JHRover

He's a t0sser, just glad that even his biggest fanboys will be able to see it now rather than holding him up as some sort of saviour or deity who can do no wrong. He's not as clever as he thinks he is. Admissions such as these would not only land him in hot water with Rovers (if anyone there cared) but would also make his new and possibly future employers question if he is the sort of character you want involved at your club. In his desperate bid to win over his new fans he runs his mouth off and everyone can see he wasn't acting entirely in the interests of his employers. It might win him a few points with the 'massive club' buffoons but shows him for what he is - bitter and deluded. I praise the Lord we don't have to listen to his drivel twice a week and his wandering around head in hands routine. Good riddance and let's see if Sunderland put up with his record breaking collapses for 4 years.

The 'beauty' of the new system with a Director of Football is that in the event JDT does turn out to be a dud then we can quickly and easily make a change without ripping everything up and starting afresh. I hope he does well, and he deserves a fraction of the unlimited time and opportunity Mowbray was given, but there are no guarantees and the club has to be ready and willing to act if needed. That's the Championship. Some appointments work out well, others don't. If JDT doesn't that isn't evidence Mowbray should have been retained. I see some of the Mowbray acolytes are on twitter today reminiscing of the good old Mowbray days. Short memories given the horrific results and embarrassing behaviour Mowbray delivered after January.

When the club and fans believe our catchment area and potential ends with BWDBC then we might as well give up. Unfortunately that's precisely where the goons at the club are going. I won't accept that though and hope nobody else does. We have a huge catchment area across Lancashire. Just because they can't be arsed tapping into it doesn't mean it isn't there.

I think we will get bullied here. Bad memories of January. They've had a decent start to the season - only one defeat - but yet to win at home. It matters not what form we are in, who we have available or their form as no matter what we tend to struggle there.

Seems to be an assumption or suggestion that it is either Venkys and their money, or no money and the club has to be self-sufficient and deal with all the issues that comes from that. Of course there is another option - getting new owners who want to invest and develop the club. Then we get the 'yeah I'm sure there are loads of rich people out there wanting to buy a 2nd division club losing money' Well we had all this bollocks when Bolton, Wigan and Blackpool were going bust under previous ownership and all found new owners and have bounced back. We've had countless takeovers across the divisions in the last 10 years at non-PL clubs. So it doesn't have to be Venkys or bust. It can be someone different to Venkys, perhaps not with as deep pockets but deep enough to fund a loss making club and more importantly people who actually want to be here and want the club to succeed. The new reliance on the academy I don't think is a Venky strategy. I don't think the owners care enough to take an interest in such things. I just think it is the inevitable consequence of their cost-cutting that the academy grows in importance.

Again I'm struggling to buy into this 'multi window' build talk. Of course in an ideal world this would happen, and come 2024 we'd end up with a strong, talented squad capable of hitting promotion. I've no doubt JDT and Broughton would like to run things this way. I just don't think it is feasible or realistic either in this league or with these owners. It is clear they have imposed quite a strict wage structure (not sure how that fits with suggestions Lenihan was offered over £20k a week which is clearly inconsistent with everything else that has happened here in recent years). This wage structure is what has resulted in an exodus of players, a huge turnover and increasing reliance and focus on youngsters from within or those from League One/bottom end Championship clubs. Nothing wrong with having such a structure but its existence means we are going to continue to struggle to retain key players on contracts, and also means we are going to be vulnerable to other Championship clubs who are willing to pay more. I'm not on about parachute rich clubs which is fair enough but mediocre sides like Middlesbrough. Come January or the summer there will need to be significant steps taken again just to replace outgoings. For example next summer as things stand (if not before) we will lose numerous players including Brereton and Ayala who have been key this season. It's just a never ending cycle and that's the way it is at this level. I don't think we will ever reach an 'end point' of the journey because there will always be changes, wanted and unwanted. You have to go for it each year and give it your best shot, not plan on doing it next year or the year after, because something will happen before then that isn't expected.

You've missed players out there though. Last season we had Rothwell, who at least for the first 30 games was a big player for us. I wouldn't class Giles as being a forward option but he is proven Championship quality as evidenced by his time at Cardiff and Middlesbrough, only Mowbray had no idea what to do with him and decided to try him on the right wing (bonkers). I have no idea on Hirst - I hope JDT has seen something there as Broughton's comments unusually made specific reference to JDT wanting him which hasn't happened on the other deals. But it is an unknown - we hope we get 2nd half of the season Pompey out of him but could get Rotherham. The stuff about player development or the potential emergence of players down the line you can apply to any club in any league - you can't go into a 46 game season on the premise that yet more players will eventually step forward from the academy. That's why I've gone for a 6/10. I'm not being overly criticial with that and it isn't a poor window - less than 5 would be poor - but there are question marks on depth and quality which prevent it hitting an 8 or 9 which would suggest a very good window. If we had brought another couple of 'big' signings in then we'd have probably got there but didn't.

If I was to rate the window out of 10 I would probably go for 6. Positives Kept Brereton, without him serious trouble scoring goals and he is the 'star man' capable of hitting 20 a season. Some cash spent replacing the major departures - Nyambe, Lenihan, Rothwell - with permanent signings rather than short term deals or loans. No unexpected or unwanted departures beyond those we knew were going to happen at the start of the summer Defensively we seem to have weathered the crisis and now have good options there. The return to fitness of Dack and meteoric rise of A Wharton do a lot for us that we might not have expected to have at the start of the summer. Negatives The cash paid out has essentially just replaced the 3 out of contract players we couldn't keep, so cash that whilst welcome should have been spent significantly strengthening the squad has instead been used to replace those we lost for nothing - a big hole in the finances in several ways I remain concerned as to our attacking options and prowess beyond BBD. Hopefully that will change but feel we are short. Full back positions - not entirely comfortable but hopefully we've enough. I'm not sure anyone can seriously put forward a strong argument that we are STRONGER now than we were last season in terms of options. Dack's return to fitness a big step and -hopefully- Adam Wharton is a major bonus for us - but we have lost quality too - Khadra and Rothwell two big ones. It remains to be seen. My hope / expectation is that we have a better manager, and provided he feels he has been backed and not let down this window he is capable of delivering more than Mowbray served up. If he doesn't feel he has been backed then we are in trouble as this guy won't be taken for a ride.

Just hope JDT is happy with business. After signing Hyam the other day he suggested he wanted another 3, and we've got 2 in Hirst and Mola, so short of what he was expecting. Perhaps retaining Brereton will be a bonus but get the feeling he wanted more. I don't think we've added enough but happy to be proven wrong on that. I was skeptical as to last summer's dealings and they worked out ok.

We seem to have got over the trauma of letting 3 players walk this summer for £0 when it would have been very easy to keep them all under contract / sell them earlier and together would have raked in £10 million. It seemingly hasn't made much difference to our finances either because we've gone out and spent further millions replacing those 3 players. So probably £15 million laid out or lost for what might or might not be an improvement. If the people owning or running the club were interested in its financial state we wouldn't have seen this happen. They can clearly afford to run the risk on Brereton.

Thought like at Swansea we struck at a really important time with pretty much our first proper opportunity which knocked them. Always worried at 1-0 that something will land for them or ricochet off someone in the penalty area so would have been nice to finish them off. Worried the referee was going to do us over too. I see we were back onto adding time for throw ins and corners which never seems to happen when we are chasing a game (Stoke) but does when we are holding a lead (WBA. Blackpool). Things are looking a bit healthier with the squad now, as despite the inevitable September Ayala injury occurring we have Hyam and Carter who were sold, composed and faultless with hopefully Scott Wharton back very soon too. Midfield looking more competitive with the rising star of Adam Wharton going to take some stopping. Lowlife Sky 'journos' trying their best to deflect attention away from our good win and performance and shine the spotlight onto transfer 'rumours' that they create. They really have no interest in the game or match and instead are just trying desperately to whip everyone up into a frenzy so they tune into their ghastly TV programme tomorrow. Would be lovely to rebound from the 3 defeats with back to back wins on Saturday against another Ewood problem in Bristol City. My only, and only criticism is us sticking the ball in the net. It could have cost us tonight with multiple good chances to double the lead missed. Fortunately not a problem in the end but could have been left to rue it big time.

Sounds like we are doing exactly what you say we aren't doing - gambling this season on a player we aren't sure about and seeing how it goes. So if he's a dud we've jeopardised our season, we aren't sure about him but if he comes in and does well we might then decide to offer paying a fee for. Then if we do get to that point he will have to fit into our wage structure and transfer budget (unlikely even as a Leicester reserve). I suppose I'm just disappointed, that after all the talk of projects, multi-year builds and the optimism I had when Broughton and JDT came in of doing things differently and actually building something transfers like this are exactly like we have done previously under Bowyer and Mowbray - filling the squad out with temporary hopeful solutions and then go again next summer. It isn't building anything because even if he's a worldbeater we get to next summer with no Brereton and this loan ending and need at least 2 additions up top on top of everything else still with limited resources.

And how do we afford that? More likely is we put him in the shop window, he does alright and then another Championship club comes in with the money more quickly than we do.

His results from January to May 2022 warranted the sack. At any proactive club he would have been in the hope it would salvage our season, but in good old Venky fashion he was allowed to stink the place out and derail our best promotion shot in a decade after obviously losing the dressing room. Wonder what the chances are of Mark Venus turning up as hybrid assistant manager / director of football so he can be both Mowbray's assistant, boss and contract negotiator all in one? Also on a completely unrelated subject I wonder if the Academy of Light can be developed for housing and all condensed onto one much smaller site?

The 'loan with option to buy' thing is just a red herring. It's a loan. Wish we'd just accept and be honest about that. It's as though the 'option to buy' thing persuades people into believing that there is a longer term strategy in play. Reality is he ticks the boxes - available, cheap I think that's all there is to it here. We keep hearing about this 'loan now, buy later' thing as though it is some crafty ploy by Rovers to roll the costs over into future FFP cycles or grab a bargain now and decide whether to pay later. Don't think we are in a position to deal with things like that. Don't know anything about the lad, his record at Pompey reasonable, but I'd have hoped for something a bit more proven and imaginative than this.

Good to see that myself and JDT have the same opinion that more than 3 are needed. Some on here saying over 3 was unnecessary. Manager doesn't agree.

I'm afraid the old 'deadline day' excuse of Rovers can't sign anyone until BBD is sold and if that happens at the last minute it screws us over just won't wash. The club have known about this situation for months and should have a contingency plan in place. That would normally mean either bringing someone in regardless of BBD with a view to succession from January or next summer onwards, after all this is meant to be a multi year project and we are told there is a good budget either way, or alternatively would mean we refuse to sanction a sale unless we have a guaranteed replacement coming in. I would not be surprised to see him sold and then the excuses come about insufficient time to replace him but that sort of thing just won't cut it at this level. These are the sort of things that make the difference between play-offs and mid-table or mid-table and relegation. There's too much at stake to adopt the 'we are powerless' excuses and pocket the money on deadline day.

He isn't going to get a 'project' in the same way he did here. He won't get 4-5 years to float around making the same old mistakes - he'll be fired after one or two of his horror runs because no other club than Rovers would have put up with some of the runs he oversaw here. He's an eye for a player yes - but those that have developed well - Brereton being one - have taken years to get there and it came at the expense of the first team going for promotion. Then again he won't be working under a Venky straightjacket and will actually be able to get things done which should help. I've nothing against the bloke, he did ok here. But under proper owners he wouldn't have got the job here in the first place and certainly wouldn't have lasted 5 years.

Sharpe has confirmed SVDB not happening. Strange because I was being told weeks ago that the deal was 'all agreed' and we were just waiting on Liverpool deciding when to let him come. Suspect that is the end of our defensive recruitment. If 3 is the limit of our incomings and we've already got one with Hyam it seemed odd to bring in 2 and only allocate 1 signing to the rest of positions. If Broughton is correct and Hyam was an option in July, then went cold and was resurrected in the last week then it perhaps makes sense that SVDB was an alternative lined up which now isn't needed.

I wish they'd added it to season ticket literature that there was no intention or ambition to get promoted this season. Maybe they could explain why thousands of us are paying top end prices if there is no ambition to go up from a crap league that is wide open.

End of the game he added minimum 5 minutes injury time. I didn't agree with that, applying the same approach as the WBA referee it should have been 7 or 8. Then during the injury time he awarded a yellow card to a Stoke player (30 seconds to add on) and there was a stoppage of 1 minute down by the corner. He blew his whistle on 95 minutes 30 seconds. I time it every week. So we only played about 4 minutes of the minimum 5 and he gave us no extra for the stoppages or booking. They wonder why respect is in short supply.

Carbon copy of the Stoke defeat last season. Then as now we are struggling to turn a game or recover from falling behind. A large part of that is a lack of depth, options and ways to change a game. I've seen comments about how much improved and how dominant we were in the second half. We were. But some context. We were playing a sorry Stoke side at home who had a lead to protect and a dire away record behind them. Anyone would have dominated in that second half. Adam Wharton could have been MOTM for me off his 45 minutes.

One look at January tells us all we need to know. The myth that Venkys will bankroll a promotion push if going well ended there. My interpretation of JDTs "3" is this is the bare minimum he expects the Club to deliver before the deadline. If we don't do it I won't be surprised if he walks away. He's shifting the onus onto the club to get business done

Clearly Sunderland a dysfunctional mess. No other reason Neil would walk at this stage. Mowbray might be a sound appointment for them having lasted 5 years working for our freakshow, they'll stay up but a serious downgrade on Neil and they'll learn the hard way about his baffling tactics and substitutions.

Spot on. This is a league for squads and seasoned pros. We are starting to see the results of our naive 'strategy' and it won't end well.