January Transfer Window.

[Bethnal]

Not directly relevant, but my morning made me draw parallels with the frustration among some on the board.

my company just lost its biggest active client at lunchtime. There’s nothing on our side that has gone wrong and we couldn’t really have done more. The client has just found better value for themselves elsewhere and gone there. That’s business. It’s enormously frustrating but it’s not an indictment on our abilities, our offering, our effort or who we are/what we’re building. It happens, we do it to competitors all the time.

Following the sporting exploits of a privately-owned limited company means there’s very little scope for transparency on processes and ultimately, we only know what they want to tell us, when they want to. That’s frustrating for us, but it doesn’t mean the club is doing anything wrong, per se. We just have a very specific viewpoint on the successes of the club.

I imagine our shareholders will be less than thrilled when we tell them, but they’ve got the contextual knowledge of business and they’ll back us to bounce back. Sometimes, as fans we don’t have that contextual knowledge and that’s okay.

Anyway, this morning, I have a lot of sympathy for the recruitment setup, operating in difficult circumstances and even more difficult market conditions. It’s business and sometimes your best offering isn’t enough.

[davulsukur]

8 minutes ago, CambridgeRover said:

Parachute payments are magical. How did we manage to fuck ours up

Absolutely criminal what we did with ours.

A complete and total fuck up.

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Hasta said:

 

OK. Just to clarify:-

Huddersfield reject - good

Reading reject - bad

Joao's goal scoring rate for Reading blows Sam Gallagher's out of the water. I know who I would rather have up front.

It’s not as simple as Sorba Thomas good and Lucas Joao bad. I think both are entirely different situations, and I didn’t actually pass any comment at all about my thoughts on Thomas - just the fan base reaction as a whole 🤷🏻‍♂️

A comparison between Joao and Gallagher is wholly fair. But the one made between him and Brereton isn’t particularly accurate when they both play in different positions.

[alcd]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

Lucas Joao is being offered around everywhere by his agent and is free to go. If Reading don't want him and the agent can't find him a club then how great is he?

Very good according to my Reading season ticket holder. A bit lazy and moody but we know that from his time on loan in 2017. 

[Tugayisgod]

5 minutes ago, alcd said:

Very good according to my Reading season ticket holder. A bit lazy and moody but we know that from his time on loan in 2017. 

Suppose him and Sorba would give us a bit of an 'x' factor as far too predictable ATM. Haven't had anybody to get the crowd on the edge of their seats since duffer imo

Edited January 27, 2023 by Tugayisgod

[Fraserkirky]

Guessin it was a medical that has cause the Nisbet deal to collapse

[MarkBRFC]

Just now, Tugayisgod said:

Suppose him and Sorba would give us a bit of an 'x' factor as far too predictable ATM. Haven't had anybody to get the crowd on the edge of their seats since duffer imo

I'm not sure JDT really wants too much unpredictability in our side to be honest. Seems very pragmatic.

[alcd]

1 hour ago, Ghost7 said:

Interesting that one of the most underwhelming and unimaginative transfer windows is occurring under the new setup. It's hugely disappointing given our hopes and strong league position again.

The squad needed strengthening in both full back positions, two new centre midfielders bringing in and an attacker or two as a bonus. I expected extra numbers now partly to make up for the short window the new team had in summer and mentioned so often.

As a season ticket holder the lack of strategy behind the scenes and their ability to get results time after time does make me wonder why I bother. Let's get it straight we've supposedly missed out on a goalkeeper and a centre back, two positions that wouldn't have been a priority for you this window if you were watching the games.

Having to get everything done on deadline day, or even in the final week it's bad planning and execution right the way through and the people in charge must be made accountable when the times right, the problem is that doesn't happen at Rovers.

Waggott and now sadly Broughton...

These guys can seemingly talk the talk and that's about it. Every window is important and about building for the future, so far they are not delivering and if it continues I wouldn't be surprised to see Tomasson walk.

1 6 month loan isn't good enough. Lets not pretend they've done well, the forecasting in the summer had us set to be short, we were, the forecasting now has us set to be left short come February. We probably will be.

It can't happen again next summer. If it does they've got to go!

Would it matter if Tomasson "walked"? The results may be on a par with this stage last season but the football quality is dismal and 3/4 goal humiliations are regular. 

[goozburger]

10 minutes ago, Fraserkirky said:

Guessin it was a medical that has cause the Nisbet deal to collapse

Nisbet turned Millwall down. A fee of £2.5m was accepted by Hibs. He's not training with Hibs at the moment, so I assume he will end up somewhere before the window shuts. Apparently, Nisbet had agreed terms with Millwall and was travelling for his medical. It sounds like another club has come in for him at the eleventh hour.

Nisbet scored 7 goals in 6 games for Hibs this season after returning from a ruptured ligament injury. His past record suggests he knows where the back of the net is. I wouldn't mind us going for him, but I'm not sure if our budget would stretch that far in this window.

Edited January 27, 2023 by goozburger

[joey_big_nose]

God dammit I really want Jaoa to happen now... but we haven't been linked to him at all in any way so probably should dampen my hopes. 

He's a big lad but also good with his feet so would get a lot out of our wide players crossing, and build up play through the middle.

[CambridgeRover]

10 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

God dammit I really want Jaoa to happen now... but we haven't been linked to him at all in any way so probably should dampen my hopes. 

He's a big lad but also good with his feet so would get a lot out of our wide players crossing, and build up play through the middle.

Would help bring Dack more into the game

[ItsRoverZ]

Mowbrays Sunderland have made some really good signings! 

[roversfan99]

5 hours ago, TheRevAshton said:

Solid player, but I doubt he ticks the boxes for Greg.

29 years old ❌
£15k a week wages ❌
Not much resale potential ❌

None of the 7 signings Broughton has overseen have resale potential really.

[DackDackGoose]

20 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Nisbet turned Millwall down. A fee of £2.5m was accepted by Hibs. He's not training with Hibs at the moment, so I assume he will end up somewhere before the window shuts. Apparently, Nisbet had agreed terms with Millwall and was travelling for his medical. It sounds like another club has come in for him at the eleventh hour.

Nisbet scored 7 goals in 6 games for Hibs this season after returning from a ruptured ligament injury. His past record suggests he knows where the back of the net is. I wouldn't mind us going for him, but I'm not sure if our budget would stretch that far in this window.

We should be all over this.. it was stated he turned it down as wanted to stay in Scotland (probs wants Celtic/Rangers move), so maybe we're close enough compared to London to entice.

Then again I though goodwillie looked amazing before he came 😂 and that Watt

[Gav]

13 minutes ago, ItsRoverZ said:

Mowbrays Sunderland have made some really good signings! 

So did Mowbrays Rovers...

[goozburger]

20 minutes ago, DackDackGoose said:

We should be all over this.. it was stated he turned it down as wanted to stay in Scotland (probs wants Celtic/Rangers move), so maybe we're close enough compared to London to entice.

Probably easier to get from Edinburgh to London than Edinburgh to Blackburn!

As you say, there's a report stating that Nisbet would prefer to stay in Scotland. Celtic have probably come in to hijack the deal.

[Tugayisgod]

50 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Nisbet turned Millwall down. A fee of £2.5m was accepted by Hibs. He's not training with Hibs at the moment, so I assume he will end up somewhere before the window shuts. Apparently, Nisbet had agreed terms with Millwall and was travelling for his medical. It sounds like another club has come in for him at the eleventh hour.

Nisbet scored 7 goals in 6 games for Hibs this season after returning from a ruptured ligament injury. His past record suggests he knows where the back of the net is. I wouldn't mind us going for him, but I'm not sure if our budget would stretch that far in this window.

Need the lowdown on him from our Hibs friends on here.

[bluebruce]

9 hours ago, sparky12 said:

Our friends from down't road brought a few in from Belgium and they are doing alright 🤷🏽‍♂️

Talking about the overall standard of the league, obviously we know world class players have come from Belgium. But there's a lot of dross too.

[ben_the_beast]

1 hour ago, phili said:

Remember for investment signings such as Rhodes, Venky's were raising finance for these offering a guaranteed 100% return if a player is sold. I don't know if they did for BBD but would explain their insistence on not selling for less than X.

So unless we received offers above £10m we would have had a reduced budget in the summer if we had sold.

Even though bids were reportedly around £8m in the summer I'm sure we could have got £12m. Those £8m bids were testing the water, lowball offers. 

We come back and say we want over £20m. It's not worth the buying clubs time as valuations are so far apart. As the window drew to a close we really needed to be more realistic with our asking price and I'm sure a compromise could have been found. There were multiple clubs reportedly interested. It shows he's a good player but the step up is big and would have been a gamble for any club. From the buying clubs perspective, the fee paid needed to reflect the gamble.

[Silas]

1 hour ago, JoeH said:

A comparison between Joao and Gallagher is wholly fair. But the one made between him and Brereton isn’t particularly accurate when they both play in different positions.

It's entirely accurate if what we're trying to judge is goals in a 'team'. I think you're more trying to look at it in terms of player v player. 

Diaz has been our top goalscorer the last season and a half. Where he plays is irrelevant to that stat. 

Lucas Joao has scored at a better strike rate than Diaz over their total recent club careers, both have had 22 goal seasons in the last 3 years. 

We desperately need goals in the team, and Diaz will probably be gone soon, 4 months or 4 days.

So, with such similar records I think it's entirely fair to compare in terms of the needs for our team. 

I'm not thrilled about it either. Wasn't massively on board the first stint he had with us. But beggars can't be choosers and he ticks a lot of the boxes missing at the moment. So, the signing would get a big thumbs up from me initially. Genuinely can't see how it can be looked at any other way when you factor in the whole Hirst/Vale saga. It's been depressing watching them two dollop about up top. Particularly Vale's recent backtracking warm up jogs.  

[Sparks Rover]

4 hours ago, JoeH said:

There's just no such thing. Every game has countless scouts from all around the UK and the world in attendance.

Just because they watch doesn't make them any good.

[Sparks Rover]

3 hours ago, Tugayisgod said:

The recruitment teams job 

 

For me, scouting is about finding those players that you see something in that others don't.  You get them cheap and they are keen to come because they have been sold the club before anyone else has got involved. 

A good example is Kante for £400k

[booth]

1 hour ago, goozburger said:

That was my mindset on the matter, although Tomasson's comments in his press conference suggest we are after another couple of incoming signings. The priority is a striker.

I think Thomas is a good signing. We need pace and assists, and hopefully he'll do exactly what it says on the tin.

By this point I'm certain that what Tomasson wants and what he gets are entirely different things.

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, booth said:

By this point I'm certain that what Tomasson wants and what he gets are entirely different things.

Same for most of us...

[RoversClitheroe]

6 hours ago, Sweaty Gussets said:

so you made it up for attention. Nice one. 

"Saw it on twitter" I'll refer you to the Oxford Dictionary 😂😂