2 minutes ago, BigBar said:

As fans we tell ourselves that this player is good and that our manager is good and it's purely a coping mechanism. In truth we have alot of shite. A new signing comes and we tell ourselves they are great, an academy graduate gets a game and we find any reason to praise because we desperate. Venkys made us desperate, we were attracting champions League winners, premier League winners, established internationals. We were an attractive club and had great squads in the not so distant past. Now we are bickering, myself included, over the Pickerings, Buckley's, Dolan's of the world. They are not good enough and they are not the only ones. Ewood is a revolving door of 6/10 players coming and going. No plan, no pride and no heart from the owners and board.

We need massive improvement and investment and we deserve it, just drifting around in midtable obscurity and worse for over a decade. It's so disheartening and deflating.

Similarly, we lose a game after a great midweek performance and mixed start to the season and some fans absolutely shit themselves.

Didn’t work today. At all. Never got going and sloppy as hell.

Travis is no right back, and we missed his bite and drive in midfield. The young lads can’t do it alone every week.

Front 4 ponderous, tired looking. Looked like we were playing at half speed sometimes with no ideas. Hopefully coaching can improve this.

Only real positive was Dolan taking his goal well, and a nice assist, he brought some much needed energy.

I have faith JDT will learn a lot from the game. 

Would’ve been harsh on a decent Bristol City side if we’d scraped a point. Didn’t deserve it one bit.

24 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

You’ve lived away from towns with Rovers and Burnley fans for ages and it shows….

You think it’ll be fine?

Hope so, it is a pain in the arse for the away fans 

Double edged sword now. The dickhead element will go bananas after decades of pent up wankerism regarding this game.

Could be a tinderbox without restrictions, could affect attendances positively or negatively…

Hopefully the Burnley fanbase have been suitably neutered and the thugs culled from years of “civilised PL fandom” - I see they’re banning their own fans for standing up these days, never mind for causing trouble.

Not saying some of ours are any better.

He’d get a warm welcome from me.

Good bloke, heart was in the right place, was a good steward and steadied the ship.

Wasn’t good enough to take us up, but that’s life, and why he isn’t here anymore.

24 minutes ago, roverandout said:

No it doesn't . That's mowbray talk. Jdt is a winner.  He'll want success today regardless of the platitudes he comes out with about journeys or projects

 

 

I think JDT described this “journey” when he came in as “The project is to make Rovers a sustainable Premier League club”

He never said “I’m here to see if we can maybe challenge to go up”

Went over my head initially because the sheer confidence and ambition when talking about the club was like someone speaking a different language…

But that’s what “the project/journey” is meant to be.

I don’t think JDT plans a long career middling around the Championship.

It’s still a “journey” though. Some in here have just got PTSD regarding the phrase and will seem keen to use it as a brickbat if we lose a couple of games in the next year or so.

10 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I wouldn’t say so. Aslong as I can see progression and improvement on the young lads each week, a style of play etc I’d be happy with that. 
 

i understand your point of slow builds not working in this league and expectation should always be to better last season but knowing how difficult it is to work under these owners , with gregg in a new position, swag, suhail and all that lot, plus so many first team players leaving and the squad being so thin, I think we have to cut him some slack and give him a season to find his feet when you consider how young the and inexperienced some of the lads are coming into the team

My thoughts exactly.

But cant help myself get carried away though and think we’ve got as good a chance of top 6 as anyone… 

But that’s not an “expectation” as such.

Next season would expect us to really kick on.

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

I do remember him. Sometimes you see young players and know they are set for bigger things. Barker was very driven and ambitious. Hopefully Adam will be the same and is limit for him.

Pickering interview on Rovers TV Harry was saying that Adam is "the best player in training, everyday, the most skilled etc" which is great to hear.

(As an aside can't recommend the Rovers TV subscription enough for the long form interviews, particularly with JDT, removes any editorialism or headline chasing)

21 minutes ago, Upside Down said:

Bit disappointed we didn't make it to a thousand pages by the close of the window but it was a solid effort nonetheless. 

Free agents?

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Allowing assets to run their contracts down does not lead the owners to deserve credit.

Mind you, if we sell him now to Leeds minus a replacement would be terrible.

To elaborate on my “I’m glad he’s staying” stuff.

Yeah we could’ve cashed in, but I don’t think that’s the way we work.

Here, the budgets for playing staff are decided, and that’s that. 

Any windfall from sales are likely going towards operating costs.

Not something I’m here to cheer for tbh.

Venkys are loaded, if they ever pull the plug it will be for ideological reasons rather than financial. 

1 minute ago, Andy said:

One positive of us keeping BBD is that it puts to bed that tin-foil 'we'll intentionally sell at the last minute and pocket the money' guff.

Venky's won't be bullied, we've seen that numerous times now.

They have their (many) failings, but I've got to give them some credit here.

I think the way ourselves and Sheff Utd with Berge have conducted ourselves when the vultures come calling can only benefit the league as a whole in the future.

”You’re loaded, stop flexing and taking the piss, you spent 40m on Dele Alli ffs” being the main takeaway.

Agree with whoever said it. It’s Everton who’ll regret not spending the extra 5m if they drop. We’ll just sell one of Balaji’s golden toilets and move on.

4 minutes ago, Jimmy612 said:

If at the start of the window anyone had put Travis and Buckley forward as 2nd choice right backs there would have been outrage. Travis is a sticking plaster there. He's not a right back and does tend to drift and get caught out of position. A lot of Blackpool's play went down that side last night, and a few times Lavery wasted good positions with poor or wasteful play.  Buckley is exactly the same, a midfielder. 

I'm really pleased with some of our business and Brittain has started well, but we should all be praying he can get fit quick. 

Saw a couple of Portsmouth games on Sky last season and thought Carter was pretty serviceable at RB.
 

Certainly better than the other two anyway.

22 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I agree, I’d high hopes of him but a back injury is no joke for a footballer.

He always looked knackered. Hope it works out for him,

1 hour ago, Blue blood said:

Really? I'd say the cost of having to replace them may say otherwise! Even standing still (assuming they all do as well, which isn't a given) has cost us a pretty penny. Hopefully they all turn out better and it's hard with hypothetical, but I wonder if all 3 remaining - which would have been cheaper - and the money gone in to one or two additional signings might have been better for us long term. Hard to say as a hypothetical though. 

I doubt it would be cheaper.

Would’ve been pushing 50k a week to keep them at the club. They really, really, weren’t worth that to us.

There’s yer fees and wages for the replacements.

5 minutes ago, RoverKyle said:

“I’d like to thank Sven Mislintat and his team at VfB Stuttgart for , along with Emeka Obasi and Ed Bonsu who, as Clinton’s , continue to prioritise playing for their young players ahead of short-term gain.”

A dig at some of the agents of the young players on our books perhaps?

Basically reads as "Ash Phillips if you don't sign your agent is a bellend"

10 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

We've just seen our 18 year old and Liverpool's 19 year old play with slippers on in a dominant - and technically the 2 starters (although I wonder how long that will last for!) were on the bench or playing RB... yep people are still pining after some midfield .

Beggars , really. 

Trav will get suspended. I'd like to give Garrett a go but someone more physical for back up would be welcomed.

Looks like this Mola can cover there and CB/LB

1 minute ago, roverandout said:

Nobody is saying he won't be a good signing.  If he's a good signal then great but he's never 5 million pounds worth of good signing 

How on earth can you know that?

IF Hirst comes in, scores 30 goals, gets us promoted and gets two hattricks against the dingles, still "Never worth 5 million"?

(Obviously I'm aware that is unlikely to happen before anyone starts)

Astounded people are confident in saying he DEFINITELY won't be worth £5m no matter what he does for us.

7 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Of course. But he hasn't. More to the point, he hasn't even scored at level so on of it, the chances of that happening are exceedingly slim.

Wouldn't it be far easier to just spend £5m on someone with a track record at this level?

That would probably be beyond our budget this season and even more of a gamble.

Let's see how he does. If he plays like a 5m+ player, we'll sign him, if not, we won't.

He hardly started a game for Rotherham and even Ronaldo would struggle to do well in some of the teams they've brought up.

6 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Yes - but we won't be getting a bargain.

This makes no sense and feels like Groundhog Day but I can’t help jumping in.
 

If we think the fee is worth it, only then do we pay.

Hypothetically, would you sign a player for 5m that had banged in 20+ championship goals and fits our system perfectly?