Why, what's he done wrong, has kept his head down, has performed fairly well, hasn't sulked, and hasn't publicly demanded a move. What more do you want from him - other than obviously sign a contract which it is his prerogative not to.

Agree Den, even for this dysfunctional set up it would be a bit of a stretch for JDT not to have the final say on a particular transfer.

Partly my point, he isn't going to know who Szmodics was from Adam.

The reason he probably doesn't want to leave now is that if he waits until summer his new Club will be able to pay him a lot more by way of wage and/or signing on fee because they don't have to pay a fee for him.

I've wondered for a while about the Szmodics signing. Hard to believe that he would have been top of JDT's wish list when he arrived here having previously managed in foreign climes.

I thought what I was writing was fairly straightforward. To elabourate: We can't get players in seemingly. That can surely only be down to the fact that either a) The players don't fancy Waggott/ Broughton OR b) The wages on offer aren't competitive or a combination of both. That situation isnt isn't going to be altered by selling BBD - we'll just be one further player down.

We don't expect him to go into intimate detail regarding each individual target but surely an occasional update on his thoughts as to how things are going in general might reasonably be considered part of the job description? He's going to look a complete tit and and absolute fraud if he comes up completely empty handed after weeks of maintaining radio silence. How did we manage to end up with Waggott and Broughton in the same building? Could anyone be that unlucky twice?

Yes, but by all accounts the owners have done their bit and there is a £10m transfer budget, or at least the balance of it, waiting to be spent irrespective of any BBD sale. We can't get anyone in as it is, how do we become any more attractive to potential targets on the same wages and MINUS BBD?

You certainly do worry if he will wonder whether all this is worth being away from his family for in the long run whilst those around him blunder around from one missed target to the next.

It will depend I suppose on how much extra he can personally trouser by waiting until the summer. If I were any of those Clubs though and GB was ringing me up trying to desperately offload BBD like a pimp offering out his girl for half price quickies on Bank Top then I'd be thinking "Hold on he's desperate here" and wouldn't be offering anything like what we want - as is the case currently seemingly. Genuine question - at what price does it become NOT worth selling him? Given his value to the team and the lack of other options and our inability to get anyone else of any description in, that price is (ignoring add ons) £15m this window and £10m next imo. I'm not sure your strategy would be applauded by the owners either who we keep being told are fairly steadfast on their valuation on him. I think there is a lot of merit in them refusing to be pushed around in the transfer market, at the end of the day it allowed us to get a reasonable fee for AA in the circumstances. The fault at the end of the day lies not with them but with Waggott and Mowbray who failed to get all the Club's key assets tied down. The owners hire people and pay them handsomely to sort stuff like this out for them.

That sort of thing does indeed need to be implemented, either that or or be rather more flexible with the wage structure.

What bit don't you understand? We CAN'T sell him if he doesn't want to leave!!!! The situation you describe above is what SHOULD have happened 12-18 months ago but that ship has well and truly sailed.

We hadn't lost three permanent first teamers of the calibre of DL, RN and JR at this point last year though. (Edit: Plus JPVH and to a lesser extent Khedra)

What if teams are offering less than half that?

Not sure if that is strictly speaking the case in terms of arrivals through the door, but it is the transfer window where more needed to be done than ever before due to the negligence of Waggott and Mowbray and you have to say that so far the Club have singularly failed to address it. Edit: It's not like it's a surprise either. We've known for 18 months or more that the 3 amigos might not sign new deals and might need to be replaced and it must have been obvious since the early part of last season we'd need to up the ante considerably for BBD.

Possibly, but he will have to decide whether the potential financial upside against that is a risk worth taking as regards his own career. The point is, if he does decide to go down that route there's nothing we can do about it. The most we can do is freeze him out (which would be cutting off our nose to spite our face when the alternative is Sam Gallagher) and again that's a possibility BBD would have to take into consideration.

Sorry, this is going to turn into another long running saga which is going to have everyone turning off in droves. I wouldn't be HAPPY if he walked out for nothing but I'd be far unhappier if we sold him and went down. More to the point what you or I or Waggott or Pasha think is completely irrelevant for the purposes of discussing this particular point. If BBD decides he'd rather stay until summer to maximise his future earning potential then he's perfectly entitled to do so and there's nothing the Club can do about it.

His choice is, probably, see out his contract then he can command a higher wage/signing on fee when he moves in the summer. It's our fault for letting it reach this stage: ditto Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell

If he doesn't want to go before the summer - that's the end of it. We can't make him. If we don't get anyone else decent in first then for me he must NOT be sold anyway. And if he is we need 2 strikers - (edited) which seeing as we currently can't seem to get anyone whatsoever in in any position seems an extremely big ask.

Pickering and Edun are imo two poor signings made by the previous administration and in an ideal world both would be replaced by one decent player. Then again in an ideal world Gallagher would also be replaced by a half decent option and he won't be either. It's going to be hard to move forward with such a glaring lack of quality in certain positions.

That has to be absolute nonsense surely. What's the point from the Club's point of view of allowing him to sign a deal that lets him move out on loan at more or less any given point?

I dont know exactly what's gone on with JPVH but we wanted him permanently and put a bid in for him. As he is seemingly only going to Sunderland on loan it may be that Brighton have changed their original stance about wanting to sell him. Either way it's another hard luck story and another long standing target we have seemingly failed to convert.

Was just thinking that.....nine days left after today..... we're going to need more than one a day before long. We're like a struggling cricket team playing an ODI where the required run rate is already more than one a ball and getting worse with every unsuccessful over.

Quite shameless isn't he! And he gets paid for nicking stuff off here as well. Nice work if you can get it. Think he's wrong about us having no interest in Styles BTW.

It 's been make or break for the last 4 or 5 weeks and nothing has happened, I'm not sure why it's more likely anyone will arrive this week than previously. In fact it seems pretty obvious we're floundering in terms of getting the players we want in so the later in the window it gets, the less likely it will be that we land the players we were originally targeting and more likely we have to look at alternatives.