All Activity

I think Broughton was doing the best he could with zero backing or support from upstairs, and his only way to do that, bring in reasonable signings and at least try to maintain our league position was to structure it on the 'loan with option' basis, of course not then requiring any cash from India as it could come out of the club's own reserves if we got to the PL. Wouldn't have been necessary had the owners actually taken a shred of interest and wanted to support the manager in his efforts to get us promoted, but that's them all over. But even then when he'd done the hard yards and got such deals structured and agreed, shadowy characters did their bit to torpedo the moves. Not a problem we will be having for the foreseeable now that they've ensured promotion talk will be consigned to history.

You would think he might be held to account, or at least challenged. But I predicit it may go something like: Local reporter: vague softball question about the window. Val: January market is difficult. The end.

I still think we would have gone up had we got Undav that January. He’s turned out to be a proper striker. I dread to think who we’ll roll out as our big signing this January. Surely the manager has to come out with something after spouting off about the numbers of signings we needed and how we needed to do our business early .

Updated list, following Jorgensen signing & Davies contract renewal Each player is linked to Rovers confirmation of their last contract signing, Options only noted where specifically mentioned by the club, although as we have seen in the past (eg Hyam) sometimes these are not disclosed. Expiring in 2026 - Tronstad, Forshaw, Hedges, Mullarkey-Matthews, Khan, Farkas, Stritch, Dlamini, Wood, Boggan, all current 2nd year scholars including Tyjon Expiring in 2026 but with an option - Honor, Pratt, Olson, Batty, Duru, Montgomery, O'Grady-Macken, Loan expiring in 2026 - Cashin Loan expiring in 2026 but with a purchase option - Baradji, Gardner-Hickman Expiring in 2027 - Toth, Pears, Carter, Garrett, Cantwell, Kargbo, Edmondson, Doherty, all current first year scholars including Higgins Expiring in 2027 but with an option - Barrett, Goddard, Pickering, McLoughlin, Ribeiro, Ohashi, Litherland, Houghton, Powell, Expiring in 2028 - O'Riordan, Tavares, Eze Expiring in 2028 but with an option - Atcheson, Miller, Alebiosu, De Neve, Gudjohnsen, Morishita, Wharton, Expiring in 2029 - - Expiring in 2029 but with an option - Henriksson, Michalski, Jorgensen, Davies,

Yea like there actually something about this guy rather than, who is he?

We never actually landed any of these supposed "Loan with an option to buy" targets though - O Brien, Undav, Mcguire so we might as well have said we nearly landed Lionel Messi. All turned out to be smoke and mirrors in the end for whatever reason.

Indeed. Attempts to get around having no money by tempting selling clubs to agree to a low up front fee with a biggie if we got promoted. Using the fact we were in/around the play-off positions. A serious club would of course have paid the going rate to get those players in during January to strengthen for the run in. But then again we were never serious about promotion, and that's why it slipped away in February and March when the players were running on empty and managers were let down.

Deniz Undav

Lewis O'Brien was definitely an obligation to buy if we were promoted the former Brighton striker whose name escapes me may have been another

Cadamarteri would be absolutely desperation stuff. He'd be ok as a cheap "one for the future" in addition to someone with some sort of goal scoring track record, but if we are pinning our hopes on him to score the goals to keep us up that will probably seal our relegation. We're probably only in for him because we think he'll be exceptionally cheap. And even then we dont appear to be offering what Wednesday want. Embarrassing stuff. And clearly not worried about going down if this is the best we can do.

I know very little about Speight. What was he like in general? Good player? Who would you compare him to in the post-Prem era?

I'll second Andy Todd. Of more recent Rovers maybe Bradley Johnson? Per the OP though, not in the same league!

Under JDT the MO for Broughton often involved the 'loan with option to buy' approach whereby we attempted to get players in at minimal initial cost but with an option or trigger clause resulting in a hefty payment if/when we got promoted. I can't remember names but there were a few where we offered to take a player on the basis if we got promoted or exercised our option we would pay a good amount of money for them. Obviously that little plan is now in tatters as we are in danger of going down. No player or selling club is going to listen to promises of future cash or promotion clauses that we are never going to trigger. So looks like we are back to the old favourite of a relatively small down payment with add-ons and extras later. Pretty daft expecting a club like Sheffield Wednesday to go along with that given their immediate financial issues - they'll want guaranteed cash up front. No matter, only our Championship status and club future in immediate question with 4 days left to sort it out.

They paid close to £4M for him, and are coming straight back up, so wont be selling for anything Rovers offer

The Skids - The Saints Are Coming

Keeley. Can still visualise the challenge on an icy Ewood pitch that sent the player into a vertical 180 landing on his head. I'm still wincing. Todd though has to be capo di tutti i capi. Genuinely terrifying.

Will sign permanently in the summer for a record sale (previous record sale was £3.5m) https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/go-ahead-eagles-report-record-10775941 Edit - fee could reach £4.8M, so £3M was never going to cut it. I will assume our bid could have reached £3M if all add on's were triggered, so was probably south of £2M guaranteed

Priority has to be getting a target man in before window closes. We need a focal point on top since we barely can string two passes together in defence and just hoofs it when under pressure. Can't rely on Ohashi as his confidence is shot, doesn't have the attributes needed to be a prolific goalscorer at this level and gets constantly bullied by defenders. Would personally go for Salech at Cardiff (6'5 tall, 12 goals in L1 this season, 8 goals in Championship last season). Took a nasty blow to the neck in the weekend match but has apparently been cleared from any serious injury. Has re-sale value as well (24 years old) and should be an upgrade to Gueye.

Going from Speight to modern day, always thought I'll bet nobody messes with Rankin-Costello in training. Hard lad that on the quiet.

Would have been my choice, always remember him by his picture on the front of the programme, clenched fist in the air.

This from my lifelong obsessive and rather distraught Wednesday mate “Hard to tell. When he first played last year he had the likes of Windass and Paterson supporting him. And he looked really promising. This season he just has to continually plough a lone furrow all by himself against 3 defenders. And doing this for 90 mins 3 matches a week because we have no one else.” well at least he is qualified for the role here 😉

Venky's (India) Limited has officially announced that its Board of Directors will meet on February 9, 2026, to review and approve the company's audited financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. The meeting will specifically focus on the financial performance for the quarter ended December 31, 2025.

I can't see how it's family wealth funding it the way it's all set up the money comes from the VH group. These types don't shell out of their own pockets everything is done through their businesses that's how they take advantage of various tax perks etc. The unwise buying of the house and funding Akons part appearances show this, had they tipped up out of their pockets there wouldn't have been an issue. Plus if they'd poured 200 mill of their own money in i'd wager they'd want something back, might even have run it better to try for the Prem because if not that personal fortune is gone. Doing it through the business the debt just stays on the books as inter company loans as pointed out and it actually adds value to the company portfolio. And if it goes tits up at some point it just gets written down as a massive loss, shaves a bit off the company worth but also shaves the tax bill. These loons would be on skid row now if they used personal money. We are just a cog now in a much bigger corporate wheel that will just keep turning until something eventually gives.

Fair enough, I wasn’t aware of that.