Not the case, he was a regular starter for Chorley. I would however agree that he is not yet good enough, & that 12 months ago he was playing in the 6th tier

Apologies, you're correct RE Ribeiro. He's our best left back. I don't think Montgomery is good enough (yet) based on what I've seen. It's important to remember 12 months ago he couldn't get in the Chorley team. Kargbo I really don't see. He's quick, but so incredibly wasteful he makes Dolan look like Pirlo.

Charlie Methven was (rightly) mocked for being a bit of a knob and having plenty of David Brent moments in that Sunderland 'Til I Die doc, but I also remember thinking while watching it 'yeah, but his staff do seem pretty useless...'

He has asked to leave with reports that he didnt want to run his contract down and that he asked to play v West Brom. Im still not seeing any substance as to what he has done so wrong.

I think you are being extremely harsh on Montgomery and Kargbo specially. I think lots of supporters are envy of Kargbo. His pace and power is extremely valuable. Also I think you forgot Ribeiro, who you have to put in Good Enough. Besides that I will agree, and The unknowns will be very exciting to watch progress.

You seem to have ignored everything that we have seen happen at Rovers over the past decade or so. It is obvious that he was given a lowball contract offer, and a told that it wouldn't be increased, so Travis looked elsewhere once a bid came in If this wasn't the case, why have Rovers not been able to agree contracts in the past year alone with Dolan, Brittain, Tronstad, Hyam,or even Hedges

I think Dolan was really well suited to Ismael. He improved when Ismael came in and hes really energetic and a good presser. Some of the players we have signed dont even fit into the remit of pace and power so I dont think its critical that every single player has it or the intention to build a team where everyone has to have it. Morishita is tiny and quite slight, on paper he doesnt fit the mould. No reason he fits and Dolan wouldnt have. McLoughlin is quite a slow centre back, he doesnt fit the mould. And with some of the current players. Ohashi doesnt fit the mould, but still plays above Gueye who is bigger and stronger but ultimately is crap. Hyam is an important player, as is Tronstad, Ribeiro is a regular too. Hedges isnt really an athlete. None are stand out athletes, so I dont think the intention is to build a team where every single player has to be purely an athlete. You need more than that. I still also think that Travis as much as anyone was a real athlete and would have suited Ismael down to the ground. Buckley and JRC were coasting. Certainly neither of those 2 will be a miss.

My officially unofficial "good enough or not good enough" ratings below, based on what I've seen over the last 12 months: Good Enough Toth Alebiosu Hyam Mclouglin Pickering Tronny Cantwell Ohashi Unknown Michalski Miller Carter Wharton Tavares Baradji Henriksson Tyjon Miro Not Good Enough Montgomery De Neve Forshaw Hedges Kargbo Gueye

Speaking to supporters of other teams they disagree wholeheartedly and mean that Travis has done everything wrong in this scenario and should have behaved more professional, especially as team captain. Looking at the timeline; Mid-july: VI says that contract offers have been given, but not accepted and the club has put them self in a difficult place. While there have been no formal bids for Travis, three clubs have enquired - one of which is claimed to be Coventry - meaning Travis could either move in this window for a fee, or see out his last season and move next summer as a free agent. He was also quoted: “Sonny wants to stay at the minute. So he didn’t come to us and say, ‘I want to leave’, or something like that. Trav gets picked as team captain against WBA (9th of august). 12th of August VI says that Travis has asked to leave the club. This has probably (only assumptions) given VI and Rovers a difficult way to handle the situation at the moment. Coming from two losses, heads down and lots of negativity a club captain wanting to leave can't be around the rest of the players because he isn't doing his job as team captain. VI stating that he wants to leave gives Rovers horrible negotiation power, but speeds up the process.

Confidence, it's as simple as that. You can have all the technique in the world and have 0 confidence and the performances will show. There's no doubting there's a player in there somewhere, he just needs a fresh start and new surroundings. He will be up against some of the worlds best in that league and will be an amazing experience nonetheless. If he gets his head down he could end up with a really good career out there.

I'm pretty confident that, barring a very bad injury run, that there will be three worse teams than that squad. Beyond that, I don't think we can say it's competitive one way or another because we're heavily dependent on the new signings being up to it. They could be - and one or two are showing good early signs - but the Championship is such a relentless league. It worries me that so much of the squad could be physically struggling once we get past Christmas, and that's before making judgements about their quality.

Rovers have played just 14 Championship games since Norwich City last visited Ewood on 1st March (for Ismael's first game in charge) the team that day was Pears; Brittain, Carter, Hyam, Ribero; Forshaw (Tronstad), Travis; Dolan (Dennis), Cantwell (Weimann), Kargbo (Hedges); Gueye (Ohashi). Of the 16 players used that day 6 have left (or are due to leave e.g. Pears) 3 of the 4 unused subs have also departed - Rankin-Costello, Woodrow and Sanderson. Only Toth remains Carter and Forshaw unlikely to feature due to injury Leaving just 8 survivors from only fourteen games ago! The grand reset has happened quickly!

He'll be getting advice not to bother. Firstly he's still officially a Rovers player, so zero chance he's going to say anything at all until the ink is dry on the deal. Then he'll just crack on with the soundbites for his new club, we'll get a 'statement' on social media about thanks for the memories but I'd be astonished if there was a spilling of the beans on what has really gone on. It just isn't done in football with departing players. I suppose there isn't really any need because there's nothing really to be gained and it's not his problem any more.

Because he is being professional? Because he is concentrating on getting himself out out an awful situation first?

All fair points. To be clear, I’m not advocating or necessarily in support of the new regime / idea. I’m just intrigued by what’s unfolding. I wouldn’t put my money on Tavares and Baradji being better than Travis and Sonny either, but I do think they’re probably better suited to what this manager wants. For clarity, I think they probably planned to clear the deck in stages with VI. First waive out , Bucko, JRC, Pears etc…extend the others (Trav, Dolan, Brittain etc) and add a couple of the foreign lads, then phase the remaining players out. This has been accelerated by those players not extending. In terms of Dolan, I think they probably tried to extend him, but never offered anything like what he wanted. But I don’t think he had a long term future in this regime either….not enough pace or power. This is aside from my personal opinion as I would’ve gladly just waived him down the road. The vibe I’m referring to is what changed. It was enough of a change to dislodge JRC and Bucko who have been coasting on nice contracts for years. As I’ve said, lots have been rocked out of their lifeboats and the band of brothers has been disbanded.

My biggest question is why hasn’t Travis come out with a statement yet?

I think a really big problem with Buckley is that he takes a while to get his rhythm. I've always been one that rated his ability and wanted him to kick on, but I don't think I can ever remember him coming on and changing a game. Similarly when he's had a spell out of the team and he gets his chance, his first game tended to be pretty underwhelming, where we see his under-hit passes and getting caught in possession. He has tended to get better when he is given a run of starts, but he's not going to get that here so it's best for all parties that he tries to get his career back on track. I really hope he manages it.

The difference is the club haven't had to resort to dirty underhand tactics to get rid of Bucko because he wasn't a cornerstone of the team/captain and probably would have quietly sat on the bench for the next 12 months if necessary. Travis is obviously a different case being actively pursued by rival Championship clubs and first name on the teamsheet last season. The club have had to deploy a hatchet job operation on Travis to paint him as a villain in this sorry saga and, credit where it is due, it has worked with aplomb judging by comments on social media. All it really took was a win at Hull, a couple of unnecessary and unchallenged comments by Ismael in his post-match press conferences and signing another foreign player who sounds exciting but nobody knows anything about and the job is done. Not even a murmur of anger or outrage now about offloading the captain to Derby County less than a week before the window closes. It's impressive but shows we've no chance of ever succeeding against this regime when they are able to control the narrative so easily via the Telegraph and media and so many in the support base just swallow it.

Putting my happy clapper hat on, imagining I'm an 18-25 year old rovers fan. Is Travis a legend?

Whilst you can only beat the opposition in front of you, Hull were unbelievably lethargic and poor and if I was a Hull fan, I would be somewhat concerned. So difficult to use that game as a marker. As for Norwich, think they can be as good as they can be average. New manager so I guess their players are still adapting to different style of play, tactics etc. As others have pointed out, not difficult to envisage any one of the three possible outcomes. If I'd to plump for one, it would be the draw. As for our 9 new signings, it's early days but already written-off Forshaw and big question marks in place over De Neve in particular and Henriksson. 4 look steadyish atm whilst 2 have still to kick a ball for us.

In true football manager tradition he will get injured either in his first training session or game, and be out for 6 months

Their spending power and signings if they are around top 6/8 come Jan yiu know they can/will go all out

Baradji in full training kit. Wish the LT/club would give us an update either way.

Yeah apologies. For some reason when I checked the pre-season odds I looked at Wrexham and not Birmingham. (Newly promoted, hype, yanks etc...). Both West Brom and Wrexham were 7/1 pre-season. The next question is why the hell are Birmingham second favourites? I didnt even consider them pre-season and saw nothing at Ewood to change my mind.

He may well not do an official one with the club, especially if he is suspended and therefore not been able to be on the premises, but I would be surprised if he doesn't do a personal one of some sort