RoverDom

Was about to say something similar. Players like Dolan can go from a standing start to their top speed in a flash but their top speed isnt very high. It's good in close quarters when you can leave your full back for dead but useless if you're going for a ball over the top and you have to sprint from the halfway line. I'm sure I saw something about 8-10 years ago of all the top speeds in PL and there were quite a lot of centre backs high up that last. I also remember seeing a video ages ago, it was Ronaldo vs a 100m sprinter and they did various challenges. Ronaldo left the sprinter for dead in the ones that involved twisting and turning but couldn't keep up with a straight line sprint. Think they had to do a slalom round a load of cones and Ronaldo had much quicker feet (as you'd expect).

Maybe waiting to see if we go up or not? Then he gets PL experience and PL wages

The only way I can make it work is if the buy option was so vaguely worded like "in the event rovers exit the division" but that's just so unfeasible even for us

Next week - how to tie your shoelaces

True - but the flip side of that is that even if their processes are 99.9% accurate then they've messed up atleast a small handful of transfers over the years and yet an appeal has never won. I've never seen a process that is 100% flawless, maybe they do exist but I doubt its within football governance. It's the hope that kills you isn't it🤣

And that's fine if Rovers messed up a crucial part of the transfer I agree there's no one else to blame. But there's a version of events pushed by nixon (or atleast an interpretation) that the EFL asked for clarification on something that didn't need clarified - it would be like the passport office ringing me up and asking my favourite pizza topping. Crucially no one knows though so we're owed an explanation of what went on not least because we've all sacrificed 17 days of work to transfer deadline day

If we feel we have a strong case we have to pursue it to the end regardless of whether or not it affects our on the pitch performance. The EFL can't be allowed to hide behind an appeals process that has always found in favour of the EFL. If we are genuinely in the right we need to make the EFL suffer for the good of everyone in the league not just Rovers.

This bit is spot on imo

What happens if O'brien gets bored of waiting, goes to the MLS and then miraculously our appeal gets upheld. Is he legally our player? Whether her stays at MLS or comes to Rovers there will surely be one hell of a compo claim from the club that have missed out. If its going in our favour the EFL might be minded to close it out sooner or later.

I just cant read this at all. If it was going to go in our favour, the EFL are making it much worse from themselves by dragging it out. On the flip side if it wasn't going in our favour we surely would have heard by now.

Detective Constable Chaddy: "Well the suspect said he didn't kill the victim and he wouldn't say that if it wasn't true would he?"

Bet you would have been shot down if you suggested giving him time...

Yeah they only have to receive review and approve or reject but within that there is surely scope to cock up given the volume of late transactions and last minute nature. If they're querying contractual clauses as has been suggested with us rather than just rubber stamping the transfer then there's definitely scope for then to have messed up the transfer

Dunno I think chaddy raises a good point. The super league is far more attractive to the likes of Italy and Spain who are being left behind financially by the Premier league cos of TV rights and the fact its a billionaires play ground. The purpose of revenue for clubs like city, Chelsea and now Newcastle is to increase FFP headroom, not to make a quick buck. When you're backed by a nation state, tv rights a drop in the ocean and a billionaire could make better returns on the stock market rather than sinking 4bn into Chelsea. I'm not saying they wouldn't go but I think it's less attractive to English clubs as all the financial power sits with the PL and this shifts some of that to Europe.

But would you say that 9(?) months is sufficient to go from Mowbrays mafia to Brighton / Brentford?

And to say JDT doesn't want promotion is farcical. If he got this squad out of the division at the first time of asking that would be amazing for his CV. His CV will be all he cares about and promotion is good for that

Do you think JDT would have gone to Burnley and said "this is a 3 year project". Perhaps it was a diplomatic way of saying "promotion? This year? With this squad and these owners? Are you joking?"

Never having overturned a decision on appeal can mean mean one of two things 1) The appeal system is pointless and not for for purpose 2) The EFL has never cocked up a transfer

I've said this from the start of the season that city never had problems scoring goals. They were blowing teams away 4 or 5 nil regularly. All haaland does is mean that other players don't score as much. Jamie carragher said something along the lines of city won't get the best out of haaland and haaland won't get the best out of city. That said when he's having a game that's going his way it phenomenal to watch

Commentators talk shite "yeah it might have been a foul but it's not enough for a penalty for me"

Winds me up when footballers dick about with corners. Two corners in quick succession, just put it in the fecking box

If I was Gallagher I'd be very happy at my earnings to ability ratio and not be too pissed at being benched

So this is where I feel he needs defending. I wouldn't expect someone with 'Director' in their job title to be so down in the detail as to be checking whether or not you spell Sharpe with or with out an 'e'. He owns the process of player recruitment but he doesn't do each and every step himself. It's the people he's trusted to do their jobs and have been in post for some time that have let him down. If he doesn't fix things and these mistakes get repeated then that is absolutely his negligence. It's like he says the hard bit was done - we targeted a quality championship player and got venky sign off on wages that blow our apprent wage structure out the water and a potential record transfer fee on top, all in a short space of time. That's the sort of thing we were screaming out for to be changed in previous windows. It does. A fair few on here within 2 weeks of his appointment were moaning about the lack of signings and "what is this clown even doing" Same with JDT there were people complaining about him even after 3 wins in 3 because they couldn't see a clear style of play. I'm not disputing the passion and desire and the hope that we do well I'm questioning the patience. We've been stung by Tony mowbrays "Journey" talk to the point that when anyone says 'give it time' it's dismissed as being unambitous and lapping up what we're told.

Do I need evidence for feeling optimistic? He talks sense and seems to have honest intentions in my view. I also think he faces an up hill battle in trying to make the many changes at the club. That's the rational behind me wanting to give him time. What do you mean trying hard to deflect to the site? It's glaringly obvious a lot of this site won't give any one time, they want immediate results. I don't have to try hard in the slightest to point that out. People were shouting up after about 10 days after his appointment that we hadn't signed anyone We're not a well run club and have been a joke for 12 or so years. That's not conducive to getting a seasoned DoF rather we're going to have to take a punt on someone who's doing a degree of learning on the job.