January transfer window 2020

[RoversClitheroe]

Just now, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

.He's clearly got the technical side, needs to learn the dark arts...

 

Warren Lucy in disguise? ?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

But whoever is going to be able to tell us we're buying no one now? 

Just what I was about to say. Maybe he could tell us who we won't be buying ?

[tomphil]

4 hours ago, Kamy100 said:

Interesting read on the model that Brentford follow:

https://www.football.london/championship/brentford-rasmus-ankersen-transfer-plan-14136285

Interesting stuff although i'm not keen on the 'everyone involved' in the signings i think there's been plenty of that here !

Can see a lot of sense in what they are doing down there though but just like the first team tactics Rovers has to decide which way it's going to go and stick to it. Burnley/Sheff U .. then get a group together like that and pragmatically physically fight your way up.

Watford/Brentford -- Have a football style and stick to it, let somebody who knows what they are doing operate the recruitment and have a good head coach who can work that way.

We are constantly caught in the middle it seems when really what they should be doing here is having their own Blackburn Rovers by Skill and hard Work identity. Using all the means they have to invest in players/youth to build a team for promotion.

Mowbray himself has said that in the past and some ways we are on the road so why change. Promotion challenge first with the funds given and all this investment model, production line stuff second. Why oh why hold it back in the slightest....

Edited January 24, 2020 by tomphil

[Josh]

1 hour ago, Sparks Rover said:

He's from Farnworth and supports Notlob.

He’s a united fan as mentioned in his episode of football origins 

[bluebruce]

2 hours ago, JoeH said:

It was just humour, I didn't actually mean that... it's called sarcasm. It's a very British, Northern thing.

Please, tell me more about being British and Northern.

[roversfan99]

10 hours ago, Vilesinner said:

Rankin Costello impressed me massively when he played in the league cup earlier in the season. He always looked the most suited for a step up imo. But the two young keepers, Butterworth, Lyons, Mols, Buckley, Evans and Vale are all very exciting. And we have some excellent young defenders too. I am positive 2 or 3 should get a chance this year. 

 

I dont doubt that we need to give them chances from time to time, as I said I would play Rankin Costello for example every day over sticking Gallagher out wide. But it is not prudent to expect a whole batch of young players to all come through and become first teamers together, there are plenty of "promising" youth groups in the past that havent really amounted to much so its a case of wait and see. You have to give them encouragement and chances but if the plan is that this time in a year the side will be full of young players and we carry on with our top 6 push as normal then that would be a very naive prediction.

The main 2 that get mentions are Rankin Costello and Buckley it seems, and the former has only made one sub League appearance (and made a promising start) and the latter looks absolutely miles off being able to play a part at this level and needs to go down the leagues. If any youth players come through it is a massive bonus and money saved, but history suggests that most of your list wont make it here.

[Sparks Rover]

32 minutes ago, Josh said:

He’s a united fan as mentioned in his episode of football origins 

Aye, so he says in public 

[arbitro]

41 minutes ago, Josh said:

He’s a united fan as mentioned in his episode of football origins 

 

1 hour ago, Sparks Rover said:

He's from Farnworth and supports Notlob.

I'm sure I read he was from Failsworth.

[Guest]

John Buckley could've been born in Burnley for all I care, the bit that truly matters is that he isn't ready for our first team yet. Joseph Scott Rankin-Costello is.

[Tugay-is-God]

Have we had anyone since Dunny that's been a boyhood Rovers fan?

[Mattyblue]

Conor Mahoney, Scott Wharton.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Mattyblue

[Bigdoggsteel]

9 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Conor Mahoney, Scott Wharton.

Makes Mahoneys decision to jump ship rather than play in League 1 even more bizzare 

[Mike E]

17 minutes ago, Tugay-is-God said:

Have we had anyone since Dunny that's been a boyhood Rovers fan?

Matt Derbyshire

Paul Gallagher

Phil Jones

Edited January 24, 2020 by Mike E

[MarkBRFC]

6 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Makes Mahoneys decision to jump ship rather than play in League 1 even more bizzare 

Not really, Mowbray probably wouldn't have started him until Christmas, and I'm guessing he got a pretty good offer to go and further his development at a well respected top flight club, for a lot more money too.

No brainer for the lad.

[MarkBRFC]

2 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Matt Derbyshire

Paul Gallagher

Phil Jones

Was just about to post these two, I always like the early cup games from that period having two Rovers fans up front seemed pretty special to me.

Remember away at Everton in the FA Cup in 2007 they played up top together, ran them ragged, both scored and we were 3-0 up at half time.

[Mattyblue]

How did I forget Derbyshire and Gally. Both went to my alma mater.

[J*B]

2 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

He's from Farnworth and supports Notlob.

JRC has a Burnley tattoo - we can all get over things. 

[47er]

Just now, J*B said:

JRC has a Burnley tattoo - we can all get over things. 

Well so far he's a Rovers,Manure, Bolton and Burnley fan!

What's he got against Preston then?  Doesn't seem fair!  

[neophox]

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2020/january/rankin-costello-is-going-to-be-a-big-player-for-this-club/

 

No mention about Brereton as a future Rovers star, see the article.

[Husky]

3 hours ago, Wegerleswiggle said:

 

Top Signing for Top Six.

COYB!

Add this to the promising Midfielder we have on loan from Liverpool and the transfer window is suddenly looking rosey.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Husky

[AllRoverAsia]

8 minutes ago, neophox said:

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2020/january/rankin-costello-is-going-to-be-a-big-player-for-this-club/

 

No mention about Brereton as a future Rovers star, see the article.

WOW, Named and shamed by omission.

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

He’s a united fan as mentioned in his episode of football origins 

Pretty standard for anyone from Bolton.

[Doug]

2 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Pretty standard for anyone from Bolton.

And Chorley 

[RoverCanada]

Bit of a tangent, but I was thinking about that Smallwood contract. It is an odd case if he's still around at the end of the window. He's obviously keen to see out his current contract (which is fair), but if it's been made clear to him he's out of the squad picture, it's hard to see why we couldn't at least loan him out for a portion of his wages to cut costs a bit and get him some lower league game-time. I'd imagine Smallwood would have to push for such a move himself too, so it is curious if he's not keen on it given a whole year with only 2 appearances hardly looks good on the footballing CV!

Perhaps Rovers are playing hardball with lower league clubs hoping to take him on loan at zero cost (Mowbray briefly alluded to that about potential loans out) or Smallwood only wants to move for a guaranteed contract for next year. That would potentially mean sacrificing some of his current contract, but even then, Rovers could maybe subsidise his wage a bit for the rest of this year as long as it's still cutting our wage this year, effectively making it a subsidised loan for the rest of this year and then a professional deal lined up for next year... No signs at all that he's a 'bad egg' in the dressing room and I can't imagine he's on prohibitive wages, so not a big deal in the end, but very curious from Smallwood's POV.

In terms of Smallwood being wrongly handed an extension, 1) he did do a hell of a job for us in L1. There is some sense/honour in rewarding him accordingly (and I don't recall many complaints about it at the time). 2) If you look back, there is evidence that we did hold the line on his extension. Smallwood hinted that the negotiations dragged a bit and  that he wanted a longer-term deal (who could blame him): https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16354537.signed-lifetime-contract-rovers---smallwood/ 

Perhaps in retrospect a regrettable extension, but having said that, I took a glance at Smallwood's games last year, and our results were surprisingly effective with him in the lineup at first. Up to, and including, 10 Nov, over 15 games with Smallwood in the lineup, our record was 6-6-3, a 74 point pace. However, for his last 17 games in the lineup, our record was 2-5-10, a 30 point pace...

Now, obviously can't attribute all those results to Smallwood, but as a quick control, compare that to our season split: front 23 games, 62 point pace; back 23 games, 58 point pace. Perhaps those results were more in spite of him instead of because of him, but there appears to have been an initial delay in Smallwood being 'found out' at the Championship level (again) and, then eventually (probably too long), by Mowbray.

4 hours ago, Kamy100 said:

Interesting read on the model that Brentford follow:

https://www.football.london/championship/brentford-rasmus-ankersen-transfer-plan-14136285

Aye, The Athletic had a great read on this recently too (excuse the paywall if you can't access it!): https://theathletic.com/1536639/2020/01/17/brentford-b-reserves-scrapped-academy-premier-league/

Apologies if this repeats what's in that article above, but some general notes from the Athletic article:

- Brentford essentially concluded that running a Category Two academy was not worth the cost, as players very rarely rose from the u13s to the pro level, and even when they did, the compensation for Category Two development is not nearly high enough (the article suggests Brentford only got something like £30,000 each when Ian Carlo Poveda and Josh Bohui went to City and Liverpool). 

- However, I'd note that this doesn't quite apply to Rovers' Category One academy. For one, I don't know the specifics, but I think the compensation is much better for a player coming through a Category One setup (I'd be interested to know what we got for Callum Wright, for example). Brentford mentions the difficulty of grabbing youngsters with all the top London clubs next door, which technically applies to Rovers as well, but I suspect we wouldn't lose out to too many of the Manchester catchment area clubs on facilities-alone (which sounds like was the case for Brentford)

- There's also a 'sunk costs' element to it, with us already having top academy facilities that should still be utilised. It wouldn't be as simple for Rovers to suddenly decide to liquidate the academy and start up 'Blackburn Rovers B'...

- Instead, Brentford have opted for a roving B team of 18-21 players, shunning the PDL leagues as insufficient prep in favour of travelling against international reserve squads or even top-league squads looking for a tune-up (the article mentions they got to play Slavia Prague's 1st teamers as they prepped for the Champions League). It gives these 18-21 players, perhaps not ready for Championship football stiffer competition than the PDL leagues can provide (kind of reminds me of Chelsea loaning out an army of footballers each season rather than putting them in PL2 year after year... except Brentford is keeping them all within one team)

- Should be noted that Brentford's efforts have not been welcome, given they're essentially sticking their nose up to the EPPP and PDL, and it evokes the possibility of B teams starting up in the lower leagues...

- Lots of Scandis in that age range have come over, with some breaking through and others on the cusp. However, this is of course linked to their owner also owning FC Midtjylland (some of whose players have been loaned to Brentford B, and vice versa). Definitely could highlight the need for creativity in scouting Europe.

- One bit that I think we do follow to some extent is trying to poach the cast-offs of other top academies. Brentford, apparently, offers to buy top teams' youngsters for a low fee, but with heavy sell-on fees. Apparently the case for Maghoma, who was just brought in from Tottenham. For us, see Travis, JRC, Butterworth, Thompson, Hilton, or even someone like Hart, as recent, generally successful-looking, examples.

(Considering how much I just wrote, you might as well just read the article Kamy posted haha...)

Edited January 24, 2020 by RoverCanada

[Bigdoggsteel]

34 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

Not really, Mowbray probably wouldn't have started him until Christmas, and I'm guessing he got a pretty good offer to go and further his development at a well respected top flight club, for a lot more money too.

No brainer for the lad.

Mowbray said he had a good chance of starting and if they lad backed himself he could have had a good year in League 1 with the team he supports ,as opposed to playing under 23s football. 

So he chose money and I would say he isn't really that big a fan. If he was he would have stayed and helped the club get back to the Championship.