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vyeo

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Everything posted by vyeo

  1. It's another wage off the books. Tick for Swaggot.
  2. We'll probably end up with just Billy nobody, who we do not need, and fail to get the rest over the line. This really smacks of the league one relegation season again, but at least we had Graham and Mulgrew then. We can't even point to people of similar ilk now.
  3. Didnt think we could go lower than last year's window, but we did!
  4. If these numbers are accurate, it's a con-job on Orlando to get them to loan him to us for whatever we could find in the cookie jar. No way are we intending to make the deal perm, even if he hits a goal a game.
  5. Sorry to trouble - just to check if anyone has issues logging into the Rovers' website? I can't log in despite trying three different browsers. The website just resets itself whenever I click log in, without the log in page actually coming on.
  6. I read it as JDT taking a dig at Waggott's no-expectations comment from the summer, and the ownership's lack of ambition.
  7. We look so leggy today. It's kinda understandable after a busy week with two tough games, but more worryingly, we look like we have nothing viable to rotate. If Tronstad still can't get a game in this situation, JDT must really think him not ready/not rate him. And GOAL! Come'on, hope it gives us the momentum to push on. Don't give anything cheap away, please!
  8. My stream's gone dead again but we were abject for the 15min that it worked. Need a response in the second half.
  9. If we stay in the championship: 2 forwards (replacing BBD and Dack, who I don't think we'll keep in this scenario), 1 midfielder (replacing Morton), 1 left back, 1 centre back (replacing Ayala), 1 utility (replacing Mola + Edun). Of these, I think we would aim for at least one of the forwards and the midfielder to be first-11 quality for a top-6 championship team, and possibly the left-back if the money stretches far enough. (Someone said Manning would be available on a free - we should be all over that!) Some of the current rotation options, like Dolan, may get promoted to regular starters. The rest will probably be rotation options to build depth. I think the centre back will depend on what the market looks like - may go for it if someone like JPVH becomes available, but we probably wouldn't look to pay a significant fee for a cb. If we go up: 2 forwards, 2 midfielders, 1 left back, 1 centre back, 1 utility, 1 right back, 1 goalkeeper Immediate needs are not too different from the first scenario, but would obviously have more ammunition and hence chances of getting better quality. I think we may keep Dack if we go up, simply because there would be more space to carry his wages in this case. Additional goalkeeper in this scenario because I suspect both our keepers, while good for championship standards, won't be good enough as prem starters. And similarly for right back and centre back too. Also, I hope we would go for a practical approach - strengthen wisely with quality in key positions, a bit like how we did in the early Hughes years (i.e., accepting what we thought was sub-optimal players like Dickov, Kuqi, Mokoena etc) instead of replacing the entire team ala-Forest. (You just know that we would go down in the year they remove parachute payments, so we better build sustainably if we do make it!)
  10. Fully agree. I thought Broughton's move to front the interview and claim responsibility was pretty much textbook leadership, and certainly in line with my personal leadership philosophy and training. It looks to me like Broughton has been through a series of formal MBA and leadership training, and he strikes me as someone who has a clear sense of direction and strong convictions. With regard to the interview, I thought Broughton made his points well and sent the right messages to different stakeholders. The overall message of yes, we screwed up, but let's look forward, was pragmatic and pitched at the right level - I think he was speaking to everyone - players, employees, fans, and this is really all we can do now as a club. What I liked more were the extras: I like that there was a subtle challenge thrown in to the current group of players - by saying that we were looking for players with the X-factor, the self-critical player would hopefully get the message that they need to pull up their socks. (I just hope they get the message!) My personal favourite was the passive-aggression observation about how we had followed the decade-long process, and it's been proven to be not good enough. In one go, he was taking the public hit, and at the same time, criticising the shit-show within the enabling functions of our organisation. I just hope the loons in Pune notice this and back the right horse - it's clear that the club needs a transformation to enable us to compete with our structural constraints. At this point, I would be comfortable with GB taking on the CEO role, and confident that he would do a better job that Waggott.
  11. Yes you're right. I'd forgot about Undav and Kone. Still in line the broader point that we were looking for top championship quality - these guys would probably be seen as immediate first-teamers. But because neither deal happened, and LOB became available, we decided to go for LOB instead of getting a filler striker. (And we wound up with nothing!)
  12. I don't know why I still bother... but. I actually think that the approach on the football side was sound. I totally get that Broughton has not delivered the signings, but I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I thought his approach of going for two strong loans (Sorba and the ultimately tragic LOB deal) was actually a mark of ambition. To me, these two moves were clear indicators that JDT and him were going for promotion via the playoffs. I still believe the approach for this window was to maximise the limited funds we had, by getting the best quality we could have got. I think they were focusing on top-quality championship players, and probably did not get a striker because we couldn't find someone better than what we had. When LOB suddenly became viable after WBA and Sheffield Utd pulled out, I think GB and JDT decided to go for it as LOB would have given us a clear overload in midfield, and Brereton could have done a job up front if we play Sorba on the left. In fact, assuming that LOB did agree terms on the potential permanent deal and it was just a matter of a late submission, I have no idea how we sold that to him, probably with a very low release fee included. Mystery is why it fell through. I had thought, and was prepared to believe, that it was an honest administrative oversight. But the datapoint of Waggot and Pasha being in Birmingham on deadline night raises questions. I would be very interested to know if they regularly attend away matches, or if it was actually an exception that they attended the replay. At worst, and with the history of the last twelve years, you have to wonder about the possibility of sabotage on the administrative side. A less conspiratorial possibility could be that it took to long to get approvals on (or even to work out) the numbers in the permanent contract, as I would bet that Waggot and co would have no idea what the financial modelling would look like should we get promoted. Finally, a crazier hypothesis is whether Rovers, Forest and LOB all agreed to try their luck with the EFL and take a common position that they need not agree on permanent terms yet, and submitted the deal without that element, but was ultimately rejected by the EFL. Overall, I think the logic of the footballing approach is sound, but the adminstration of the organisation is appalling. To deliver on the mission (footballing success and promotion), you need sound enablers at the organisational side, which we do not have. If JDT and GB are as competent as I think they are, or have as much professional pride as I think they have, it would be a tough task to convince them to stay for another season.
  13. Doesn't gel that the dispute is over the terms of a permanent contract. Even if our amateurs did not know that it had to be sorted as part of the deal, surely Forest and O'Brien's legal team would know. I find it difficult to imagine that all three parties did not realise this, if it was a requirement. And if it's true that the player was unwilling to agree terms on the permanent contract, then the whole deal should have just been off - there couldn't even have been a submission. Either way, looks like we missed the boat. I can completely believe it being an administrative screw up somewhere.
  14. Fully agree with the above. I believe that GB and JDT are trying to play their limited hand as best as they can. I think it's quite clear that we do have some money to spend as indicated by the bid for Porteous and paid loan for Sorba, though the budget is not large. An additional constraint is that we probably have very limited wriggle room on the sum - this could be a function of the club working on a block budget per season, internal wage ceiling, income challenges and FFP compliance issues etc. (Some of these issues could be Venkys-imposed, but some are also likely to be structural challenges that GB and JDT can't fix directly, and would require a whole-of-club approach to address and for me, the blame is on Waggott.) With this challenging operating environment, my best guess is that GB and JDT are trying to get the best-bang-for-buck with the objective of strengthening the squad overall. I'm sure that GB and JDT can see the issues in our midfield and attack, and in addition, they are probably also concerned about left back and the succession plans for Ayala and BBD. But given the financial constraints above, they'll have to prioritise. This means they may have to sub-optimise certain parts of the team for the greater good, hence the "project" approach and talk about needing a few windows to get the playing squad to where they want it to be. (This is not defeatist, and doesn't mean we won't try to do as best as we can in the meantime though!) I think GB and JDT are probably looking to bolster the attack and midfield this window. But because we have such limited resources, we will need to be picky. This could be why there have been reports of enquiries, but not so much about serious negotiations. I think we may have decided to bide our time because the early enquiries did not throw up anyone available within our budget, who is clearly good enough for our needs. We could be consolidating and studying the market, to see what the best combination of options could look like, while keeping open the possibility of other options emerging late in the window, so that we can maximise our chances of getting it right. So far, it looks like we were serious about Porteous, and that could be because he would have helped fix two issues - the current midfield problem and the Ayala situation next season. That said, I'm not super bothered that we missed out on him. Such things happen. Cantwell was probably also serious, but I'm afraid most sane players would choose Rangers over us at this point, so no blame there. (I might be overly charitable, but I trust that GB and JDT have a sound approach overall, and I'm actually somewhat heartened that we're trying to be discerning and not just grabbing anyone available.) My guess is that Sorba was an opportunistic deal. GB and JDT likely moved decisively for him once he became available, as they feel he is too good to pass up. This could be why they went ahead even though a paid loan with no option to buy doesn't look good on paper. I have not watched Sorba enough to have an independent view on his ability, but his stats certainly suggest that he is far more effective at chance creation than whoever else we have. So for me, Sorba brings something new to the table, and I applaud the move actually. (I will save the criticism for when JDT plays Sorba as a holding midfielder :P) Bringing in Sorba also gives us options - on the field, it could free BBD up to play more centrally, where hopefully he's more D than BB, and that could in the short-term allow us to get away with not bringing in another striker. It would be a calculated risk, but at a systems level, could then free up the remaining budget to address some of the (many) other areas that we need to fix if the right player becomes available. Or it could allow us to sell BBD this window, which would then change the budget we have to play with in the next few days. It could also let us loan out Markanday, who JDT seems to think is not fully ready. So overall, I think GB and JDT see Sorba as a "no-regrets" move, and my guess is that we'll try to strengthen with one more player by the end of the window. I would be pleasantly surprised if the budget stretches to two more additions with no outgoings, but I think this is unlikely. I would bet that the profile they are looking for is likely to be someone championship-ready, or a premier-league-minus/league-one-plus type with strong upside - I don't think it would be a kid on loan as a filler (I hope!).
  15. I've not posted in a decade, but just felt that I wanted to comment now. I'm a big fan of what JDT has done, and in particular, appreciate the uplift in spirit and atmosphere that he has brought since joining us. I've watched our other abject away displays, but yesterday was the first time where I have been really, really disappointed. The selection was baffling - I can understand excluding Adam Wharton, but dropping Scott?! Think Pickering would also have felt hard done by, given his improvement over the last month or so, and having built up a good partnership with Brereton on the left. I really thought JDT would have come out to apologise for that non-performance after the game. I suppose he tried to do so in his comments, but I thought something more explicit was required given the circumstances. I'm prepared to back his calls, including on Dack, but this was a situation where he needed to hold up his hands, in my opinion. Anyway, having cooled down overnight, I'm telling myself to not lose sight of the bigger picture. For me, JDT has done very well overall for the first half of the season, and I would give him an A- just based the outcomes he has delivered so far. I'm sure he's not here for a lark, and that every game/result matters to him. I buy that he sees us as a project, but at the same time, I don't buy that he's not shooting for promotion this season. (Even yesterday, watching on ifollow's feed, did anyone catch JDT's reaction to a Buckley mistake down the touchline shortly after coming on? It was a blink and you'll miss it moment, but he was Fergie-mad and jumped off his chair.) This defeat will have hurt, even if he doesn't say so overtly. The unknown is how JDT and the team reacts after the WC break. I'm quietly optimistic that we will not have a death spiral like in recent years. A big factor would be whether we are able to make a couple of astute additions to the team in January, and this is not on JDT alone - I'm hoping for a striker and a midfielder. The league is so close this year, and you never know what could happen.
  16. Bents now public enemy number one. Can't help but think that its only because he plays for dirty little blackburn rovers.
  17. Even if Pedersen leaves, I don't think Peter is ready to step up automatically. He still seems raw, and should the unfortunate sale of Pedersen happen, I would be terribly upset if we don't go for a more proven replacement.
  18. At a fixed price of 2m, I don't think we'll keep him. However, in an ideal world, I do think he is worth keeping. He has by and large shown himself to be a good team player, and his holding of the ball is actually very good. I think what will happen though is we'll move heaven and earth to try and tempt bellers back. If we pull it off, jeffers and nonda are both gone. If we dont, I think we might just keep jeffers around as a cheap back-up. Hopefully, that would see Gally given the permanent 4th striker's spot while we shop around for a big name partner to Benni.
  19. I'm not even surprised. I'm pretty sure it happens all the time, and frankly, DB would have a lot more than 2 suitors in my opinion. Certainly those clubs who fancy themselves bigger than us like Newcastle would take him. And I think he could really do well in Man Utd, and I wouldnt even be surprised if Arsenal wants to bring him back. And of course, there's Spurs who wants everybody. But that said, my point is, if we're not kidding ourselves, surely this is an expected development. I'm pretty certain it happened with Pedersen last season. The main thing is how Bentley conducts himself. Having just signed a new 5 year deal on improved wages, and the way he has settled here, I'm optimistic that he will stay. Unless its one of the top 4 wanting him, then he might be off. (As i type this, i suddenly realise that he would fit into Chelsea's team too... not impossible especially now that they want to go British) Anyone else and i'm not too worried. PS: With regards to tapping up... didnt we do it to a certain with Savage and Dunny too?
  20. The brown handball this weekend was almost identical to his other handball incident, which was given (lucash converted the penalty) in the 4-3 for us last season. Where's the consistency?
  21. I can't give you guys any link because the article isn't available online, so please dont shoot the messenger. The Straits Times (Singapore's national daily) has quotes from benni taken from the "United Review" ahead of tomorrow's match, linking him with a summer move to them, stating that he has a 5m clause and that "If the big clubs want you, then they will get you. If Blackburn is offered the money, then of course i'm interested". Now, few points to ponder. 5m for a 29-30 yr old 18 goal forward. What do you guys think? It is afterall double the amount we paid for him. More pertinently of course, I've not heard of this clause anywhere on this board (or elsewhere for that matter). Does it exist?
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