Crusoe

I reckon we'll see a midfield of Allott, McDonald, Jarrett and Livermore, with Smalley alongside Davies and Alessandra on the bench (unless we sign a striker in the next couple of hours).

He's the one who joined Leeds for £400,000 then got sold immediately to Hull. Has a reasonable reputation, I think. A workmate is a Hull supporter, I'll ask him tomorrow.

Confirmed on Hull City site. "Livermore Joins Oldham Posted on: Thu 31 Jan 2008 David Livermore has joined League One side Oldham Athletic on an initial one-month loan deal. Livermore, who has regularly featured in the City side this season, heads to Boundary Park in search of more regular first team football." Decent signing.

33 years old in April, hasn't scored a goal since February 2007, has scored 5 in total since the start of the 2005/2006 season ... I think we could give him a miss.

I'd like to think that his or his agent's actions will hurt his reputation and he'll suffer professionally as a result of this about-turn.

Football Transfers Are About to Change Forever Some interesting thoughts on the implications of the recent ruling on Andy Webster. He wanted to leave Hearts but was under contract. After a protracted dispute the Court of Arbitration in Sport has decided that he is only liable for the remaining value of his contract. Hearts wanted £4.6m; they'll get £150,000. The implication is this: clubs can buy players for no more than the remaining value of their contract. As the linked article suggests, that would mean that Ronaldo and Fabregas will be "worth" £12m each in 2010. So will clubs stop offering long contracts? Will transfer fees plummet? Will we see a greater revolving door of players in and out as their contracts are snapped up?

Not interested. Big slow lump. Not saying he's useless but he'd be a ridiculously expensive (wage-wise) and short-term (age-wise) attempt to fix a problem, and I don't think he'd work out. Would rather see us investing in youth if the alternative is overpriced, snail-paced veterans.

Congratulations & best of luck to Neal, he's a young lad with a good career in front of him and I genuinely hope he does well. Shame we lost him but better that than another Porter situation - we've not done at all badly out of it so as much as I'm disappointed to lose him it seems like a reasonable decision by the club. Decent money for someone 6 months away from a nominal fee (I doubt we'd have got much as he was a Burnley trainee originally).

Jury's out for me. According to a mate who's seen him play a few times he's a reasonably good defensive midfielder - breaks up attacks - but lacks the pace or creativity to really set up attacks. Sounds like he's good at what he does but similar to what we already have. I wish him well and hope he proves me wrong, but he doesn't sound like someone who's going to score or make goals for us.

Oh, and of course this could all be paper talk. Who knows?

Right. Can't be bothered to read all seven pages of this, but doesn't it boil down to whether Trotman is likely to sign a new deal or not? If he has done, then the fee offered seems too low. If he hasn't, then after Porter last year it makes sense to take what's offered now. We're unlikely to get much compensation if he leaves on a free since he was only training with us for a couple of years. If the debate is why hasn't he signed a new deal - well, none of us can answer that one. Maybe he's determine to leave (or his agent is). Maybe he wants more than our Sheridan/TTA is comfortable offering.

We don't have enough cover at full back to let Lomax go at the moment. Plus, I still think he has the potential to be a very good player.

Wolfenden's contracted until June 2009, I think, but if he hasn't picked up much action before the end of this season I can see him being a casualty. It might be a little unfair that he hasn't had a run in the first team, but on the other hand he'll be 22 this year and has only 3 goals in 29 appearances (4 starts, 25 as sub). Either he's not good enough, or the management isn't convinced enough to give him a run. Either way I wouldn't be surprised to see him released in the summer.

If he and Grayson had a massive bust-up they may be looking to sell now rather than loan him out.

On the topic of Ugarte, he's requested that Wrexham cancel his contract. Looks like he's given up hope of playing again. Shame.

Christ. I'll not be buying any shirt that makes me look like a queasy bee with a highlighter.

Whether we sell or not will also depend on whether the club believes he'll sign a new contract. If they don't believe he'll sign, they'll snap someone's hand off for £500,000 now.

I've heard two competing rumours over why he didn't sign for Southend. One was that he had a godawful game in his last loan appearance and they decided the money wasn't worth gambling with. The other is that it was a done deal and his agent demanded an extra £30,000 in fees for arranging it (there was no suggestion that this was illegal, I should point out, just fairly sharp business practice), which put backs up at Southend. Either way I'm not too concerned if the transfer fee is any more than £100,000; I don't rate him more highly than that.

Yeah, I think loans can be re-arranged, but I'm not sure if either MacDonald or Anderlecht would see a regular place at Oldham as a better prospect (or shop window) than sub appearances at the Championship's leading club. Maybe I'm just overly negative, though.

Following the successful vote I could believe that TTA would splash the cash just once for a high-quality player.

Text from club - Birmingham have accepted an offer from us for Kilkenny, but he has not responded to the contract offer. Mixture of good and bad - if he was interested, you'd think we'd be at least negotiating, and the fact that the club have announced that negotiations haven't started doesn't fill me with hope.

I've no idea what TTA have in mind, but this tone irritates me no end. The club is bigger than TTA and will go on regardless of their next decision, and to act otherwise is an infuriatingly patronising message to fans who supported the club long before they arrived and long after they'll have gone. Don't get me wrong; this is not a good night and I understand their frustration - but phrases like "death knell for professional sport" just sounds like toys-out-of-the-pram doom-mongering.

Wasn't Ryan Sugden supposed to be the next big thing based on his reserve scoring record? A pre-Chris Hall, if you like.

I was getting a little nervous there at 2-1. Thanks Deane and Craig.

Yes, I'd agree with that thinking. It's important to keep players rested, but not before they've had a chance to get knackered! Games like this help establish form under less pressure than league games.