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.

Is this a five minute argument or the full half hour? 😉

You can't tell a guy who clearly has chronic confirmation bias, that he has confirmation bias, and expect him to understand

It is only natural, after his father has been so charitable, working for Rovers at times, free of charge and getting the place rocking, that his son Myles, is now offering a very kind and welcome addition, to what appears to be a gap in the market. Offering what seems to be counselling services to those players that have found themselves on the football scrapheap. I have to say, how much I admire him for doing this and his very special first guest on his series of podcasts, is a must listen for all genuine football fans. Hopefully he will be recognised for his great work, when the next set of honours are handed out, in the new year. The link is below, for those who want to pay homage. Football's Realest Podcast

Chaddy, don’t try to dress it up anymore than what it is. You’ll always support the current manager, whoever that happens to be. The moment Ismael leaves you’ll prefer the next manager, it’s an absolute given.

This would be a big move. A good striker would be a game changer and could put us in with an outside chance of the top 6. Ryoya, a good striker, and an-in form Cantwell would be a very good forward line at this level.

That's old chestnut, lets not believe it, cos I don't agree yet the ref in real time give a yellow, replays always make it look much worse than it is.

He's gone in at force and he's out of control, proven by the fact he has actually 'tried' to pull out of it but is so out of control that he can't and has still ended up raking him down the calf.

Euro to pounds is almost the same, 1 euro to 86p. You are just ignoring the facts here by trying again to minimal them. You read the minutes and the question was asked about funds received from players sales being reinvested in the budget and buying people. I am annoyed by how Eustace handled but has I said also Rovers did. No way should he been allowed to take charge of Wolves game given he was going Derby. Like I said, you ignored facts that come out after they leave like Eustace knew about the Derby approach on Friday but told the fans he just found out post match on Sunday, yet you have no problem with that for some reason. Which I think is weird to say. I prefer Ismael cos of the way he handled the Brittain and Travis situation and told us the supporters the truth. Yet you think Travis was thrown under the bus. Also he is more suited to our overseas transfer approach where as Eustace isn't. Which all that you ignore for Eustace who you adore for some reason

It's great to watch the welcome videos and see players that are genuinely excited and buzzing to be joining us. It's a big opportunity for many of them to enhance their careers and I'm sure that was the intention to buy hungry players with a point to prove. McLaughlin is the only one you would say has made a sideways move and perhaps has the least to prove. It makes a big difference in the dressing room if you have players that genuinely want to be here compared to players in the last year of their deal and probably looking for an exit.

Yup, almost feels like ‘we’ leak a name to create some noise and then go hard at the actual target. Afolayan - Mori // Drameh - Miller // kapaudi - McLoughlin // Soumano -…..

No clue with that Maybe Fulham's good U18s from last season are now O18? Youth football can be very cyclical That being said, Fulham are top of the U18 Southern table & a passing glance at their lineups over the past 3 games, I'm seeing a lot of the same names who played today, so it doesn't look a weakened side