RoverCanada

i beg everyone to never pay attention to any of those online wage 'resources'. (FM salaries might be in the right ballpark, but, at least from back when I played the game years ago (RIP RoverCanada with free time), you'd often find teams' reported wage bills way below the numbers you see in their actual accounts as they don't tally all the various bonuses etc, plus non-playing staff, on that main screen... I digress) --- Overall, Pickering's been quite a good L1 pickup. Never a top LB, but steady enough. 125 Championship apps ain't too shabby for, what was it, £500+k? Have to suspect his lacking physicality hasn't endeared him to VI, and he doesn't really fit in a 5-3-2 system. I was surprised Hedges was put in at LCB over him (or Ribeiro)... Although thought Hedges managed ok in the end (was only able to half watch that game, so happy to be corrected!)

Aren't pretty much all of these Tier 7-8 loans essentially local loans too? I mean, do the players even move house? Given they're semi-pro outfits, isn't it simply a matter of joining their loan team for maybe 1-2 practices + 1-2 games a week for a month or so, while otherwise they're probably still staying at home and being coached by our Academy staff a couple days a week? I'm happy to be corrected! Can debate if it's a worthwhile level of football, but I don't see that much harm in a few games here and there against some adults. I'd be surprised if a few games with Bootle ever ruined a player's development... Frankly, in some cases, it may be more of a sign that the Academy player never had that much potential in the first place, so doing them a bit of a favour to see if they can at least hack it at the semi-pro level. Generally thinking there's a distinction between local youth loans and 'proper', 'character-building', 'learn pro football' loans (like O'Riordan, or what we would've hoped for with Olson's loan...)

In McGuire's defence, he's dealt with back-to-back shoulder surgeries over the past 12 months. His shoulder issues may have been due to crop up, so perhaps we can be thankful the deal was scuppered in retrospect... but thought I'd add that context!

Yeah, Magloire did both his ACL and MCL, so, tough one to come back from... especially for him, who, if I remember right, had absolutely top tier speed, but not much else. If he lost a step... could be a sharp fall off. Part of why I suspect he was able to secure four straight decent loans, even if he never seemed up to it in his Rovers cameos. Managers probably thinking they could do 'something' with his athleticism, but then getting found out quick. He did manage to hang on with Northampton for a bit, so perhaps I'm being too harsh, and would be happily corrected! I try not to shame Academy products who have at least managed to hang on in L1 or L2, which is no joke!

Ehh, I guess we'll see in January, but going back to the weird contradictions in the original loan press releases, I've long assumed Duru's already a permanent outgoing. San Diego's was top of MLS this season and battling in the playoffs now, so always thought it was a bit of an odd team for Duru to try to break into mid-season. So, they may have seen it as a future signing themselves. Saw a couple reddit posts assuming they'll make Duru a permanent signing, but no real indication otherwise... For those interested in that sorta thing, MLS recently updated their published salaries (https://mlsplayers.org/resources/salary-guide) and Duru has a base salary of $80,622 and $98,234 guaranteed. Presuming San Diego's covering all his salary, that translates to about £1.2k/wk base or £1.4k/wk guaranteed.

My 2 cents/pence: - O'Riordan: A successful loan so far. - Edmondson: Good he's getting regular gametime at NLN, and a step up from last year's loan, but he is turning 20 next month, so you start to wonder if he should be moving up the pyramid soon. I presume that will be revisited in January when his loan is due to expire. - Olson: A shame he's struggling to break into a middling L2 side. Maybe he's simply hitting his level and he is turning 21 next month, but you also want to give CBs a bit more growing space. There can still be some value in 'unsuccessful' loans in terms of sniffing out whether a player's good enough (if he can't force his way into a L2 side...), but looking like a poor loan. - Pratt: huh, didn't realise how little he's played so far, but presumably a reason they extended that loan. Kinda like Olson, I don't think he's considered one of our blue chip CBs in the first place, like Atcheson/Litherland (I'm more curious if/when those two will get a loan!) - Barrett: He was an odd signing (and re-signing...) in the first place, so who knows with that one! Not too bothered with him only getting that one Cup app so far... - Duru / O'Grady-Macken: Lumping these together as, whatever the merits/success of their loans, it sounds like both cases were more a matter of shipping a player out than a development loan, which is a shame (more about Duru, no idea about O'Grady-Macken other than his random sub cameo!) Maybe I'm being too forgiving/blase, but aside from some disappointment about Duru apparently being shipped out, and Olson stalling, the O'Riordan and maybe Edmondson loans are the only relevant ones to me (not that I don't appreciate your loan reports 🙂) (FYI on the 'questionable' terminology, that's borrowed from the NFL and other N American sports where injuries are often classified pre-game as either 'doubtful' (less than 25%) or 'questionable' (50% or less) in terms of their likelihood of being available to play. It's a regulation related to betting/not letting teams hide or surprise with injuries)

Hardly a star manager, but Bowyer has managed to leverage his 'steady', if unsuccessful, tenure with us into an interesting and reasonably respectable lower league career. - Got Blackpool out of L2 via the playoffs in 2017, amid the dying embers of the Oyston regime. Kept them mid-table in L1 in 2018 (no idea what the expectations were!) before resigning. - Couldn't keep Bradford from relegation after a late hire in 2019 (they were already pretty much doomed), but then fired after a promising start in L2 trailed off. - After a spell as Derby's u23s manager, almost got Salford into the L2 playoffs as interim manager in 2021 (oddly on a 'loan' from Derby!). Made permanent manager for 2022 but only managed 10th (70 points, which would just make the playoffs in some years...) and sacked. - Ended up in the Scottish Championship with Dundee, where he won the league in 2023, but rather randomly immediately resigned after the season. - Pulled off an escape with Burton (9 points from safety with a bit over half the season to spare) in L1 last year, but in some trouble to start the year. Some Salford and Bradford supporters may not be too fond of him, but a couple promotions and decent firefighting jobs ain't too shabby for who was originally a rather obscure youth coach.

Absolutely pathetic.

ha, I was skimming the Canadian soccer nerds forum and their ongoing thread on Luca Koleosho: https://www.canadiansoccernews.com/topic/78146-luca-koleosho/page/73/ - lots of dual-national will-he-won't-he angst in Canadian soccer, a la good ol' Junior Hoilett (who eventually became a gem for Canadian soccer!)... ...and stumbled upon fans rhapsodising about him being surpassed by some winger from 'Blackburn' named Dolan!

ok cool.

Whatever the manner/reason for his departure, I'm going to miss Tronstad ☹️

Bit of a shame that, in other circumstances, that would look like a positive loan for O'Grady-Mackens, but rumoured to be more about shipping him out. Strange fall off after earning an FA Cup sub (under Eustace...) only this past January... Happy O'Riordan's doing well. I've been somewhat vocal that we need to be patient with his pathway, and not to write him off too quickly due to that Cambridge loan. Too bad that Olson hasn't broken through with Oldham yet, but may just need to bide his time. Barrett was such an odd signing/re-signing. I'm a (perhaps ironic 🙂) Benson defender and have been curious what they've been trying to build with our stable of youth GKs (and Barrett's not even that young, which prevented him from being even a 3rd GKer when we hit the senior roster cap last year!), but didn't get anything out of the likes of Stergiakis, Eastham, Hilton, or Fisher (except, presumably nominal, fees for the latter two). I guess we'll see with Michalski, Goddard, Honor, Khan, etc. Heck, maybe Barrett will get a chance and show something at Tranmere (seems to be replacing their previous backup, a 44 yo player-coach!) Duru with a couple subs so far. I was curious how much gametime he'd actually get given San Diego are in 2nd in the league (impressive for an expansion team!), so that's kind of encouraging. However, another one where it's hard to get too excited given all signs point to that move also being about shipping him out. edit: forgot to add, a bit disappointing/surprising that Batty didn't get a loan with Ribeiro/Pickering clearly in his way at the moment.

To be fair, having just listened to the podcast, whoever submitted the question originally gets it wrong that Mowbray gave Wharton his debut. Now, Mowbray doesn't correct the record after the question is read out to him, but he doesn't say anything himself about giving Wharton his debut or getting him into the squad (scanning back, I think Wharton's first bench appearance was in the FA Cup vs Wigan on 8 Jan 2022, which was under Mowbray...). He actually downplays his role in Wharton's development at the end of his ramble. He rhapsodises about how good Wharton was in training, hanging onto the ball with Travis snapping at him, etc., and that he was keen to keep including him in senior training, but that he still needed to develop physically. A slightly interesting tidbit is he mentions he was taking calls from Palace (and maybe one other club?) about Wharton even back then. Of course further highlighting the insanity of Suhail's 'nobody knew how good Wharton was going to be' quote...

Charlie Methven was (rightly) mocked for being a bit of a knob and having plenty of David Brent moments in that Sunderland 'Til I Die doc, but I also remember thinking while watching it 'yeah, but his staff do seem pretty useless...'

You're slipping! Olson got his first start for Oldham in the EFL Trophy, in a 5-1 battering by Man City's u21s :): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/ce35d425r4rt Had a glance at their forum and the general consensus is Olson's CB partner had an absolute mare.