joey_big_nose

I think you hit "post" at the exact second of Ohashis brilliant play through...

I guess Gudjonsen will get a chance around 60 mins.

Id take Buckley over him every week. Tavares has done one lovely pass, but apart from that loses the ball regularly. I have to say apart from Tavares all of our other signings have looked decent.

Definitely could see a Bullseye kit being an absolute classic still remembered in 50 years. If the club doesnt make one BRFCS should! Could use one of those concept kit manufacturers.

Totally agree - I am sure this will happen soonish, sure its part of the plan of the whole Natons League concept (which I really like btw, best thing for international football in decades). Teams improve by playing other teams within a level they can realistically compete with, not getting smashed 5-0 every week. San Marino, Andorra etc would get a lot more out of playing each other than Spain or England. If they do actually put a good team together climbing up the nations league is a really good incentive.

I just really hate wrong footed full backs. Can be great defensively, but the only one who ive seen who looked offensively good was Spinazzola for Italy, but he was incredibly unique.

I dont think Belligham playing alongside Rice works. You need a player who will dictate play there, not be bombing on. Anderson or Wharton type. We're in the same old problem of having too many similar players for the number 10 position. Tuchel will need to pick between Morgan, Bellingham, Palmer and leave two on the bench, and make sure we have a proper central midfielder alongside Rice. They're totally different positions with different skills. What id like us to avoid is playing number 10s on the wing or deeper in midfield, just to fit them in.

Love the seesaw we all go through from being no hopers to it being there for the taking in 4 days. Think we'll need to see how the games evolve over the next 9 months to really say one way or the other.

Always interesting in these circumstances where big names like Saka and Bellingham have been out - do they come straight back in when fit or do Morgan Rodgers and Maduke keep their place? Tells you a lot about the manager. I think every manager we have had in the last 30 years would go back to the big names. I reckon Tuchel might be different. Good in Anderson and Wharton we have two technical central midfielders coming through. Havent had one since Carrick (apart from the odd appearance by the likes of Harry Winks who was nowhere good enough) and its really shown. The big gap england has imo compared to other top nations is we just never have that clever dominating hub player like Kroos, Xavi, Pirlo etc. Not saying either will be as good, but at least we have some options in that area rather than playing two physical players like we were with Henderson, Connor Gallagher and Phillips. Rice is such a good foil for a technical player too, covers all the ground and gets forward. Bellingham is a bit of an issue for me - hes the quintessential big name, but doesn't seem to work at all with Kane, and has had few good games for England. Would we have played so well with him in? Personally I doubt it.

Well Gudjonen exciting - first real positive of the season. I think that goal will propel him straight into the starting lineup. Id revise my team to Toth Alebiouso. Carter. Wharton. Riberio Tronstad. Cantwell Ohashi. Morishita. Hedges Gudjonsen If Carter is fit, Cantwell can play deeper, and Gudjonsen and Morishita follow through on their promise then it might actually be a decent team. Lots of ifs! But at least something to stimulate a bit of hope.

If Ange is a success there I will be amazed. His style of play makes Lemmings look risk adverse. Fine if you're celtic and have all the best players. But if you're playing teams at a similar or higher standard to yourself you get taken apart.

I have started thinking maybe rather than the "big six" fucking off to a European Super League, what may well happen first is less well resourced clubs leaving the Football League to form a league more based on the German model with required fan ownership and close spending controls. I think a lot of fans would trade off the quality of players their club can afford to feel like the club is actually "theirs".

On the face of it should be great news. But then again it doesn't seem logical that our reduced funding has really been linked to the guarantees transfer of money specifically as they could just pay the guarantee anyway. I suppose not having to pay any more lowers the risk, and I guess the feeling of oversight? So maybe that will increase funding again? Confusing. I guess the key question to the clubs is "was the financial planning of the club and transfers assuming the latest £12.5M would arrive, or was it anticipated that this may not be forthcoming so was not planned to be spent?" I suspect that this money was already planned to be spent, but if not wahey! That they are investing in persuing these court cases, sending big sums of money, never the slightest hint they are looking to sell at all suggests that they are invested in the future of the club for the long term. But then again the massive reductions in wage bill, non attendance at games, complete lack of engagement, all suggests they are not. It's one of the great mysteries of all time. Someone somewhere has to be able to explain it. People do not sink £150M+ over more than a decade and fight the Indian government without there being a rationale behind it.

I agree there's enough injuries now to make not bringing Beck (if even we could have, which I doubt) back a good call. 30 years of watching rovers has brought me to the point that if anyone has a significant injury record just don't sign them no matter how good they are. It's not just the time they are out, it's the time for them to get back up to speed and the disruption and uncertainty they bring to the squad. JRC is another one where Charlton have taken a really big gamble.

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.