joey_big_nose

Yeah - the question that needs to be asked is what is the advantage for any of those players to extend their contract? Why does anyone extend their contract with an employer? 1) You are offered more money (we have only done that recently when it is guaranteed we will attract big fees for the player e.g. Wharton, Szmodics) 2) You maybe don't get more money, but you buy into the long term vision of the employer and feel a valued part of a longer term plan where you can see how you grow and you enjoy your work. The way we operate completely and utterly undermines this. For all those players, especially with the well worn path to free transfer / sale mapped out from Lenihan and BBD to Travis and Dolan, why on earth would you commit early? Just wait to get to the end of your contract and look for a better option. The reason it's so important to get rid of venkys is while we may be in an even worse position in terms of money (although it's getting to the point now I am wondering about that), we can go some way to mitigating that through having good long term planning and operating like a somewhere with a vision and a good place to work longer term.

Yes hes only happy with these circumstances until he gets a better offer which is if he surprisingly manages to succeed with the awful level of risk hes been given. Even if we luck out with the signings he will still want to move somewhere there is investment. With the way we treat the managers its either tails we lose (they do badly and we're stuck with them) tails you win (they do well but with an enhanced reputation they jump ship at first opportunity). Weve had two of the latter with JDT and Eustace. With Ismael it could go either way. But what it absolutely cant lead to is him and the players doing well and us keeping them. Sad face.

Well that is the plan. Try to maintain or not lose too much overall quality while substantially cutting costs; alongside creating "saleable assets" for the future. It's a very very tricky plan to pull off. I will be very impressed with the recruitment team if we manage to steer clear of a relegation battle.

We cant be at all sure how good the window is until the players we bought have a decent run of games - probably till end of October. But the balance of probability based on the lack of Championship track record for any of them is from absolutely disastrous to surprisingly okay. So somewhere between 1/10 (massive downgrade) to 5/10 (just about maintained the overall quality) Its very unlikely we will have improved overall. But stranger things have happened in the Championship I suppose. We get the "fun" of finding out. We are ultimately comparing Gudjonsen vs Weiman McCloughlin vs Batth Miller vs Hyam Alebiouso vs Brittain Baradji vs Travis Morishita vs Dolan Henrickson vs Leonard Gardner-Hickman vs JRC Tavares vs Buckley De Neve vs Owen Beck Plus how Montgomery and Tyjon step up.

I disagree personally on the quality point. England have a very good available players, for the first time in the last few years a lot of players playing abroad in Champions League teams. I haven't seen a lot to suggest we are far behind other European nations in quality except Spain who are in a bracket of their own. Walker retiring is a big loss but most of the other players you mention (Maguire, Henderson, Shaw, Trippier) don't think is a significant issue. I would not say any of those are better than what we have. Stones on his day is a step up, but he's still got fuel in the tank. When Kane retires (after this world cup?) that will be another challenge. On the English attack being too similar I do agree... lots of players who want to cut in or play at number 10 makes us very narrow and not get in behind. Only really Gordon who wants to get to the byline. We do need to figure out how to address that. Kane always wanting to come short doesn't help. As for whether Tuchel is the right guy... somehow we have only managed to play 5 games since he took over 300 days ago so it's too early to tell really.

Yes totally agree with this. Ismael has a similar opinion on Gueye as Roversfan99, and given his performances since Ismael came in it's hard to blame him. Not done a single thing since February. Shame as for a period November to January he looked very promising. According to Transfermarkt we paid EUR 1.8M for him, and given where we are just letting him go for a loan seems another big financial loss again. We are really really poor at making our theoretical model (buy cheap, develop and make a profit) work. Only really managed it with a few big names (Szmodics, Wharton). Hyam, Brittain we have sold on what modest increments of money which we bought them for, easily wiped out by losses on players like Gueye, Markanday, Gallagher, Diaz Reading through this list season by season it's really depressing how we constantly lose our best players but Szmodics, Wharton and Armstrong apart we have really struggled to bring in decent fees. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/blackburn-rovers/alletransfers/verein/164

I think in a pressing sense and energy sense hes really great off the ball, and when he gets opportunities his finishing is good. But he does lack the ability to beat players or hold up (not sufficiently strong or quick or skillful) and his movement to find space is not there. I hope Gudjonsen can be more of a danger on the ball, but looking at his stats to date I am not hopeful. Gueye under Ismael has been so disappointing. He was flawed before but now seems completely off it.

Yeah, maybe. Kargbo had a bad game last time out but he gets in the right positions. Think we need to perceivere with him a bit, especially if we are playing on the break. Not sure how quick Gujonsen is.

Im pinning my hopes on footballs (particularly the Championship)) great way of surprising you 30% of the time. Maybe it will for no explicable reason just work?

I think with the massive turnover we need to try and keep the experienced players on the pitch. Carter should be back, and is Ohashi injured - why on earth would you drop him? Hes been one of our better players. Toth Alebiouso. Carter. Wharton. Riberio Tronstad. Cantwell Kargbo. Morishita. Hedges Ohashi Subs : Pears? Miller, Pickering, Taylor, Montgomery, Tavares, Henrickson, Gudjonsen, Gueye Its a bit ironic given the stated goals that we are so weak at cm and cb but we've signed so many forwards/number 10s it's hard to fit Tyjon in the 20.

While I am sure what Glen is right about Gestede, the real driver of the squad turnover and making players pay for their food is ultimately massive cost reduction targets. I think it would be fair to say finishing 21st but breaking even would be viewed as more of a success than finishing 3rd, losing the playoff final, but making a loss.

Great stat that. You really come up with some good ones. Thanks @wilsdenrover. We've turned over 8 experienced players (Brittain, Hyam, Travis, Baath, Wieman, Dolan, Buckley, JRC). It does seem a stretch that we will have come down 10k per week per player though... I guess the last accounts would have had players from the season before in there too (Szmodics) but then we took on a lot of cost too (Cantwell). I guess not having a CEO saves 7k a week. You can draw a line from a lot of our seemingly mad decisions to reducing this one figure.

Incidentally I believe NDAa are in practice unenforceable to hide illegal or improper conduct by the employer, and the government have are bringing in legislation to make them illegal in October 2025. If there is really things that can be properly evidenced I would say its worth going to a lawyer to look at what options there are. There must be an employment lawyer in the Rovers fan base, or even on this site, who could advise?

Well... We have finished just out of the top 6 and spent a lot of time in the top 6 in recent seasons, despite selling our best players and dire predictions every August. So while not stella you can see why some supporters have not jumped off the deep end. But if things do look bad when we get fully bedded into the season then I am sure we will all get our speedos and swim caps on. Whats ultimately happened is Gestede and the Owners have heaped absolutely massive pressure on themselves to have got these vast array of signings right. Whats annoying is ultimately its not really about investment, particular players being signed or not, or even how many games we have won or lost in the last 6 games or even the last season. These are short term things that change constantly. Its really a long term question "are the owners credible long term partners to the football club" and the answer to that is absolutely no, and the vast majority of fans, pundits, interested parties agree with that. But what happens is a short term wins/signings take the wind out of the sails of any concerted effort to push the owners out. If they have dropped the ball here, and we are looking at very poor season, maybe this where the worm turns. Given the cutting back of funding by Venkys there has to be a hope that they may eventually cut their losses. This could be the start of that story.

Yeah the one saving grace here is if things go completely tits up it will all 100% land on the shoulders of the owners and current heirachy as they have driven the huge amount of change. Will really turbo change protests. There is always the chance though the new signings turn out okay and we bob along. Very hard to say at the moment.

Wow selling Hyam at the last minute is really extraordinarily stupid. Dont think I have ever seen this level of churn at a club not in financial meltdown. But i guess we are in a financial meltdown, just a slow burning one. That we have managed to spend millions on fees but not be able to get a single senior player to extend their contract in 2 years is completely mad. But I suppose its easily explained by a low wage ceiling and lack of any engagement and long term planning from the owners. With the new info on Gestede thrown into the mix. How Gestede, a man with no experience, has ended up effectively chairing the club is another in a great list of Venkys mysteries.

Yeah hes been saying that often on his podcast.

Yeah hard to see how Ismael is on board with this. If it all starts falling apart expect him to start the blame game pointing upstairs.

Hopefully one more player on the pitch than last Saturday's second half! I'd move Cantwell back alongside Tronstad as Tavares has been absolutely woeful and figure out how to shuffle things around up top for Moroshita to start. Cantwell's fitness and willingness to get stuck in seems to have improved a lot. Anyone have any timeline on when Baradji will be fit, or failing that when we we will find out any info on his injury?

Plus i think Ismael has no time for him at all since he came in. Now we have Gudjonsen in I would not be surprised if we never see Gueye again.

Listening to Elliot Jackson he said he doubted we would get a CM in. Feels like while we maybe just about have the numbers there (Tronstad, Tavares, Baraji, Montgomery) only one of them is definitely good enough. The other three all unproven, Tavares really struggling and Baraji injured. To survive 3 games a week we will be using all four of them. If we aren't signing another only other option is to put Cantwell in that pool and use one of our many other number 10s.

Hes getting slated but Kargbo was getting in the right areas, should have scored. You could see as he settles he could be quite effective. Tavares on the other hand absolutely dreadful. He is playing the Championship at the Portuguese leagues pace. Have to make a change there. On the whole was quite impressed with us second half. Still of the opinion we are looking at a lower mid table season. We've got two weeks to bed in the signings and get the post Travis midfield sorted. For what its worth Id go... Toth Alebiouso. Hyam. Wharton. Riberio Cantwell. Tronstad Karbo. Morishita? Hedges Ohashi

All the momentum has gone since the multiple subs. Id say thats what regularly happens.

Hedges has been really good. To be fair the whole side has done really well second half Mass changes incoming... Not sure thats ever worked for us.

Well credit to the players for tightening up. We've looked better. Wonder if we should consider playing Cantwell deeper as a regular thing.