In my (financial services) career I never saw that level of detail in a contract. The detail was in the job description & the annual objectives. With Rovers though…who knows?

Couldn't think of his name, but yeah this wouldn't surprise me at all. Shout for the right winger, Elie Youan. 26, plays for Hibs, loosely linked in January, out of contract next summer. Pretty fast but doesn't seem to have much else going for him.

The irony is clearly the directive was to use the Carabou cup to blood youngsters/ new signings but we over egged it and lost an easy game so now dont have any more games to do it. Kind of shot ourselves in the foot....

Since joining Rovers on 25th February we have played 14 games under Ismael and Travis has started all of them save for last night's League Cup game. Of the 13 starts he's been captain in all of them and has played 90+ minutes in 10 of them, being subbed off after 88 minutes at Sheff Utd last season as we threw the kitchen sink at a winner, after 65 minutes against Millwall as we cantered to a win, and after 81 minutes last week as we tried to find an equaliser. Strange way of not favouring a player, but this sort of revisionism becomes common as a popular player heads out the exit door. He's been favoured and picked by all our last 4 managers save for JDT's second season and I remain convinced that saving on his salary and freeing up a wage was at least part of the thinking behind that loan to Ipswich

The warning signs of over promoting youth and the 30% of the squad pathway laid down by Broughton, obviously on instruction, nearly saw us relegated or certainly made a big contribution to that. They are going back down the same path but with a lesser squad and a load of cheap foreign imports who don't know each other. I mean what could possibly go wrong ? Did no one actually think about this or were they too busy trying to get rid of those who warned against it ( Eustace, Waggot, maybe Lowe and i bet certain players weren't shy of voicing their opinion either ).

I agree with all of this. Quality of the first 11 needs to be improved to save off the upcoming threat of relegation.

I'm not unduly concerned about replacing Travis as a player but his presence as a captain and leader will be sorely missed. Quite simply I can't see anyone (maybe over time Miller) from the current squad who will be able to replace him in that respect. It sounds like he wants to go and has made it public but this has been coming for some time now so it doesn't surprise me. It boils down to the awful management and poor handling of players new deals and our anger should be directed towards those people.

I'd personally put Alebiosu as a firm positive. Big, strong & quick. Managed to put in a cross from nowhere yesterday with 2 players around him, Hedges has never done that. I think he'll be a very useful player and has all the attributes to be more than that.

He is not only an experienced player at this level but you underplay how effective he is at this level and how hard it would be to replace him. It will be very difficult to replace him, especially seeing as we will be doing so for a small fee most likely from a random European league. Tavares had a decent game againsr Bradford, is thay enough for you to consider Travis to already be replaced adequately? Lunacy if so. Baradji seems to be flavour of the month based on a highlights reel. If he needs months off that should be off the table straight away. Beyond that, we also dont have a slot for him in terms of ESC. And beyond that, you are replacing a proven good Championship midfielder with someone who has had one good season seemingly at a relegated Swiss club.

That already started the other day along with the bots being busy 'we only get 13k if 25k turned up every game not just Burnley we'd be spending more' F#ckin deluded lunatics they are.

Their tails are up big time at the minute and we're a club with an extremely dark cloud hanging over it, which isn't going anywhere. Difficult to see anything but a humbling defeat here: Rovers 0 Big Club 2

It was the agent who sorted all that lot out i don't know whether he was intent on rubbing fans noses in it even further or just brown nosing them as much as possible. Probably a bit of both but it was more 'bad advice' for them.

I dont see how it is evident personally. If anything, surely us trying to be more athletic and get about the pitch, that suits the strengths of Travis. He is naturally a player to sub off when chasing a game because you tend to put more attacking players on. But I am not having that he is going even slightly because Ismael doesnt rate him. He seems annoyed that he is leaving. He is leaving because we took ages to offer him a new deal, and now he can get a wage far more suited to a proven Championship midfielder. I also suspect he can see a sinking ship around him.

Verdict on what I've seen of the new signings so far (still early days I know) Positives Miller, Tavares, McLoughlin Jury's still out Alebiosu, Axel Probably not De Neve

On Saturday and again last night we started really slowly. I don't know if it's a mindset but it's going to cost us dearly if we don't correct it. We have been outdone by the tempo management of both West Brom and Bradford. Having seen Birmingham on Friday their main asset was the intensity in which they played. If we don't at the very least match that from the first whistle it will be a long afternoon.

I agree DutchRovers, but under VI he has been the best of the two. He is a better passer and even score two goals against Millwall. I love Travis, but he hasn't been favored by Ismael since he took over. Another very obvious observation is that VI doesn't rate Gueye at all. Even Woodrow came on before him last season.

I don't really get the sudden outcry on social media of Trav leaving. It's been obvious all summer that he'd be leaving, with Derby a very plausible destination all along with Eustace in charge. This is just confirmation of that. I think he's very replaceable and Tavares is a very adequate replacement, and Baradji will be too if that deal gets done. The real problem is the sheer amount of championship experience we've lost in one summer. Weimann, Batth, Trav, Brittain, Dolan. Probably Buckley and Pears too. Possibly even Tronstad and Hyam. You just simply cannot lose that amount of experience in one window. I actually think the new signings are half decent and it's not been a bad window in terms of incomings. However, they're replacing very established championship players and that's a very difficult task when this is the first time many of them have played in this league. You can see the reality of the situation is now dawning on VI. He cuts a frustrated figure like all those before him

Tronstad is nowhere near as athletic as Travis

No disgrace guys - the Bolton lads were brilliant tbf.

The last I heard was that the trial evenings they had recently for recruitment of new players were a disaster with very few potential players turning up. The season kicks off for them this Sunday.

It is evident that VI dont rate Travis as much as we do. If my memory serves me correctly he was the one (of Trav and Tron) to be subbed early most of the times. Tronstad popped up with the occasional goal and looks more of a VI player. Trav is his best when he can harass the opposition, before of the style of play under VI it requires even more pace and engine than Trav seemingly has. He had some moments under Eustace where he was amazing and I think JEs style of play suited Trav better than VIs. Trav might have come to that conclusion himself. If you love working under a manager who gets the best out of you I can fully understand the eager to join up with him again. He turns 28 this year, and he might feel that he needs a new challenge.

I think it will be Nectar Triantis for circa 1 million to replace Travis, club to pocket the rest. FWIW similar to Miller I think he’d be a smart pick up at a good age, coming off the back of a good season in Scotland.

That has started already on my X timeline anyway.

On a similar note, it seems we still haven't updated the Women's fixtures on the website either, despite them being released four weeks ago.

Very much so. I have even rewatched Rovers v Watford and Rovers v Millwall to try to understand it. What is quite clear is that VI wants a style of play where we win the ball high up the pitch. This makes us very vulnerable when don't win the ball. Also we were very reliable on Ohashi collecting the ball, back to Cantwell and Tronstad who puts the ball over the defenders for Britain and Dolan to chase, going round the defender and cut back. Think 3 of 4 goals against Millwall came that way. We saw glimpses of this against WBA, where De Neve got round his defender and cut the pass back in only with Axel to arrive a bit late. We also saw that Alebiosu got by his marker and got the cut back in. This is defently a big part of our strategy. What also is very evident is that we are playing very sluggish, passes completely astray and a chaotic game. I have never warmed to VI. In small spells we look like a very good side with neat passing, running and winning the ball back, but when it doesn't work we are running around like headless chickens and look non-league. Also - how extremely bad was Gueye yesterday.