I am rewatching the game now and for the first twenty minutes Trav and Henriksson were the ones who got stuck in and took on the fight. Trav also had some neat passes, both short and long and was also eager to collect the ball from Hyam, Mcloughlin and Ribeiro.

Agreed and the one thing that sets Rovers apart from those was the fact V's had a better line of liquidity due to their successful operation in India. It's only that money flowing through the pipes that has kept this club from a complete disaster of their and their friends making but why would you keep on doing it unless you either have no choice or there are benefits somewhere along the chain and all is not as it seems. However the Indian govts involvement - If it's actually genuine and not another smoke and mirrors job - now threatens to eventually send us the way of those other clubs. Because the only thing that's kept it going the last couple of years is player sales liquidity and that is almost at an end.

There's a reason why people like Travis and Brittain are attracting interest from rival Championship clubs who will offer millions of pounds for them now despite them being out of contract in a year. It is good business to get them even if that means paying a 7 figure sum now rather than waiting 12 months. They are good Championship players, who have been cornerstones of what should have been 2-3 play off finishes in the last 4 years (if the club hadn't deliberately sabotaged itself). There's also a reason why none of the signings we have made this summer attracted attention from rival Championship clubs. It isn't because we have a pioneering scouting network able to steal a march on rivals, it is because they are cheap high risk signings. Some willing and happy to gamble the season and Championship status in the hope they turn out alright, other clubs take this game more seriously and want to ensure they sign proven quality.

Could the agent involvement be an explanation for our ridiculous wage costs after years of slashing players? Or would this be shown in a different area on the accounts?

Travis on his day is a top championship player, can be average on his bad days like Saturday. Would be a big miss, especially when replaced by Gustavo Anonymous from some relegated Romanian team for 50k.

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