DE.

You're right, I was thinking of another post where I conflated Miller, Alebiosu & McLoughlin's fees, and indeed it is Euros rather than pounds. With that said, we still could have got a very good Championship CB for €3.5m - even if a chunk of that was add-ons and bonuses. I'd have taken that over three useless players.

I don't think even our best first eleven is a top six team, honestly. Comfortably mid-table, yes, but I wouldn't go any further than that. Too many inconsistent players - but when you pay minimal fee and wages, you can't expect any more than that. It's a lower quality league this season for sure. If we'd kept a couple of our experienced players, and spent the circa £4.3m wasted on Tavares, De Neve and Henriksson on one really solid Championship player, we would definitely have a team capable of the top six. Whether Ismael could deliver that as manager is doubtful, mind. Edit: As KentExile pointed out below, my £4.3m figure is inaccurate for the players specified - amend to around €3.5m (incl add ons, bonuses etc).

Oxford's form has been pretty terrible as of late, that random win against Ipswich aside, and there have not been any signs the situation is going to improve. If the club have ambitions to stay in the division, and believe they have a squad that can achieve this, I can understand them rolling the dice - if they've identified someone sensible and pragmatic to give the team a bit of a boost. Whilst I do think Rowett is a decent manager at this level, it's possible he'd just run out of steam at Oxford. Sometimes a change is best for both parties.

Thanks Chaddy. I put a fair few hours into each of these, so it's nice to hear that you find value in them👍 sometimes work/life commitments get in the way of making them as detailed as I'd like, especially during the midweek match periods, but I try to put some interesting stuff in there regardless. It's a fascinating league to cover, these really only scratch the surface.

I remember during some of Gueye's early matches he had some nice link up play with the other forwards. He's not a total disaster, but he's definitely regressed massively since Eustace left. The biggest issue, by far, is that he's a striker who can't shoot properly. It's not hard to see why his goalscoring record is so poor. He's not too bad at heading towards the goal, but his on pitch intelligence is not really suitable for this level and he's often just not in the right position even when a decent cross comes in. If he had just a bit more ability he could definitely have been a cult hero type player for us. Sadly I think he's a little below Championship standard in most respects. I think in a different league and with a different team he could be effective, not as a regular goalscorer but as a disruptor. It won't be here though.

My contributions are nothing compared to the amount of work put into the website and the community by many others, but nonetheless I'm very proud to play some part of it. The tireless efforts to enhance and expand BRFCS, a lot of it unseen, are something special and I certainly don't take it for granted. If there's a better run traditional football forum and fan site on the internet I am yet to see it. Massive kudos to everyone involved. If those running things at Ewood had a tenth of the passion, commitment and love for Blackburn Rovers that the BRFCS community has, the club would be in a much better place. There may be differing opinions on here, but I have no doubt that all regular contributors here ultimately want nothing but the best for the club. Happy Christmas and New Year to all.

Toth absolutely must return to No1 spot when he's fit again. It only takes one mistake for Pears' confidence to drain and then you get repeated mistakes for multiple games. We would ideally see Toth back in the sticks before that occurs this time. Pears has proven himself a capable backup. Not sure if he's on backup wages, mind.

On his day Big Mak can cause problems. Unfortunately those days are few and far between, and I think when he's unmotivated they are essentially non-existent. I'd certainly play an academy player ahead of Gueye at this point.

Even if they don't quite get there this year, they've got a strong foundation to build on if they're smart over the next few years. Granted this season really does seem like the best chance to break the Old Firm monopoly, with both teams struggling far more than you'd expect.

The £5m fee was certainly a bit of an albatross around Gallagher's neck. If we'd bought him for £500k you'd say he did quite alright for us over the years. £5m though, especially back then, was a lot of money and at this level should mean somebody able to come in and have an instant and sustained impact. But yeah, playing him out of position likely held his development back quite a bit. He was never going to be an effective wide man. He didn't have the skillset for that. He should have been coached in how to use his frame to good effect up top. He was never going to be a lethal scorer, but he had the potential to be a nightmare for defenders to deal with. Instead he just drifted into mediocrity before injuries done him in towards the end. Diaz would have been worth the £7m to Venky's if we'd sold him for profit (and it's down to pure incompetence that we didn't). From the team/fans pov I'm not sure he was ever really worth that. He did have two very strong half-season purple patches, but when he lost confidence he was hopeless. A £7m player in the championship simply can't be a confidence player, they have to be effective regardless. When he was lacking confidence he barely registered a goal or assist for multiple games. You'd also expect a £7m player to be able to pull a team up by the bootstraps and he didn't do that either. If the team played badly, so did he. Again, if we'd paid less for him you'd say he did alright for us in the end. £7m for two half season purple patches, though... not so much. With that said, some fans made a lot of money from his 20 goal half season, so I'm sure they consider him a success!

Hearts apparently the first team to win four consecutive games against the Old Firm since the mid-80s. Fair play. One of the biggest obstacles for any underdog team to overcome is dealing with the pressure of facing a team with a big reputation. It's a psychological barrier rather than strictly talent or even form related. Definitely suggests they're the real deal this season.

I see Frank has been reduced to tantrums over referees and VAR already. I would humbly suggest your team just needs to be a bit more disciplined.

I think there was a player there in SG. His attributes could have been moulded into something useful. Not necessarily a traditional footballer but certainly a thorn in the side of the opposition. Allardyce could have made something out of Gallagher. He just needed someone to teach him how to use his build effectively and what positions to take up during specific passages of play. I don't think Mowbray or JDT were the right kind of managers for him. Eustace might have been, but by that point he was injury prone and his time here was coming to an end.

This is exactly it. Gudjohnsen just has that striker's instinct. He knows where to be and the movement needed to get there. Gallagher simply does not have this, and he'll never be a proper goalscorer as a result. Mowbray shunted him out on the right to try and make use of his work ethic, but even then his technical limitations made him fairly ineffective. It was rare that I felt Gallagher didn't put the effort in, but during his entire tenure here it never felt like there was a position he was truly comfortable in. I think his best bet would have been as part of a two up top, but we rarely played that way.

I would have rather kept Buckley than sign Tavares, especially if we actually paid money for the latter (for my own sanity I will assume the £2m reported fee is dependent on many clauses). Bucko didn't turn out to be anywhere near as good as was hyped up, but he's still a better Championship player than Tavares. One imagines signing a striker would be dependent on shifting Gueye, which may be difficult. Especially when there are videos being released of his own team mates mocking him.

Yeah, but even so, they were ahead and the sending off (which was a poor tackle and a deserved red) was a problem of their own making. Lampard pretty much admitted post-match he'd been riled up by the crowd, hence his reaction at the end.

Seems weird for Lampard to be bigging it up over a 1-1 draw. Assume there was more to it than just celebrating a point.

Just seen Millwall have -6 goal difference. You have to go all the way down to Portsmouth in 21st to find a team with worse GD (Swansea in 19th also have -6). Bizarre that they are somehow 6th.

Would take that over Gestede and Owen lumbering us with more rubbish tbh.

Tbf they're on track to become the worst premier league team in history. Fair that the fans might be a bit disgruntled imo.

Why waste money on terrible players like De Neve, Tavares and Henriksson when our academy is surely producing footballers that are far better? Is it just so that we're seen to be "spending" to "improve" the team rather than the perception being that we're selling senior players and replacing them with academy players?

Couple of goals and a clean sheet, can't complain. Well done to Litherland. Good to see Tronstad and Pickering back in the starting eleven. One can only wonder why the latter has been frozen out for so long in favour of De Neve and Ribeiro, if he can in fact be selected. Nice to see the below on the BBC match report: "For some Blackburn fans, the welcome victory, Rovers' first in six games, only papers over the cracks and they are calling for owners Venky's to sell up and for a boycott of the home match against Watford on 24 January."

Considering the team we have out there, Millwall have been abysmal so far. Alex Neil will be raging at half time, you'd imagine. They look like they should be down scrapping with us, not 4th. It's obvious the division is a bit of a joke this year, but still... Actually scoring two goals in a match is a sign of progress from our perspective at least. Can we announce a protest/boycott every couple of weeks? Seems like every time we do the next match is a guaranteed win. Not that I'm counting the proverbial chickens yet, mind. If they get one back I can see us collapsing, especially as the game goes on and we have no talent to introduce from the bench. Clean sheet would be a big statement today and possibly a necessity.

He's basically just a poacher. Instinctively knows where to be and can finish. Not sure we can expect much more than that considering the market we operate in these days tbh.

The quality across the division is extremely similar. If there's one division you'd avoid putting a bet on, it's the Championship, as there is absolutely no consistency beyond Sheffield Wednesday losing and Coventry winning (up until recently anyway). Boro also been fairly consistent despite the Rob Edwards situation. That's about it though.