Swiss Ramble posted a thread with an interesting set of charts comparing gross and net transfer spend across the PL and Championship over the past 5 years: https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/1340985406922354688 Rovers very much near the bottom. This is covering 2014-15 to 2018-19, so it more covers our 'lean' latter years in the Championship + L1, and then you can see the +£8m net spending boost for our first year back in the Championship. Including 19-20 would change things a bit with a net spend of ~£1.5-2m (Gallagher - Raya - Nuttall), but not drastically so. A comparison of only 18-19 + 19-20 vs the rest would probably be more interesting from our perspective. Obviously have to also consider wage expenditure, how much of that spend by relegated clubs turned into an anchor, probably misleading to go so far back for a couple of those former PL clubs, etc etc etc, but anyway, though it was an interesting visual of the gulf in spend between PL clubs, recently relegated clubs, and Championship clubs!

Rolling my eyes and shaking my head through it, but admittedly a pretty entertaining listen! Marshall may be a prat, but he's got a sense of humour at least. For those who can't be bothered (I agree the forced laddishness of that podcast can grate, and it's not a short listen!), here are the general bits re: Rovers: - Bowyer was apparently very 'paranoid', but they don't really elaborate (I suppose fair to Bowyer as he tried to survive under Venky's) - Evans allegedly has a video of Marshall and Marrow naked wrestling outside a pub (lads lads lads!) - Marshall had a side hustle selling knock-off gear, like Yeezys, to players. Mentions selling them to Brown, Taylor, and Guthrie (who wraps it in new packing and gives it to his gf for Christmas - Marshall mocks him for doing so given his PL money haha) - Again confirms everything we already know about Coyle. Funny stories, but that appointment still boggles my mind... - Says Bowyer bought him for just over £1m, he promptly went on the lash with Marrow for 2 weeks before Bowyer had to plead for him to get his head in order. (Makes you again wonder wtf Bowyer was thinking bringing Marrow in) - Liked Lambert, also suggesting he's pretty self-interested (and repeats that he was promised money to spend and then fucked off when Venky's pulled the plug) - Coyle tried to convince him to stay. Was offered the same terms he eventually got at Wolves, but there was a 50% relegation clause and he was convinced Coyle was going to get Rovers relegated, so he refused. Coyle then kicked him off the first team and he went on a 3-week bender before being sold (which apparently showed in his physical at Wolves!) - Says he was sold to Wolves for £2m. I recall there was a lot of debate on here scoffing at the idea of us getting anything more than £500k for him given his contract was running down, but it does sound like we got £1.5-2m in the end (LT reported £1.5m). Cairney and maybe Raya are exceptions, but we generally have gotten quite a good price for the players we have sold under Venky's... (and usually well-timed too. Probably got the best years of Marshall's career anyway) Marshall at least doesn't come off as pretty honest and not a hypocrite... Can also give him some credit for not being one of those misfit players who also blew all their money and fair to him for realising his heart just wasn't in it anymore. Can definitely understand Norwich fans' ire, but it sounds like he voluntarily cancelled a lucrative 4-year contract after 1 year. I was saying earlier how Graham maybe doesn't come off well in that other recent podcast, but there's a balance as he's probably also a great dressing room presence (and while he's floundering at Sunderland and looked past it last year too, he was quite an effective Championship striker a couple years ago at 33!). Sounds like Marshall was one step too far in that regard, particularly with other players being aware he was regularly blowing off training.

While I'm sure they're in it for the fun of owning a football club, rumour is this is also a play on making a 'Sunderland 'til I Die' style documentary, as they realised it would be cheaper to buy/invest in a club like Wrexham for a couple million than pay an established club for broadcasting rights and then wrangle over distribution rights, etc. They also won't have to deal with club PR micromanaging every frame, making sure the club comes off well (/boring). Main risk/worry is if Wrexham's play doesn't produce enough storylines! But I suspect they'll manage just fine in making lower league football interesting and seems they're already leaning into the quirkiness of the Welsh angle. I'm a huge Always Sunny fan and McEllhenney's always seemed like a sincere dude. Reynolds' public persona is charming too, if a bit polished haha. Apparently Reynolds may have made 9 figures selling his gin brand this past summer, so he's got plenty of money to invest/lose!

His first touch is occasionally awful, but he really shows his abilities with that 2nd and 3rd touch (if he gets to it!) What impresses me is how fast he is with the ball right at his feet. Never seems to kick it forward and gallop, yet still gets up the pitch at great pace and with control. Similarly, always seems to be on the verge of trouble in tight in the corner/around the box, yet always seems to wriggle loose. Then his final ball occasionally leaves a lot to be desired, but that finally seems to be improving this year!

The Christmas dinner story about Coyle is hilarious. The players are trying to sort it out in a serious meeting and he can't be bothered haha... Still can't believe that appointment. Considering how razor thin our relegation was that year, certainly an interesting counterfactual if any other manager had been appointed... Graham comes off as pretty immature and less than 100% committed, but you can also tell he's probably good for locker room morale. It's a balance... I often remind myself that 90% of athletes are the guys I hated back in school haha. Players are waaaay more ill-behaved than some fans assume haha, but I also suspect that's what separates the elite from the merely very good. I think there's a quote in Wenger's new book how the very best players live boring, monotonous, and repetitious lives. Fair play to Graham that he's still managing in League One at his age, but you also wonder where he'd be at if he was more dedicated. Also highlights the credit Mowbray deserves for getting the best out of Dack despite his "extracurricular interests"... £750k was obviously a steal even at the time, but his reputation also contributed to him being so cheap. Will be interesting to see how well he comes back from injury (I also think he keeps fitter than people give him credit for. I recall many games trailing where he's all over the place trying to get the ball back with 80+min left...) Makes sense that there's always going to be some love-hate between manager and player, particularly for a player effectively frozen out last year. Graham has every right to be annoyed about it, but he'd clearly lost another step last year and also seems to respect that Mowbray helped revive his career. The manager is effectively their boss, making them run/work every morning, so a players vs manager dynamic naturally develops. So Graham will naturally take Mulgrew's "side", even if it's clear from an outsider's view that Mulgrew is also past it... Also recall Graham speaking out for Gallagher after Sharpe's mildly critical article.

I'm often a 'defender' of Evans, but even I'll admit he had a pretty awful game. Aside from him just being technically 'off' (he's usually at least pretty tidy with the ball), he was often terribly positioned as the 'attacker' among the midfield trio. He did at least show some scrappiness and was a touch better in the 2nd half when re-positioned further back... He's at his best complementing more dynamic attacking, box-to-box-type midfielder(s), cleaning up at the back and then handing off. So beside the likes of Travis or Rothwell, or maybe Dack. But the midfield just dies if he's only partnered with slower/deeper lying midfielders, like Johnson and Buckley (or Lowe, Smallwood, etc in years past!). Probably wouldn't work in a pairing with only, say, Holtby or JRC either, but I think he can effectively shield the back as part of a trio with Dack or Rothwell driving things forward and working with Holtby/Buckley further back as part of a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. Will be curious how Trybull fits in. Didn't help that Johnson had his worst game since pre-COVID and Buckley weirdly being so 'off' technically (despite his technical promise, he's still very much a WIP in the other aspects of his game, so if his passing/long balls are off, he simply won't be effective out there. I do like the idea of him being the apprentice to Holtby as a deep lying playmaker this year!). In hindsight, maybe Davenport was a better option than Buckley, as he can drive forward a bit better. Anyway, there has to be some sympathy for a midfield scrapped together at the last second... was hoping for a 0-0 'write-off' game, but losing at the end on a lucky deflection is quite annoying... Some ratings, cause my (belated) opinion is important: Kaminski 7: No fault for the goal and made some solid saves. Would give him an 8 if he hadn't hashed a couple kicks. Nyambe/Bell: 6: certainly not bad, but not particularly good (maybe a 6.5 for Nyambe who handled Ameobi pretty well) Ayala 7: makes you nervous at times as he's not always elegant with the ball, but thought he was quite effective Lenihan 6: struggled passing from the left and had a couple sloppy touches, but his overall defending was fine Evans/Johnson/Buckley 4: just all around bad Armstrong/Dolan 5: hardly had any service from the midfield, but didn't create anything when they did get the ball. Thought Dolan was a touch better than against Cardiff, but have to dock him for that stupid giveaway in our corner. Brereton 5.5: would give him a 5 with the above as he kept making bad first touches, but I'll give him some credit for actually managing a couple driving runs when the midfield was of no help and Armstrong/Dolan couldn't manage anything themselves Gallagher 6.5: was a brief breath of fresh air as we tried change it up, but ultimately for nought Chapman 5: I'll give him some credit for trying to create something when he had touches, but another sign that his legs just aren't what they used to be (quite sad at his age!) Brennan N/A: he was actually pretty poor, but I'll cut a youngster some slack on a hastened debut! (you can credit Mowbray for continuing to try to mix up the attack, but I'd question throwing on an untested youngster in a tight game where despite generally being on top, Forest were still regularly threatening. Again, not to criticise a youngster, but his defending on Lolley's goal was poor...)

oh fuck

I completely forget why I ever watched it, and feels almost mean to do this for a game against PL competition, but in the below highlights of Salford's friendly with Everton in September, I did find it hilarious how Lowe's the culprit for almost every Everton chance/goal... 0:53 in fairness, an okay block! 1:24 However, he loses Keane for the headed goal from the resulting corner 2:36 fails to close down a shot from outside the box 4:20 diving lunge fails to stop a pass to his man in the box, who scores 5:28 now at RB, he's isolated, but still giving up way too much space on the left wing, allowing Everton to enter the box with ease 6:39 neat clearance from the long ball, but then probably should've pressed the winger more right after given his support 7:17 not so sure this is all his fault, but a part of some poor tandem defending... 7:42 pretty useless defending of the wide ball, allowing a pass that leads to a penalty 9:25 fails to do anything to defend a cross that leads to two chances off the post and crossbar I have honestly been curious if Bolton and/or Salford fans have rated him at all in L1/L2 to see if that truly is his 'level'... (Apparently Scholes is only in charge for as long as Warren Joyce has to remain in isolation due to COVID...)

Couple points: - Hoilett was a Bosman transfer, not a 'free' transfer. Didn't go to tribunal as we agreed to compensation of £3m, rising to £4m with appearances: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/19750830 - Re: opinions on Mulgrew's contract extension, at least looking back at posts at the time, you're not going to find a lot dissent (if any!): https://www.brfcs.com/mb/index.php?/forums/topic/33229-the-godlike-genius-of-charlie-mulgrew/&page=4 See from when the news was first posted on 15 Nov 2018. I count 16 positive posts in a row, with only one post adding the caveat 'provided his body holds up'. And then you see opinions have changed pretty rapidly after the thread was resurrected after winter haha... Possible I'm overlooking critical comments elsewhere, and perhaps a biased thread given the title (!) and nobody feeling like picking a fight there and then, but I don't recall a lot of dissent at the time (and a search for Mulgrew posts in Nov 2018 doesn't pull up anything negative either!) (To be clear, I'm not at all calling out any individual posters. As far as I can remember, I'd have to count myself among those cheering Mulgrew's extension too!)

Watching Kaminski, it immediately becomes apparent what Mowbray was alluding to with these comments about Walton (https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18595996.mowbray-loanee-rovers-search-new-keeper/) “I think he’s been trying really hard all year to change a few core fundamentals that he has that I would like to change so he can play the way I would like him to play. “It’s not easy to change footballers, particularly goalkeepers where I’m not the expert, yet I watch as much football as anyone and know where the goalkeeping fraternity is going, I know how a modern goalkeeper is going to look and looks now, and how the world’s best are operating. “You should try and achieve that, and I’ve said to Christian that if he thinks he’s going to play for Brighton in the Premier League, the way they play then he has some fundamentals he needs to change." Mowbray's politely not getting into specifics, and he's not espousing anything revolutionary, but Kaminski's ability to comfortably play up high and be a passing option for the CBs is where Kaminski most obviously differs from Walton, and thus what Mowbray was looking for as a long-term option (a 'modern' goalkeeper). Kaminski just looks so comfortable with the ball every time it comes back to him (while not lackadaisical either) It always felt like an adventure/hold your breath moment when it went back to Walton (or Kean, Steele, Eastwood, etc. Raya was decent with the ball, but was obviously still learning and prone to a 'youthful' mistake). I don't recall Walton making any egregious kicking/ball handling mistakes that immediately led to a goal (I'm sure someone can remind me ?), but the best hope was that he'd simply boot it somewhere downfield, and we then likely lose possession. (As an aside, just my opinion, but I think Walton's ultimately a middling/below-average Championship keeper. Not bad as football careers go. His up-and-down form obviously drove us nuts - funny coming back from lockdown that I was thinking he was quite solid after a great run before lockdown, and then his post-lockdown play was, uh,... One of my pet theories is there are only 2-3 clubs in the world where fans are universally happy with their keeper haha) I recall Kaminski made some howler with the ball just before Ghent sold him, hence their fans were on his back. Bound to happen here eventually, so let's just hope we can recognise if the good is ultimately outweighing the bad! (Hence, how do we properly measure that nebulous 'lost us points' metric that's often bandied about haha...)

Tom White in the starting 11 for Bolton in their first EFL Trophy game. Would be interesting if he manages to keep a spot in what looks to be a strong L2 side. Easy to forget about him. Also appears to have been a regular for 1st place Barrow in the National League last year. (Having said that, at 23 he better be showing some bright spots soon! I should say I don't have any real hope/expectations for him...)

Yes... fiction...

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/1263720792594014209 Worthwhile reading for getting a picture of Brentford's finances (up to 2018-19) A few notes: - They've averaged £8m of purchases and £13.4m in sales per year the past four years. Player trading 'profit' is even higher, but also need to account for their growing transfer amortisation costs (£7m last year, although that's only mid-table in the Championship. We were at only £2m last year, reflecting our limited spend for a few years. Gallagher + Brereton should roughly increase that to ~£5m for this past year, which would still be quite low among Championship clubs) - Their wages are lower than ours, but their wage-turnover is comparable due to low revenues (their commercial income has generally been low and stagnant, and Griffin Park capped their matchday revenue. I assume both can/will improve with the new stadium and with continued success on the pitch) - Owner has invested £78m since taking over (which was reduced by £14m in 2018-19, partly due to further player trading profits, but also £14m profit from selling the land around Griffin Park). Similar to us, much of that funding (plus player sales profit and the land sale) has simply gone toward covering operating losses (high wage-turnovers ain't cheap!), plus the new ground

Thought Fisher looked generally assured, but you could argue he should've had that second one, and he did make a hash of that one high ball (although I think Wharton struggling to contain his man contributed to that muck up too). I did notice Venus giving Fisher hell for booting one kick out of bounds... I actually quite liked Wharton out there. Had a couple mis-kicks in the 1st half, but looked a lot more assured than Lenihan, who had a weird game. Not a pen on replay, but Lenihan more got it because his defending looked so awkward... Armstrong and Johnson pretty anonymous. Chapman seemed to have the ball a lot yet was oddly hesitant to do anything with it. Typical hot-and-cold Rothwell appearance, meh. I'd score it: Fisher 6, JRC 7, Lenihan 5, Wharton 7, Bell 4.5 (Ugh. 4 if it wasn't for the well-won penalty), Holtby 7 (hope he's okay, liked the look of him in a deeper role), Travis 7, Johnson 5.5, Chapman 5, Armstrong 6, Brereton 6.5 (cruising for a solid 7 until that awful miss at the end! But had a nice hand in goals 2 and 3, and made some good runs), Dolan 7, Rothwell 6 Kinda meh game really. Dominant for most of the 1st without doing much (like too much of the post-lockdown games), horrid start to the 2nd, then recovered a bit. Honestly can't get too up in arms about what felt more like a glorified friendly.

Asked my Belgian colleague about Kaminski and he was pretty positive. Said he was highly thought of as a prospect with Anderlecht (his club) and he was only 2nd choice there because their no. 1 keeper was so good. I pointedly excluded the cases of promoted clubs like Bournemouth and Leicester, or Man City (which is a whole other level). There clearly are deficiencies in how FFP works if a club does get promoted (or those at Man City's level). But I purposefully highlighted the SW case, where they similarly gambled and didn't get promoted, and are now facing a pretty severe penalty after mucking up the stadium sale loophole. Breaking FFP is no guarantee of promotion and my reading is the consequences of doing so are getting tighter. (Don't get me wrong, I understand the frustrations if we continue muck around at mid-table) I do find the assumption that there must be 'some' loophole a bit frustrating. It strikes me as a hand-waving 'bah, there must be a way to cheat! Fancy accountants can do anything!" when there aren't any concrete examples outside of the stadium sale loophole and Man City's unique case. Maybe commercial revenue could be juiced a bit more, but I don't think it's so obvious that other clubs are blatantly doing so (I'm open to examples!), there are regulations in place, and I pointed out that we already do punch above our weight commercial revenue-wise due to Venky's. I'm sure further improvements can be made to boost revenue - I've seen plenty of criticism/suggestions regarding our matchday efforts! - but that still won't be nearly enough to boost us to the level of the likes of Leeds or parachute payment recipients. Would us being a £20m vs £17m revenue club really be all that different...? (Having said that, yes, please do boost revenue where possible!!) I think the only initial murmur is the 1-year FFP £13m loss limit (more like £17m for us due to our academy spend) may be extended to over two years (so, we wouldn't be judged for losing £20m this year as long as we only lose £14m the next). I personally think it's pretty unrealistic to expect clubs will make back the losses of this year in only one year. That revenue is gone and will never be recovered, particularly with fans in the ground still looking a ways off. Anyway, may all be for nought as I suspect a revamp of FFP will be coming soon (and I'd err toward assuming it'll be a bit more airtight than it is now!)

I'm curious what you have mind? Recently, the 'loophole' has been to sell the ground to a shell corporation owned by the owner (at allegedly inflated values, hence the ongoing case against Derby), which is a clever way to book a one-off profit, although it does then increase ongoing costs due to having to lease your own stadium. I'd be surprised if anyone has advocated selling Ewood Park to Venky's on here without getting pelted with tomatoes, but I may have missed that! Some scoff that Sheffield Wed wasn't relegated by their recent breach, but if you read the decision, applying it to this upcoming year was part of a bid by the independent panel to ensure fairness/consistency, while still having some bite. Technically, the points deduction should've applied to 2018-19 given the accounts the breach was applicable to, a deduction which wouldn't have relegated SW, while a deduction next year puts them in a decent hole starting next year and it will be consistent with any points deduction for Derby being applied to next year too. The panel ruled applying the judgement as late as August for this year was unfair, with some leeway given for COVID reasons, but this was also a product of EFL incompetence and SW stalling tactics. I suppose we wait on whether SW has any legs in their appeal of course... SW's case appeared to be hinge on "the EFL incompetently advised us on how to stay within FFP", yet the ultimate ruling was their backdated accounting of the stadium sale would have broken the actual law, which obviously supersedes FFP... (plus SW inexplicably dawdled on pulling off the stadium sale for months after the EFL gave them the go ahead) My understanding is Venky's already plug a fair amount of commercial revenue into the club. Our commercial revenue was £5.5m in 2018-19, which is actually just below mid-table among Championship clubs, so we already punch above our weight in that regard. Perhaps they can finagle boosting that number further, but enough to have the same financial weight as the £30m+ revenue clubs vs our current £17m turnover...? Bristol City may be a good model here, although their commercial revenue boost is apparently linked to turning Ashton Gate into a major non-matchday events venue, not necessarily Lansdown plugging in 'fake' revenue. Am I forgetting other ways clubs have been getting around FFP lately? (Honest question!) (Among Championship/non-promoted clubs! The PL and FFP is a whole other issue...)

Surely one of the advantages of loans is, for cases like Palmer or Walton, we didn't spend a transfer fee and sign them to a lucrative long-term contract. We were able to cancel the deal with Palmer midway and Walton's gone after a middling year. I doubt anyone would be pleased if we still had them on the books for 2-3 years. Cunningham was looking good, but imagine we had signed him to a long-term deal + transfer fee and were now fretting whether he could come back from injury to justify that outlay? Reed was largely good for us. Was that a waste of wages/loan fees (and potential development of other young players he kept out of the lineup?), or did Reed help keep us out of a relegation scrap that year? It also potentially gives you a look at signing the player permanently later if he's a good fit, likes the club setup, and doesn't appear to have a place in his original club. See Tom Cairney, for example. That didn't work out for Reed, but you'd have to assume he'd be on the radar for a permanent deal if we did somehow get promoted that year, as Fulham may be doing now. Tosin's gone now, but he's a huge reason we were ever on the cusp on the playoffs, and obviously was always well out of our price range (and also a case where he wasn't taking game time from a younger CB ready for the Championship). Sounds like he was expensive as loan signings go, but our financial commitment ended at the end of the year, and theoretically the budget for his loan fee is now available for reallocation this year. I'm not at all saying loans should be excessively relied upon, but it keeps being framed as an 'either/or' argument, when a smattering of well-targeted, high-quality loans is often a sensible way to improve your competitiveness for a season with limited financial commitment, and we've also seen some recent examples of squads getting promoted with a significant number of loans.

It's actually a pretty typical day rate for a consultant. Bit misleading to extrapolate to a full year of work. Whether the council did their due diligence in assuring they're getting value for money is another question... (I choose to remember Senior as the man who fired Coyle, and nothing more. Top bloke in my books haha...)

Any chance we still have a sell-on attached to Duffy? Sounds like Brighton will be looking to sell him. I'd assume King will be leaving Bournemouth and I think it was confirmed we have a sell-on clause for him. Add in further payment from Brentford for Raya if they get promoted (I think I saw the LT mention that recently), and that could be a decent amount incoming for previously sold players... While I'm at it on sell-ons, going by the terms of the tribunal decision, just noticed we would've gotten 20% of the profit on Mahoney's transfers to Millwall last summer, so £135,000 (if the reported £1.1m fee is to be believed). Hurray!

I was randomly reading an article today about Dean Henderson and whether he can replace De Gea (paywalled: https://theathletic.com/1934279/2020/07/20/dean-henderson-sheffield-united-manchester-united/). Oddly enough, a lot of the article is centred around an interview with Ben Benson, as he coached Henderson when he was in Carlisle's academy and he apparently has remained a 'close confidante' of Henderson's ever since. Not to suggest being Henderson's goalie coach at 14 makes him a good coach, but that's a respectable endorsement of sorts...

Interesting, hadn't caught what Huddersfield's been saying/claiming of late. They also (amazingly) managed two years in the PL, which is a key threshold as that means they have three years of parachute payments ahead of them (£93m over three years versus £77m over two years... albeit only £15m in that final year). A quick glance suggests, compared to a counterfactual of losing £7m/year in the Championship, as they'd roughly been doing before promotion, Huddersfield made about £40m more in profit between their promotion year and their final year in the PL (that's including subtracting the extra £12m or so loss from promotion bonuses). They partly used that to lower Hoyle's loan from £52m to £45m and build up their cash reserves from £3m to £14m. Their wage bill was only £64m (19th in the PL) when they got relegated, and their transfer spending wasn't all that high either, so I doubt they've got that much legacy costs from the PL to cover. However, they also apparently took on a £31m loan that was secured against future TV money and have committed to repay Hoyle another £35m over the next couple years, so that's what seems to be causing them problems now, despite 3 years of parachute payments ahead. (Swiss Ramble went through their latest accounts last month for reference: https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/1247051806934536192) At least from my view, they appear to me to be a 'model' for using promotion to make some money (/repay past debts), but I guess relegation means they can't pay off Hoyle's loans as fast as they had committed. Fulham could be seen as the example on the other side of that (and they got relegated after one season, so only 2 seasons of parachute payments for them). (And, goes without saying that this is all from the perspective of a pre-covid world...)

Ha, glad he did one as it saves me from boring you all with one of my long posts The twitter link: He's also been posting two-slide summaries for teams of late. Here's ours: Been overwhelmed with work last few months (not complaining given the circumstances!), but been meaning to give our accounts a skim. So you're all not necessarily off the hook of a long, boring post!

https://theathletic.com/1703320/2020/03/27/blackburn-rovers-wage-deferral/ (paywall, sorry!) Rovers latest club to agree to a wage deferral. Summary: - Players refused a request to defer some payments for March, upset at only being given half a day's notice - They have now agreed to defer some wages from April onwards - Notes that it's related to short-term cashflow rather than any issue with Venky's (the article notes their shares have dropped 9%, which sounds relatively modest to me! Perhaps a rare occasion to be thankful for Venky's deep pockets in these times...) - A source in the article notes how every Championship club is having these discussions. The clubs in the EFL have discussed a collective agreement for a temporary wage cap or % cut to all player wages.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18284085.highly-rated-rovers-youngster-makes-first-loan-switch/ Vale now on loan at Barrow too, joining Platt and White. We can sneer at the National League, but playing under a seemingly innovative coach and (highly successfully) playing a high-possession, passing game in a league full of players looking to give you a good kicking sounds decent for development! Could be a good loan relationship to continue if they do get promoted to L2. Platt apparently getting plaudits from Barrow fans. It is the National League, but perhaps. He's out of contract in the summer, but I think Mowbray did mention him among the young CBs he'll be looking at in the summer, so perhaps we shouldn't rule him out just yet.

Doubt I'm saying anything that hasn't already been said, but: - Overall, Brentford all over us from about 0 to 25, then again from maybe 70 to 90, while we had a bright patch in between. Brentford's finishing and final touch was pretty terrible throughout. - Walton's insistence on kicking into the wind in the second half was frustrating... otherwise, can't fault him for Brentford's sublime first goal. And he was pretty assured with the ball in a game where a ballplaying keeper was a must as we struggled to cycle possession in the back - Buckley and Nyambe were quite exposed on the right in the first 30 mins or so. Nyambe of course physically up for it, but seemed to struggle in his communication a couple times. Lenihan seemed uncertain when to help. Buckley frankly a bit useless defensively... but we all know that. Game changed once Buckley was shuttled over to the left. (He did look decent on the ball at least, as usual!) - Armstrong continuing to be immense - Travis my MOTM. Johnson and Downing's experience was nice to have in a game like this, but it felt like Travis had to cover ground for both of them. Perhaps as designed... but there was a couple moments of "who the **** is playing midfield?" on a couple Brentford attacks Losing the win after being up 2-0 is always going to be frustrating, but their first was pretty incredible, and the second a maybe questionable pen... it happens. Obviously would've taken a point at the start, so on we go! Not the 'season decider' as Brentford away has been a couple times in recent years!