Those who know me know how long I've petitioned for Smallwood to be dropped as time and again I think he's been our worst player.

Ironically first half today I would have said there were 4 or 5 equally bad if not worse... however I was obviously not disappointed to not see him return as we are simply put a much better team without him.

Crossing drills tomorrow please Tony. Almost every cross was floated too high and too deep. Scrap that... Wingers tomorrow please Tony!

I'm lost for words for quite how bad that was. Bennett and Lenihan (2 players I rate highly in our 11) have been so so shocking first half. Not seen any leaders out there first 45.

Armstrong rips Hull apart + Slow Reading defense playing a high line = Armstrong in the #10 position and 10 yards off DG. Huh.

Conway coming on, at least until proven otherwise is extremely bad management. I think we played better 1st half vs Oldham.

To think, after 10 mins we could have been 2-0. Then Bennett (pass), Nyambe (why didn't he simply head it to Raya), Lenihan (??) and Raya (!!) gift a goal. 

My Year 7B team don't make that many mistakes in a row.

I know we're living in a different footballing world nowadays and our scouting limitations will be natural, but it wasn't too many years ago we were 'scouting' the likes of Santa Cruz (€3m), Lewandowski (€4m) and Benni McCarthy (€2.5m). = £8m.

Now we're looking at signing a 19 kid from Nottingham Forest with 8 goals in 2nd division football for potentially the same price as those 3 combined... where's the bucket ?.

Would we not be better with Gallacher, Bauer and Freeman for almost the cost of Bereton? I'm not certain, however if we are spending £8m+ on a forward, there must surely be others worthy of that price. 

I mean, we only signed Bradley Dack because he played well in a 4-1 defeat for Gillingham. So Even though the manager does know a good player WHEN he sees one, I just fear we're being ripped off because of lack of scouting ambition. 

So Bereton isn't even getting in the Forest squad, even in the Cup, yet we are upping our bids at a seemingly excessive rate.

If he doesn't play a minute of football for the next 4 months, his value will surely decrease and his appetite to move will be stronger. 

I for one would rather this deal fall apart this month instead of breaking our club record transfer fee, and take the gamble of revisiting it in January.

Dack, Armstong, Graham and Palmer have shown enough and heck even Samuel looks like he can play a bit part. Unless this guy is the second coming of Shearer then it all seems strange. 

Bit late to the party but i didn't have chance to post yesterday what with rushing back for Feeder at Rochdale Feel Good Festival ?

Great win, amazing how many chances we spurned and yet didn't end up drawing 1-1. On another day I think we score 4 or 5.

I thought Lenihan was phenomenal, Mulgrew seems to have forgotten how to head the ball this season which is odd. I thought Bennett was below his standards today and actually thought Smallwood had one of HIS better games in a long time (I remain convinced his games are numbered).

Big game on Wednesday now, if we can end these first 5 games unbeaten and on 9 points that would be fantastic return.

I'll be down at Ewood in an hour, so I'll keep my eyes open for any promising looking REG plates. ??

He could also be theBRFC 2018 version of Alan Shearer, except instead of £2.5m it's £6m, and instead of winning the league it's winning promotion and instead of selling him for £15m in 3 years we sell him for £40m.

Could also be the next John Stead (no offense intended John).

I said for too long that Smallwood will eventually find his place as our 5th choice CM, seems Travis and Rothwell and making their move tonight.

Thinking about it I'm pleased we didn't pay for Bauer for a few reasons. Despite him being a desired option.

1) Charlton wanted £2m with 11 months on his contract. Crazy fee.

2) He says he won't be signing a new contract and Charlton get £0.

3) We look like we're playing 4 at the back and hopefully we shouldn't need him right now and have short term cover in Downing and Williams.

4) We are still front of the queue for him in January and June and will get him for WAY less than we'd have got him for yesterday.

...Unless Charlton are top of the league and certain for promotion.

Is Herman hreiðarsson still playing?

Looks like we're gonna run out of time getting to the magical 500 pages by 5pm. So close...

We gave it a right good go.

It'll take 2.5 hours to get to Blackburn from Nottingham at half 4 on a Thursday!

I'll see if I'm proved wrong, but we seem to have bid £9m on 2 players we have no time or chance of getting to save face.

No one is buying it.

Bottom line is we won't have a new striker and winger in before Millwall on Saturday and if that means Nuttall and Conway coming on around 70 minutes again to try to hold what we have, were going to struggle again. 

It's blindingly obvious Nuttall is out of his league and we've already thrown away 2 points due to having a poor bench.

92 minutes... 

I take it Willy von Trapp missed his flight?

Also I see Ivan Toney has signed a long term deal at Peterborough from Newcastle. 1) Wasn't he one some people rated highly, 2) how much did he cost i wonder and 3) does that make the departure of Maddison more certain?

7 minutes ago, USRoverME said:

So, I have a "fool proof" and totally realistic plan to make the Trapp transfer happen.

 

I'll be seeing Brad Friedel on Saturday.  Now, never mind that 15,000 others will be there, and that he is managing the home team that night.  Those are meaningless details.  

I'll simply catch up with him.  After all, as a Rovers fan, he has to tall to me. And I will tell him to call Trapp up, and tell him, one Ohioan to another, how wonderful a Lancashire winter is for footballing.  I'll make sure he sneaks in that story about that one time, he scored that goal, and how great it feels to score a goal in the Premiership.

Its in the bag.  What could go wrong?

As someone who lived in Ohio for a year, I actually prefer the winter Lancashire weather, it's the other 9 months that Ohio has us beat! 

Trapp doesn't seem like he should be tomorrow's priority, and if he is he will already be on a plane landing this morning.

The Freeman article made me laugh:

Apparently QPR have a reputation of buying cheap and selling for big profit, they signed Les Ferdinand for £30k and sold him for £6m don't you know....

Yeah, 20+ years ago ?

See Niko Kalinic is now Atletico Madrids new £13m signing and gets to partner Diego Costa and have service from Griezmann, Lemar, Koke, Saul etc. Who saw that coming, honestly.

24 hours and 24 minutes...

Don't know where TM's finger is, but it's time to pull it out!

7 minutes ago, Drover said:

Celtic have matched villa's offer for Mcginn (2.75m)

 

https://readceltic.com/2018/08/08/celtic-make-improved-mcginn-bid-to-rival-villa/

We are almost certainly out of this one

I still stand by our role in this transfer being a pawn to drive Celtic up to the full asking price. (Due to our good relationship with hibs)

Villa are the real pawn it seems. Depends on the lads mindset, settle for a career in the SPL or not.

Grealish apparently not for sale, have Villa confirmed McGinn or have talks broken down, or (more likely) they're adding both and showing their middle finger to FFP and going all in on year 3.

This Kepa signing for £71m at Chelsea makes me wonder how much clubs would be paying for David Raya if he was starting at Eibar or Sociadad and not BRFC.

18 minutes ago, RovingRover said:

Smallwood refused to sign a new contract with Rotherham. That's why he left.
To suggest he was "discarded" by Rotherham is a complete misleading of history.

Don't like how we talk up players and then discard them the next.
Downing was being raved about last season, and now he doesn't even warrant a place on the bench in some peoples eyes. How many games did we win with him in the starting XI?
Until recently Smallwood was being spoken of as the "King of Ewood". Now we have been linked to the player north of the border who is talented, people are talking about Smallwood like he should be released on a free!

I'm absolutely baffled how anyone can talk down Smallwood, whilst we still have Peter Whittingham and Ben Gladwin!

Fully appreciate your perspective, but talking up a player for their role in League 1 and wanting them 'discarding' in the Championship is very different and almost normal.

If our first 11 next season includes too many players such as Williams, Downing, Smallwood, Samuel, Nuttall etc, we will be relegation fodder.

All I am saying is I view Smallwood as the 3rd best CM in our "proven" squad (behind Bennett and Evans) and I expect it won't take long for Travis and Davenport to surpass him. McGinn clearly is better.

He earned his respect and part in the squad, but he will never be better than a bottom 10 championship/league 1 player. Nothing against him, but if he was to leave to make way for McGinn, how would you feel?

14 minutes ago, Neal said:

We'd have got into playoffs that one season we missed out. 

And England would have won the world cup etc etc...

14 minutes ago, Scotland1 said:

Never got the crack with him myself a freebie discarded from Rotherham 

Smallwood was given the 'crown' of being Jason Lowe's replacement and that's the only reason he has made it this far relatively critique free. His catchy chant also gave him immunity for a while. 

I will get killed for saying this but i honestly rate Jason Lowe and even Keith Andrews higher than Smallwood. (All not very much)

No dislike to the guy but he simply served his purpose last year and I feel his new deal will be one we're begrudging this time next season as deadwood.

Better use of his chant would be

Oh ay oh, we've got David Raya

Oh ay oh, he's better than De Gea

Oh ay oh, he'll sometimes kick it out of playyyyyy.

1 2 3 4!

I really hope that people dont think Smallwood is better than Bennett. Bennett does all the things Smallwood does and better. 

5 minutes ago, DE. said:

He'd do a better job than Evans or Smallwood in the centre.

100%

Just seen on SSN that Nsiala and Nolan having medicals at Ipswich for combined fee of £2m. Add that to Harrison and Edwards signings and looks like Hurst is making £3.5m worth of signings ready for his push on the L1 top 2 again this season.

Before anyone slags off Bauer for his tweet along with the 'avoid' comment, think about how much of a mess Charlton are in (off the pitch).

He is being chased by clubs a division higher whilst at a club who are being run as bad as us circa 2011-2013. He is simply stating he will be leaving on a free in 12 months. Isn't that the same as giving your notice at any job? 

If I was TM, £400k offer should be going in.