The Pope has gone

[ClaretinBudapest]

No fee mentioned but as expected Pope gone to magpies.Good luck Nick.Hope he did not go cheap but as a fee was not mentioned then he probably has.

[Vintage Claret]

This appears to be the start of the American's asset stripping.

Very disappointed with Alan Pace if the transfer fee was below £20M as is being suggested.

Nick Pope was our best player last year, but he did need to stay in the Premier League.

[ClaretinBudapest]

This appears to be the start of the American's asset stripping.

Very disappointed with Alan Pace if the transfer fee was below £20M as is being suggested.

Nick Pope was our best player last year, but he did need to stay in the Premier League.

He was essentially the crowning jewel of our squad Vintage.Like you say if we let him go for less than £20m then we will never scrape together the £65m needed to pay off the loan owed due to relegation.Sounds like he went for between £10-12m....that was a joke.He is worth a lot more than Wood by comparison.

[Swissclaret]

I agree CIB. Pope, Tarks and Ben all gone. If Collins goes, I do not know what the defence will look like as we go into the new season. The Championship is not easy. We don’t want to be leaking goals, that is for sure.

[kritichris]

Without Pope we would probably been bottom, he saved us a lot of precious points. Once upon a time we had three England goalkeepers on our books, but now..

[The Bedlington Terrier]

We have Hennessey, BPF, Norris and Waller.

What we don't have is a £2.5 million per annum wage bill for Pope and we have extra millions in the bank.

Our business (BFC Holdings Ltd.) is strapped for cash. Sometimes when the going gets tough businesses dispose/liquidate assets to keep going.

No doubt Pace has insisted the final Wood installment is expedited and the Pope fee is paid in full up front.

Sentiment goes through the window when you are skint.

No brainer for me.

Incidentally on this deal we have had Pope for three full seasons, a sell-on fee paid to Charlton and we still have £10.5 million leftover - it sounds like good business to me.

[sinkov]

Pope, Tarkowski, Mee, the heart of the 10th best defence in the Premier League, gone for not much more than £10 million, that's incompetence on an epic scale. Some people will be rubbing their hands, but it won't be our bank manager.

[barrie_burn]

Our wage bill is down and we'll probably do another deal with the Australian Bank so that we get the whole of Pope's transfer money now.

However,where is the cash coming from to reduce our loan to whatever was agreed.Weghorst on loan does not help so we have to
sell Cornet.£18.5m? You think anybody is going to pay that for him these days?

I just hope that Collins is not sold,this boy will be needed and he is good,very good.

[army88]

Pope, Tarkowski, Mee, the heart of the 10th best defence in the Premier League, gone for not much more than £10 million, that's incompetence on an epic scale. Some people will be rubbing their hands, but it won't be our bank manager.

I’m with it Sinkov but reality is Tarkowski was needed and with great dignity he stayed to
Try and help we could have cashed in but gambled not to ( Dyche also refused him leaving ) , Mee is at the end of his career he’s been gradually deteriorating in his performances and I think he’ll struggle a bit going forward - injuries and the like and his age is 32 so I’m not sure how much we could have commanded if we sold him. ( he’d have been good for us in the championship).

Pope if it’s true is a tragic piece of business but I guess unless West Ham - Forest - Fulham or others show genuine interest and offer a bid for him we’re forced into doing business at 10/12 million.

For me personally I believe that there will be more and more players not signing contracts and running them down - in fact most contracts won’t be worth paper there written on , player power is definitely going to be the future and the agent and player bag more money in the process.

[WillPark]

For me personally I believe that there will be more and more players not signing contracts and running them down - in fact most contracts won’t be worth paper there written on , player power is definitely going to be the future and the agent and player bag more money in the process.

I fully agree... and refusing players to leave when they ask to is not helping. We need to keep our best players on long contracts n the future.