Connor O'Riordan

[NeilInBristol]

12 hours ago, bluebruce said:

He's had 2 games with the first team so far.

Yep. Long may it continue. He's one of ours now, not a loanee so hope he gets to learn and play especially with mcfadz while we still have him 

[NeilInBristol]

Apparently. According to THE COACH

The club signed Connor so of course he will feature in the future 

Ie the coach doesn't chose

He also commented on the fact that Connor is young so needs protecting especially this time of the season

Yep he is young

Unlike Adam Wharton who is younger and played most games for us and is now playing for a premier league team

Sure let's protect Connor we don't need to play him 

[Upside Down]

If you're good enough, you're old enough. 

[Ewood Ace]

Another damning indictment of Broughton. We are in a relegation battle and our only cash buy in January needs protecting.

[simongarnerisgod]

i reiterate,eustace has`nt got a scooby doo coming out with comments like that ,you`ll only find out if your player is good enough if you play him,we don`t have the biggest or most experienced squad so he`s talking a load of shite,just who are you going to put at centre back now mcfadzean is suspended

[Armchair supporter supremo]

3 hours ago, Ewood Ace said:

Another damning indictment of Broughton. We are in a relegation battle and our only cash buy in January needs protecting.

Cant believe with all the shit the scumbag raos, waggot and sunhail do to this club people still blame and pick on easy targets like of eustace, jdt and Broughton! Professionals that are just doing the best they can under the shit show circus where the clubs plans change with the wind

[Ghost7]

Incredible isn't it. Stockholm syndrome.

[Ewood Ace]

15 minutes ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

Cant believe with all the shit the scumbag raos, waggot and sunhail do to this club people still blame and pick on easy targets like of eustace, jdt and Broughton! Professionals that are just doing the best they can under the shit show circus where the clubs plans change with the wind

If you think I don't criticise The owners or CEO then you are very much mistaken. None of those are signing the players though, we are in a relegation fight and had a paltry budget in January I just think that if Broughton was going to spend money on a player it would have been useful to spend it on someone who can play a big part in that fight against relegation.

Broughton is a symptom of the owners and like many of those employed before him (and the current CEO) is a chancer who is massively out of his depth.

[roversfan99]

Broughton's transfer record is poor but the 500k release fee had to be negotiated across the month because we couldnt afford it and no doubt his wages are dirt cheap.

Even Suhail who is just a worm of a middle man for the owners and Waggott aren't THE issue.

[NeilInBristol]

10 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i reiterate,eustace has`nt got a scooby doo coming out with comments like that ,you`ll only find out if your player is good enough if you play him,we don`t have the biggest or most experienced squad so he`s talking a load of shite,just who are you going to put at centre back now mcfadzean is suspended

Exactly!!!

Point is mcfadz is unavailable. Just play Conor or not. Don't give us bs about needing to protect him because he's young. What bs

Harvey Elliot came in at 16or17 and played. That's young. 

[tomphil]

11 hours ago, Ewood Ace said:

If you think I don't criticise The owners or CEO then you are very much mistaken. None of those are signing the players though, we are in a relegation fight and had a paltry budget in January I just think that if Broughton was going to spend money on a player it would have been useful to spend it on someone who can play a big part in that fight against relegation.

Broughton is a symptom of the owners and like many of those employed before him (and the current CEO) is a chancer who is massively out of his depth.

Broughton signed Ennis on a 4 year contract, a player the previous manager didn't appear to want to use.

Broughton signed Telalovic on a long contract for a few hundred grand, see above.

Broughton signed Leo who has single handily cost us about 6 points there can be no denying that.

Broughton signed a known crock on 10/20k a week until the end of the season  who got crocked after 15 mins predictably.

These are the things he is judged on, Sammie. Hyam, Brittain all already lined up before he came but even so paying a few quid and decent wages to guys with a bit of pedigree is less of a lottery.

GB was broughton in to source and sign young cheap talent to develop and sell for a profit, he is falling massively on that front. Another 4 in summer to add to the 4 mentioned  and likely replacing departures..... dear me are you confident ?

Because i'm not.

[harryhealless1928]

Yes its hard for Broughton when hes only buttons to spend.

But...Gary Bowyerdid as good a job(perhaps better) with buttons as well as being first team manager; even though hardly using  the Academy lads.

Cairney, Duffy &  Gestede come to mind immediately for some sort of fee generated before the wages sent Venkys into cost-cutting mode. 

[Armchair supporter supremo]

16 hours ago, Ewood Ace said:

If you think I don't criticise The owners or CEO then you are very much mistaken. None of those are signing the players though, we are in a relegation fight and had a paltry budget in January I just think that if Broughton was going to spend money on a player it would have been useful to spend it on someone who can play a big part in that fight against relegation.

Broughton is a symptom of the owners and like many of those employed before him (and the current CEO) is a chancer who is massively out of his depth.

Ok, well I'd imagine the American lad he had lined up was going to be 'that player' that would have hopefully comecin and gives us a boost at the attacking end. 

But the sinister ones that lurk in the background blatantly scuppered that deal

[Ghost7]

One thing you can argue is mistakes are more costly at CB and GK. So I can understand not wanting to throw youngsters into those positions. 

[RevidgeBlue]

On 16/03/2024 at 00:16, Ewood Ace said:

If you think I don't criticise The owners or CEO then you are very much mistaken. None of those are signing the players though, we are in a relegation fight and had a paltry budget in January I just think that if Broughton was going to spend money on a player it would have been useful to spend it on someone who can play a big part in that fight against relegation.

Broughton is a symptom of the owners and like many of those employed before him (and the current CEO) is a chancer who is massively out of his depth.

Absolutely spot on. Whilst we know everything boils down to the owners I have no idea whatsoever why some people insist on giving Broughton and to a lesser extent Waggott a free ride.

Broughton has signed three strikers in his time at the Club none of whom have registered a single goal for us and one of which wasn't even fit enough to play. He spent what there was of the summer budget on the calamitous Leo and what there was of the winter budget on a prospect that now we are told cant play because he needs protecting. And also brought in a 37 year old and a crock who lasted 15 mins

He's also overseen two absolutely unprecedented January cock ups in succession. Apart from that he's done OK I suppose. Lol.

Currently keeping his head down whilst all the fall out from January dies down and then will no doubt re-emerge unscathed next season like nothing has happened. Its sickening.

A lot of people don't even like Waggott being given grief because they claim it deflects from the real problem which is the owners. I really don't understand this point of view - if they're doing a terrible job, both should be called out for it.

[RevidgeBlue]

On 16/03/2024 at 12:18, harryhealless1928 said:

Yes its hard for Broughton when hes only buttons to spend.

But...Gary Bowyerdid as good a job(perhaps better) with buttons as well as being first team manager; even though hardly using  the Academy lads.

Cairney, Duffy &  Gestede come to mind immediately for some sort of fee generated before the wages sent Venkys into cost-cutting mode. 

It was allegedly Gary Bowyer's Dad Ian, of former Notts Forest fame under Cloughie, who was involved in the scouting when we had that relatively golden recruitment period.

How we could do with someone at the Club now who knows the game and has a real eye for a player instead of Broughton and legions of analysts who wouldn't know a decent player if they tripped over them.

[rigger]

24 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

It was allegedly Gary Bowyer's Dad Ian, of former Notts Forest fame under Cloughie, who was involved in the scouting when we had that relatively golden recruitment period.

How we could do with someone at the Club now who knows the game and has a real eye for a player instead of Broughton and legions of analysts who wouldn't know a decent player if they tripped over them.

There are probably loads of people who would willingly do a scouting job for no pay. I think it is more that the club would not use them.

[Mattyblue]

Broughton does get cut a bit of slack on here, but name me a single person that gives Swag a ‘free ride?’

[roversfan99]

They do deserve and they do get plenty of criticism. But they are not THE  problem nor are any of the incompetent staff hired in the last 13 years. Its bizarre that anyone would continiously want to specifically focus away from the owners.

[bluebruce]

Something that is almost always overlooked is Broughton's job is NOT Chief Scout. He isn't in charge of finding players. To quote him:

“It is different at every club and has to be context specific. At Blackburn Rovers the role of Director of Football is to oversee the sporting side of the Club including the six departments: First Team, Academy, Player Recruitment, Analysis, Performance and Medical."

That's quite a lot of areas to oversee at once. I'm sure our Head of Recruitment/Chief Scout, with the other scouts, does the vast majority of busy work identifying players and drawing up lists based on what budget and priorities are given to them. Budgets which have changed repeatedly and made this part of matters very difficult to conduct. I'd expect Broughton's roles in the recruitment process to involve deciding (with the manager) who from the narrowed down lists they still want pursue, and then conducting the negotiations (again very difficult with the rug constantly pulled from under you). But his role is never going to involve personally finding gems, short of being recommended someone by whatever contacts he has, and if the lists presented to him are crap, there might be no gems on them, or only polished ones we can't afford.

All this, combined with the fact the brief is now to find cheap, young, unpolished gems who will take time to polish so can't exactly be judged as failures or successes within 9 months or so, inclines me towards giving him more time before I decide if he's crap or not, though I do have some issues with him. He needs to be replacing scouting staff who aren't up to the task, I'm sure that would come under his remit, but, especially since we are always reluctant to pay staff off and may struggle to afford better staff, he will need to give it time to see if those players develop in order to judge the people who suggested them.