Apart from the inch perfect through ball for Hedges opener on the weekend.

So you don’t prefer Ismael because of his managerial ability just his “honesty” in interviews

It's too early to say how Henriksson will do, Im not sure it's too early to say how Kargbo will do, I had him down as a rudderless speed boat with no end product within about 30 mins of watching him play and he's done nothing to convince me otherwise. Yet.

“Yes let’s look like a shit club that’s stuck in the champ” suits absolutely nobody, and any suggestion that this is deliberate and not the result of a lack of ambition, expertise and care, is an insult to people’s intelligence.

Rumours on Derby forum that Wrexham have gazumped Derby for Travis, not sure if that will be on the fee or the wages (I suspect wages if it's true, as will they already know what Rovers will have accepted via Travis/his agent)

I could do with some counselling for continuing to support Rovers since the Venkys trapped up 15 years ago.

I think you're 100% in your analysis of the situation, the only question that matters currently is "Will it work?" I think not but we'll have to wait and see. As far as "sabotage" is concerned I've always been of the view that it comes from within the walls of Ewood Park. Why wouldn't the owners want promotion and the riches that go with it?

Arghhh…I was so interested in this post. Smart thinking! And then you washed Kargbo and Henriksson out vs Dolan and Weimann! Ffs mate, how on EARTH have you decided they are a downgrade based on next to no evidence? Great post - In January, I’d be delighted to run through this comparison. 👍🏼

Nice idea, we'll get back to you on that...

It would be a massive surprise if Travis didn't go through though. The Club and VI in particular would have some massive bridges to rebuild. I think you can safely count it as a done deal even though it hasnt officially been confirmed yet. Id love it if it didn't though - there'd be some major arse covering to be done and a section of the fan base will have to take their plastic snakes back to the shop.

I don’t think you’ve worked Suhail out at all, if you don’t think he lives to be seen as ‘clever’. He is Mr Ego personified, so I believe. No one will convince me that he’s not flexing. It’s not JUST about reducing costs. If it were then why bother funding the academy? Why bother scouting the lower Belgian leagues? He’s selling his employers the dream…best case scenario he gets promoted in their ecosystem and gets moved on. I reckon he’s sold a dream that he can cut costs, buy cheap and sell high, whilst keeping us in the league.

Im not writing him off, just some early thoughts. De Neve and Henricksson have both been much worse than Tavares, but same as him i wont come till any conclusive judgements until christmas time. So many examples of players who started poorly but improved significantly as they settled into the league.

To me it's all been done purely with a view to reducing costs and there is no aspiration to achieve success on the pitch or promotion. Indeed every time we look like we have something that is working or might work we seem to chase the offending manager who is doing well out of the door and go in a completely different direction to make sure we never ever quite get over the line. I think the only ambition at the Club now is to just about stay in the division whilst spending the least money possible and developing a few players to sell along the way. I'll nail my colours to the mast now as I don't think it will work. At all. If it does however, then the much maligned Gestede, and to a lesser extent Ismael, will deserve credit for coming up with a fairly hare brained sounding scheme and getting it to work. It would be interesting to see how they'd react were we in play off contention once more come the turn of the year. Presumably they'd be all scratching their heads wondering how they could sabotage things again. It does seem that Vi is very much the (former) 3 stooges man and they're very much on the same page with this scheme so I doubt he'd walk out or they'd sack him. Probably sell a couple and just not sign anyone and let the whole thing fizzle out.

That doesn’t matter he was out of control

Kargbo has pace that frightens the life out of teams. Dolan couldn't outrun Pickering. That's clearly an upgrade, if he can stay healthy. Weimann was an impact sub last season - his legs have completely gone.

I hope so because Soumano's highlight tape is incredibly underwhelming.

As it stands, Rev. And I wasn't discounting the sale of JRC -Euros 870k

You'd soon notice the difference if your employers started paying you in Euros!

Why are you discounting the sale of JRC and the impending sale of Travis? Once those are taken into account it's likely to be roughly a nil net spend despite all chaddy's talk of "spending £7.5m." Not ideal, we still desperately need a couple of strikers imo, and I wouldn't rule out further outgoings. However I suppose it's better than having a budget of say £2m and then selling £7m worth of players and not reinvesting that money which we all feared was going to happen.

So the ref gave a yellow because he didn't think Gordon was that type of player?

I think out of all the leavers he's probably the most likely to be happy to sit it out till summer i doubt he's stamping his feet to go to Watford because they are unlikely to be offering 3 years at double bubble. Of course that doesn't mean he won't be pushed out and branded a snake and a refusenik if Watford offer a fee.

I think McLoughlin was the back up option when we couldnt strike a deal for Kapuadi. I dont think it was a decoy at all. We just couldnt afford our main target. As it has worked out, with us shedding so much crucial domestic experience, McLoughlin may well be a much better fit. I also dont think that Suhail has any interest in beating any system. Gestede/Owen seem to have deemed that going abroad is the best bet but Suhail will only be bothered about cutting the wage bill.

Whilst I do think this is all a way of reducing costs, I can see the logic in the ESC approach. To get out this league you need 4 or 5 really good players. We (because our owners are terrible) will not pay the fees or the wages for really good, established players. It's the total opposite of Wrexham, for example, who have come up and paid the fees and wages for players that come with gaurantees. So I can see how the latest 'transitional period' plan is to bring in cheap players from Europe, hope they're good enough (or back your recruitment team, however you want to phrase it), convert them from ESC as soon as possible and loop the cycle. So far we're looking at: Pears to Toth - I'd argue (so far) thats an upgrade, although mostly because Pears is a terrible goalkeeper Dolan to Kargbo - I think that's quite clearly a downgrade, but Kargo does have the attributes to be a success Travis to Baradji - we'll wait and see, whilst Travis isn't technically brilliant and doesn't have great returns, he was club captain, an academy graduate, is experienced and has been promoted from this league before. Weimann to Hennrikson - so far, a downgrade. The only thing you could argue is Henrikson has age and fitness on his side. Weimann contrubuted last season in key moments and have a good return. Too early to write Henrikson off, but as a like for like so far you'd take Weimann. One success story, two 'immediate net negatives, but potential long term' and one 'unknown'. Ultimately, like all of our 'transitional periods', we'll see over time. They haven't got one right so far, so history says this will be a monumental fuck up and another change in direction, but as I say you only need 4 or 5 players to be very good at this level and you're into the playoffs which is a lottery.

All dayer more like...

Better than some of the slapped arse entitled faces of some of the loans shunted here that's for sure.