What formation are we now playing with Big Dom and BB on?

Not buying anyone in January + inevitable injuries= season over.

What concerns me about the transfer policy of 'buying young players that are going to be great in 2 years' is that what players are going to be attracted to this?

Someone smashing it in League One or abroad is not going to be jumping at the chance to play for our U23s for 2 years. 

That has maybe shown in not being able to sign anyone.

They only have to look at Chapman, Brereton, Davenport, Rothwell etc to realise it won't do their career any favours.

Bennett should not play at No 10. 
If anything Travis would be more suited to that position.

48 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Manning is out of contract in the summer and has only played 1 game in last 5 games. 

He would be good left back for us. 

Who says he wouldn't play? 

Mowbray said he was only buying people as backup, not to go into the team.

Ryan Manning:

A) why would qpr sell at a ridiculously low price to a league rival

B why would he want to leave playing every week to come sit on the bench behind Amari Bell??

The more we hear about the transfer goings on at rovers the more amateur it sounds.

Ben Gladwin at no 10 > Bennett at no 10

Still think it strange that we just let Gladwin leave for nothing. Same will happen with Samual, Bell, Williams, Smallwood, Chapman etc. All supposedly part of the ‘buy young then sell on’ policy.

Just now, davulsukur said:

That's absolutely criminal.

Says a lot about Brereton not being picked ahead of Bennett/Gallagher when we’re this stretched.

Bennett at No.10

2 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

Ok, thanks. So maybe the V’s £5m contribution each year brings those operating losses from say £12m down to £7m and so over the two seasons (18/19 & 19/20) we have lost £14m plus the £12m net that @J*B referred to which would put us on £26m over two years and bang on track.

So theoretically, with a third of our earners out of contract in the summer and should the likes of JRC, Buckley, Thompson etc break through then we should have a healthy-ish budget to trade in the operating losses plus some money (£6m) to spend on fees? As long as V’s are willing to pump in another £5m...

The annual losses need to be adjusted to add back the academy costs (£3m?) and there will be £3m profit on Raya. So we're not exactly on the brink of Ffp like the club would have everyone believe.

So we wasted the whole window after a 19 year old kid from Chelsea on the verge of a big money Premiership move and a guy from Newcastle on £30k a week.

There’s a summary of championship signings on the sky sports page, Christ even Luton and Barnsley look to have brought in some interesting players. Let alone all the top 10 who have signed a lot of potentially very good signings.

Just now, bluebruce said:

We aren't playing cute around FFP though, that's the whole problem. Everyone else is, and we are just taking it on the chin. Hell it doesn't even kick in for us until summer 2021 - proper recruitment and we could be promoted by then!!

I mean, in the however many years FFP has been running now, how many clubs have been punished by it? Some teams who gambled on the promotion successfully and received paltry fines. Birmingham with their points deduction that didn't tangibly harm them (and now they're spending again). Then that time that I think three of us (us, Forest and someone else) got embargoes but were still able to sign freebies and under certain conditions. An embargo doesn't even massively matter if you just spend the money wisely beforehand.

We are one of a very small clutch of clubs who haven't succeeded in playing cute around FFP. We must be the only club who harp on about it to the extent we do.

On your last point, why wait til summer to need to get 6 new players PLUS the ones we already need? We can't sign one player in a whole window, I hardly fancy our chances in the summer of signing the 9 that even permanently positive people like Chaddy think we need.

We’re not even trying to avoid FFP. It suits everyone at Ewood as an excuse for lack of progress.

We’re the only team in the league not to make a single signing.
 

Late in the summer we bid £1m+wages for Reed. He turned it down, but it shows there is space in the budget. 
 

The transfer process from Waggot, Mowbray down to the scouts is a complete joke.

1 minute ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i sincerely hope that is a wind up?

"We've played Stewart Downing at left-back - who's to say Charlie Mulgrew can't play left back and serve balls forward?" #Blackburn #Rovers manager Tony Mowbray reflects on the return of Charlie Mulgrew from Wigan. BBc Radio Lancashire.

Left back: Mowbray already said earlier this month that Mulgrew might be able to play there.

Not sure if mentioned, but some Birmingham fans saying they had a deal agreed for Brereton (loan I presume) but have now moved on.

Just now, JoeH said:

Lamptey On Loan < Joe Rankin-Costello...

Unfortunately in Tony's mind: Bennett > JRC

6 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Not out of our league as loan signing. Brighton only bid for him today

 

Yesterday Mowbray said he's only looking to sign players as backup, not to go into our first XI.

He needs his head checking if he thinks he's going to be able to attract a lad from Chelsea who was obviously attracting big money interest from other Premier League clubs to come and sit on our bench.

36 minutes ago, Wegerleswiggle said:

Well it's been confirmed that Lamptey was the one Mowbray spoke of after the Sheff Weds game.

Apparently having a medical at Brighton ahead of a £4.5m move.

Way out of our league.

Complete waste of time and cock up by the scouting team if true we made any sort of approach.

7 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I think most of us can see that at times and in parts we have a good squad. This is one of the reasons for frustration. This time last year we were well placed and confidence was high. We did nothing in January and our season unravelled.

It seems no lessons have been learned from that with virtually the exact same lack of activity and soundbites coming from the club. I wouldn't bet against a similar collapse when the inevitable injuries to our threadbare squad come during the next 4 months.

 

Spot on.

The league is poor this year. We’ve a chance to make the playoffs. A few new faces to freshen up the squad would go a long way. If you’re going to throw £15m a year at the club it makes no sense not to gamble and sign a couple of loans. LB and RW being the priority.

No lessons learnt from last year whatsoever.

Just now, philipl said:

Ended 57-43 in favour of QPR possession. Means they must have had close on 70% possession second half.

The Bennett effect

Right sided attacker needed to replace SG in the starting line up.

I still think the club could make it easier for fans living out of the town to get to Ewood. 
Getting to the ground on public transport or driving and parking is a pain if you’ve got further to travel.
My suggestion would be shuttle buses from Darwen station. Other clubs do it.

16 minutes ago, 47er said:

Yet we need as many players now as we did at the start of the season! Worst summer recruitment since Coyle.

We need more since selling Raya. This summer is going to be a nightmare, with the need for 2 GK, RB, LBx2, CBx2

10 hours ago, JHRover said:

We had a minimal budget in the summer. It was pretty much loans and frees - Tosin, Downing, Johnson, Walton, Cunningham  - other than the exceptional funding allowance made for Project B Gallagher because someone fancied another punt on a buy on the basis it would reap big dividends after the Brereton one the previous summer.

Now granted - some of those signings have been good uns - Tosin, Downing, Cunningham until he got injured - and wages will not have been insignificant - but lets not make out like we've spent big or built on these guys. Come the summer most of them won't be here and those that are will be in the twilight of their careers. It's about as far away from the Brentford model as you can get - despite Mowbray referring to them as a template.

It is also worth bearing in mind that Cunningham was only done at the 11th hour presumably when the financial requirements were more favourable or when we finally found space in the budget by offloading Mulgrew for 6 months.

Money is virtually non-existent for transfer fees - as it was in the summer. The Gallagher and Brereton ones are special cases where someone chucked the cash in on the basis they were projects likely to pay off with interest in years to come. I don't believe that money could or would ever have materialised for other positions, or for several smaller purchases.

Mowbray and Waggott get their budget in May for the year and there it is. The only way we will see incomings in January is by shuffling around on the wage bill by offloading a couple for a few months or if we get lucky and manage to sell someone.

This talk about European targets, Polish wingers for £3 million, Venkys ready to invest but constrained by evil FFP rules is just fantasy land stuff. 

 

 

Didn’t we also bid for Reed? (Albeit an unrealistic low bid) and another keeper in addition to Walton?

 I think a bit more money was there, no loads but some.