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  1. https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/17676487.rovers-chief-executive-on-budget-talks-with-owners-venkys/ Generic enough stuff here and as I said in an earlier post, no benefit in coming out saying we have more money to spend than last summer. The proof will be in the pudding as the fella says.
  2. So last year I started a thread to evaluate our signings from last season and assess how TM had done in the transfer market. Now that the doom and gloom has lifted somewhat from the most awful run I've seen in my living memory (duration, results and abject performance all being criteria in that moniker) I thought it'd be good to see how people thought TM had done this year. Last year we saw a mix of some excellent signings who played a key part in our success (Dack and Smallwood) as well as a raft of flops (Harper, Gladwin) and a rather expensive flop of a marquee signing (Whittingham) leading to an overall conclusion of meh or at best ok. Now's the time to evaluate this season's crop of transfers. Please note: this is not about who TM didn't buy or his lack of signing players for certain positions, but evaluating what who he did buy. Fans and critics alike acknowledge we should have strengthened in January and should have strengthened the defense and I don't want this to be yet another statement of this, but rather get people's thoughts of how well he does when he actually buys players. I think this is especially pertinent given advocates of TM say give him the summer to sort it. That's only any good IF he can sort it in the summer. Last season's evidence was very 50:50 not inspiring confidence in TM undertaking a revamp of the squad, and below is my consideration of how he has done this year, to see what confidence could or should be placed in TM improving the squad. So my thoughts are as follows: Joe Rothwell - 8 Good cover for Dack, or much more preferably as attacking left mid, Eothwell also could play as one of the two sitting midfielders and drive forward more in my book. He's consistently been one of our best players when on the pitch and it's no surprise our mini-upturn in form has been because Rothwell has played. Didn't cost loads and has youth on his side, a really astute signing for TM. The only question is why it's taken so long for him to force his way into the first team... Reed - 9. Does everything I want from a deep lying midfielder. Sadly I'm not the manager. However he has looked a cut above and visibly improved the team when he has played, and also has versatility which is needed in a club like Rovers when we can't carry a huge squad. Perhaps that hindered him in getting shunted about, but as a quality player being spotted for a position we needed improvement in (I'm especially sick of Evans being in a Rovers shirt) was an astute buy. Shame it wasn't a loan to buy. Palmer - 3. Far too much of a show pony for my liking, and really didn't produce the goods for us at all. Given TM likes hard working defensive attacking wide players I do wonder how Palmer managed to start a lot on the right. Didn't work hard. Always tried one trick too many. Didn't make much happen. A right waste of space imo. I'm not convinced he's all that good as his better impact at Bristol seems to be as a super sub. A heck of a lot of talent, but the brains of a rocking horse, whether it was cover for Dack, the attacking right mid spot or super sub he failed on all 3 counts. He didn't look teachable to me either, and on performance and character seemed a heck of a flop. Shame as Bristol are showing that even a show pony has uses if managed properly, but goodness me not what we needed to improve the fist 11 and he didn't. Armstrong - 6 this was the toughest one to rate for me. I really think he has been poor out wide this season out wide, and hasn't contributed much at all in terms of goals or assists. That said I totally think he was a good signing at the time. He had pace, had bags of potential, fee was reasonable, versatile giving plan B as a striker and can operate on the wing, known to the club and performed well last season - definitely the sort of player we should have been signing. Bit gutted it's not worked very well, but hard to criticize TM for signing him. Rodwell - 4 Given he was brought as a defender this was a bad signing imo. Being marginally better than Mulgrew and Williams is not much of an achievement, and when you're first choice centre halves are both injury prone signing another injury prone one seems to make even less sense. We've not had any problems but had reservations about his attitude too, and whilst I'm not blaming him for the malaise of the last couple of months, he didn't strike me as the type to buck the trend there. Might have been decent as a defensive mid, but given we have a host of defensive centre mids he was never going to get a look in there. Mind you that's a pointless argument - he was brought as a defender, and he was really not the type of defender we needed whatsoever. Only saving grace was the deal seemed a sensible one. Chapman - 2 I quite liked the look of Chapman in his first spell, but what the hell is the point of signing a player you're never going to play and doesn't fit your system/tactics? I'm not convinced it's all injury related - which is why I'm not including Davenport in here, as I think that's injury related - given he played for Boro a few times. Given he doesn't trust the lad at all and won't play him this is a waste of a wage. Hopefully this trend can be bucked now we've achieved safety and Chapman won't prove to be a waste, but really what is the point of signing someone you won't play at all? Bereton - 0 Best till last, an absolute clanger on so many fronts. Firstly we utterly needed to not be reliant solely on Graham, so whoever came in had to be Championship ready. Bereton clearly isn't and therefore wasn't fit for purpose. I'm not all that convinced that he has that much potential either. Then there's the fee that's factored in. As a free or a million quid Bereton would be a poor signing. At £7 million, it's an outrageous failure. Put it this way, for half that amount we could have the chap who went to Villa (McGinn?) and Bauer. Not saying we'd have got them but just for value comparison purposes. To spunk £7 million on one player who has made zero contribution is an appalling waste of funds. It would have been a clanger back in the Premiership, now in the championship blowing 75% of our budget on a guy who can't get in the first team much less improve it is a horrendous mistake. It's big money for Rovers and has massively backfired. The only speck of light is he is young enough to improve but I am skeptical as to his quality and feel the pressure of a £7 million tag is going to be too much. Put it this way last time we spent similar money we got 20+ goals from Rhodes. Not sure how long it'll take Bereton to chalk up that many goals for us, if at all. So looking at it, again for the second year running it seems very hit and miss. The hits are good - Rothwell and Reid in particular. The problem is the misses are very bad too and have a significant impact on us. Worryingly for the second year running the most expensive signing has been an utter flop, with the downside this time being it took up most of our budget. Given the 50:50 (at best) transfer success, I'm somewhat doubtful as to TM's ability to turn things round in the summer. These are my thoughts, how about others?
  3. As a 70-odd year old Rovers fan, one of whose biggest regrets is that he didn't inherit his Dad's blue and white eyes, am I also the only one to regret the club's apparent inability to commemorate the passing of the heroes of my teenage years? In recent months, we've had the deaths announced of many of my [and many others on here, I know] childhood heroes. Would it really have broken the bank at Ewood to have had the team wearing black armbands commemorating - e.g. Barry Hole and Kit Napier? Perhaps those commemorations took place at midweek home games which the logistics of a midweek return trip from Heywood to Ewood by public transport prevent me from attending. Even so, I can't recall reading anything in the matchday programmes. What do others think?
  4. Considering there's a poll where most people are opposed to Mowbray's continuation as manager... I'm not saying all these options are realistic (obviously) or people I particularly care for. Some of them would certainly be included in the betting odds though.
  5. *** Poll is anonymous *** “Stay” This is just a bad spell, January is what we are really about and the rest of the season since has been the blip, coincidentally now that we are all but safe. Despite any potential we may have shown early on, mid-table was always the target and injuries rather than bad planning have hampered a better finish. It was important to give the League One side a chance to perform and they have got us to safety. The stats are what they are and they don’t make great reading but we need to look at the bigger picture. Now that Mowbray has learned about his squad capabilities he will deal with this in the Summer and we will have a better season. We just have to keep the faith. “Go” Time to go T-Mo. Thanks for getting us back into the Championship first time (the minimum expectation) but it’s just not working at this level. We are in the same type of run that we were when you first joined and results are worse. Comparing the last 10 games of each... Coyle (W2D3L5 9pts from 30) v Mowbray (W1D1L8 4pts from 30). If it hadn’t been for a purple patch in January - when an enthusiastic, “pre-Mowbrayed” Lewis Travis burst on to the scene - we’d be below Rotherham. The sides you pick are one dimensional, you still prefer your favourites at the expense of potential quality because you haven’t addressed glaring problems during the last four windows, and I’ve no faith you will do anything differently after the next one. Or some variation but your reasoning isn’t necessarily required. Stay or Go...
  6. Surprised I still have hair left when it comes to this topic. What on earth does the lad have to do to get a run of games? Every time he's played he's arguably been MOM and yet the next game he's straight back on the bench. What does that do to the lad's morale? Especially having to sit there whilst Conway and Bennett comically run around the pitch, not effecting the game. Does it show poor man management skills from our manager? I think so. Why sign him if he's not going to play him? Why critisise him after clearly being our best player against Wednesday? Can he not see that he's clearly the player with the most ability at Rovers? I see it like this, he's put together such a poor defense that he's too sh*t scared of playing more attacking players because they will give his awful back 4 less protection. To sum up, it's a complete waste of talent, not on the players behalf but on the managers because he doesn't have the ability to address our defensive issues. Combine that with blind favouritism and you have a sh*t show of poor team selection, poor performances and poor results. In my opinion the lad is one of the best naturally gifted footballers I've seen at Rovers for some time, the sort of player you should probably build a midfield around. Just goes to show that throwing obscene amounts of money around on players to get quality is not always the way to do it. It helps though, when you realise that you have unearthed a real gem of player that you have manager capable of seeing that talent and getting the best out of him rather than being useless on the bench. I wanted to keep this post on the topic of the player rather than the manager but when he's playing such an integral role in ruining a player of this quality's career it's simply too hard to ignore. Do us all a favour and play the man for christ sake. Your long ball, tepid, methodless football does not work in this league anymore and it won't work next season. Play some players in midfield who we can actually play through rather than miss out. I really don't know how this one is going to turn out but at the moment it's the manager I'd rather see leave than a player like Joe Rothwell. What's your thoughts on this one? I'm frustrated, p*ssed off and mostly confused by the manager.
  7. Who does everybody want gone in a hypothetical summer clear out? Assuming we can shift them off the books? For me: Dominic Samuel Ben Gladwin Craig Conway Derek Williams Charlie Mulgrew Jason Leutwiler One of Richie Smallwood or Corry Evans not particularly bothered which one Paul Downing Sam Hart (I'd keep Bell as 2nd choice left back)
  8. We're trialling a new weekly feature - BRFCS Discusses - where a discussion point is started every week to be discussed on the forum. If it works the topic could be anything we've taken from reading the forum the previous week, a statement, a question or a poll. The topic won't represent BRFCS or the person who posts it - it'll be a point we've seen on the forum that we think will create discussion. So, the inaugural BRFCS Discusses is... ... with hindsight, where did we go wrong in the January transfer window?
  9. As other clubs have started making their ST's for next season available I thought we should do our Annual Poll/Thread. I'm assuming we'll still be in The Championship with Mowbray in charge and the owners still here. I'm not sure what kind of offers other clubs are doing this year but I know a few last year extended the cheap young person deals to include the under 23's and in some cases under 25's. This is definitely something Rovers should be doing and I'd be amazed if they don't implement it this year. I think Notts Forest had an under 23 ST for £100 last season. What kind of realistic deals would you like to see implemented to attract more fans back to Ewood?
  10. I know we do this periodically, but I thought worth a revive to remind us of better days. What's the best XI you can build out of the Rovers you've seen? I would say ---------------------Friedel ---Berg-----Nelsen----Hendry----Le Saux Bentley----Tugay-----Sherwood----Duff -------------Shearer----Bellamy I've been watching since 1992. I guess what's remarkable is Bentley gets in there ahead of Ripley, but he was truly outstanding when on form. And I went for Belllamy over McCarty, Santa Cruz, Cole, Jansen as he won games single handedly for us in a way you very rarely see. Absolutely unplayable when on song.
  11. I'd written off this season after Brentford. I suppose to say it's a write off is a bit far as we could still use this season as experience for the younger players. This squad is going to need some investment to match the ambitions of the manager. Who would you like to come in? First bit of summer transfer speculation to kick us off... Apparently sourced from one of the red tops... https://the72.co.uk/125258/derby-county-blackburn-rovers-among-sides-interested-irish-defender/
  12. How many goals do you think that BB will score this season? We still have 15 matches left and I think that he will be given a proper chance a couple of games before the end of the season if we have nothing left to play for. I think that he might actually score once or twice, if the season is nearly over, the other teams are already thinking about their summer holidays and there is no pressure on him to deliver
  13. Am I right in believing that we are in the final year of the deal with Umbro? any whispers of another deal or a new manufacturer? I would like a new brand to be honest to freshen it up a bit, I have always thought an Adidas Rovers shirt would look mint!
  14. After the success of last nights event, it got me thinking who deserves to go into the Hall of Fame next? I know that it is run by the former players association BRFPA, and no ''non football related'' (e.g. Player or Manager) were enshrined in the Hall last night, so I've purposely limited it to PLAYERS ONLY. John Lewis and Arthur Constantine and of course Jack Walker all deserve to be in a Rovers Hall of Fame, but for the purposes of this discussion I've left them out. I've chosen 8 to get us started, I feel these are the next obvious names..... But please feel free to add names and vote Other. You can vote for multiple players
  15. Where do you personally see the club heading over the next 5, 10 or even 15 years? What do you think the aims and objectives of the club should be moving forward over that timescale? How do you see us achieving those aims, or what strategies should the club adopt to achieve them? Maybe this could be a longer term thread and we can look back in a few years. Discuss............. ??? P.s I understand how hard this can be with the present ownership in charge!
  16. ...want Rovers to lose if it meant Burnley not winning the league? With Everton v Man City as the inspiration, a Sky poll currently says that 59% of fans would want their own team to lose if it meant their greatest rival could potentially miss out on something. How about here? Any thoughts? Has it ever happened to you already? It would be a bit weird going to watch a game live and essentially supporting the opposition.
  17. https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/02/04/do-report-sunderland-and-blackburn-make-offers-to-sign-adam-bouj/
  18. https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/02/04/do-report-sunderland-and-blackburn-make-offers-to-sign-adam-bouj/
  19. Why did we not sign this proper centre back in january window? Think he was very good When he was here.
  20. Lets get revenge for a game we shouldn't have lost heavily. lets stick to the mantra of ,beat the teams above you and you will not go far wrong.
  21. Saw this on twitter and thought it'd be a good idea for those not on the platform to be involved with. A place to discuss some opinions you believe to be against the general consensus of our fan base. One of mine is that Bennett is probably our most limited player in the normal match day 18. Passion only gets you so far, and I don't think he does anywhere near enough to justify getting as many starts as he does.
  22. There seems to be a lot of debate on the January window thread around this, but I’m not sure it’s getting to the root of the issues. Below is a table showing all our defensive ingoings and outgoings since that look took over. Pascal Chimbonda Inherited Released Martin Olsson Inherited £4,000,000 Chris Samba Inherited £11,000,000 Ryan Nelsen Inherited Released Gael Givet Inherited Released Michel Salgado Inherited Released Phil Jones Inherited £17,000,000 Grant Hanley Inherited £5,500,000 Gavin Gunning Inherited Nominal Zurab Khizanishvili Inherited Released Myles Anderson Nominal Released Bruno Ribiero Free Free Scott Dann £5,500,000 £2,600,000 Adam Henley Youth Released Marcus Olsson Free £700,000 Bradley Orr Nominal Released Nuno Henrique Nominal Free Karim Rekic Loan Loan End Ryan Edwards Youth Released Anthony O'Connor Youth Free Jack O'Connell Youth £300,000 Todd Kane Loan Loan End Matthew Killgallon Free Released Tommy Spurr Free Free Yann Songo'o Free Free Michael Keane Loan Loan End Shane Duffy £400,000 £4,000,000 Alex Baptiste Loan Loan End Doneil Henry Loan Loan End Elliott Ward Free Released Gordon Greer Free Released Derrick Williams £250,000 Still Here Charlie Mulgrew Free Still Here Wes Brown Free Released Stephen Hendrie Loan Loan End Tommie Hoban Loan Loan End Paul Downing Undisclosed Loaned Out Paul Caddis Free Released Sam Hart Undisclosed Loaned Out Amari Bell £300,000 Still Here Jack Rodwell Free Still Here TOTALS £ 6,450,000.00 £ 45,100,000.00 This list obviously doesn’t include Wharton, Grayson, Lenihan or Nyambe. None of whom cost us anything. The figures above are as accurate as I could find in these days of undisclosed fees... I’d confidently predict we paid nowhere near £350,000 combined for Hart and Downing. In my opinion this shows that failing to address our defensive frailties is an issue that has existed long before Tony Mowbray. If you take Scott Dann out of the equation our net spend in 8 years on our defence is utterly pathetic. And let’s not forget Dann was signed in silly season when they first took over. I remember when they sacked Allardyce, that woman came out with some sort of tripe about how he couldn’t improve our “young skilful players”, and I’m pretty sure they have also been quoted as saying something along the lines of “We like exciting, young attacking players”. For their entire wretched tenure we have had a make do and mend approach to our defence. I know Rodwell has looked decent the last few games (that makes me wonder how good he might be in his actual position), but he’s just the latest in a fairly long string of players stuck in our back four who are in reality being played out of position. It’s took a long time for Travis to get a real crack in a midfield spot, whereas Nyambe and Lenihan, and before them the likes of Hanley (and to a lesser degree Henley) were pretty quickly blooded in the first team, often out of necessity. And there are defenders out there. We could have spent a fraction of what we did on Brereton in the summer and got Ezri Konsa from Charlton. We were heavily linked with Bauer, but apparently couldn’t come to terms on a fee. Other championship sides are picking up decent frees this window. I think it’s worth remembering who those silly contractual issues that sprung up in their early days involved: Nelsen, Salgado, Givet, Andrews and Roberts... three defenders and at the time our two most maligned and least fashionable players. Whether it is their own stupidity, some advice they are taking, or some other inexplicable reason, Venky’s seem to have a real issue with signing defenders, particularly for any financial outlay.
  23. Ok, so what is the best and worst individual performance you remember from a Rovers player? Please give the opposition, scoreline, date of the game if possible and any other info you feel is relevant
  24. I think Mowbray’s treatment of this lad has been down right disgusting. His performance yesterday has left a bitter taste in my mouth. How can a young lad who has come through the ranks, and is clearly good enough to be (at least) our first sub every week, be banished from the picture for 6+ months? Especially when those keeping him out (i.e. Mowbray’s pal Smallwood) have been horrific in the main. Travis has only put one foot wrong in his career so far (the red away at Portsmouth, which didn’t actually cost us points), and he’s looked the part every time he’s put on a Rovers shirt apart from that, for a 20 year old that’s pretty good going. I fear that we’re going to lose him and he’ll inevitably go on to have a very successful career elsewhere, and I wouldn’t blame him one iota if he wanted out. We’ll miss him more than he’ll miss us.
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