Sorry PB selling a decent striker for 7m plus add ons to a team from a lower division then replacing him with a 38 year old is absolutely desperate no matter how you try to dress it up. Long may it last!

Holy Cow Batman!

Not Rovers related but Peter Crouch having a medical at Burnley ahead of permanent deal. Vokes going to Stoke on a permanent deal. Pretty desperate piece of business for the Dingles. How old is Crouch?

I'm thinking there is and has been money available all along but TM doesn't want to upset "the lads".

Yep, at his best Gestede would be far better but not sure if he's anywhere near his best these days and would probably never be out of the treatment room. Wouldn't be overly enamoured with either. We could do with a real Steve Archibald moment to get everyone excited.

If there's one thing more boring than reading posts from people discussing BB in the wrong thread it's reading posts from people complaining that people are talking about BB in the wrong thread! Feel the chat about BB is relevant myself as it obviously impacts on our ability to operate or otherwise this window. Today will be as much about who we don't sign as who we do sign for me. If we can't sign a decent striker like BA or CA I think it will still be a small victory if we dont end up committing another 7m in transfer fees and a minimum of 6m over 5 years on Gallagher who imo will never be more than a perennial sub 10 goal a year journeyman doing the rounds between different Clubs. If we're going to spend a lot of money to bring someone in, let's make it someone really good who will make a real difference. Not just someone we happen to know already and like.

My striker preferences would be 1) BA permanent. Failing that a loan. 2) CA Loan 3) SG as a stop gap Loan (He ain't good enough to push us on in the long run imo) 4) SG permanent 5) Nobody. Suspect it will be either 4 or 5 by the end of tomorrow leaving me feeling completely underwhelmed given the other names we were linked with.

Sod it. Let's have both.

I meant really that landing BA permanently would be more of a massive statement of intent. CA on a short term deal until the end of the season less so. We don't go up, he goes back and we're back to square one. Nevertheless I'm quite excited by this and I agree it seems far more feasible, won't break the bank etc. It does say other Clubs are in for him on other sites though.

Thanks for the link. I'd be quite up for that. Not as good as landing BA but better than Gallagher.

I have no idea whatsoever the point you are trying to make. The only figure I've seen quoted in relation to the deal is £7m therefore it is reasonable to assume we will end up having to pay a fairly large sum eventually regardless of whether none, some or all of any performance related clauses are triggered.

No - one on here knows whether his fee is rising to a total of £7m including performance based add ons, or £7m plus add ons. So let's not pretend we do. The fee isn't even the issue for me. The issue is it's a largish fee, whatever the exact figure may be, yet he hasn't been given a proper chance.

All this talk about BB's fee being more reasonable because it is spread out in installments is a complete red herring. Everyone's fees are structured like that, it's not as if we would have to pay up front for anyone else yet somehow managed to get BB on the never never. It has to be paid eventually. Don't think he's as bad as people make out though. He's never been given a chance.

Roy, Roy, is that you, I thought you went to Forest! ?

Because I go to the games. Why would I have any interest in ifollow? How did you not know 4000 holes came from the famous Beatles song? ? We'll have to agree to disagree on Gallagher. If he was that good, Birmingham would have signed him permanently or at least extended his loan.

It's fairly worrying he needs another new contract at all. As our best player he should have at the very least been put on parity with our other top earners when he got his new deal last summer.

Can't imagine we were on live TV very often the season we were relegated, so basically you've hardly ever seen him play, apart from on goal highlights shows, but are criticising me for pulling his stats off Wikipedia! ?

How many times did you see him play in the flesh when he was here?

You may be right, but if we adopt that point of view permanently, we'll never improve. "Alan Shearer? Nah, it'll upset the others!"

Did you miss the 18 career goals bit? Gallagher's a Jack of all trades, master of none. Unless he's improved significantly since his time here and by the looks of his Birmingham spell he hasn't.

Bell's been doing really well recently. That'd be spending money that doesn't really need to be spent and diverting money away from far more pressing needs ie a top striker and centre back (or tying down Rodwell) for me.

Really? I'd see it as the opposite of a statement of intent and a sign we weren't going anywhere for the forseeable future. Unless he was coming in as the long term Graham replacement alongside a number one star striker. 18 career goals in 109 appearances. Meh.

No. It's not happening is it? Still was nice to dream what our team might have looked like for 24 hrs!

Isn't it far more risky NOT to try anything? Clubs are allowed to lose £39m over a 3 year period under FFP and we currently lose about £15m p.a. anyway so if we just tick over and do nothing we'll fall foul of the rules in 2 years anyway! I don't see a stellar signing of BA or someone similar as a particular risk as long as we could sell them again for no less than what we paid for them if required. What we can't afford to do is lash out big money on another Brereton who doesn't even feature. As far as wages are concerned I'd say there's no way our top earners are only on 15k p.w., I'd say £25k at least so if BA came in on say £40 k p.w and we lost a couple of fringe players off the wage bill it would be like another "normal" signing with someone else needing to make way if the wage budget won't stand it and it's a case of one in one out. The problems are: potentially upsetting the wage structure and the fact that people I think should have been offloaded to make way for better players have all been handed new contracts. Nevertheless if we are creative enough and make the right choice of player then potentially it's the difference between sleepwalking into FFP or giving ourself a genuine shot at promotion.

Sharpe doesn't know very much does he? Hate it when reporters put the word "understood" before everything they write. Means they can write any old rubbish and even if it it turns out to be absolute nonsense they can still claim it's what they've been told.