That statement is absolute amateur hour; seriously, who wrote and approved that? Almost anyone could knock something up in a couple of minutes that would read more professionally then that. In terms of an appeal, I can only imagine that they would go down the ‘player/career welfare’ point of view. But even if so, you’d imagine that going back on their decision would set a precident. Absolutely. Embarrassing.

If this is true (and we don’t know at this stage), it is entirely unacceptable. I was considering a HST (can’t make every game due to work commitments), particularly on the back of O’Brien signing, but now there’s no chance. We’re talking about a signing that legitimately could have pushed us into the promotion mix; which has a knock on effect of how bright the future of this club is. But no, due to what seems to be sheer incompetence, computer says no. Sack the Secretary if he’s to blame. Give me the job; I have a basic level of competency in my job and I actually give a shit about the club. Not meaning to sound dramatic, but this could be a tipping point…

Re: blame. The clubs total silence suggests that the blame lays entirety in our court. However, I do remain confident that the deal will be completed.

If that is the case, I can’t see how the deal can’t go through.

As are we; those stats show we were getting 6k-9k on average for home games. We now get 12k-15k. Anyway, roll on O'Brien being announced tomorrow.

My point is that we have a core support; it's about 10k-15k fans. We got less in the 70's and 80's for the reasons you state. They peaked in the 90's, with the benefit of Prem football, but it would seem that we're back to our 'normal' core support. And, again, a further c5k-15k per home game would reappear if we did make the Prem again. I don't know why we would expect to get much more than 15k in this division, based on the numbers?

I'm not sure on this. Look at our average attendances over the 70's and 80's (even early 90's) and they're lower than what we get now? If these numbers are indicative of our core support base and you take the 'glory hunting' element from the Prem years out of the equation, you could argue that we're currently seeing what is our average attendance. You would expect an additional 5k-10k per home game if we ever did make it back to the promised land.

Are gates not similar (or better) to the many years we spent in the 2nd/3rd division, before the 90's? We had the obvious boost to attendances in the 90's with success and Premier League football, but a return to the Championship seems to have seen the fair-weather fans disappear and leave us with the core support that we've always had?

Whilst not entirely disagreeing, a key part of why we're fishing around late in the window is due to players/clubs holding out for better offers/options. O'Brien being a perfect example; we'd enquired early on in the window, but not given much reason to pursue. We then get wind of him having an interest at the last second, once better options had fallen away, and try to get something over the line in the final hours. Still should have been achievable though, and I whilst I still fully expect it to go through, we could have quite easily avoided this mess in the first place...

Nah, don't buy that for a second. Medical done, club media interview done, photos all taken. If the deal wasn't legitimate, they wouldn't have gone through these steps. Incompetent, possibly (unless this is indeed an EFL issue). Deliberate, take the tinfoil hat off.

So, we're sitting 6th in February (well, as of tomorrow), we're into the 5th round of the FA Cup and we're about to announce at least 1, if not a couple, top quality signings for the division we're in. Maybe things aren't as bad as some would have you believe...

1-0 and well deserved, according to the commentators. Sounds a very professional performance.

Yes, Sorba has signed - one of the best wide attackers in the last couple of seasons. O'Brien has passed his medical and is about to be confirmed, undoubtedly a huge signing for us. And, as per my comment, IF he can pull Undav out of the bag at the last minute, that is a very impressive window and bit of business by the club. Criticise when it's warranted; praise when it's due.

If he pulls this off, Broughton deserves some apologies for a lot of comments in this thread...

If we could land Undav, as well as O'Brien and with the lad from Hudds already in, strongly fancy us to challenge to go up this season.

And don't forget, free transfers can join after the window closes. So we can still add to the squad even after tonight.

A goal is coming (at either end, but we sound most likely).

"Excellent holdup play" from Vale there; sounds like he's doing ok tonight, so far.

BBC commentators have been quite complementary - we've been sharp and crisp with our passing and unlucky not to be leading. Quite promising so far.

Brereton isn't leaving until the summer and Hirst only counts as 0.25 of a striker, so as long as we bring in a living, breathing man who can play in a forward position, it'll be an upgrade.

I mean, it became more accurate post-edit?

Thought Morton wasn't allowed to be dropped (despite being on the bench plenty of times this season)...? 👀

He wouldn’t be at Brockhall having a medical right now if he didn’t fancy the move…

These two and a forward, as well as Sorba - that would mean a pretty fantastic window and would make a lot of the recent tantrums on here look a bit daft. Always wait until the window closes before you judge. Trick now is to get these over the line in the next few hours…

Of course promotion is the aim, the management team are just playing down expectations; this is how it almost always works. Experience tells me to expect nothing today, in terms of transfers in. But hope tells me there’s a chance of a decent midfielder and a forward, though it sounds like Undav doesn’t fancy the move, so pointless wasting time on him, if that’s the case. I’d love for us to add a couple of quality additions today, mainly to strengthen us. But a little bit just to make those having a meltdown look a bit silly. Plenty of time for meltdowns after the window shuts…