January Transfer Window.

[Paul Mellelieu]

11 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

It would be a shocking window if we've actually managed to weaken the forward line.  There's been plenty of strikers on the move.  The only glimmer, is surely the club wouldn't be stupid enough to loan Markanday  out without another body coming  in? 

Thomas replaces Markanday.

[Ricky]

Looking forward to hearing chaddy spin this as a successful window. He will, I’m sure he will. 

[OldEwoodBlue]

EPIC FAIL

[Paul Mellelieu]

JDT's mentioned our failure to take chances in his post-match interview last night.  More than once....

[CambridgeRover]

Just woke up to check and nothing announced, did we actually do anything?

[Madon]

We've got O'Brien, it's just a case of did we get anyone else? The media team must have had an early night 

[goozburger]

Rovers have announced players the day after in the past. It'd be wise to get on with your day and judge the window later before writing the window off.

[47er]

2 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Rovers have announced players the day after in the past. It'd be wise to get on with your day and judge the window later before writing the window off.

Hang on to those straws mate.

[roverandout]

Sick to death of managers putting their faith in Gallagher.  For some reason he gets a free pass every season.  No wonder he can't be arsed putting in a huge shift when he knows his position isn't under threat.  Are rovers managers blind to this? 

[Upside Down]

So can anyone tell me if we signed anybody?

[BankEnd Rover]

6 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Sick to death of managers putting their faith in Gallagher.  For some reason he gets a free pass every season.  No wonder he can't be arsed putting in a huge shift when he knows his position isn't under threat.  Are rovers managers blind to this? 

To be clear…JDT wants a striker. He most probably doesn’t rate Gallagher like the rest of us - it’s not the managers fault if we haven’t brought anyone in. 
 

JDT will be furious if a striker hasn’t been signed. We had 1 position that was a must to fill. As good as the other signings are, if there’s not striker,  this window has to be a fail. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by BankEnd Rover

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

Surely we got at least a striker in if Markanday has gone? 

[oldjamfan1]

8 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Sick to death of managers putting their faith in Gallagher.  For some reason he gets a free pass every season.  No wonder he can't be arsed putting in a huge shift when he knows his position isn't under threat.  Are rovers managers blind to this? 

I think the lad puts a shift in, he just isn’t good enough really.

[roverandout]

Just now, oldjamfan1 said:

I think the lad puts a shift in, he just isn’t good enough really.

His half arse attempts at heading a ball. His token jog to a player then backing off. His lack of goal mouth nouse. I think Ashley ward put a bigger effort than him

[M_B]

18 minutes ago, roverandout said:

How so? We signed a number of players in the summer to fill crucial positions.  We've signed 2 short term loans for areas that weren't our biggest concern.  Midfield could be improved yes. These won't be our players in the summer. We haven't addressed fullback or striker. I think it's been a very poor window 

 Just my opinion, but i'd rather go for quality than quantity,and O'brien is as good as we could possibly have signed. 

We may yet get a forward, but we already have plenty, Tomasson was brought here to improve what we have, rather than buy his way out of problems. 

I'd be happy to go with what we have up top. 

[goozburger]

3 minutes ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

Surely we got at least a striker in if Markanday has gone? 

Thomas was likely the reason why Markanday went out on loan, as suggested in the local media. Markanday isn't a striker.

Would be nice if we announced a striker today in any case, but not convinced that will happen.

[yellowsubmarine]

Got a sneaky feeling JDT will come out from retirement and sign himself on a 6-months deal. Striker problem, solved!

[Tricky]

3 minutes ago, yellowsubmarine said:

Got a sneaky feeling JDT will come out from retirement and sign himself on a 6-months deal. Striker problem, solved!

Shirt's with his name on the back for a club shop special at £79.99 too. 

[Jimmy612]

So, it looks like two short-term signings in Sorba Thomas and O'Brien, and maybe the young lad from Rochdale who's played very little first team football.  Happy and desperate in equal measure to be proven wrong, but I have a feeling the first two will actually turn out to be more or less completely pointless signings in my opinion. 

Here's my logic - since Coventry away (over a third of the season) we're 19th in the form table, we're joint 18th for goals scored in the entire season, and we're now clinging to a playoff spot by our fingernails having been 2nd heading in to the World Cup break.  So the question is - are these two signings going to get us in to the play-offs?  On paper they improve us, but are they all of a sudden going to turn our form around from 19th to perhaps.... top 10, top 8 or top 6 form?  We're likely going to need that to keep our play-off chances alive.  We've all been watching us recently - we aren't very good, we struggle massively whenever we go a goal down, and we're a little too frequently on the end of a good hiding from poor teams. 

Our top scorer hasn't scored for 3 months, has already signed a pre-contract with another club and is a new dad... is he going to regain form or is his mind on other things?   Dack is wonderful and thank God JDT saw sense with him, but if he gets 10 or 12 goals he'll have done brilliantly.  Gallagher and Vale have 4 league goals between them in about 35 combined starts and loads of sub appearances. 

So, these loans are decent players, but in my opinion from watching Rovers all season and particularly since November, we aren't going to make the play-offs.  In effect all we've ended up doing is paying good money for players that we'll never see beyond May. 

We needed a striker - if we haven't got one then there's definitely a black cloud hanging over this window.  When JDT spoke to Broughton pre-window his absolute PRIORITY would have been a striker - him and the recruitment team have failed in that.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Jimmy612

[BigUts]

I REALLY hope we've brought a centre forward in. We are desperate for one and as others have said it will be a real kicker if we haven't.

Edited February 1, 2023 by BigUts

[Hasta]

If we haven't brought in a striker that's pretty bad, but to then let one of our attacking talents leave on loan on the final day is baffling.

We knew we needed to add an attacker on 1st January but we may actually ended up with two less than we started the window with.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Hasta

[Jimmy612]

46 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Sick to death of managers putting their faith in Gallagher.  For some reason he gets a free pass every season.  No wonder he can't be arsed putting in a huge shift when he knows his position isn't under threat.  Are rovers managers blind to this? 

At risk of sounding slightly pedantic, we don't have a manager.  We have a head coach, and he isn't responsible for signing players.  He's spoken extensively about needing a striker, the recruitment team don't appear to have delivered on that.  

JDT has plenty of flaws, but we can't blame him for this one. 

[speedies gonna get ya.]

Seen a lot of people confidently claim that the O' Brien deal is done. Can anyone with 100% certainty categorically say it is though? Have we ballsed that up aswell.

[ben_the_beast]

Maybe Gregg is waiting until we hit 300 pages

[Craigman]

Maybe we have signed a young Walsall striker again, only to be announced a day later,