Wouldn't be surprised if some of the delay has been down to them wanting to guarantee someone leaving first before they'd commit and Eustace has kicked off and said get these guys in right now otherwise i'm off ! Probably means they'll accept less off Stoke now just to get that money in.

There were some other names higher up the food chain being tossed about though and it's not the first time under Waggot. Remember the famous A,B,C lists every window where we were supposed to be in for several A's but always ended up with several C's. All window dressing.

That'll be the most likely one i'd have thought.

kinell this is going to be fun... Can't speak English Marries a brass Has the ear of a voodoo ray And doesn't yet have clearance ..... Chances of this lad disappearing before he even kick a ball ?

Big Mak is a great name but how do they get a chant out of that.....

Punch ups or pulls ?

But they'll probably be putting posters up of him around the academy saying hey look kids do a few years graft here at our expense then you can eff off to Newcastle or Spuds for next to nowt.

He's looked at Phillips as his role model and not Wharton.

For a girl or a surf board instructor in 1980's Australia ! Not so good for what should be a 6'3" battering ram.

He'll be a decent squad man and probably not on as much as he is here and when he scores they tend to be good ones. If your lot start him on the right as a wide attacker/winger then prepare to be underwhelmed. Although he'll gallop about a lot.

It's not about football it's about money and status to these kids if it was about football they'd be making the most of the great opportunity of first team football here. Because it's a better chance than anywhere else and big moves, money, fame can follow.

Remember the signings we were making when under embargo......

The trading stuff that has taken shape with Prem and even Champ youth team players over the last few years is just football and agents latest feeding frenzy. Asking stupid money/wages/loan fees for kids who Prem clubs have nicked for low fees and have little to no intention of using them themselves. Taking advantage of the fact the demand began to grow for cheap alternatives to fill squads because of the stupid transfer fees and wages of first teamers. It's a racket and will spread down to lower leagues as Champ clubs start looking there when priced out of loaning in Prem kids. Football so badly needs regulating and caps putting on this particular scenario and a fairer system in place not just who'll pay the biggest loan fee or wage contribution. A good case in point what we are up against was the loan of Ian Poveda from Leeds where our lot agreed to pay about 12 grand a week for an inexperienced kid. He then got injured and the Ewood brains trust hadn't negotiated who'd pay his wages or treat him in such a scenario. Unbelievable really and another sackable offence for whoever agreed to it in my book. So off he went back to Leeds to heal up whilst we paid a seasons wages for jack shit in return, so with associated expenses that's best part of three quarters of a million quid we'll never see again added to the losses. Wrong on many levels.

Has to be done by Weds i think according to the red top wndbag.

I think we can say he falls into the defensive forward category and the points we've won with him in the side versus the points lost isn't all coincidental. Other than judging him by only goals and assists if you cannot see any other contribution hes made at times i think you need to be rewatching.

Have you actually watched much of Rovers since hes been here or are you just being selective ? By no means a great player and investing 5 mill and 15 grand a week there should have been more return but he's made his contribution over the time hes been here. Don't forget that professor Mowbray played him many times as a winger when he should have been trying to turn him into a centre forward but we had other better suited players up top. As a squad man - wages aside - he's more than good enough for any championship team that isn't blessed with huge budgets. Replacing him with Vale or some skinny kid from somewhere won't cut it i'm afraid and if he's so bad then a moderate player with a bit of flair should be a massive upgrade. We'll see.

Adding Sam Gallagher to a solid mid table Championship squad for a million quid or so and fitting into a wage structure won't turn it into promotion contenders but it will make it a bit stronger than before. Outsiders looking in will say it''s a steady bit of business by Stoke and similar if they add Travis as well. How much we would actually miss either or both is 100 percent down to the level of replacements and if they aren't replaced we will miss them. Think we all or most of us know though that we are slowly preparing for life in league one because these shithouse owners can't fund a championship club any longer than it takes for it to liquidise it's better playing assets. And of course they care so much they won't look to sell it or seek outside investment.

I've always quite liked Travis he is what he is and i think we missed his presence last season and our squad is stronger with him in it. I'd be curious to see if he and Trons could form a midfield engine room all good pairings have to cover each other and if one can read the others game it helps. Travis strikes me as a Eustace type player and he won't expect him to play like a B sideTugay as JDT did. Having said all that i think its clear some inside the club want rid of his wages and he probably fancies a decent contract somewhere else because he won't get another here.

The amount of cock ups and stupid decisions they've made have piled on the debt year on year by paying multiple players, managers. execs off. Doing it not often by one off pay offs but probably mainly by leaving their monthly wages on the books for years until they are squared off. Hence year on year massive losses on top of regular losses anyway that they have had to cover with their '20 mill a year' heroics. So they created a situation and continue to do so where despite constant cutbacks and downgrading the wage bill rarely goes down. These fruitloops who think they are wonderful for keeping the club alive need to get to grips with why it's always on life support when other similar sized and income clubs don't lose as much every single season. Alongside being run correctly and selling a player now and then to balance FFP and re-invest a bit. The reason we can't and have rarely done that is simple, it's called Venkys ownership and the clowns they pay to run it so i'm not sure how much credit their keeping the lights on is actually deserving of.

With Gally heading for the door and Sammie almost out of it attention will switch to Travis who is probably the next biggest contract left.

Steve will be operating his famous 'flex' on that one then, no fee so here you 20 grand a week son.

So Stoke sniffing around Travis again according to Nixon. He really is trying to sell as many Rovers players as he can this summer for Suhail isn't he.

Leave people to discuss whatever they feel it's a forum for all opinions.

But the pedigree they had was way above what we are desperately bringing in now.

To be honest they were doing that last summer with Broughton and that didn't turn out well at all as all he cheap so called squad players to develop have been shunted out after only 12 months.