He also said something along the lines of not being surprised if we make a loan signing after the main one closes. It would be good idea imo to do this, some of the fringe players in the premier league will not be sure as of yet whether they are to be suitably involved (especially u21s that don’t need to be registered to squads) in first team matters. Last week of August, the picture is much clearer.

Nope.

Worries me either way. Was a shame too because the overall performance, especially being dominant for large parts of the second half. I also felt KP45 missed a sitter and walked/passed into a few blind alleys but I’ll give the lad a chance since he’s been in the building less than a week.

It was hardly a result of our tactics anyway. Raya made one or two mistakes I saw in the 70/80 minutes plus that one he was punished but lucky. Overall though I’m impressed by us. Williams was Jekyl and Hyde. Palmer was a bit lacklustre though, will enjoy having Armstrong as a sub to run around in Nuttalls place.

Surprised I’ve not seen anyone critical at raya for their 2nd goal was either a total fluke or his fault! I’d go for the later

Simple reply. Nobody is saying that he is the catalyst, you said that. I didn’t get anywhere near implying that either. Tony Mowbray is the main catalyst for the change in fortunes of the club. I replied to a @JAL post which is always a poor decision in hindsight. I don’t think it needs pointing out that all of our best players have new contracts and last season we moved in a better direction. We’ve seemingly a better structure, budget and our transfer business looks sensible and gives me optimism. Forgetting the social media, events, community liaison etc - even transfer business is mainly wrapped up and under the radar for the first time in nearly a decade. Its not difficult to be an improvement on what was, but at the same time it’s rather childish to pick out one or two of the more difficult decisions (moving Darwen end) or criticise for something like the kit design, which is subjective anyway. It’s even more childish to defend that sort of nonsense content. You have no problem making a valid and well thought out point Roversfan99, so don’t defend content that’s merely a throwaway criticism based on nothing but a cathartic need to complain, not discuss. See you all at 5pm (if we don’t lose that is...)

In the time waggott has been involved we’ve done nothing but move forwards. It’s not simply his responsibility but to find a way to criticise him right now is just basic nonsense or (jalsense) You are a fantastic example of why humanity isn’t ready for the internet.

Yea, tried hard in a team playing poorly, christ I’m sure Coyle even played him on the wing at one point. Mulgrew, Evans, Bennett, Williams and Graham also played in that team btw

More importantly, nobody wants to sign for Burnley either!

I can understand the underwhelm aspect but the other side of the coin in that scenario might suggest we have a management unwilling to waste any money on second/third choices? Hypothetically, saying we don’t add permenant but then get say Gallagher and a Centreback on loan before the end of that window; I’d be relatively happy with the 5 signings this window. Especially if noise coming out of the club suggested targets would be re-evaluated in January. I don’t want to see us rush. We had to last season because 12 left, this year we have more time to build. I don’t buy that this squad is relegation fodder- Ofcourse (like half of any league) we are one or two injuries away from serious issues but that’s just football, unless you’re a Man City; and even then you couldn’t replace De Bruyne, even if Fernandinho et al cost you 100s of millions.

We all KNOW just what those bastards did to the club, the point is what can we do about and how does hiring Kean become important to 2018 summer transfer discussion? Or signing Dixon Etuhu’s contract, hiring Coyle instead of Warnock, we all know they were bad decisions and have a knock on but what relevance to today’s market and our intentions going forward does that have? I’m talking about something constructive DE. If you try to point out how things have obviously moved on, you’re labelled arrogant, unable to accept criticism of the club or manager or just basically a WUM.

I don’t think that works, since my definition of what constitutes being a “dick” will be different; For example, winding people up, making stuff up, then changing your name or creating a new account seems to be perfectly fine on BRFCS but to me that would make you a bit of a “Dick”.

A tiny bit perhaps? There’s a bloody load of remaining bitterness and anger at decisions taken 2011-2017 that have little to no direct impact on what we can do this summer yet it’s brought to this and other threads on a daily basis. Just look up - what on earth does Kean and Scott Dann have to do with the interview with a new player ?

I remember Duff and Shearer leaving also so might as well start booing Dack already,

Really does calm the nerves when new lads are saying this about the manager.

No club is going to punctuate it’s summer season ticket promotion with “we can’t afford to do much bar sign our better players on bigger contracts and add a couple of loans” It’s frustrating but not complicated to understand why the word “competetive” was used in interviews with TM/SW. I do think someone at the club thought we might do a bit better in the striking department a couple of months ago. Still a bit of time yet mind.

Course it does. Why do we need reminding that our owners or their reps went for Coyle instead? We all watched it happen the same as you did. As I said the other day, let’s try living in 2018 as opposed to re-dredging past mistakes in a response to every discussion. If you read back you’ll see that I tried explain to you why 2/3 loans might be a good thing, and to point out the issue with investing even 3/4m on one player - when your entire wage bill for the playing side is only 15m. I don’t disagree it would be nice to go out and spend a few million on each of these, I just can’t see how it’s affordable in our current structure. Someone baulked at Bolton getting players in before is.. they had the luxury of 3x our turnover for last season due to the addition of higher league sponsors. It’s depressing, but our turnover is pitiful atm. There is an entire different debate about ownership financial backing that I simply cannot get involved in AGAIN, but if we are going on the premise the owners will only cover small costs and keep the facilities/academy top class, we will have to accept that x million pound signings can only come after x million pound sales. Would a big sale lead to repayment of debt? Who are we going to sell to raise 150m?

Where will Rovers finish this season? : 9th Player of the Year : Dack Young Player of the Year: Palmer Top Goalscorer: Dack Championship Promoted : Boro, Derby, Stoke Championship Relegated : Villa, Birmingham and West Brom... midland disaster. Dark Horse : Sheff United. Big fan of Chris Wilder. Hey....Stranger things have happened : Think villa will financially implode by Christmas. Traditionally one of relegated team struggles - Hence WBA Miscellaneous : Rovers to have a really good run for part of the season but ultimately fall short of any consistency to put us in play offs. Dack top scorer.

A fellow member of this board might coin you “captain obvious” for that reminder about how the club has been serially mismanaged. Back to this summer One thing about permenant signings to add, the difference between “top” players and good players in this division can be 10+ million in asking price, and a couple of million a year in wages; the reality then still potentially need replacing or a more expensive option if promotion occurs. The pyramid is getting steeper all the time. It’s one thing to want sensible investments that could potentially lead to improvement and ultimately profit - it’s another to expect or wish for transfers that would double our entire first team budget overnight. If teams are asking 5 million for Armstrong (hardly proven above third tier, short contract) and he’s after 20k a week, or 7.5m for Gallagher on something similar or more (guessed/estimated wages from a few tabloid/itk) then it’s not hard to see why we haven’t added any more permenant deals to the two already in. I think Chapman might be available for a more realistic sum with one season contract and two recent injuries that could harm his pace. It’s a risk so perhaps in his case another loan with the deal agreed might be a better solution. He and Armstrong both settled really well last season so I have no worries that TM will be choosing any loans on a similar personality basis.

And pay offs. Do people remember we spent about 10m on sacking then being sued by managers in one season alone? That doesn’t include the wages we paid them or the signing on fees etc. I genuinely can’t believe we are back to this tbh.

I like the look of Nuttall personally - I think he’s another one that could shoot up in value this season, and perhaps he sees Dack in that role this season, which effectively puts more necessity in width than central attacking. I agree on Samuel though. I don’t think he holds the ball up well enough - especially compared to Graham but he has looked effective at times getting in behind the defence on the flanks.

You’re basing this on Rich Sharpe? Don’t get me wrong I think he’s pretty good but I always prefer to see what happens with transfers and not rush to cement rumours - even Palmer isn’t confirmed yet and that’s a Sky one. Id hope the priority is a winger personally. I’d start the season with Graham/Samuel/Nuttall for that one lone striker role and be quite comfortable, but then rather concerned that our only wide players are Bennett and Conway! I know he wants to play Rothwell further up and has used Samuel out wide, but we need some more in wide area imo.

I agree but we’re talking about adding 4/5 loans like last season to the squad, which actually helped hugely. I don’t mean the “Watford” style borrow a club. I’m not dissapointed about spending money because it guarantees absolutely nothing. I know proven quality costs a lot but take Rothwell for example, if he has a big impact for 6 months - that’s a free transfer potentially worth 10m+. It’s gone mental. If one thing I am not worried or dissapointed about, it’s the squad as a whole. I’ve said all summer I think this teams better than the last one we had in the championship, and that’s without any signings. I’m also convinced the management will get the most of any budget they are given after last seasons transfer business. Just to add - I would obviously love the Rao’s to stump up more cash, but that, FFP, share capital and the continuation of our academy is a different discussion entirely.

More than half the budget went on the one player who effectively made a lot of the difference. If you take half the budget out of any teams investment in a scenario where 12 players are leaving, you are going to impact the team! Loans are something we can build an advantage with compared to the likes of Bolton, Preston and a few others in this league. Premier league clubs aren't sending their prized assets to just anyone - our academy and facilities will benefit us on that, so I think its going to be a key for our push up the league. We are also very close to Man City, United, Liverpool etc - I personally would be all over that - the constant bumping up of cash in the top level is dragging all the talent to the top 5's u23 teams.

The quote you initially replied to was a post responding to a suggestion as many signings are "wrong" as "right". That is "bunkum" in my very honest opinion. We both agree that many of the players who made the difference last season are the same lot who took us down the season before, but I think we differ on the relation of the impact new players had in that scenario. Likes of Bennett, Mulgrew, Raya and Nyambe look like they've been playing with Dack, Smallwood and the loans for years - that takes research, thought and effort in the office and training pitch. We let 12 leave last summer, we had hardly any preparation or time to react. In my book, thats a pretty successful ad professional rebuild. We had a decent league one budget, which obviously helped - but he put the biggest chunk of it into Dack and he had the biggest impact by far, and that will likely (as you strangely put "make venkys money", that type of terminology is ridiculous in a scenario where our club "owes" their family an 8 figure sum, and is likely costing them another few million this year to keep it ticking over) be a huge profit, especially if he is a hit in the Championship. On that very recent and basic evidence, I'd suggest any delay in permanent transfer business this summer means that TM doesn't think he is getting value for money. I'd trust him on that.