap a quick 40 million ish profit. I'm not saying poachings from above aren't natural, of course they are, just the protections at that specific age range are poor and can see clubs lose major prodigies for nothing (or enforced fees well below market a la Phillips, due to the negotiating power the rules allowed his agent...who in fairness could have also had him leave for far less a year earlier). IMO, the higher you are in the pyramid, the more you should have to pay for players in that age bracket if the owning club has made a contract offer. The academy category the owning club operates should also come into it, a cat 1 isn't cheap. It just needs reviewing and protections adding is my point, but of course the Prem love to be able to harvest the best for nothing. If I remember right they're the ones who brought in changes making the poaching easier some years back.

https://www.wearepalace.uk/news/after-adam-wharton-crystal-palace-now-want-to-pinch-another-top-talent-from-blackburn-rovers/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook Igor Tyjon allegedly attracting suitors - Palace, Manure and Brighton. It would be beyond frustrating if him and Finneran got pinched for nowt. IMO, protections for clubs when players are aged 15 or over need to improve.

Was the Nixon rumour about Palace, Manure and Brighton wanting to sign our young striker Igor Tyjon posted? Just seen it, but looks like it's about 3 days old. Of course, 3-club rule, the one Nixon himself told us about. And the Nixon rule too (weather report says info will be hazy with a chance of scattered bullshit).

Not to work for Rovers.

I guess we can't be surprised. Much like for GB, it must have been frustrating to spend all that time scouting and refining targets only for the goalposts to shift every time, the rug get pulled out from under you, and then your professional reputation be tarnished when the club only goes for target number 86 on your list. I can see why someone would want to leave before they become unemployable.

UK transfers in the last 2 years are: 2022/23: Sammie Szmodics Dominic Hyam Callum Brittain Thomas, Morton, Mola, Hirst (Loans) I don't know which of those (apart from definitely Thomas) would have been after he arrived though. 2023/24: Nial Ennis Connor O'Riordan John Fleck Kyle McFadzean Ayari, Hill, Moran, Koumetio, Chrisene (loans) A mixed bag (that possibly includes two Players of the Season) but definitely not a case of 'didn't find anyone, not even a free transfer'.

I've already covered the 'wouldn't have played much' point when I quoted you further up, and you didn't dispute it. I mean, you clearly do disagree, but you haven't articulated yet why anything I said is wrong. I won't repeat it here but if you want to quote my other post and explain why you disagree with my assessment I'm happy to discuss it. I'm confident he'd have played more than 18 games over the season here. He wasted half a season by not playing rather than gained something by merely training with Premier League players (not sure how much of that he actually did, he was in the U21s so probably only trained with the first team on the handful of occasions he sat their bench). What you call a bonus, I call a waste. 180 minutes in the League Cup (probably would have had that here, maybe more) and 180 minutes in PL2 in 6 months is 6 wasted months IMO. He didn't need a loan, I only mentioned it theoretically to highlight how differently young players are treated once they're attached to a big name club. Another example is despite how well Wharton was playing he didn't even get a U-21 cap here.

🤣 Are you taking the piss? Trying taking your own advice instead and you might not contradict yourself within a few posts.

Regardless, it's not a great sign if he wants to move to a relegated side (unless he has ties in the area or is getting a bumper pay rise I guess). I don't recall his name either. He would be under Sean Kimberley, the Head of Recruitment, in the pecking order I imagine. Seems excessive from the outside to have had scouts who report to the Chief Scout who reports to the Head of Recruitment who reports to the Director of Football. Of course, we no longer have the latter and with the way things are you wonder if we will even replace the Chief Scout role. Can't imagine this is one of Nixon's made up stories, it's a bit far down the interest scale to be worth making up.

No, that's not what you're doing. Quite clearly, in one post you said you believe the club's position until there is evidence to the contrary, and in the next you said you trust very little that comes out of the club. The Waggott part was an addition, but quite frankly it doesn't matter because the statement comes from Waggott anyway. If you still can't see how you're contradicting yourself, I can't help you any further.

It crossed my mind the other day that Phillips could have theoretically ended up relegating us, which would have been an extra kick in the teeth. Yeh I always find it unfair, not to mention irrational, that the same player can be at a Prem club he hasn't played for and instantly becomes more desirable for loans. I do wonder whether Plymouth would have been interested in loaning him from us (if we were interested in loaning him out...again I think he could have got near enough as much game time with us this season). I'd say they probably would, as they're not exactly all that and he had some experience at this level that their squad lacked, but with his age and a Championship club as the parent, I bet he'd have had to bide his time more. A lot of the Prem loanees that go out in this league are no better than the youth players we're forced to send to League One, or Two, or even the conference.

You only have to look at Spurs' record with youngsters going back quite some way. They hoover them up, shunt them all over the leagues, use precious few of them in the first team because they're not willing to remotely gamble, and the vast majority, including some very promising youngsters indeed, either never make it at the top level or have their careers slowed substantially. I'd say there's an argument they're the worst top flight club for integrating youngsters. Phillips should have taken the Wharton pathway. Besides, I always say a club who has a lot of money but is trying to get you for well below your real market value doesn't really value you, they just see somebody they think they can make a profit on or provides cheap backup.

Contradicting yourself here.

You can be as serious as you like, you'll still be wrong. In his season with us in the Championship, Pedersen scored 1 goal in 28 games, with 0 in 5 in the cup, at the age of about 31. For all his faults, the lowest Gally has ever returned is 5 goals in 27 games. As I said before, Pedersen is hardly going to have improved now he's 42. Most recently, he managed 2 goals in 19 games in the Norweigan second tier. If you're serious about being serious, you really are clueless, but I suspect you're not actually being serious.

Always felt we made a mistake not signing him. Not in the slightest. When he left, it was time, if not a bit past time. I doubt he's improved 11 years later.

The funny thing is, the clogger in question is probably generally oblivious to why they're being booed too.

Booing opposition players often has the opposite effect though. Depends on their personality, something our fans are not qualified to assess.

Well, I undersold this! But who didn't? I seem to remember that either in the summer or at this point, I had the feeling he could nab about 10-15 league goals for the season, and at the time most would have agreed that was a very good return. Well the bugger basically doubled that, and his workrate has been phenomenal to boot. Think his overall performance this season has been my favourite from a Rovers player since we came down from the Prem. What a guy!

I'd still rather get a good fee than a crap one. At least I wouldn't feel the club in question had our pants down. It's bad enough Venkys have our pants down without it turning into a gangbang.