2025 Summer Transfer Thread. 😂

[alexanders]

Imagine Travis failing his medical at Derby. 

[RevidgeBlue]

Feel really sorry for Travis.

The Club are actively trying to offload him because he's one of the higher earners yet just to rub salt in the wound the manager has taken the very unusual step of coming out in Public  and stating "he's let everyone down" for some unspecified reason.

I think from Travis's point of view, maintaining a dignified silence is probably the best thing to do. Just get out of the place without resorting to stooping to the Club's levels.

Edited 2 hours ago by RevidgeBlue

[Andy Kennedys Hairdo]

28 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Not aimed at you specifically, but I swear some people would prefer it if we signed Usain Bolt in his prime over Tugay in his prime.

Pace is useless unless you can do something with it.

Agree 100%. No good having Ferrari feet, but a Skoda brain. Unfortunately, the way modern football is going, it appears that the requirement is for players to be 'athletes first, footballers second'. 

[RoversClitheroe]

4 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

The Club are actively trying to offload him because he's one of the higher earners yet just to rub salt in the wound the manager has taken the very unusual step of coming out in Public  come out and stating "he's let everyone down" for some unspecified reason.

Honestly lost complete respect for Valerian.

Can't believe he'd throw him under the bus publicly.

Be a bit more professional.

Pathetic.

[TugaysMarlboro]

23 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Is anyone able to confirm? Has the recent pressure from the fans forum meant that Pasha and Co have changed strategies? 

What are you hearing @glen9mullan?

If there's anything to this rumour, then well done to the folk who attended the fans forum.

Ultimately, I think we need Venkys to leave to make the necessary strides forward as a team and club. However, any pressure that releases the purse strings can only be a positive. Regardless of my personal opinions on anyone involved in running the place.

[Admiral Nelsen]

16 minutes ago, alexanders said:

It will be very exciting to see how Trav does in Derby. He did play very well under JE in Rovers and as I have said earlier in the summer. He had his best football days under Eustace and they seem to be a very good fit with each other. I guess this also affects the desire to leave Rovers for Derby. 

 

Agree that they're well suited. I expect him to be a big hit there to be honest, but I'd also have expected him to be a big hit at Coventry. Or at Millwall if they managed to sign him last year. Or others if they had the money to spend. 

 

I think because he's a bit of a wind-up merchant and can be a pantomime villain, we can be in danger of overdoing what he brings/doesn't bring as an 'enforcer', and missing how good (at this level) his all-round game is. We saw it when he first came into the side and could immediately do what Evans and Smallwood could do as well as plenty more besides on the ball. We've had countless central midfielders in the last decade or so since we've been relegated, and Trav is one of at most two or three that don't have glaring weaknesses in his game.

[J*B]

One things for sure - he'll have the game of his life when he returns to Ewood. He'll have the home end pulling their hair out and his replacement sent off by 60 minutes. 

[davulsukur]

27 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Is anyone able to confirm? Has the recent pressure from the fans forum meant that Pasha and Co have changed strategies? 

What are you hearing @glen9mullan?

Something has deffo happened. 

We brought in north of £40m and reinvested, at best, 10% of that. This time we've brought in far less but spent more?

If we assume:

Brittain - £3m

Trav - £3m (money not even here yet)

JRC - £1m

Bucko - £1m

That's £8m brought in and we've probably spent 80% of that money?

[RevidgeBlue]

1 minute ago, davulsukur said:

Something has deffo happened. 

We brought in north of £40m and reinvested, at best, 10% of that. This time we've brought in far less but spent more?

If we assume:

Brittain - £3m

Trav - £3m (money not even here yet)

JRC - £1m

Bucko - £1m

That's £8m brought in and we've probably spent 80% of that money?

Waggott no longer on the premises?

[bluebruce]

2 hours ago, Hasta said:

Yeah apologies. For some reason when I checked the pre-season odds I looked at Wrexham and not Birmingham. (Newly promoted, hype, yanks etc...). Both West Brom and Wrexham were 7/1 pre-season.

The next question is why the hell are Birmingham second favourites? I didnt even consider them pre-season and saw nothing at Ewood to change my mind.

Crazy amounts of spending, both last season and this. Also it's possible both sides are better than they looked because we made the general play hard for them? It's also very early in the season, teams are rarely fully at the races for the first 2-3 games.

[superniko]

43 minutes ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

Game of opinions, but I think this is selling him well short. 

If you were a team managed by a Russell Martin type (or even a JDT type, even though they're very different) then I can see how Travis isn't the sort you want. He's technically decent - much better than people give him credit for - but asking him to play one/two touch football isn't playing to his strengths. 

But if you want a classic box-to-box type, how many are better than Travis? I'd say he'd be a key player for at least half of the teams in this league (much in the same way he is for us).

I'm not sure he's box-to-box per-se, how often is he busting a gut to the attacking box?

He's a solid championship midfielder but with his limitations (he'd be a league above if he didn't have any).

Most crucially, I could never really see him helping Rovers cross that 6th place, or 2nd place line - it wasn't uncommon for him to go missing in the latter stages of the season. Sam Morsy kept him out of the team at Ipswich, and I think that sort of backs-up Yeti's claim, he'd be more of a squad player for a team with ambition to get out of this league. (judging by Eustaces signings Derby are not that).

I'd obviously much rather he be that squad player here at Rovers, alongside Trondstad, Tavares and Baradji, as firstly, two of these are unproven and secondly it's likely we'll have injury issues and drops in form at some stage.  

[sverrehh]

Waggott was all about doing most transfers close to deadline day because that was the time he believed the transfers were cheapest. He often said that in interviews.

Which is probably true, but in my view that means pursuing players that are less attractive to most clubs and who does not necessarily fits a profile we are after.

[superniko]

21 minutes ago, Andy Kennedys Hairdo said:

Agree 100%. No good having Ferrari feet, but a Skoda brain. Unfortunately, the way modern football is going, it appears that the requirement is for players to be 'athletes first, footballers second'. 

Isn't a Skoda brain exactly what you want? Practical, sensible, safe. value for money 

I'd say Ferrari feet and Skoda brain would make a great footballer 😁

(all tongue in cheek obviously)

Edited 2 hours ago by superniko

[davulsukur]

5 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Waggott no longer on the premises?

Nar, I think Suhail was always the gatekeeper with regards to the purse strings. 

I think this is his last ditch effort to save his skin. @glen9mullan has mentioned previously that he is very close to the edge, I think he's unleashing the fabled war chest (to an extent) in an effort to get fans on board. 

Quell the unrest and report all sunshine and rainbows back to Venky's.

Added bonus: he's managed to cut the wage bill at the same time.

[BRFC.]

27 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Feel really sorry for Travis.

The Club are actively trying to offload him because he's one of the higher earners yet just to rub salt in the wound the manager has taken the very unusual step of coming out in Public  and stating "he's let everyone down" for some unspecified reason.

I think from Travis's point of view, maintaining a dignified silence is probably the best thing to do. Just get out of the place without resorting to stooping to the Club's levels.

Can’t believe after 15 years of lies people will side with the club, there’s 2 sides to every story and I hope Trav can tell us his side.

[bluebruce]

54 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He's the type of player that keeps you in a game, but he doesn't win games for you. 

He's also a paper tiger - tries to play the hard man, but we all know he's soft. He's not an enforcer.

When have you ever seen him be soft? He might not be Tyson Fury but these claims he is soft seem massively exaggerated to me. Never seen him show fear or get leathered. Just plays his wind up part and temper well enough to not throw a silly punch and cost us a game.

[RevidgeBlue]

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

When have you ever seen him be soft? He might not be Tyson Fury but these claims he is soft seem massively exaggerated to me. Never seen him show fear or get leathered. Just plays his wind up part and temper well enough to not throw a silly punch and cost us a game.

It's the only slight criticism I would have of Trav.

When he indulges in the shithousery I think it's to the detriment of his own game. When he concentrates purely on the football, great player - at this level.

[AspRover]

It very much remains to be seen whether the new players are good enough/up for it over the course of a season, but someone (or someones) behind the scenes seems to be actually trying, and other than the managers it's been a damn long time since we were able to see that.

I expected us to add a couple of freebees and a bunch of loans to a very depleted squad and call it a day, this level of wheeling and dealing and seemingly attempting to scrape together a coherent squad with a tactical plan is unheard of in post-Venky rovers.

I don't think that there is any way a random Saudi club came in for Buckley without someone here actively trying to find a way to move him on and actually make some money off the deal at the same time - in previous seasons we'd have just paid him off to get him off the wage bill. Someone is doing some leg work. It feels a lot more like the transfer strategy of back when we were a serious club.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that I think this all comes from a decision made at some point after we had re-signed Forshaw. I think that at that point freebees and loans was absolutely the order of the day. We've seen this extremely late and sudden decision making before in reverse - when Ennis went from being a speculative punt early in the window to our marquee signing as the taps were abruptly shut off (not that they have been particularly opened now, but you get my meaning).

This of course does beg the question why now, why not for JDT or Eustace? Who or what has actually prompted this? When are they going to get fired? How are Venkys and Pasha going to screw it up this time?

It's shaping up to be the first season in a very long time that I am, idk excited seems strong but lets say intrigued, actually quite interested in how we are going to look rather than just my default of 'oh god we're definitely going down this year....'

 

Venkys out, Pasha out etc. etc.

[Paul Mani]

36 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Jackson's article today suggests that a midfielder is being chased but that a striker is far from a guarantee. Surely those priorities should be swapped.

That’s because of two things…

1) A striker was not in the plan. Honestly, it feels like an impassioned purchase. Like VI and RG have twisted Pasha’s arm. 

2) The striker will cost much bigger money and was not originally budgeted for.

 

[Paul Mani]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Ismael (who I'm on record as not particularly liking) was asked a question about Travis and answered honestly - he's asked to leave and he's let the team down. I have no problem with that. 

It's not a hatchet job. 

Travis' camp's reaction tells you they're very unhappy with that as they were trying to quietly slip out of the door into Eustace's arms as the hard done to hero. 

 

100%

[jumpin']

2 hours ago, B16Rover said:

Putting my happy clapper hat on, imagining I'm an 18-25 year old rovers fan.  Is Travis a legend?  

Doesn’t even have a song 

[Emerald Isle Rover]

25 minutes ago, BRFC. said:

Can’t believe after 15 years of lies people will side with the club, there’s 2 sides to every story and I hope Trav can tell us his side.

100% I hope he does too. However if he doesn’t then it’s leaves more questions than answers. Personally don’t see how/why he wouldn’t if he genuinely feels he’s been let down

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Can anyone explain what's happened to Higgins for Rovers? Is he still here? Is he not?

Injured.

[Exiled_Rover]

31 minutes ago, superniko said:

Isn't a Skoda brain exactly what you want? Practical, sensible, safe. value for money 

I'd say Ferrari feet and Skoda brain would make a great footballer 😁

(all tongue in cheek obviously)

I mean the analogy started because I expressed my disappointment at having a painfully slow winger in the team. It went downhill from there. 

[MarkBRFC]

2 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

That’s because of two things…

1) A striker was not in the plan. Honestly, it feels like an impassioned purchase. Like VI and RG have twisted Pasha’s arm. 

2) The striker will cost much bigger money and was not originally budgeted for.

 

Going back to Rudy's disastrous podcast appearances back in April, a striker was part of the plan then. He mentioned all the positions he would like to sign and a Striker was right up there.

For some reason, that was quietly dropped (probably budget problems?) But now seems to have crept back on the radar again.

For me we desperately need a new central striker to compliment what we have.