2025 Summer Transfer Thread. 😂

[Paul Mani]

41 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

One thing that's been impressive this window - they've kept their targets under wraps.

We only tend to find out about them when they're booked in for their medical - which is why we knew about Baradji for a few weeks before he signed.

Suspect we haven't heard who the targets are - the Senegalese lad, the Bolton lad etc seem to be wide of the mark. 

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 -…..

[rovers11]

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.

[chaddyrovers]

5 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I dont think you have factored in that most of the fees bandied around have been in Euros. Also, dont just take the idea that fees received have no impact on the budget. Use logic, we have made a lot in completed and soon to be completed sales. Obviously thats why we have spent more than expected.

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. 

5 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Im not overly interested in what they say. If you want people to be annoyed with regarding Eustace's departure, how about the owners, Suhail and to a lesser extent the likes of Gestede and Owen. They are the ones that pissed off another manager to the point of leaving. Point is, you always rate the current manager higher than those who have gone before who you only start to criticise upon their departure. Always the case, everyone knows. You prefer Ismael to Eustace because he is the manager now, no other reason.

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

[rovers11]

23 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

 

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.

[Ricky]

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. 

[CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber]

5 minutes ago, Ricky said:

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. 

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

[aletheia]

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

[Tomphil2]

32 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

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.

Better than some of the slapped arse entitled faces of some of the loans shunted here that's for sure.

[Tomphil2]

10 minutes ago, aletheia said:

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

All dayer more like...

[J*B]

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. 

[roversfan99]

43 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

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 -…..

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.

 

[Tomphil2]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Would not be surprised if Hyam is ushered out of the door for a million or so before next Monday.

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.

[RevidgeBlue]

54 minutes ago, aletheia said:

As it stands, we do seem to have spent more than got from outgoings this window.
Bear with me. I'm discounting the shedloads from Adam etc, sell on fees for Raya etc. Also, the plenty saved on wages.
Thus expenditure just this window circa euros 7.732m.
Incoming this window circa euros 3.87 euros (assuming for a round number 3m for Brittain).

Now they may just be happy to fund this 3.86m gap but with a week to go in the transfer market, and given previous, then to plug the gap it would seem clear that some ‘assets’ will leave:
Travis?
Buckley?
Pears?
Leaonard?
Hyam?
Tronstad? But surely too soon.

And in case it is not abundantly clear, I think that not reinvesting some of the incoming over the last few years tells you all you need to know about this club.

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.

[Exiled_Rover]

58 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

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'd soon notice the difference if your employers started paying you in Euros!

[aletheia]

13 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Once those are taken into account

As it stands, Rev.

And I wasn't discounting the sale of JRC -Euros 870k

Edited 2 hours ago by aletheia

[Exiled_Rover]

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

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 -…..

I hope so because Soumano's highlight tape is incredibly underwhelming.

[Exiled_Rover]

26 minutes ago, J*B said:

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. 

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. 

[RevidgeBlue]

16 minutes ago, J*B said:

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. 

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.

[Paul Mani]

30 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

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.

 

I don’t think you’ve worked Suhail out at all, if you don’t think he lives to be seen as ‘clever’. He is Mr Ego personified, so I believe. No one will convince me that he’s not flexing. It’s not JUST about reducing costs. If it were then why bother funding the academy? Why bother scouting the lower Belgian leagues? He’s selling his employers the dream…best case scenario he gets promoted in their ecosystem and gets moved on.

I reckon he’s sold a dream that he can cut costs, buy cheap and sell high, whilst keeping us in the league. 

[RevidgeBlue]

12 minutes ago, aletheia said:

As it stands, Rev.

And I wasn't discounting the sale of JRC -Euros 870k

It would be a massive surprise if Travis didn't go through though. The Club and VI in particular would have some massive bridges to rebuild.

I think you can safely count it as a done deal even though it hasnt officially been confirmed yet.

Id love it if it didn't though - there'd be some major arse covering to be done and a section of the fan base will have to take their plastic snakes back to the shop.

[aletheia]

1 minute ago, Paul Mani said:

then why bother funding the academy?

Nice idea, we'll get back to you on that...

[Paul Mani]

40 minutes ago, J*B said:

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. 

Arghhh…I was so interested in this post. Smart thinking! And then you washed Kargbo and Henriksson out vs Dolan and Weimann! Ffs mate, how on EARTH have you decided they are a downgrade based on next to no evidence?

Great post - In January, I’d be delighted to run through this comparison. 👍🏼

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, Paul Mani said:

Venkys don’t care and Pasha (bless him) thinks him and his mate RG can beat the system by scouring the market for cheap foreign imports. It 10000% is a strategy, and VI is ok with it, where JE wasn’t.

The mission of that leadership team is to retain Championship status while reducing the burden on their masters. 

The theory here is to make the club sustainable by utilising esc slots, buying cheap and selling high. They’ve washed their hands of the British golden handshake brigade and as far as they’re concerned, Eustace, Travis, Batth, Weimann et al can toddle off, on their big money contracts because they think they’ve got this thing nailed.

I’m not even entertaining the sabotage narrative, because honestly, I don’t think Venkys care enough to bother.

 

I think you're 100% in your analysis of the situation, the only question that matters currently is "Will it work?"

I think not but we'll have to wait and see.

As far as "sabotage" is concerned I've always been of the view that it comes from within the walls of Ewood Park. Why wouldn't the owners want promotion and the riches that go with it?

[KentExile]

Rumours on Derby forum that Wrexham have gazumped Derby for Travis, not sure if that will be on the fee or the wages (I suspect wages if it's true, as will they already know what Rovers will have accepted via Travis/his agent)

Edited 1 hour ago by KentExile

[JBiz]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

I think you're 100% in your analysis of the situation, the only question that matters currently is "Will it work?"

I think not but we'll have to wait and see.

As far as "sabotage" is concerned I've always been of the view that it comes from within the walls of Ewood Park. Why wouldn't the owners want promotion and the riches that go with it?

“Yes let’s look like a shit club that’s stuck in the champ” suits absolutely nobody, and any suggestion that this is deliberate and not the result of a lack of ambition, expertise and care, is an insult to people’s intelligence.