Simple, we aren't offering the wages other clubs are prepared to offer, that's why Boro will have signed 2 of ours when Nyambe goes there and why others have done decent business early in the window. Broughton and JDT have to be clever and pull some astute signings out of left field that we don't have much competition with other clubs for. Selling Brereton quick sharp would help, we need him gone soon rather than late in the window without time to strengthen.

I think we might be over inflating his value because he played well for us but the reality is if they keep him and he doesn't play then he walks for peanuts in January or free in 12 months. The could ask for 5 but I think the reality of any deal would be a fee rising to 5 depending on promotion etc...

I actually think that given his age, if you can get him to perform consistently he could be one of the best players in the league. He ruined teams at times. Frustrating in others but buckets of talent and pace.

Perhaps but one good season for a team that finished 8th in the Championship shouldn't make him crazy money. They paid a fee rising to 2.7 mill but I'm not sure he's even kicked a ball for them, if they don't fancy him and he only has 12 months then a fee rising to 3 mill sounds about right.

Van Hecke and Khadra are in the last year of their contracts, no doubt Brighton will be looking at them in pre season but if they don't impress surely a deal for either or both shouldn't be impossible.

Phil Jones.

200 pages will be cleared before a signing is made.

I don't expect this to be a one time thing either. I think this was a regular requirement of youth players at Malmö to see if they were actually thinking about football, their performances, their strengths, weaknesses how they can help and fit in. Instead of being told in training like children they actually think for themselves and do self analysis. Simple but quite brilliant.

In totally agree with you. It's definitely not fine to watch assets leave for free and there's only one man to blame for that. There's a lot coping mechanism psychology going on and I think that's fair because there's nothing that we can do except for hope for the best in our future transfers.

There are players out there if you look hard enough. I thought Isiah Jones (RB) was one of the more impressive players I saw last year who Boro signed from Tooting & Mitcham, now linked with West Ham for 15 mill. We don't need to spend big to replace these players, just cast our net far and wide. Hopefully GB helps with this.

Noooo, I'm no ITK. Although we have been credited with interest in Styles (Jan bid apparently), Brittain and Ahmedhodzic. Styles I think has become a much more difficult one to get now because of his Hungary performances. Forest and Fulham both sniffing round.

Rovers shopping list... Styles, Brittain and Helik all from Barnsley Colak and Anel Ahmedhodzic Couple of good prem loans.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/antonio-colak-entices-rangers-transfer-27295001.amp Don't be surprised to see us sign this lad. Rangers and ourselves seem to be shopping in similar markets these days too. It mentions other clubs being interested, I would imagine one of them being Rovers. This would be one of the least surprising signings to see JDT make.

Lennihan confirmed gone by DOF. Surely Rovers should stop posting articles about his representation for Ireland now. Sounds as if they're expecting to sell Brereton. Would be nice to see some fast action in the market as we seem to have funds ready to go. https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/transfer-news/darragh-lenihan-exit-confirmed-ben-24245211

I've been doing some mental gymnastics over this aswell. Trouble is, there are so many confusing mixed signals from these people that it's almost impossible to understand what the plan is/was... We didn't hardly spend anything in January but yet let players go for free when big offers are there. It just doesn't make sense, much like their time here. The only thing I can take from all of this is that there's hopefully some infrastructure there now with someone who will stay on top of negotiations, contracts and sensible spending. The talk of having a few transfer windows to get the squad in a position to challenge to be a sustainable prem club puts me at ease a little that there will be funds available. Although these people should rightly be righting their wrongs of getting the club relegated in the first place by spending big, a sustainable model of sensible spending and youth development should be the core values of any club. For balance, the things that concern me are things such talking about performances before wins. Whilst I understand the sentiment and intention to develop players, you can very quickly find yourselves in a relegation battle you struggle to get out of. Another is the emphasis on youth development, whilst the cost of having a grade 1 academy should obviously produce quality footballers, I hope this doesn't mean a refusal to simply buy better players than ones we currently have regardless if they've come through the academy. Take Rankin Costello for example, he's simply not good enough a right back to make you a sustainable prem club, so regardless of coming through the academy, we need someone better instead. Don't stick with them when they're simply not up to the standard to meet your main objectives of eventually being promoted. I'm putting my faith in JDT and his experience to find out who are and who aren't good enough to get us where we want to be.

Whilst I understand any pessimism and skepticism over any appointment under Venkys, what more could we realistically ask for? Fair enough we didn't get Farke, which maybe we didn't even have a shot at considering where he ended up. We didn't get Carvahal, but considering where he ended up we couldn't have competed financially. So, we've appointed a DOF from a market we hopefully can find value in, who's done well and knows English football. Sensible. We've appointed a head coach who's just won 2 consecutive titles, was manager of the season and competed in the champions League. Who coached Denmark who weren't beat for 2 years and has already had some tough management experiences behind him. On top of that he won the champions League as a player and played at the highest level. We have to be pretty satisfied with that CV and appointing a person of that ilk. If we struggle he might be partly to blame but don't forget about those who messed up the contracts of our most valuable players. These players would have made his job infinitely easier but now we essentially need a new spine of a the team. We need to afford him time to develop the players brought in and not expect them to be at the same standard from the first game of the season. We can't under estimate the quality and value that's about to leave that kept us competitive in this league. It's going to be very difficult to replace Brereton's 20+ goals, Rothwell's assists and Lennihan's leadership on a budget. Nevermind Mowbray's seasoned knowledge of our opponents. This is a project, not a throw money at it type gamble. Fingers crossed for some shrewd business and some contract renewals. I want more than anything for us to smash everyone and compete at the top end of the table but there are clubs with vast amounts of cash, more settled managers and squads than ours. I think it's only fair we temper our expectations for this season at least and accept anything like a mid table finish as a bonus. My hope is that we are competitive in every game and play with a new identity that makes me believe in the project rather than struggling in a relegation battle from the off. If we start poorly then the focus on footballing philosophy and blooding young players gets forgotten about because it just becomes about fighting for your lives and the stress/worry of relegation. A decent start is so important to ease everyone and bring the fans and club together behind this new project. At this junction we find ourselves at, we have to allow ourselves a degree of optimism else there is literally no point in supporting your club. You have to allow yourself moments of what could be in a positive light and remain open minded. None of us know, we're truly stepping into the unknown, we can either be excited or write it off already. The first 5-10 games are huge and I'm already looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Surely still got to be looking at Callumn Styles?

Wonder if JDT will ask about Colak who scored a load of goals for him including a brace against Rangers. Currently at PAOK but not getting much game time.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2022/june/14/get-to-know-the-new-coaching-team/

Relieved that he's brought his people with him. Coming alone and working with the current bunch would of been an expected disaster. Fresh faces and ideas for the players are much needed. The people behind him could well be the main reason behind his success at Malmö so I don't think the importance of this can be understated.

Looking forward to the presser. This transfer market should be an interesting one, really want to see some knowledge of the Scandinavian leagues being utilised.

We can go on for pages but I think we're all in the same boat with this one. None of us know what to expect as it's a different type of appointment to someone like Mowbray. The positives and negatives are clear for us all to debate but as we've done the square root of jack in this league (till last season) I think it's worth while trying something different than a safe journeyman appointment. The natural expectation is for it to blow up in our face but for once I'm going to allow myself some cautious optimism that we have a new project and identity to look forward to. The proof is in the pudding, of course and i feel it really needs to hit the ground running so it doesn't turn sour very very quickly. I'm not expecting anything special this season, we should all expect a worse season than last as we've lost a lot quality and experience. As long as we make some clever signings, show some knowledge of players on the continent and don't struggle, I'll be quite content with that as a foundation to build on. We've appointed a man who's just won titles as a manager and won leagues and cups as a player at the highest level, let's hope he can bring that mentality and expectation to Rovers.

It's JDT. Awaiting work permit apparently before being announced.

It's easy to be cynical as a Rovers fan. Many of you know my actions towards people at the club and the owners have been pretty venomous over the years. This ultimately resulted in me being somewhat apathetic about Rovers in recent years. Not particularly just because of the owners, I've come to accept they have the club and it's out of my control. The apathy mainly comes from feeling like the club has a lack of vision, direction, plan or real drive to ever get out of this league and I think that's been reflected in many performances aswell. Tony Mowbray, although I think overall did a decent job, always seemed like a plastering over the cracks of what isn't right at the club. I think we perhaps expected too much of him and the lack of infrastructure behind the scenes over the years definitely didn't help him. What I'm hearing today actually fills me with a bit of cautious optimism that there's still some initiative, drive and ambition to make us more than a middling championship club. The easy and cheap thing to do would have been simply replace Mowbray and get another manager but to see the club have looked at other models, ways of working and are trying something new is actually quite refreshing. At least at this stage it seems like there's actually an ambitious plan, vision and an attempt to address these infrastructure issues, perhaps I'm being naive. The head coach appointment might not blow my socks off and on face value it really seems a role suited to a foreign coach. I really don't see how Ainsworth would fit into this type of model, given the football played at Wycombe. Fingers crossed for a decent head coach, this smidge of optimism might not last long but even the most pessimistic of us should all afford ourselves a little hope as we're on the start of a new journey.

The things I've heard from Ainsworth and his position at Wycombe suggests to me that deep down he knows his level, he's the right person at the right club. Would be very predictable to see him leave, get sacked after 1/2 seasons somewhere and struggle to find another job as good as the one he originally had at Wycombe. Reading between the lines I think he knows this aswell. Don't intend to be harsh but he comes across as a small time manager who's well aware the grass isn't greener and isn't confident in his ability to manager at higher levels.