joey_big_nose

Well from a "ensuring the wheels dont come off from a turbulent week" it's been a success. But from a "look like a side that came 7th last year playing a newly promoted side" its been a failure. Crowd looks really bad considering its first home league game.

I think they are getting "Honor Caps" from Rovers as part of the 150 year anniversary.

Cantwell is supposed to be the player to make those easy passes... All he needs to do to be significantly better is take leas touches.

Given how high Birmingham are playing and Ohashi keeps coming deep why not just swap Karbo with him. We could do them with a ball over the top.

Just to find something positive to say... watched the Bradford game back and Tavares has real world cup winner N'Zonzi vibes. Really like the look of him. Also Miller looks very good, will land well and fit right in. McCloughlin looks like he knows what he is doing. Not so convinced on Alebiousu, De Neve, Henricksson, . Plus Gueye is getting worse and worse. We need three of those four to come good.

It's too early really to say whether he is any good or not. He's had one really bad run and one really good one last season.... And as has been pointed out over the summer he's basically had 70% of the experienced players taken out of the squad and replaced by inexperienced players. So I think I'll be waiting to see how the dust settles over a few months before forming a view. What is clear is if he did manage the incredible and get us up around the playoffs like JDT and Eustace it will be an even more impressive effort! Which also would probably mean he would get a new job on or around the 9th of February.

Yeah, Ismael like loads of managers on the market just needed a job and he would have gone along with what was laid out as the plan. As time passes he'll either 1) do well, attract attention and find a new job and be off same as JDT and Eustace; 2) do badly and be stuck with us in a hate spiral as we cant afford to sack him

The irony is clearly the directive was to use the Carabou cup to blood youngsters/ new signings but we over egged it and lost an easy game so now dont have any more games to do it. Kind of shot ourselves in the foot....

Well... we've had lots of times where we look like we will get battered and then it hasn't happened. As supporters we tend to over interpret a good performance or a bad performance. So while I am also very concerned, I also know I have been here before and actually the opposite of what I expect has sometimes happened. So I cling onto that! I agree that goals are going to be a big issue. Gueye looks very poor at the moment (gutting as for a while in the new year he looked brilliant but that is a loong time ago now), and Ohashi is busy and can finish but will not create things on his own. Travis openly deciding to leave could be a bit of a wheels coming off moment. Will be very demoralising for the team, who currently mostly a group of bodies flung together who do not really know how to play together. With Travis out of the picture we only have Tronstad and Hyam who have more than 50 games in a rovers shirt and are definite starters. Cantwell, Riberio, Ohashi have had 20-30 games each. I guess Wharton, Hedges, Pickering and Pears have a lot of experience but they are not favoured as starting players. Then it's a bunch of totally new characters. We've lost hundreds of rovers games of experience with Dolan, Travis, Brittain and to a lesser extent Weiman and Baath gone. I think it's really under-estimated how important it is for the players in the team to know each others abilities and qualities, and have time to figure out how to play with each other for the best results. Ideally turnover in the team imo should be 20% to 30%ish, but we are looking at 70%/80%.... Anyway we are where we are... what we are doing out wide is very concerning as De Neve and Alebiousu are wing backs not forwards, Hedges struggles, and Kargbo looks very talented but raw and prone to fading out of games. I would switch to a 343 as we don't have the wide players for 4231. Toth Millar Wharton McCloughlin Alebiouso Tavares Tronstad Pickering Cantwell Ohashi Kargbo Will watch in hope as often, especially early season, you can be surprised.

Always great to read your reviews as you always provide a balanced view. In terms of throwing the kids in thats obviously a strategy agreed to in the boardroom in Pune in the hope that another Adam Wharton emerges as that is the only way the club can be financially viable under Venkys. TBH I am kind of the view we may as well chuck them in as Tyjon will certainly be off if he doesn't get first team football immediately, and for the others (Montgomery, Molichalski etc) experience shows that while loaning out maybe sympathetic to their development in the last ten years probably only Raya and Carter have really benefitted from loans. A lot of players we have loaned out and they come back as little use to the first team squad as when they left (Vale, Butterworth, Garrett, Batty, Markandy, etc etc) The players who have actually forged a career as Rovers first team players great or modest have done so without any significant loans (Adam Wharton, Travis, Nyambe, JRC)...

Not watching but at least encouraged that Tavares is getting some good reviews.

Yeah... He'll swallow it as long as he has to, but if he is successful he will soon be looking for a way out. The only way we keep him if is he does badly which is not a great place to be in.

I cant see us going for less than 3.5M unless Travis downs tools and forces hands which I doubt he will do. From his perspective waiting out a year and getting a big sign on bonus like so many others will incentivise him to not rock the boat.

Yes... I think there is an obvious ceiling on what we can offer, and the quite a few players now have made the assessment that it's worth more to them to leave on a free than sign it. It seems short sighted as I guess it would take an extra £5k a week to sign them, which over two years is £500k. To not take on that sort of liability we are letting players who are worth £3M+ walk out the door. Again sort of thing that an owner close to the action would find a way to navigate. But Venkys are distant and disengaged, and they seem more comfortable creating an arbitrary line in the sand and sticking to it, even if it is madness from a long term planning and financial management perspective.

It's not even really about funding... if we had owners with less money, but were engaged and invested and could sit down with our managers and players and articulate a vision, address concerns, show a long term plan we would be able to at least have a chance on retaining our talent. But we can't do that...

If it was up to me I would pick the first team players but try a formation that uses our resources a bit better, and recognises that Travis is probably going to leave by the end of August. The idea would be to have something we can stick with if it works well. The players who need minutes can come on later in the match. Toth Millar Hyam McCloughlin Alebiousu Tavares? Tronstad De Neve Cantwell Ohashi Kargbo Subs : Michalski, Riberio, Pickering, Wharton, Montgomery, Henricksson, Hedges, Tyjon, Gueye

Sounds like you will be right on mass changes from Ismaels comments. I cant understand the sense in that personally when we have huge turnover in the team and we need to establish a settled side.

The drop off in TV money etc is huge. I don't think it would suit them. According to this article Payments for being in the Championship (TV, Solidarity payments etc) = £9.5M to £12M Payments for being in League One (TV, Solidarity payments etc) = £2M to £2.4M https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/cost-relegation-championship-league-one-31486100

Well, I sincerely disagree. If it was known Travis was available for £2M he would have gone a long time ago. I am sure lots of enquiries have been made, but not gone further as we are valuing him much higher. We will see what happens in the next few weeks.

I really can't see us taking an offer that low. The constraints you mention are the same as they were for Britain, and i am sure we will drive for a deal north of that. For all their faults one thing the owners don't do is sell at cut price. Theyd rather Travis went for free than sell for below his market value imo.

I disagree, on his form last season he gets into any Championship midfield. I guess we will see what offers we get, but he's more valuable than Britain who we got £3.5M for.

I cant see it. We have had huge turnover in our squad and as Wilsden said need to pick a relatively consistent team to find our rhythm. I feel like Travis might be left out due to an incoming transfer, and we may try three at the back. But all the other key players will be out there.

If thats true its good news as presumably they would be offering a big fee too. Travis had a poor game on Saturday but hes a top Championship midfielder. If hes off we need £5M+.

I am a big Gueye fan but he was up and down with Eustace and since Ismael has come in I dont think he has had a single good game...

Based on what I have seen today I reckon this could work better for us... Toth Miller. Hyam. McCloughlin Alebiouso. Travis. Tronstad. De Neve Cantwell. Ohashi. Kargbo Early days but Millar looks ideal for a RCB in a back three.