Given where we were at the beginning of the week, I’m relatively pleased we’ve finally got several new players onboard. Not getting carried away, but good to see more experience arrive and Weimann is a decent option up front. Certainly need to see more arrive before feeling remotely optimistic about the season but it’s a starting point at least.

Who’s getting giddy..?

After watching the golf video (all 20 mins of it..) the biggest revelation of the window so far is that Gallagher can actually hit a ball with pace and accuracy. Just a shame it’s not with his feet.

I know I’ve been repeatedly branded a happy clapper or looking at things with a more positive perspective than others, so I’m going to try and take a more balanced view on the situation: This is a burning car crash of a window. What the hell are they playing at. The radio silence from the club is inexcusable. We already deserve to be relegated and haven’t kicked a ball yet. Just end it all now.

If you’re measuring ‘better’ simply by how far we progressed, you have to take into consideration the squads at their disposal and standard of opposition. Sven’s teams faced (prime) Brazil and Portugal twice in earlier stages of tournaments. Southgate’s lost to Croatia, Belgium (x2), Italy, France and now Spain. Whilst Southgate has undoubtedly improved us since the Iceland debacle, we’re still unable to beat decent teams, regardless of when we encounter them.

Southgate had a better side this tournament compared to other major European nations, than most of his predecessors and we looked no better than normal. We got to the final due to a fortuitous draw and as soon as we came into contact with a good team, we were comfortably beaten. Southgate failed to fully utilise the squad and mostly stuck with players who looked fatigued and not at their best. He was relying on our best players to produce moments of magic which was only ever going to take us so far. Gareth has made us harder to beat and took us deeper into tournaments than we’ve been used to, but given the talent available to him and our repeated inability to beat better teams, there is plenty of room for improvement. Time for change.

To be fair I can imagine that being exactly how it’s played out behind the scenes at Rovers.

Glad for him that he got the move as he’d have been a years away from a call up if he’d stuck with us. The price issue is getting tedious. For a Champ player with no PL experience, a fee of around £22m isn't bad money. Bellingham went for £26m in comparison so should Birmingham be livid they didn’t get £100m? Maybe we could have held out for £25m but we’d get nothing like what he’s worth now whilst we were in the Champ. The timing of the move and what happens to the cash are separate questions, and it’s painful to see Palace get recognition for his ascent when he’s hardly played for them. Our biggest issue in recent years is that our best players have left for nothing. £22m is our record sale. Doesn’t mean we should be glad he’s gone but he can’t be characterised as being sold for ‘nothing’.

We’re a Championship club with attendances more commonly seen in League 1. What part of that do you disagree with? It’s no comment on the quality of support or underlying reasons for why our attendances are low. It’s impressive that we get c10k fans each week considering pricing and catchment area, but it doesn’t change the overall situation. I assume other clubs don’t allow such big away allocations because they wouldn’t normally have an entire stand empty of home fans to reallocate. They’d probably also expect to sell out whenever the big games come around which we never do even with cheaper tickets. Oxford is the only outlier and that’s once in 12 years.

10k? We have closer to 15-20k empty seats each week and even with reduced prices, we’ve not sold over 25k home tickets for any game in the last 5 years. We have more empty seats than any other club and given our financial situation, it’s understandable why we offer big allocations, despite the downsides.

If we had enough fans to fill the Darwen End then there’d be no conversation about giving teams the full stand. We’re desperate for the cash and are usually only able to partly fill the home ends. I’m well aware of the underlying causes which include ticket prices and catchment areas but that doesn’t change the reality going into Sunday. If we want to be more financially self sufficient then we have to maximise every opportunity to generate income.

When is Lineker ever talking about Rovers? Thought he was fine and pleasantly surprised by Murphy who actually spoke about the club in positive terms.

The keepers were off their line for almost all the pens including when Pears saved theirs.

Proud of that. A cruel way to go but couldn’t have done much more. Buckley in particular stood out, he’ll be a massive player for us second half of the season. Pears was faultless. Deep down, I had no expectations so don’t feel overly disappointed given how well we played. Still hurts but doesn’t come close to Sheff Utd last season.

Raya hasn’t actually been sold yet has he? Butchered the squad is a bit strong. Wharton obviously was first choice but Travis and Ennis barely featured. Hill wasn’t our decision. Wharton was the only (although a major) asset we sold unless you consider Ennis to be a significant loss (?).

Mixed feelings over the window. Considering where we were yesterday morning, to pull three signings out of the bag isn’t bad going and at least we got McGuire over the line. The Travis move makes less sense than all the others. Exactly the type of player we need but clearly off the pitch factors played a part. Wharton hurts. The money is good but the timing clearly speaks to the dire financial situation we’re in. If Wharton going secures the club’s medium term financial future than so be it - but it’s going to need to be a big summer to fill all the gaps in the squad and justify the sale of our biggest asset. Also, Elliott Jackson is completely out of the loop with what’s going on at the club. Declared everything was done after McGuire and was feeding off other journalists all day.

Exactly, our main issue in recent years isn’t that we sold our best assets it’s that we let them go for nothing. Wharton is going to be our record sale (?) so if anything it’s a good example of how the model should work - assuming we can reinvest a reasonable chunk into the squad, which I doubt.

It hurts but £20m is too big to turn down. Secures the club, fulfils the remit of the academy and hopefully gives us something to play with in the window/summer. Like someone else says, I actually think he’ll be more suited to the PL than the Champ. Not convinced by the American. Would rather keep Gallagher and given the AW money, get someone proven at this level rather than £2m on a punt.

If anything the JW looks slightly fuller than usual. Offsets the gaps in the BBE and Riverside to bring it close to our average home gate which is roughly 10k these days.

Relatively impressed given the opposition and time of day. Probably on a par with what we’d get for a regular league game on a weekday night.

But wasn’t he correct with the last one?

So why has he been given a new contract and why have we rejected a decent bid for him this window? Completely get that the club will be looking to make good money on him at some stage but their actions don’t suggest they are actively trying to sell AW.

There is no financial advantage to staying in the Championship. I’m not defending any of the incompetence behind the scenes but I don’t believe anyone in the club doesn’t want to get promoted. Whether they’re going about it in the right way is completely different, but we’re haemorrhaging money in this division so it’s to no one’s advantage to stay here. Sometimes the reality is far less interesting than all the conspiracy stories. We can’t dismiss what is going on in the Indian courts and clearly without Venky’s investment we’re struggling to get ends to meet. Doesn’t make them good owners, doesn’t excuse anything that’s gone before or suggest we’d be better off with them than without, but objectively it’s still clear that we rely on them to keep the lights on. Wharton is a big test for the club and the first opportunity in years to properly invest in the squad but keeping the club operational has to be the priority given reduced cash flow. It’s a very fine balancing act but the fact they’ve rejected one decent offer suggests there is a desire not to weaken the squad simply for short term financial gain. I know trying to have a more balanced perspective and not ending every sentence with ‘Venky’s Out!!!!!’ will get me labelled an apologist, but worth a try.

I assume the situation is more that the Wharton money would keep the club afloat for the foreseeable future rather than being ‘hidden’. If Venky’s were desperate to simply cash in and take the money, I don’t see why they’d reject the relatively decent offer from Palace. Aside from whether any of the money would go on transfers, I don’t get the argument that we’re actively looking to sell AW because if that was the case he’d be already gone. Doesn’t mean to say we still won’t let him go if Palace or others start throwing stupid money around, but if they’ve turned down £18.5m then I’d be surprised if they crack at £20m.

So you believe the club got confused purely because you saw them both play last season and thought one was better than the other..? There are enough reasons to criticise the club, there’s no need to invent them.