I know. That's why I said we're not in an ideal world. For me I'd be looking to keep Adam Wharton and Szmodics and everyone else would be fair game.

You have heard of "wheeling and dealing" I.e. selling some players in order to bring other ones in? In an ideal world you'd offload your fringe players to raise funds not your best ones but that world is certainly not the one we currently inhabit. I'm not saying it's Broughton's fault we have a negative transfer budget, it's obviously that of the owners, but unfortunately it's where we are at and we are going to have to rely on the skill and wherewithall of him and the recruitment team. Based on his record to date, I ain't holding my breath.

He (Friedman) was supposed to be on the radar of Man Ure after the Ratcliffe takeover/investment. Apparently very well regarded within the game.

Well, "unfortunately" it would then be down to him unless you don't believe anything about the alleged intervention of the Indian authorities and subsequent restrictions. All the more reason we should have appointed a proper DOF in the first place. That is something else you can blame the owners for.

That was most definitely my understanding in the past as well. Suppose we'll have to see if recent developments have tested their resolve. Even as a toy to be passed down through the generations it can't be that much fun owning a Club with little or no money that isn't allowed to spend on transfers.

No but we might be able to pay the bills initially and then Greg the Egg can start to work his magic wheeling and dealing to provide us with a transfer budget of sorts to work with. Oh.......on second thoughts..........

If there has been genuine interest then it would really be up to the interested parties to make their interest known and ramp up pressure on the V's. I'd heard previously also they'd never sell they seemed to see the Club as something that would be passed down through the generations. If they were ever going to be minded to sell though you'd assume it would be now given the hassle they're getting off the authorities.

It would appear Palace have been tracking Wharton for some time so doubt this is new interest. However £15m would be virtually giving him away but then again we managed to lose Phillips for peanuts so who knows what this lot will do? We also don't know what sort of release clauses there are, if any, in his contract. Has the white smoke emerged from the Indian Courthouse building yet? Can't imagine the case is a massive priority for the Authorities over there, can you imagine the bind we'd be in if the case got postponed until after the transfer window?

People go on about Wahlstedt as if he's a young 18 year old who needs to go out and get experience. He's not, he's 24 and is as good ( or in this case bad) as he's ever going to be. If he can't even catch a ball or do any of the other basics right by now that suddenly isn't going to change. There's nothing to work with, he has no natural ability.

"Hardest working players?" Do give over. Gallagher is all for show. He'll make a run after a lost cause now and then to create the illusion he's doing something but that's about it. Does he impose himself physically on the opposition? - that'll be a no. Does he get into danger areas? - that'll be a no. Obviously in answer to some comments yesterday he can't cross the ball and get on the end of it as well but he shows no appetite to get on the end of anything when the ball's coming in from the other side of the pitch either. Does he win anything in the air? - That'll be a no - wins the occasional header in the middle of the park and directs it out of play or to no- one in particular but in the opposition box jumps about 5 foot 8. Can he hold the ball up? - That'll be a no - couldn't trap a bag of cement and second touch is a tackle. Did we win upon his much heralded return to the side? - That'll be a no. Did he score upon his much heralded return to the side - That'll be a no as well. (Unsurprising given his career stats) I wouldn't worry though as you're obviously a fan I'm sure the Club will get it completely wrong and pass up the chance to get a fee for him this window. Maybe even extend his contract and keep us all suffering until the last possible moment. Possibly not the worst striker ever to wear the blue and white halves bearing in mind infamous incumbents like Paul Mckinnon and Chris Brown and the fact that Broughton seems to have unearthed another two of them at the same time but probably one of the worst and certainly pound for pound one of our most over-rated ever players to rank alongside other luminaries such as Jason Lowe and Corry Evans. Roll on the contract extension.

Would anyone be that desperate?

That's a great point. The structure of the Raya deal is £3m loan fee and balance of £27m if it becomes permanent so we wouldn't lose out that much but I bet no-one at this end considered that possibility when we sold him in the first place.

Everything Waggott has done since he's been at the Club seems designed to try and discourage supporters from attending. I refuse to believe anyone could possibly be that stupid. I suspect he has an ulterior motive or agenda we're not yet privy to.

FWIW can this be brought up at the Fans Forum please? The Club can hardly complain about being short of money when they're pulling stunts like that.

Sympathy for Gallagher? You have to be joking. He's an overpaid waster who can't even be bothered to attack the ball and get himself in positions from which he'd be more likely to score. Even Mowbray told him in Public he needed to "get between the posts" more often years ago. To no avail. Hopefully his sale is simply being delayed until after the Court hearing after which it will be the sweetest £1.5 - £2m we'll ever receive if it goes through imo. You don't often get a second Christmas at the end of January.

Must be an echo in here!

It's not new it's from April 23 seemingly.

Christ I thought he was a female the way you just refer to him as Kimberley! Lol. So he was a scout for Celtic before coming here. Perhaps telling he has essentially only an Academy background like Broughton. Another one that needs the bullet (metaphorically speaking before J*B calls the Police) come the revolution.

Blimey. I think you've got completely the wrong end of the stick there J*B.

Who exactly is this Kimberley of which you speak and where has she popped up from?

Surely he can do better than Ennis/Hirst/ Telalovic and Wahlstedt though regardless of budget? And I'm sorry, imo there's NO excuse whatsoever for signing Ennis who isn't even fit enough for professional football. That would tend to indicate we don't do any due diligence or research into our signings

It implies blame if the manager leaves us in the same or a worse position than the one in which he found us or praise if he left us in a better one. I'm in the Camp that he left the Club in a very poor underlying state of health and I expected the wheels to completely fall off last season albeit I was 12 months out. You seemingly have the opposite view.

The obvious move isn't it.....must be more expensive/not as beneficial to certain agents maybe?

It would seem they don't care enough to play close enough attention to what he's up to as long as he meets some basic targets or he's acting strictly under instruction. But if the latter, why would they want the Club running into the ground?

You keep mentioning this as if I'd said Mowbray blew a £100m transfer budget. He obviously didn't but was very well backed overall in terms of transfer and wage budget and we lost c£20m p.a. for each of the 5 years he was in charge, so yes he went through £100m worth of owner funding with absolutely nothing to show for it at the end of the day. I don't even believe we stood still under him as he and Waggott failed to tie down key players and so he left us with half a team after the departures of Lenihan Rothwell Nyambe JPVH Khedra and the team finished the second half of his last season in relegation form even before that. If managers at other Clubs had performed similarly with similar funding I'd say they performed pretty disastrously as well.