Anyone seen much of Josh Bowler? The goals and assists columns don't scream out "standout Championship star" for a winger.

3 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

How much would you expect with just 6 months left on his contract?

Just as a point of order, the other story about Leeds being interested in Nyambe claimed we "wanted" £3m for Nyambe. It didn't say anyone was prepared to offer that for him given his contractual situation, and I'd imagine the same applies to the other two.

bluebruce's point was where in the rumour does it mention £1m. I couldn't see any mention of that (or any) figure either. 

What he's worth, what we would want for him, what Bournemouth want him for or how much he's been touted in the press for is completely irrelevant to his point.

48 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

I think we will massively regret selling Nyambe.

The same people hating on Nyambe are the same that said Raya is shite.

I don't see that there's necessarily a correlation. I'm not the biggest fan of Nyambe, yet I truly believed that Raya was going to make it to the Prem (I was hoping with us mind).

There was bags of technical ability in Raya and you could see the scope he had to improve even during his poor spells. With Nyambe, physically he's brilliant and it's his physical attributes that lend to his best trait (his one to one defending). Technically speaking he's very average and given the amount of exposure he's had in the first team, he hasn't improved to the extent we might've expected early doors. 

Completely agree with the comments that he's better suited to being a defensive RB in a back 4, but he looks out of his depth as a RWB in a 5 because he just doesn't have a final ball in him and just looks devoid of ideas when he passes the half way line (which is a key element to his role in our current system). The weekend was a prime example of that.

That's not to say I'd be happy to see him go. He's one of our academy boys and he's plenty good enough for the Championship and should be retained if demands are realistic. I do think he's the most easily replacable out of him, Lenihan and Rothwell though. 

1 minute ago, Russ said:

Like him already from the video, love seeing someone who enjoys tackling like that.

Certainly going to rack up the fines for bookings though! 😆

I thought exactly the same. He looks spot on though, albeit from a video of his best bits. 

What seems promising is the fact his brain doesn't seem to melt after he passes the halfway line. Certainly looks as pacy and combative as Nyambe defensively.

12 minutes ago, RoverDom said:

Who Zeefuik is he? 

Nice. We were all thinking it.

Chris Wood would be a bit of a coup in my opinion. Probably a class above anyone we'll get this window. Can't imagine he'd be available or that we'd be able to offer him the wages he'd want (apparently on £50k a week at Burnley). Can only assume that's a very ambitious rumour as opposed to anything of substance.

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

Utter nonsense, Armstrong scored 28 goals for us last season. It isnt his absence that has led to us doing better, if we had Armstrong now we would be even more dangerous, there are so many factors that have led to our improvement. Stopping trying to have excessive possession and being more pragmatic. Pickering coming in and massively improving on the woeful left backs we had. Ayala staying fit more often. Buckleys development. Brereton coming to the fore boosted further by confidence from his Chile exploits. Travis returning to full fitness and sharpness. Rothwell being somewhat re-modelled. Khadra and Van Hecke being here. Wharton being back fit. Many sub par players being released rather than being relied upon due to an unusally compact fixture list last season. The list goes on.

I think all of our players would struggle in the Prem.

Cracking post. Perfectly sums up the differences to last season. It really is a sum of those improvements that has got us to where we are. Hopefully we can keep it up and avoid the post January death spiral. If we do, I honestly think we go up in the automatic places. 

8 minutes ago, Fraserkirky said:

MASSIVE game next week! I 

I will go out on a limb and say that was Breretons best goal of the season so far. Closest thing to a Shearer header we have seen for a while.

Huge game and a proper test of where we are. We're in a great run of form but Fulham, Bournemouth & West Brom are the stand out sides in the league.

Rudy was pretty special in the air.

I can't wait for him to go. Had all sorts of messages mid week from mates that have no idea how bad it really is with Rovers. 

Mowbray should've been gone two seasons ago when he spewed that rubbish about being worse than Preston, then we lost a two goal lead to lose the game to them. That was all down to mentality rather than quality. Now we've got little quality and piss poor mentality. He's taken us absolutely nowhere. 

20 minutes ago, Tom said:

A completely woeful 50 minutes followed by a let off then a brilliant 20 after the subs in which we won the game then the game petered out which suited us.

The subs getting involved with high intensity from the off set the tone.

Dolan not giving up on a lost cause won a corner then what a header by Ayala.

Buckley in particular isn’t earning a role at present he’s been really poor, funnily enough until his goal I thought Diaz was having a shocker but what a goal that is.

Ayala makes the rest of the defence better for his presence.

Both full backs impressed I’m amazed that some don’t rate Nyambe he’s a machine.

Great 3 points in the end, job done, glad to see Tony change it early and not over complicate it with a decision that paid off! 

I agree with all of this bar the Buckley comment. He didn't turn up today but he was one of our better players on Saturday. We lost control of the game when he went off. 

What worries me most about that transfer window is our apparent lack of pulling power when other Championship clubs are interested in a player we are supposedly after. How Obafemi has ended up at Swansea when it's been well documented we were looking to bring him in to replace Armstrong is beyond me. I'm sure there will be more examples that we aren't fully aware of. Reach to WBA (to largely sit on their bench) is another.

I get that we're trying to cut our cloth accordingly due to FFP, but to leave ourselves a striker short is really poor. We also shouldn't have been waiting until the final day to get something sorted as well. 

Seen that we've been linked with Patrick Roberts, who is due to be available on a free from City (reportedly with a sell on % included in any move). Would love to see him join although I doubt we could compete on wages with the other clubs linked. 

If the Obafemi move is off, I hope the club have protected themselves to the point where there's a written agreement that more money will come from Southampton for Armstrong. 

If it's just a case that we had a gentleman's agreement to get Obafemi cheaper due to the Armstrong deal, but that's that, then that's really bad business.

That's the Blackburn Rovers we expect to see. Some proper graft with the odd bit of quality. With a few decent additions, this team could go far.

As well as we've played there, they've been let down by Mowbray again in my opinion. At least 10 minutes before their goal, we should've had some fresh legs on up front. Dolan isn't a striker and for us to persist with playing him there when we have a genuine striker on the wing in Gallagher is utterly ridiculous.

After that performance, Chapman should be ahead of Dolan on the wing. 

40 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Not sure I agree with you, seen ntcham a good few times for Celtic having worked in Glasgow at football games, he goes from looking really good to disinterested and a liability. There is no consistency there and we have too many like that currently for my liking 

I'm with you on Ntcham. Seen plenty of Celtic games with a Celtic supporting mate, including plenty of their European games (which I'm sure will be highlighted as a plus point that he's played at level) and he flatters to deceive a lot of the time. That being said, there's a player in there and he would be a bit of a coup for us in the state we're in now.

2 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

If this lad is better than anything we have, comes from Clitheroe and is a big Rovers fan, is there only me wondering why he wasn't picked up by our academy?

Does our academy tend to do well against the big teams in terms of youth recruitment? Or are they likely to get the top ones and we get the trickle down of the ones that don't quite make the grade there? i.e. Travis, Rankin-Costello.

34 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

You can believe what you want JH and I will leave it there

I would sign him to play one of the wider role in the front 3 but I don't think he is the number 9 striker we need. 

I thought he was more of number 10 player not a striker or wide player. 

Looks like he's played across the front 3 and deeper. Not sure what point you're trying to make.

Regardless, the person who shared the information has since said that it was Dembele that was mentioned, so it's not him anyway. 

20 minutes ago, 1864roverite said:

This isn’t itk or possible news by source but I have had a text from an old pal who is a Peterborough fan and he has said that rumours are around that Rovers are interested in one of their players who isn’t in the starting 11 today. I’ve no idea who it is and what position the player normally operates from.

Sammie Szmodics is the obvious one missing for them today. Attacking midfielder. Scored 15 goals and got 8 assists from midfield last season. 25 years old. Sounds like he'd be someone we'd be after. Not sure what he's like.

7 minutes ago, Fraserkirky said:

He must be walking up for talks, if he is still on his way.

If he can do that injury free, we'll have him!

Not falling for any of the transfer gossip. Usually all a load of tripe and started off by accounts/people with no credibility. Nixon gets a bad rep on here for his accuracy, yet the majority seem to be hanging on to his every word about the Armstrong/Obafemi deals & firing questions about random links to him. 

Until Obafemi is pictured with another team's shirt, he could still be on his way here.

10 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

 

Plus their combined total was still short of AA - so that's 38 goals needed.

So the reality of your initial comments - and it certainly didn't read this way - was that the maximum they would get between them this season is the 18 league goals they scored last season, plus an additional 20 league goals to attempt to plug the gap. I agree, there's very little chance of Gallagher, Brereton & Dolan scoring 38 league goals between them next season (that's also not very hard to predict). However I do think they'll comfortably score more between them than they did last season. Potentially double figures for both Gallagher & Brereton if they stay fit. 

All of this doesn't take into account that we'll more than likely bring in another striker (Obafemi or anyone else on TM's magic list). Or that the addition of Pickering (& hopefully a more available Ayala) may improve our defensive record, negating the need to fully replace his goals.

1 minute ago, JacknOry said:

Yeah, except that separate of AA's goals.

They have to make up the extra on top - i.e., they have to add an extra 28 goals between them.

Not rocket science. 

Of course. But if we actually set the team up properly and concede less, then we don't need to replace all of Armstrong's goals.

Not exactly rocket science..

3 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

20 max (between them)

18 league goals between them last season (Gallagher 8, Brereton 7, Dolan 3). I could see them getting more fairly comfortably this time round. I don't think many in here would say any of them had a particularly good season last season.

4 minutes ago, TruRover said:

This frustrates me. Butterworth and Carter could 100% play an important role for us this season. Carter has already proven himself in league one while Butterworth has shown his ability in the limited appearances he’s had. TM is so scared to trust our academy players.

I've got no issue with those three going out on loan. There's a lot to be said for the loan spells that Wharton had. A bit of time for them to develop physically as well.

It would be an issue for me if we're just bringing in young lads on loan to replace them, that aren't an obvious step or two above them. Adarabioyo & Harwood-Bellis were much better options from other clubs for example.

Could the Kean v Mowbray debate be moved to a separate thread? It's clogging up this one and making it look like we're being active in the market. Giving a lot of false hope whenever I log on.