JHRover

So Villa's impending crisis and disaster looks set to be avoided by the arrival of one of Africa's richest men and an American multi-millionaire. I called it that nothing seriously bad would happen to Villa. So far no financial disaster, no FFP sanctions, no embargo and apart from the likely sale of Grealish no major departures.

Wigan have signed Callum McManaman on a permanent deal. Another 'skint' club we need to be finishing above doing solid work in the transfer market.... I'd have had either McManaman or Wildschut here, fair enough if Mowbray doesn't fancy them but I sure hope we've better lined up instead.

Wildschut confirmed at Bolton. Good signing. Goes to show that even those clubs without two pennies to rub together can do reasonable business in the market. What we're playing at who knows.

Comparing the 1st column to the 3rd column the big issue is up front. Having gone to Brentford with Graham and Gallagher in the 1st XI and Joao and Emnes on the bench that was quite a strong attacking line up. Now we've Graham in the 1st XI and Samuel on the bench. Much, much weaker. I'd also forgotten about Hoban who whilst injured for long spells was a decent CB to have as back-up.

I don't think 7 signings in total is unrealistic. 7 more from here may well be too much, but 7 including the 2 we've already signed isn't much. That would mean we need another 5, and Mowbray has already suggested at least 2 will be loans meaning we would need 3 more permanent signings. It sounds like Bauer is a top target for a permanent move, so the other 2 would need to be attacking players. I'm sure when the summer began the number 6 was mentioned as the amount of new signings required. When we consider that we lost Ward, Feeney, Armstrong, Payne and Antonsson at the end of the season that's 5 departures. The first 2 we were happy to see the back of but nonetheless they were back-up options we no longer have. So I'd argue that we'd need at least 5 to get the numbers back to what they were, before we consider the quality of the additions.

Great shout but unlikely.

Armstrong/Chapman, Antonsson and Payne have gone so that's 3 replacements up top to start with. Samuel and Nuttall were regulars in the squad yet not sure if either are good enough for the Championship. So straight off that's 6 players in forward positions who have either left the club or probably aren't good enough for the Championship. They need replacing. I've no problem with Samuel staying as 3rd choice striker on the bench but don't think Nuttall is up to it.

Or we reach the day after the window has slammed shut and it turns out 'money was there to spend from the owners but we weren't going to spend it for the sake of it'. We've heard that one a few times before.

I was referring to what is going to happen. Waggott saying that he expects more tickets to be sold because people will be impressed with Mowbray's targets and potential incomings. Having listened to Mowbray over the last couple of weeks and seen the stories in the Telegraph over the last few days there is no doubt that loans from Premier League clubs are a central component at this moment in time. People like to get carried away if the loans are coming from Liverpool or City because that means they must be good players. I'd sooner we signed people from League One or the Championship who know what it is all about.

Our signing of Rhodes was one of the first 'mega' signings for a Championship club. Most clubs haven't reached that level yet but spend a few million here and there on players. We can plead poverty and come high and mighty about 'holding firm' in a difficult market. Reality is we've had 2 massive advantages over most clubs in the last 5-6 years. One being we had parachute cash but wasted most of it, the other being we had £30 million+ of players which we sold and banked the dosh. Most clubs haven't had both of those luxuries and yet have ended up in a stronger state than we are in. The benefits of sensible management!

Its not ridiculous if they get promoted off the back of it. Its a calculated gamble. If it pays off the rewards are vast, if they fail then they 'might' get into trouble with the authorities, or more likely they'll just have to sell a couple and carry on.

How many did we sell last year? Waggott thinks we will sell more on the basis of the announcements we are going to make and the targets Mowbray has got. Sadly if he thinks a couple of kids on loan from Premier League clubs are going to get folk queuing down Nuttall Street for season tickets he's mistaken. A real statement of intent by substantial investment in quality players may well result in a late upturn in sales but probably not many. Its about what I would have expected given the 17% price increase on last season. It would have been nice to hit 10,000 or more and I still maintain that 11,000-12,000 should be our target for the Championship in ideal circumstances.

There's no 'evidence' of us being in for Maddison. Nor is there any 'evidence' of us being interested in anyone else. A couple of journalists say we're interested in Kent, one says he's top of the list, another says he isn't. There was very little if any mention of us being interested in Rothwell or Davenport in the days before their arrivals. People are drawing logical conclusions from what the Posh chairman has said on twitter and the fact that he hasn't ruled Rovers out despite having ruled out numerous other Championship clubs. He's said it is someone who wasn't in the Championship last season, it's someone who apparently wanted to pay in installments and it isn't Wigan. IF what he says is true then we are one of a small group of clubs who it could be.

A good deal only becomes good in time. £2.5 million for Maddison might be a waste if he doesn't perform, but likewise if he does it might be an outstanding investment. Its a risk you have to take in football. If you don't want to take risks then you rarely get the rewards. If he comes in and excels in the Championship his value could quadruple over the next few years. Alternatively he might be the catalyst to us climbing the Championship and getting into promotion contention. Usually I would agree that no Championship experience could be a concern, but when you stand out massively in League One as Maddision, Marriott, Dack, Rhodes etc. did then you get your move up sooner or later. Everyone said Rhodes was poor value for money and a waste. Yet time proved he wasn't and we actually even made a profit on him which most said could never happen.

Given we've been looking at Bauer I would expect him to go out on loan to League One or Two this season.

Any reason why not? Differing quotes on Maddison ranging up to £2.5 million at the most. Can't see wages being a problem given he's at Peterborough at present. Armstrong got 2 years left at Newcastle, surplus to requirements, never had a crack at the first team. I don't see how or why Newcastle would demand big money for him given he's never been in their first team plans. Lets say it would cost £3 million for the pair of them. I've no idea what wages Armstrong is on but again he's a reserve player at Newcastle who has been shipped out on loan for the 3 years so is Mike Ashley going to be paying him mega money? There's a difference between what we think will happen and what could/should/ought to happen. Those sort of deals are there to be done and if we're not in that ball park then it is concerning, especially if this is the owners being excited or happy with promotion last season. I think we ought to be in the market for these sort of players and I think if we can't stretch to the £3 million needed to do it then we're struggling, especially when we look at what rivals are shelling out and factor in Mowbray reckons to be holding money back from January. I also think avoiding such a market and focusing on loans is not only concerning in terms of our future funding prospects but also likely to prevent long term growth and development as it is like building on quicksand.

It sounds as though a club activated his release clause quite some time ago, and he was granted permission to speak to a club last week which is why he wasn't on the plane to Portugal. It also sounded as though the club who had met the asking price were still sorting out what sort instalments there would be. It's been rumbling on for a while, which is a trait associated with Rovers, as is trying to agree cash buys spread over a number of years rather than in one go.

Peterborough chairman said this morning that Maddison is still in talks with a club.

Lets wait and see. So far they've only lost a couple of players, Steve Bruce is hanging around which usually suggests he's confident of promotion. I wish we'd have rejected pathetic offers of £5 million when flogging our best players. If the season kicked off on Saturday I'd be backing Villa for the top 6. Us on the other hand not so, despite 'coming through' what they're only going into. If they lose all their best players, enter a 2 year transfer embargo and get relegated to League One then I'll eat my hat.

From behind it looks ok. Its just the sponsor I dislike. It would make much more sense for the numbers to be the same colour as the socks and sponsor.

I reckon that us, Bolton, Rotherham, Burton and possibly Preston are the only clubs that haven't broken the £1 million mark in the Championship over the last 3-4 years. Ipswich were another although Gwion Edwards will have been knocking £1 million I reckon. Considering where Burton and Rotherham have come from and the financial Armageddon at Bolton over the last few years where they've flirted with administration we're in a small pool. Also the elephant in the room is that none of those clubs have coined in £20 million+ in sales at the same time. I'd take Villa's squad and 'dire straits' right now. They've just rejected a £5 million bid from Stoke for James Chester, have a strong squad and Bruce is still there.

Just wait until April. They'll be flogging them for £20 a piece which those in the 1875 club should be able to use Club Cash for and get it for £5.

Watford was a different model. Their loaning system was done from the direction of the owners who used their ownership of multiple clubs across Europe to effectively move players around between them without paying fees. It was so controversial that the League changed the loan rules to try and stop it happening again. Wolves did a less extreme version of it but again it was all set up from the owners and their partners to exploit loopholes and take advantage of the system to achieve promotion as quickly as possible by signing a calibre of player they could never sign permanently nor attract to the Championship. Nothing like what we do which is to take a punt on 2-3 loans in order to avoid making permanent signings.

Lets be honest there isn't very much that can be changed on a Rovers home shirt to keep interest up. If they kept the same shade of blue every year they'd be stuck messing about with the trim as their only option to try and boost sales. At least by varying the shade of blue they are trying to keep interest up and offer something different. I've no problem with it, the pale blue Perspex kit is one of my all time favourites and one of the most pale blue shirts we've had. Main thing is it is blue and white halves and I've no problem if every 4-5 years we throw a pale or sky blue one in there as a change. Nothing to get upset about unlike Cardiff wearing red at home or Sheffield Wednesday/West Brom doing away with their stripes recently. The sponsor is quite ugly and surely would have been better in blue rather than black, especially with the squad numbers in blue.

Which if used in all those games, along with Bolton, Preston and Wigan who all have lots of blue/white on their kits, means it wouldn't really be a 3rd kit. We'd have a home shirt and then 2 away shirts. We could wear our home shirt at Norwich, Forest, Villa, Middlesbrough, Bristol, meaning a navy away shirt would only really be any use at places like Sheffield United, Brentford, Derby and Stoke. Not worth it. Also hope we don't start with wearing black/navy shorts with the home shirt at away games. Just looks silly yet seems to have become more and more common over the last few years where we turn up with dark blue shorts and paler blue shirts at away games.