JHRover

It isn't the only thing that matters, though I agree it is the most important. It also matters when we get them. If we don't get them until 10 minutes before the window closes then we've got to get through games against Coventry, Bristol City and PNE. There's also a fair chance that someone signed on deadline day might not be fit and ready to start by the time we play QPR away. That's 12 points we could miss out on - season over if we lose them. If we miss out on the top 6 by 3-4 points after losing to Oxford and tonight, or Saturday, I'll be allocating some blame to our once again dilatory and shambolic transfer window.

Admin errors suddenly a thing of the past when its getting people off the wage bill and money in. Funny that.

Agreed. Very impressed by what I saw of him this season as well on the touchline, clearly a big influence on the bench and behind the scenes. I would have preferred him around for the run in but thanks to Venkys we clearly need everyone off the wage bill to save up enough to bring in a couple of loans on deadline day.

I quite liked Thomas. I wouldn't be thrilled if he came here but certainly think he is a more than capable Championship player.

Yep correct. And they appeared to understand that when they sanctioned signings like Armstrong and Diaz for reasonable amounts of money knowing they were likely to grow in value. That plan has clearly been abandoned. I could almost understand that if it was their personal cash they were being asked to put up to pay for such signings but it isn't - it is club money received from selling club assets that would need spending. I could also understand if it was a decision taken with a view to cutting all input into the club and getting out at minimal expense but that's clearly not the case. So the idiots are only causing more damage - stopping us getting promotion, depriving us of future assets and ensuring that their tab is going to be back at an 8 figure sum every year once the sales dry up. Morons.

I don't think any of our current crop can be considered 'investments'. Even those still at a good age for potential resale - basically Carter, Travis, maybe Brittain, are in positions that don't usually attract large bids and even if they could their contract situations are such that come the summer we are going to be in a weak negotiating position anyway. It's up the top end where the money is to be made as we saw with Armstrong, Diaz, Dack, Szmodics and we sadly know that we are now woefully short in those areas after stripping the cupboard bare and spending nothing replacing them. Adam Wharton a slight outlier but an exceptional case based on his age, quality and being English. You'll find one of him once a decade if you are lucky. Could and should have been a game changing sale equipping the club with the resources to build a really strong squad of assets but they won't allow that. So thanks to Venkys not only have we sold most people of value, failed to reinvest properly but we've also neglected contract renewals. It's a ticking time bomb and the only consolation I'm clinging to is that once the assets are all gone and they are back to needing to find £15 million a year from their own reserves this is the final push needed to get rid of them. They've had it relatively easy the last couple of years by wrecking our squad and promotion prospects to pay their bills, that can't and won't carry on much longer. Tick tock.

That's kind of the plan I think. Get through a few years by blaming 'legal issues' in India, forgetting to press submit, changes to our recruitment department and then by the time we are a few seasons down the line everyone will have forgotten about the Wharton and Szmodics cash and they can revert to blaming FFP for a lack of action as they successfully did a few years ago.

Lots of talk about processes and committees. It almost sounds professional. What happens then when the 'committee' (whoever they are and however they are qualified) agrees on a target, makes a bid, gets it accepted, speaks to the player/agent, eventually agrees personal terms, player comes to Brockhall, has the guided tour, puts on a Rovers shirt, has his photos taken, club media plaster the news all over social media, then it all comes crashing down because the rancid ones won't provide their authorisation (or if you believe the bullshit version someone 'forgets' to press submit) Not very professional after all. Infact the sort of thing I wouldn't even expect in my local amateur cricket league where people can barely even use a computer yet still remember to submit applications and press send.

Eustace is new to this and by the tone of your posts it seems you are too. We play this game and routine every transfer window. Talking about players, asking other clubs, telling Eustace we are trying, even getting players in the building at Brockhall and wearing the Rovers shirt are all irrelevant here because there is always the Venky factor which stops things getting over the line. I have no doubt at all that people like Waggott and Gestede are telling Eustace all about how serious they are, about how hard they are working, it might even be true. In the end it matters not if players of sufficient quality don't arrive. I will believe there is 'some money' to spend when we actually do it. And I am not accepting loans or another O'Riordan type punt as 'spending money' because that is totally unacceptable in the position we are and with such pressing need to strengthen.

Agreed. I'll never forgive or forget what they did. A dingle would have struggled to sabotage us more than they did. No coming back from that, ever, no matter what claptrap they come out with to try and rewrite history.

Most prospective managers would know all about the past here but assume that if they haul a small squad into the top 6 against all the odds that the owners might sit up, take notice and invest to try and get to the PL even if they are disinterested or trying to save money. That's because most owners want to get to the PL and when presented with an unexpected yet very good chance of getting there would make some effort to finish the job. It was January 2022 that Mowbray realised that this wasn't on the agenda. It was January 2023 that JDT realised that it wasn't on the agenda. It is January 2025 when Eustace will realise that it isn't on the agenda. As for Dembele / Oxford I am of the view that Oxford is now a more attractive prospect for a potential player in terms of finances and professionalism. They will conduct themselves in a manner befitting of a Championship football club and will be paying wages commensurate with this level. Even if we do eventually reach a financial level in keeping with Championship clubs, and I expect other than Plymouth we are probably right at the bottom these days, it follows all sorts of shenanigans and sometimes disgraceful conduct as we have seen with O'Brien and McGuire in recent seasons. Any potential player, agent, club would treat very carefully indeed before getting into any sort of 'deal' with this lot.

Waggott and the shadow dweller are close to meeting their objectives for the season and we aren't even through January yet. Almost certain to survive as even an implosion like last year would still likely see us limp to 50 points. Increased TV deal Still getting the Szmodics and Wharton instalments. Still counting the cash from the Boxing Day and Dingle games. Extra cash for the Wolves home game Fans happy and many ready to lap up the 'unlucky' line as injuries begin to take hold. We need to recognise that the owners don't know or care what happens. The only two people who are in any sort of position to influence the owners in any way are not employed to try and get us promoted or win games. They are here to reduce cost and hassle to the owners and to keep themselves in well paid employment. There is absolutely no reason that I can think of why either of them would attempt to seriously back Eustace in January. Their only concern will be doing just enough to prevent Eustace from throwing his toys out of the pram a la Tomasson last year, as mid-season managerial departures are extra hassle and expense that they don't want or need. So they'll have to bring in a few just to try and keep Eustace content for the next few months. That's about it.

Looks like Waggott's November request to India for funds hasn't come to much. Still trying to clear out wages before committing to anything.

Groundwork being laid by the club for no additions to central midfield with JRC and Forshaw challenged to 'stake their claims' https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2025/january/19/injury-update--sondre-tronstad/ They simply have to act and quickly yet they will do nothing. We only need 3 wins in 19 for Waggott to achieve his season's objectives.

We've got time, opportunity and money to do something about the Tronstad injury, before Tuesday if we really want. But we won't. Another example of CHOICES of the ownership and management torpedoing our fortunes on the pitch. The most infuriating part is that there remain supporters who think these injuries are down to bad luck or that the club is powerless in this situation.

They 'sold' the Sanderson and Forshaw deals to Eustace and therefore the fans on the basis that it was allowing more funds to be concentrated on the recruitment of our priority positions. I expect when we do get around to signing someone that will be shown up to be even more nonsense as we scour the loan and cheap markets.

If the club was serious about its recruitment and the next 19 games and securing a play-off position it could move very quickly and bring in a new player or two tonight, tomorrow or Monday and have them straight into the team on Tuesday. That isn't some sort of unfeasible luxury only open to the top 4 clubs, it happens quite frequently. Oxford had it today with their CB signed from Huddersfield yesterday. That costs money however, and so instead what we will have is a continuation of the same from the last 5 January windows, which is a load of rumours, talks, claims, followed by a couple of average loans at the very last minute who won't be up to speed and won't give us what we need. I feel really sorry for Eustace, his staff, the players and of course the fans. The effort so far this season has been magnificent however the Venky factor will ensure it falls away into mid-table like is has every year. Players aren't machines or robots and it is telling that people like Travis and Tronstad - with exceptional fitness records - have recently succumbed to muscular injuries. Too many games at a high intensity takes its toll. Thanks to our financial choices and decisions we've not got the depth to shuffle the deck.

His reaction to me suggested a man fed up both of the farce that is our January transfer window and of being asked probably 3 times a week by Radio Lancashire / Lancashire Venkygraph the same old question and him providing the same old answer. His overall interview struck me as a man totally pissed off, which might be all/mostly down to the performance and result today or it might be partly due to the damage being inflicted on his and our season by a lack of support from the owners and board. Who knows.

Anyone who seriously believes that we were willing or able to spend a multi-million fee to persuade Coventry to sell Asante and get their outlay back on him (at least) and then commit to giving him a contract at least as long and well paid as he is already on at Coventry needs to give their head a wobble. Anyone falling for it, and I include the coaching staff in this, are simply falling victim to the Venky/Waggott ruse again. They ain't spending that. They will pretend they can/will, they will string people along including fans, manager, other clubs and their players. They aren't parting with cash or committing to such things. Its January and February that we truly get to witness the fruits of Venky ownership and management as we inevitably slide away and waste another season. Such a shame but nobody can be surprised. Totally unacceptable to be almost 3 weeks into the January window and have not done anything to strengthen. It's cost us already and will continue to over the rest of the season.

What we really need is to make up that shortfall by trading players, bit like when Mowbray used to claim we were copying Brentford. Then we did half of it and the owners stopped us doing the second part which is invest some of the cash in the squad. Bigger gates count for little when compared to bringing in £40-50 million in sales and spending next to nothing. We could spend some of that, it isn't beyond our capabilities, it is simply a choice the ownership have made. I don't believe any of it is motivated by FFP or their legal issues in India. Plain and simply they don't want to spend on something they've zero interest in. The only time they have wanted to is when the manager has gone and put a case to them to do it and they've had odd punts on big outlays. Other than that they have never wanted to spend despite being able to. They didn't pre-FFP, pre-covid or pre-legal issues.

They just don't get it do they? I can forgive them being uninterested and clueless about football (still) but when it comes to the money side of things you would think by now they and their advisors would have worked out this sort of thing. They've raked in £40 million+ in the last couple of years over half of which came as a direct result of them making an initial outlay and cash purchase. Prior to that they had Armstrong which was the last big sale. They've also had others in Rothwell, Diaz, Dack that in different circumstances they could easily have had £10-20 million in for had they managed contracts better or were it not for Dack's injuries. So conceivably they could have had their grubby mitts on £60 million+ worth of player sales in the last 3 years or so. They've had about £50 million when you go back to summer 2021 and Adam Armstrong getting sold. You'd think they'd quite like more of that in the next few years. Repeat the trick. Get another 3-4 in who might go for the same again and keep the party going for longer without the need for them to use up their own cash. Yet they won't. They won't sell, they won't reinvest, they won't allow the club to even try to develop more serious assets by releasing a small share of the money back into recruitment. Just nuts. They might think they are being clever by not putting more than the bare minimum into the club but all this is going to mean is that in a few years' time we are going to be devoid of assets and at best a struggling Championship side still losing £10-15 million a year which they will have to pick up the tab for.

I think the two outsiders to watch out for are Sheffield Wednesday and QPR. I'm hoping that the mad owner at Sheffield causes them to derail as they've got a good manager. QPR have been upwardly mobile for the last couple of months. Obviously the two biggest threats both in terms of the table and on paper are WBA and Boro, we can afford for one of them to finish above us but not both. Hopefully WBA botch their new manager appointment and slip. I'm not too worried about Watford and Bristol as both seem to be very inconsistent. Watford generally good at home (though have lost their last two) but pretty weary away.

They're in a pickle financially because they've lost their parachute payments and therefore have to cut outgoings to meet FFP restrictions. However, they do have: A relatively new and ambitious owner who wants them to be successful A competitive Championship budget A professional structure None of which we have, so anyone going there would immediately have people behind him who want the club to get somewhere and some degree of determination to do it.

Mowbray strong favourite to go there now

Compare and contrast - Sunderland have an owner with deep pockets and a genuine desire to see them get promoted, and is working to try and achieve that within the constraints of FFP. This is how major business can be done without gambling the club's future or risking FFP trouble. Rovers have owners who claim to have a desire to go somewhere and hide behind FFP but yet have simply avoided doing any business off the back of it. One lot who clearly have no interest in spending and hide behind whatever excuse they can. Another lot who do whatever they can to invest within the restraints of FFP.