RoverCanada

I'd note major caution about any of those sites apparently listing every player's wages. They're no better than ballpark guesses about confidential salaries. Same with FM. That's not unique to us. For example, the same site has PNE's basic wages at £12.2m, but their latest accounts have total staff costs at £23.9m. (Funny how pro salaries are so public in North American sports in contrast!) As KentExile noted, they'll be missing a lot of other bonuses, etc. Even if our basic wages may have fallen last year, it's worth noting that VLL's accounts up to March 2023 actually saw wages and salaries rise from £24.8m to £25.8m, likely due to a couple extended cup runs and a relatively successful season (total headcount also increased from 209 to 219). Likewise, VLL reported turnover of £19.9m, which would be our best result since parachute payments ended. Rovers' actual accounts for 22/23 should come out in April. However, it's this past summer where we may see significant cuts emerge... the 23/24 should prove interesting reading in 1.5 years' time...

Is Batty injured again? He hasn't featured for the u21s since 1 Dec. Also reportedly had a minor injury in the summer... Disappointing he hasn't stepped up to be proper depth at LB yet, but he's only 18. Injuries seem to be holding him back. He's only made 8 appearances across all competitions this season according to soccerway and only 17 last season. Other fullback options: Cirino's injured, haven't heard much hype around Haddow, Gent's on loan (starting to make consistent starts at Motherwell, which is good to see), maybe Duru as he's popped up on the bench recently and will turn 19 soon. Anyway, I can see the case for bringing in Chrisene as (cheap...) temporary FB depth. Apparently did quite well on loan at Kilmarnock before getting injured last year.

- I think something along these lines was mentioned earlier, but The Athletic is reporting that we've had two loan bids rejected for Orlando City striker Duncan McGuire, and are expected to be make a third loan bid (amid interest from FC Nantes, FC Utrecht, and RWD Molenbeek): https://theathletic.com/5177729/2024/01/04/mls-january-transfer-window/ (might be paywalled). 15 goals over 37 appearances in his rookie MLS season. - On O'Riordan's incoming, worth noting he's cup-tied for the FA Cup. May relate to the debate on holding on to Hill for one more weekend. Doubt we'd want to risk Hyam and presumably S. Wharton won't be ready. Perhaps time for Gamble... Such a shame that Barnes got hit with another long-term injury. - It's spread across L1/L2/Scottish Championship, but notable that O'Riordan's actually accumulated a decent amount of pro experience for his age: 76 league/cup appearances (+ a bit of non-league!)

The point is it's a silly way to rate/write off any GK coach.

By my count (which depends given some teams have multiple coaches and if you want to count coaches who did play as a youth...), about 20-30% of PL GK coaches have zero experience as a professional GK. Just saying. #BenBensonFanClub

- Jackson mentioned that Broughton claims we expect about £5m for Raya in the summer, FWIW (ducks) (https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/24014940.blackburn-agree-transfer-fee-ahead-transfer-window/). Have to assume whatever (nominal) clause have been easily met. Would bring the overall Raya sale to ~£9m, which frankly isn't too shabby (ducks again). - I don't see Bournemouth recalling Hill. Presumably they're happy with his gametime and they've been on a great run of late. Hill's last few games would presumably give them pause about him being a short-term solution... Had a glance at their forum and they seem generally happy with depth and are primarily worried about strikers. (edit: perhaps I'm 100% wrong haha...) - Shame about Buckley's loan/injury. 5 starts + 8 subs for a woeful Sheffield Wed isn't great and seemed to get mixed reviews from their fans, but not exactly put in a position to succeed. However, given he had apparently been surpassed by Garrett in preseason and Garrett's only gotten 2 league starts + 9 subs (+4 cup starts), doubtful he'd have gotten any more gametime here. (Anyone else getting Davenport vibes from Garrett? Has shown flashes as a sub and against inferior Cup opposition, but seems overwhelmed with full starts. Still young and has something to him, so certainly not giving up on him yet!).

Reminded me of a map that was put together a few years back of the cheapest pint at each tube station's nearest pub. Turns out it was updated in 2022: https://storekit.com/advice/storekit-london-tube-map-cheapest-pints-closest-pub-2022 A useful resource if the cheapest pint possible is your sole pub criteria haha £6+ becoming the norm for macro lagers pints... Serves me right for choosing to live in London anyway 🙂

Tronstad fast becoming my favourite Rover...

Funnily enough, despite a long post about Wharton, it completely went by me that he was one of the players Morton was being selected ahead of hahaha... I was too caught up thinking how Buckley failed in the role and the likes of Travis obviously aren't suited for it. Fair point and definitely a controversial one. All I can say is we have to give JDT some benefit of the doubt there given his quotes above about Wharton needing to learn to become a professional footballer and his regular comments on his defensive work.

Some quotes from JDT: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/23980872.tomasson-gives-wharton-verdict-new-blackburn-deal/ Fair summary. “I saw immediately the potential in Adam when I came here,” Tomasson told RoversTV. “I gave him minutes immediately and then I took him out of the team because I thought he needed to learn about being a professional football player. “I saw the quality on the ball. He can do things that nobody sees before, he can play passes under pressure, he can play one-touch and he has great vision. “I think he’s stepping up to another level from the start of this season. On the ball, he’s Champions League level, I’ve said that many times. I’ve played there and coached enough at Champions League level and I should know that. "I think he’s learning a lot off the ball and is improving a lot. He’s still a young boy who needs to learn a lot but he’s improving really well. “He’s a good boy and someone who the Academy have worked with, so it’s great for the community to have one of the local boys signing a new deal and playing the way he is. “He also has weaknesses that we’re working on and he’s improving all the time. You can always work on becoming better. There’s still plenty to come.” --- He obviously has work to do defensively, but I don't think it's fair to say he's useless. He's definitely made some very key interceptions and well-timed tackles here and there (see all of that Blackpool game last year!). Just a work in progress, and having the likes of Tronstad alongside him to clean up is looking promising. His effort level can sometimes look wanting but I think some of that is simply because of his somewhat 'gangly' running style... As suggested above re: Rice as a comparable, my suspicion is they want to develop him into a deep-lying playmaker/6, where transfer fees have skyrocketed. See this (paywalled) Athletic article comparing the likes of Caicedo, Rice, Lavia, Fernandez...: https://theathletic.com/4787143/2023/08/20/caicedo-rice-lavia-transfer-fees/ Would be interesting to see how Wharton's numbers compare for the some of metrics cited within: passes completed, turnover rate, passes into final third, touches, passes under pressure, progressive passes, interceptions and 'true' tackle win rate... definitely will be part of what PL scouts will be tracking. I think part of why Morton was generally an automatic pick last year was he our only midfielder who could semi-reliably take the ball on the half-turn in our third and JDT wants Wharton to take on that role this year. I still have some hope for Buckley, but he clearly failed to take on that role last year.

Enjoyed watching the full replay this morning (missed it last night while having ACL surgery yesterday, ack! Convalescence begins!) (and full screen worked fine using Chrome on a Mac for me...) The likes of Szmodics/Brittain/Moran/Dolan have really taken to JDT's insistence on one-touch passing. There have been some beautiful build ups!

I weirdly recall Samuel being a lone bright spot during our shaky start to the L1 season. Looks like my memory is correct: https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=65490&season_id=150 4 goals in 6 games (include 1 goal in 2 EFL Cup games). He then went pretty quiet (and I think the lore is that Mowbray had to crack Dack and Graham's heads together after their "less than committed..." start to the season before things took off) He played more than I remembered that year: 41 appearances total, mostly relegated to a sub role as the likes of Armstrong, Graham, and Antonsson surpassed him.

Our reported 'intermediary' fees have been on the lower end of the Championship the past few years (£697k for Feb 2022-Jan 2023, which ranks us only 20th in the Championship), so I'd suspect that amount relates to accumulated/unpaid agent fees/commissions, as apparently rumoured, rather than anything new given our limited transfers of late. Extrapolating that salary and wages figure for Oct-Dec 2023 suggests our wage bill is down to £15.3m, but shouldn't take that extrapolation too seriously given it won't include various bonuses that accumulate over the year, signing on fees, etc. General assumption was that our wage bill had fallen a lot last year, but the VLL accounts suggest it actually rose to £25.8m in 2022-23 (vs £24.8m in 2021-22; note the Blackburn Roves accounts have staff costs at £24.4m), possibly due to bonuses related to our relative success on the pitch, a couple deep-ish cup runs, etc.

Burns has had an interesting trajectory since leaving in the summer... Greek 2nd division Panachaiki (no appearances) to Northern Premier League Divison One (Level 8) Bootle (think I saw he got a couple goals in a few games there) to NW Counties Premier Division (Level 9) Bury... If you feel like watching highlights of Northern Premier League Marine getting pumped 5-1 in the FA Cup First Round by League 2 Harrogate Town - by my simplistic analysis, we could then be expected to beat Marine 13-1 - with our Felix Goddard in net: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67279025 Uh, caught out a little bit on that 2nd goal... An odd loan, but I'd guess he's just there for game days to shout at / be shouted at by overweight 35+ CBs, while still training with Benson and Co. Marine did actually manage a few decent chances...

hell yeah #BenBensonFanClub

Fixed that for you...

Haha... Having said that, I won't begrudge him too much for that one...

Scott Wharton seems to be due for at least one 'what are you doing??" moment every appearance... He's already had his one today, so he'll be fine for the second half...

Vale finally made an appearance as a sub for Lincoln (only his 2nd time on the bench) and got an assist (looks like from half losing a ball before recovering it and slotting in a decent pass), so that's encouraging. Walker with 4 league subs and 2 cup starts, with one goal, for Morecambe. Left on the bench last couple league games, so maybe not quite pushing for a start there. Probably not one to hold out hope for anyway. Gent with a few subs for Motherwell so far. Buckley at least getting regular starts for Sheffield Wed. Generally a shitshow there, but sounds he got decent reviews in their 1-0 loss on Saturday... (not sure if loan reports should be reported here or maybe in a new 'loan watch' thread - tracking Buckley doesn't exactly fit in here!)

"3-1 up, and you fucked it up..."

Haha, they're all confused. The VLL accounts were published on 25 September, but they were signed off on 29 July. The LT text simply highlights how that number makes no sense if it were to include all our summer business... No way were we net spenders this window 🙂 Generally sounds like we spent maybe £1m on Walhstedt and Telalovic (+ maybe a few loan fees), while Kaminski + Phillips brought in £4.5m + add-ons (and maybe some piddly loan fees 🙂) (anyway, just being a bit of a pedant...)

Think this has already been flagged on Twitter (and confirmed on a previous page here), but he's misunderstood the "£20k net spend" this summer, as that will only refer to what has been committed between the end of VLL's accounts (31 March) and when they were signed off (29 July). So, maybe minor fees (agents? nominal fees?) associated with the Sigurosson or Bloxham deals or an Academy signing (Nathan Dlamini?!?)... Does suggest we probably got nothing of note for Edun, but that's unsurprising (perhaps have an add-on or two with that one). Going back to 2020-21, for example, VLL's accounts don't mention the Armstrong sale given it took place on 10 August 2021. Maguire's alright, but clearly was just asked to take a brief skim and give some thoughts... Perhaps got tripped up that these are the VLL accounts, Blackburn Rovers'. Haven't had time to give a sorta detailed skim of the latest VLL accounts myself, but some interesting tidbits in there, if more of the same (back to what our losses are like without major sales/training ground FFP chicanery). Cup runs, general media income growth, and a bit of an attendance rebound got us to our highest turnover in years but wages went up (likely linked to bonuses related to a relatively successful season + a couple deep cup runs, but interesting that we probably didn't cut wages as much as some thought) as did other costs (I suppose inflation starting to bite in some aspects). So, wage/turnover dropped but underlying losses rose a bit. Anyway, the actual Blackburn Rovers accounts are usually a better read on things, but the VLL accounts does give an early view...

Hedges is 90% a PL-level player and 10% fucking shit. (I actually do quite like Hedges overall)

Looks like I'll need to miss this one. How soon after the game do they tend to put up the full match replay on RoversTV? Might try avoiding looking at my phone for the day... (which sounds quite nice actually).