joey_big_nose

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.

At least Tavares is off... Not sure how it will work in midfield? We'll get even more overrun if we dont give Tronstad some support?

Well... Id say from a season perspective its pretty important we can show we can dig in now and at least not get turned over if we can't scab a draw. Travis is such a big loss when you need to compete in midfield like games like these.

I was worried before the start of the season but Ive seen enough in the games so far to think we wont go down. Terrible first half today though, hope i am not revising that opinion!

Doesnt have Travis redeeming off the ball qualities either. Id hook him for Montgomery. Hard to argue with that red, and were quite lucky to just be one down.

Tavares is a real problem for me. Lazy off the ball and loose with it. Were getting overrun in the middle because he isnt making an impact. Kargbo is having an absolute mare too.

Well in terms of the numbers of players signed this window has truly surpassed what I thought we could feasibly do in a summer. Too early to say if theyre good players but we've bought the right positions anyway. Maybe one more midfielder to round things off.

Ah okay, that makes more sense. But what is the cutoff? Is there an official age where the minutes dont count towards this self imposed target? If we think its just say sub 24 year olds only Leonard is going to subtract from that.

I guess it makes sense in a "we have taken them as far as we can" perspective. Whether they are backing the academy will come down to if the younger lads do get game time.