There are similarities in the situation at Rovers and those at Sheffield Wednesday and until recently Reading. We seem to operate in similar ways to them. I suspect all three have operated on a similar basis and have been run in a similar fashion over the years. All three taken over by random Asian conglomerates. Big question marks on why, big question marks on third party involvement. Big question marks on why they don't sell despite none of them getting any benefit out of continuing to own struggling 2nd division clubs. All sorts of issues along the way with huge losses every year, FFP problems, embargos, in some cases points deductions, short term borrowing, high turnovers in staff and players. Almost as though all three were basically figureheads to sit abroad, pay the bills, reap the benefits whilst others dealt with the recruitment/management side of things in their absence. I call it the 'Lucas Joao connection' but more to it than just a player appearing for all three IMO.

See the Fans Forum/Rovers Store/Commercial Chat thread

I don't think it has been done yet, but wait for Glen to confirm that. Also, he might well have been tied up with what came to light over the weekend, but again, please wait for proper confirmation.

Two sets are on here mate. The set that GM wrote having decided that the first version was inaccurate and then the clubs version, having removed the contentious elements of version 2.

Agree he still has to prove himself, he had a horrific start then a good set of results. It will be interesting to see how these first 5-10 games go. I imagine he will be gone by Xmas either by rage quitting over lack of investment or due to results being so poor they have to sack him (which is probably due to the former).

This is the sort of thing that would make a lot of sense with the 'admin errors' and last minute collapses in transfers into which an enormous amount of time and work had been invested by some. Deals that certain people along the chain weren't happy with and scuppered.

You think along similar lines to me and that is my view on why they keep on insisting the club is not for sale and batting away anyone, who asks if they would consider selling Look at the proposal made by the two Ian's all those years ago and how much money and grief that would have saved them, yet is was dismissed out of hand.

Did the FF minutes ever get published? If not then someone must be blocking it for some reason.

We have to play the 1st team and play well to gain some confidence. If we are a couple of goals up in the 2nd half, then we can bring on the youngsters like Michalski, Tyjon etc.

Does anyone know where the podcast is that GM was releasing please?

The Crystals - I Wonder

Travis got filled in off the ball early on and after that he seemed to be operating at half pace.

Think it's the domino effect following Rovers' total buggeration of contract renewals. Brittain, Travis and Tronstad have seen the departures of Dolan, Batth and Weimann and the arrival of largely virtually unknown, unproven and cheap foreign imports. Who can blame our better players? Brittain gone,Travis almost certain to follow and Tronstad who knows (is he merely going to barely tread water and see out his contract). Just one huge feckin mess.

There wasn’t anybody saying - “ give me the bloody ball, I’ll make something happen “ . That was right through the team. A lot of buck ( and ball ) passing to players who weren’t in a better position than they were. Not one player with that “ X “ factor. No real pattern of play or a method of consistently getting the ball from our last third into their last third apart from a long ball up to Ohashi and then Gueye.

It stood out to me how pedestrian they all were in that first half it's what you might expect if they'd played 90 mins Saturday/Weds previously. Loosened up a lot second half but first half they were wooden, beasted too hard in training perhaps or coached it down in the morning and didn't leave enough time to relax before the game ?

The way I read it, he does get his 5 points for it being his senior debut (unless Nantes B team counts as senior? in which case he doesn't get those points). But he would then need to be playing upwards of 90% of minutes to get his extra 10 points Obviously I would be delighted to be wrong on this one It looks like this is where the extra 10 points come from

Does make you wonder if the GBE expert is wrong on this looking at that table. His X post this morning seemed to suggest that you get 10 points automatically for playing in a band two league, and then 5 points because it would be a senior debut, not just a debut for the club.

Edited to include the right years rules 🙂 According to the rules Youth player = born on or after 01/01/2004 Mafoumbi was born in 2005, so he gets points for his debut, but unless Im reading things wrong, he gets 5 points for his debut (Championship is band 2), and any more points are based on how many games/minutes he plays (table on page 13 of the rules linked above)

I don't think the article is wrong. I think the big difference is that Mafoumbi here would be a senior debut as he had only ever played youth football before signing. Crnac had already played 80 odd senior games in the Croatian and Polish leagues before signing for Norwich.

In which case, Wilsden is correct, and the article from the Norwich end that I referred to is wrong But it does make you wonder why haven't they done so, if they could, with 9 subs, it would have been very easy to get done in the early weeks of last season

You'd think the club should know this. I fear they haven't a clue, and have no idea on it.

Well we know they had more influence here than was even legally allowed within football and imo it never went away it just got buried from view. Going nowhere in the Championship is handy for that. If i had to stake my last quid on it just my personal opinion i'd say they stitched it up with an impossible to break legal bind right at the beginning OR possibly tipped up a stake towards the purchase, maybe both. All agreed offshore obviously so in effect someone could be a hidden significant stakeholder, that word we often hear here. Come to think of it remember Keans contract drawn up by himself and JA where had written in extra bonus payments for seemingly nothing, almost like a dividend payment or something ? If every manager/player or whatever has that kind of thing written into their contracts to various degrees by the clubs representative then that's how you get your money out without too much questing because it never shows up it's just on the overall wage bill. Not millions just ten grand here, five grand there. So many players seeing out their contracts now, someone is advising them and it is to some benefit to do so, it must be. Loyalty bonuses written in is my guess, by who though.

Saw this on X this morning. That would tell me that Mafoumbi only needs to make one appearance, as his debut gets him 5pts because he's under 21 and it would be his senior debut for any club, and the league is band 2 so automatically gets 10 points. 15 being what you need to convert. Unless I'm reading it wrong of course!

Aren't they all.... Until they get sniff of a better deal elsewhere. Like brittain he had a good purple patch last season but for most of his time here he's mostly been mediocre ability wise and has a habbit of disappearing in games when things aren't going well That said. He will be missed massively in other ways

Apparently Norwich signed someone in January whilst they had no ESC slots left, he just couldn't (and didn't) play or train for them until February (Wilsden has said something similar to this in the past) However, it seems that 12 months is not the threshold, as Norwich converted at least 1 player after 6 months via differing methods. The player Crnac who they refer to below was an U21 player (so the same as Mafoumbi in that respect), it sounds like he had to play in over 50% of minutes to convert, not just a single appearance. Although the below gives me added hope that Toth & possibly Henriksson can be converted come January (February in Henrikssons case, once 1 full transfer window has passed) The below is from this article As per the rules, a player can be converted to full GBE status after one transfer window (if signed in the summer, then post-January), providing they are either able to qualify naturally through increased international minutes or have played a certain percentage of minutes for the club over the period of time that they have played for the club - for U21 players, that is 50pc of minutes. Once this happens, those currently in the ESC slot move to gain a GBE, thus freeing up a slot for another player to take. Crnac has now played 1,742 minutes in the Championship this season, which is over the 1,170 threshold eligible to convert his ESC into a GBE. But that window is only twice every year - in September and in February. Once that process is complete, Jurasek can take over the vacant slot. Cordoba could also qualify for a GBE through Panama's improved Fifa ranking. It’s understood that Schwartau and Forson could also qualify for GBEs come the February window, but it is thought to still be tight.