glen9mullan

In fairness, he cant sign a professional contract until he is 17, so bar offer better terms now, i don't think anything more could of been done. Rovers biggest issue was publically talking him up 12 months ago, which puts him out there even more as vultures were already circling

Knew when Pete said, it be true, Hopefully it gets sorted, if not i'm sure there will be a host of people saying he is shit anyway

The fact he went Sheff Utd suggest if there was an inch of interest we couldnt afford it, and bar some paper talk there is no suggestion we even bid for him. Season ticket sales are low, sponsorship is local and very low in terms of revenue, Revenue in general is very low for a championship side, i'm not sure where people think the money is coming from to have a real go in the transfer market. GB will be finding life tough, as Valuations of players is beyond our means. Wages we can offer is only the money we have released by players moving on. Its the same collective budget. Transfer fees are going to be reliant on BBD sale and the generosity of the Raos on how much of that can be reinvested

We wont on a permanent basis, as we aint got the money to buy a proven replacement. Our best hope is Ayala stays fit and Carter gets better, and we find another loan as good as Van Hecke

This, This and This, We cant magic money, and thats three assets which potentially could of given us our biggest summer kitty for a long time had we sold them and not let them walk for free. Cant remember what we spent last season on perm deals but think it was less than £2 million, with Armstrong money not reinvested in squad. I'd be surprised if our budget is any more than £2 million this season, with the promise of £5 mill more if we sell Brereton. We need to lower our expectations as supporters because we won't be spending big, with exciting loans our most likely market, or players in their 30s with zero sell on value

Out of interest an in contract Lenihan, how much could/would we have expected to recieve? I'd say rovers would of been looking for at least £4 million plus

Lets see who he is replaced with, as rovers dropped more points when he didn't play than when he did. Personally i rated him, he was also a danger at the other end too

In todays market £4 million is nothing and when we look at fees for permanent signings across the piece its classed as cheap. Sadly football fees are still on the rise, with very average players going for twice that.

I think that 12 months of not offering Lenihan a reflective wage will long term cost us, either by us having to pay someone more in wages and with a fee on top, or the replacement not being as good. Davies was never going to happen, fee alone would of ruled us out, I suspect some loan or 30 plus somebody will show up as the replacement, because at present none of the young players are as good as Lenihan and we are kidding ourselves to think otherwise

A moral boosting draw in the end, a lot of changes from Celtic for the 2nd half certainly favoured us. Thought Gallagher did well overall, whilst Pickering and Carter improved as they game went on. We made quite a lot of late changes so difficult to gauge many who came on. Dolan looked lively, but reinforcements 100% needed over the next couple of weeks

Its only pre-season, but Celtic should be 3 or 4 clear now, totally pulling us apart. Carter and Pickering been awful Diaz looks disinterested Bar Travis and Ayala we are out of our depth. Been lots of huffing and puffing, but mainly chasing shadows

Lol

Pete a pretty reliable source, unsure why the brakes would of gone on. Hopefully it gets sorted

Rumour on twitter, from someone who does have direct links with people at the club, that Phillips hasnt signed the new deal which I thought was done and dusted and came into play on 1st July 2022. Allegedly he was told at Accrington Saturday by someone at the club. Dont know if any truth in it, but the poster is not one to tweet something which he does not believe to be true. Has anyone else heard anything?

Its fair to also say, we have some promising young players, but we will totally ruin them if thrown in too early and we get licked every match. It neither helps them or us. I'd like to see some get gametime this season, with zero pressure on their shoulders., 20 minutes here, there, with the odd start in winnable fixtures. To expect the 4 or 5 kids to start 30 plus games each, is just suicide

Surely we should have an aim? Signings, departures, managerial changes etc are a consequence of decisions made by the club. If its in the best interest of the club surely 8th place upwards is the aim?

Okay based on above, and they play these season instead of signings, taking into account our 8th place finish last season. Where do you think we will finish this season, and where do you think we should be aiming to finish this season

Could i ask what you are basing this on?

There has to be a buyer first at Venkys valuation. I'm lead to believe any real interest is thinking £9 million with adds ons. Our valuation is £20 million. If things dont change one way or the other he won't be sold

Vale struggled whilst out on loan non league, done well at under 21s done okay at under 23s, had some terrible injury luck, probably needs a league 1 loan. Phillips, lots of hype given by TM, but still a boy, needs a loan and some games under his belt, before we can realistically consider him first team here. Garrett, should get some games this season, will take time a little like Buckley to really breakthrough but certainly worth some gametime. I'd like to think each season we are giving our young players some gametime, but not to the detriment of results. As Carter showed last season, he has some talent but was nowhere near ready for the championship and a good loan to Portsmouth, hopefully has given him some much needed expereience to push on with us this season

I think thats nail on head,

Both Travis and Wharton were given their chance by Mowbray, thats a fact. Travis now nearly 90 appearance for Rovers under Mowbray. Wharton was ever present once given his chance, and kept Ayala out the side. Neither sold and nothing to suggest either would be sold. He signed Clarkson, it didnt work out, but then he signed Elliott, Van Hecke, Khadra, Harwood-Bellis etc. So one bad loan when you consider the calibre of the others is not the best example. The truth is, these youth players got their chance under TM, when they were ready

Then Suhail says, nah lets ask some of my agent friends

Regardless if you rate or hate them, the facts are we have lost 5 of last seasons regurlar starting line up, plus squad players like Johnson and Davenport and Poveda. We have signed NO-ONE bar a development player released by Preston. This talk of the academy players is just laughable. We had these last season, some have already had a chance here and out on loan and to date have not shown anything to suggest they can fill the holes we have been left with. TM statistically gave more games to academy/youth players than any other manager in the clubs history, so knew a thing or two about who was good enough or ready for a 46 game championship season. We are two weeks from the season start, and if by some miracle we sign 3 players in time for the QPR game, we are still some way off from replacing just what we've lost. We've had a close season of anxiety, worry due to the absolute farce which was our management search. It got to the stage, as each and every manager was ruled out that most were genuinely worried we'd appoint bottom shelf calibre. JDT's appointment was a relief given the other linked names we were left with, but i'm under no illusions, we have not just appointed Ancelloti. He has said the right things, done well at Malmo which is like managing Rangers or Celtic, but will need some luck and is by no means a sure thing of being a success. Everyone is hopeful, me included that he is successful and this appointment works. However taking away the appointment, no signings yet. We maybe trying hard, but not hard enough as there is obviously an issue why we dont appear to be able to get anything over the line. I dont know if its the same wage structure which has seen three leave for free this summer, or we actually dont have a clue what we need. We have relied on a good start in the Championship in recent seasons, and oh boy we've needed it, given our new year collapse each year. A bad start and that positivity starts to drain away, i'm quite worried and feeling less optimistic by the day. If we suddenly lose BBD as we did with Armstrong last season with no replacement too, then we will be heading just one way this season, and thats not towards the prem

Too many cooks if you ask me