Which makes it odd that he was captain 1st game of the season and didn't look to be out till alleged argument. I've wondered and suggested this a few times although JBN may well have said why it can't work. Certainly Holtby would be better there but it may still be worth trying him there as back up. If that's the way to go I can't think of any other players we have who could play that role. Would his intelligence and passing make up for his lack of pace?

That sounds plausible. I'd heard a few different rumours, didn't know this was the accepted version though it makes sense. TM really can't have any bite back or characters in the squad.

The Mulgrew situation is odd. The idea that he only played the first game of last season because of injuries is undermined by the fact he was captain in that game and on a long contract. Some sort of row seems to have happened. That said TM is poor at longer term planning. Look at last season's recruitment - there was a good chance 5 of the 6 wouldn't be here this year. As it is 4 aren't and a 5th may as well not be so he isn't one for thinking ahead more than the near future is TM.

To be fair when the alternative is Gally and Bereton it's no wonder that we're in the mood for second chances.

It seems like a normal day on the transfer window thread: - The main debate being how crap are we really. - Rovers missing out on targets. - Lots of holes that need filling in the squad. - Chaddy tying himself in knots and contradictions trying to defend the club. - And not a signing in sight!

Look at how Luton and Barnsley finished. Don't think they will be the pushovers people think. Brum and Reading more likely to fold imo as both are basket case clubs with mediocre squads. Either way we are looking at 4 potential candidates which as you say is hardly an abundance of clubs.

Think it's a bit of both really. We have had ample money but likewise so have a number of other clubs. Where we have been outspent we have had some advantages of a) not having to sell anyone we don't want to and b) having zero pressure on results. It's not the same as a bigger budget but these two factors should have meant we have been doing better. Am sure a number of managers would trade in their superior budget for these advantages.

That's a dangerous road to go down Joe. We can't be relying on that. Also not.convinced that a good manager can't have these teams punching above their weight. Look how Luton and Barnsley finished the season for example.

Top post. Agree with all of it except to say that Lenihen should also be marked in red as an injury worry. Last season was the only one he wasn't massively out for. In defence of TM a lot of those players whose game time we have lost were getting on in age and wouldn't be here now or performing at the same levels. In criticism of TM their ages weren't a surprise and he should have known they would need replacing. It's not rocket science that aging players need replacing...

Yeah think doomed is perhaps over exaggeration but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's a distinct possibility. There's a lot of.bang average teams in this division so it's not a forgone conclusion, not to mention a number of basket case clubs. But it's also well within the realms of possibility. I wouldn't like to bet against it either. Perhaps it doesn't help that we are much weaker than last season. Had we gone from one squad you showed to the next in a year I think people would be more relaxed. But it does seem compares with last season we have regressed and that will be adding to people's alarm. For the record I think we will struggle as we are very reliant on a small number of players. Dack, Lenihen, Travis, Armstrong - an injury to any one of them huge amount of damage and makes the team look a lot weaker. I guess that may be the same for a number of other championship clubs but it doesn't make it any more comfortable or less dangerous for Rovers.

Doesn't mitigate any of the concerns about the players that he raised.

Not a relegation doomed side by any shot but by my count 4 of the 11 are relegation worthy which is not good for a first 11 minus Dack. In fact that is worrying. Add in the level of risk from unknowns and fitness - I think Kaminski and JRC will come good but it is a risk - and it gets even more worrying. Relegation certs, no. But there is plenty of cause to worry.

Well this is interesting post. Of course there's the first season promotion bounce which helped the first year back but like for like is an interesting and helpful comparison. Firstly for the second squad makes me wonder how much we have wasted the time as the squad difference isn't that much at all. Keeper wise we are weaker no doubt about it. No second keeper and Kaminski is a risk compared to Raya who got very strong reviews from Brentford. Defence - torn on that one. Mulgrew was a bit younger and more useful, perhaps less of a liability and at least scoring some goals. A lot of the names are the same which is pretty depressing. More depressing and weakening us is that Bennett is now considered a full back and he is a liability. Roswell I didn't rate but was a body at CB we currently don't have. Not sure the defence is any better either. Midfield - yep that looks better. Travis has grown as a player, Holtby is a quality addition and there's a few exciting youngsters. That said Reed is a big miss from there, so it's not like we are streets ahead. Up front - maybe better? Hard to say. Armstrong has improved vastly but we are without Graham who back then was a reliable Championship striker. Put it this way I'd rather have Graham then than Gally and Bereton now (and would be cinfident he would outscore them both.) And we had Armstrong on the books then too. Also it may be controversial but I actually thought Samuel was better than Bereton. If both came through the youth ranks I know who we'd be more optimistic about. So yeah we might be a bit better but it is marginal imo. And a criminal waste of 2 years. Don't forget that when we lost our newly promoted bounce the team went on a horrific run. And this team is not too dissimilar to that one.

I think it once again shows footballers think they are above the law. Tbf they usually are so you can see why they would think that way. Bans for players breaking Covid restrictions would be a step in the right direction. Even amongst the moral sewer of football this one surprises me a bit. For starters they'd just been called up to the England squad - you would have thought that they would have been desperate to stake their claim and not done anything to jeopardize it. Also from what I read on BBC it was to meet a couple of girls. I mean they will have had girls throwing themselves at them in Manchester, couldn't they have shown a bit of restraint and waited a few days? They can't have been that desperate. Another in a long list of footballers being above the law.

You have repeatedly said it matters who we have at the end of the window and played down concerns that we are starting without said reinforcements. Deflection. The issue isn't whether there are fewer foreign signings - although my post clearly shows why I have issues with such stats that you put out. (Reread my post and you will see the issue I have with your stats.) But that is not the issue I am debating/questioning you on! I have issue with you saying it's harder to look in the foreign market AND defending the club saying we are using our European scouting network. It's the contradiction of the two statements that I predominantly have issue with. The problem is there's been too much patching up and sticky plasters on our defence for too long. It needs permanent longer term solutions. Add in loans should be used for higher quality players and there is no real reason to loan him. Why waste a loan on a player who isn't too quality. They should be youngsters we wouldn't otherwise get or finishing pieces of the jigsaw not players like Lindsay.

Mate, your Rovers can do no wrong mantra has led to you tying yourself in knots with all sorts of contradictions. 1) We want a player who can play straight away and have trained with the team (hence why not going for a player who would quarentine.) Aside from the reasons it's daft as @roverclitheroe points out this directly contradicts your point about waiting to the end of the transfer window to buy players. They have just the same problems of not training with the team and being there immediately. Can you not see how daft you sound? They need to train with the team and we buy them the last day of the transfer window - your negatives for one are the same for the reason you champion. 2) You give evidence for why quarentine is a problem and stopping people buying players abroad (which am not convinced on saying the number of signings from a full window to a partial window is misleading as is the financial restrictions in general, but hey ho lies and damn statistics eh?). But at the same time you are saying how do you know we are not using the European scouting network. In the same post you are saying we can't get players from.abroad AND defending our recruitment by saying we are looking abroad! There's a whole host of other issues with this post too. Won't get a player like Tosin - not permanently but we may on loan but that wouldn't be a favourable comparison for Rovers so ignored. So what about the 2 games missed with a loan signing but you are bothered by quarentine (another contradiction). You even champion Linsey on loan which seems daft - loans should be left for quality otherwise unobtainable so that's an odd one to suggest. Apart from the fact you think that's what the club will do, rather than what is right so that's why you champion it. A bit like the anti Nayambe bias it's not what is best that you like but what you think we will do. That said such a policy with Rovers is fairly harmless, irritating but allowable. But it still annoys me as you watch loads of footy, you have your finger on the pulse of a lot of teams and post a load of updates on what happens - all of which I appreciate. And all of which should enable you to have your own views rather than be a yes man for Rovers. So c'mon stop defending our poor transfers and championing TMs intentions (which I sadly think you are spot on about) where you end up contradicting yourself, and use that interest and passion to have some cracking ideas of your own!

First of your posts I'm not so sure about Tyrone. I see what you mean post lockdown- clever wins Vs Cardiff and Bristol were in amongst some right dross. t prior to lockdown the problem imo has been runs - we've been on some good ones under TM but some horrific ones too. The latter have been a real problem as it seems oil tankers turn quicker than we do to reverse bad form. Not sure which will win out tbh runs or inconsistency. Mind you I think we're debating what our inconsistency will look like, which highlights the huge issue of our errataic team.

I don't think you guys get the defend the club at all costs and ignore logic and evidence idea. Mind you I wish our defence defended Rovers with the passion and determination of Chaddy. We might conceed a few less goals.

Read ,4-4-2s preview in their magazine. BRFCS got a shout out as the place to get Rovers info from. Had to say I liked what the Rovers fan had to say (anyone on here?) Positive but didn't pull any punches on TMs weaknesses in the striker department (spending or playing them out wide.) As for this season it's very hard to say until the transfer window is done, for us and many clubs as squads can look very different. If there are very few additional upgrades then I will go 18th. Lose a key player and it will be lower, gain a couple and it will be 10th.

Talk about chalk and cheese depending on which half of the team you look at its either pushing for promotion or fighting relegation. Take the defence Lenihen and Nayambe (I am assuming he plays although no doubt TM will drop him at some point for his t shirt and jeans clashing or some other important reason) that's a top 6 defence. Williams and Bell however is a relegation standard defence. Midfield is the same. Travis and Holtby look very promising. Evans I just don't rate. He's the best of a bad bunch to partner Travis but is invisible far too often imo and rarely stamps his authority on games. Up front Armstrong is the kind of guy you want leading the promotion push but the other two? JRC will be class but it's a lot of pressure on him to perform straight away and a sad state of affairs that he walks straight into the team. As for Bereton he's a relegation worthy forward. If he came through the ranks we'd all be calling for him to be sent out on loan this season and a one goal a year return in one of your attacking three is relegation worthy form. So who knows whether our better players will carry the weaker ones to a good performance or whether they will be dragged down. What worries me most is that there's very little redundancy in terms of quality in the team and depth in the squad. If Travis has an off day who will grab the game by the scruff of the neck? If Armstrong is off form who leads the line? And should we get an injury to any one of our better players who steps in for them? I have a bad feeling about this, and this season. We have no margin for error and if not all on top of our game we will have a horrid season. That said Rovers like to prove me wrong and relegated teams take a while to adjust so 1-1.

Disagree with you though well argued. And agree about Kaminski having to be an upgrade. (So would a corpse but still...) I think we have a long way to go to stand still and agree with @roversfan99 that Tosin is an upgrade defensively on Williams and co. Also his improved ball retention for the team also massively helped the team as it also contributed to our improved defensive performance. (The opposition can't score without the ball.) Also 7 games with Cunningham is better than none. Downing I feel is a huge miss. When he played wide left he gave us a width we never had any other time, he still managed to be our second best left back of the season and was good in cm as well. So a big miss from all three positions before we even get to relying on the fitness of Holtby. Graham is a miss as he still was our best target man even with age creeping up on him. And Samuel also added a few goals that may be missed too. Add in we really need a second keeper - we somehow are in a worse position than Leuts as second keeper - and you see we have a long way to go to stand still. And that's for me the frustration, we're not even standing still and treading water, we are getting weaker. In fairness one step forward we have got from last season is JRC who I think will have a breakout season. I think he is a quality player and versatile too which is much needed in our squad. He's definitely a step forward and a positive but it feels like 2 steps forward (him and Kaminski) but 4 steps backwards.

Thing is even in what you have mentioned it doesn't fit together. Where does Dack play in a 4-3-3? He's best in the hole. Likewise of those you mention a lot are young and promising and aren't guarenteed championship quality. In fact only 5 of them have played a decent amount of championship football. 2 have looked good but Gally and Bereton poor and Rothwell very mixed. So in terms of proven championship quality that's 2, charitably 3 of 10. That's a hell of a risk. Don't get me wrong I think there's some promising players in the rest of them but to only have 2 of your offensive players being reliable quality that's a heck of a gamble and poor planning imo. Even if a few of the promising players come good, it's a lot to expect them to come good in one season. Add in that the lack of seasoned pros to protect and assist the youngsters in a measured development and it looks to be a very badly mismanaged lot.

Chaddy you post some really good updates on goings on in the world of football, which I super appreciate. However I do find how uncertainty is used as a positive for TM and Rovers but a negative for other teams. As in uncertainty - we may sign players so we can't be negative about the squad, but Bournemouth might lose players so we can't be worried by them. It seems a little fast and loose to always have uncertainty in the favour of Rovers and an unreasonable bias. It's even more problematic when history has shown it often doesn't work in our favour - eg defenders coming, struggling to get in recruits etc.

Yes. Agree. Of course people will point to injuries and omissions but it's not that unlikely for us to have a couple of players out. The only consolation is there's still time to sort it but talk about giving yourself a mountain to climb - that's us. A week to go and still needing 4-5 key additions...

Kipre - made a terrible move. When a club says we will have you but only if we can't find anyone else, you should probably realise that it's not the best move for you and they don't have much faith in you. Shame.for us too as he would have been a good addition for us. Whilst the situation isn't irredeemable - and it's daft to write off the season at this stage - the fact that we still are two first 11 defenders short - and probably a couple of squad defenders too - is not a good situation to be in. Defences benefit from continuity and working together yet we still are floundering about trying to get players in with less than 2 weeks to go. At present even without the hinderance of Walton we have a long way to go before we have the same squad strength and ability as last season. We've lost the excellent Tosin and Downing - two of our best players from last season - without replacement. We are missing the attacking options of Graham and Samuel who if I am honest I think the only things Gally and Bereton have over the two respectively is age and the potential to get better. As is Bereton isn't better than Samuel and Gally isn't better than Graham on last season's showing. Of course not being placed on the wing will improve Gally but it's an uncertainty in terms of the level of improvement and him not being played on the wing. Johnson and Mulgrew are a year older and weaker (realise this would have applied to Graham too so perhaps not too bad he was let go IF replaced) and Cunningham albeit a brief stint isn't here either. We also, and I can't believe I am saying this, miss Leuts as a second keeper. Don't get me wrong I am not totally gutted to see any of the players leave IF replaced properly. However at present the team bar keeping position is significantly weaker than last season and needs a fair number of players even to stand still, much less improve on the squad quality. Sure there's time to fix it but to deny we are in a weakened position right now and recognise a fix isn't guarenteed is naive imo. We seem to be doing one better (worse?) than the phrase to stand still is going backwards and actually seem to be heading backwards at full steam at present.