I really hope the Armstrong signing means we can push Bennett back into CM permanently, we desperately need some energy in there. 

McGinn seems a little far fetched... TM is very close to Hibernian so maybe he is doing them a favour by faking interest from ourselves in order for Celtic to stump up the full £3m. 

Otherwise, Bennett and McGinn as a CM pairing would be great but we surely would need some outgoings. Tomlinson (loan) and Whittingham to name 2. Evans may even be an outside bet.

McGinn, Bennett, Davenport, Travis and Smallwood (in that order) should be plenty with Rothwell, Mulgrew and Lenihan as options there for the odd game assuming we got a proper CB in also.

But I'd expect McGinn to be a £3m Celtic player by Thursday.

1 hour ago, ihtd said:

How the tables have turned. We’re discussing speculation after more speculation whilst the Dingles just dropped 15m on a Championship defender. 

Fwiw I hope McGinn is coming in and is better than some of the tripe we’ve purchased from the SPL in the past. 

We've actually done okay in retrospect with SPL signings. Its just some of our recent purchases who were trash (Goodwillie and Stokes)

Tugay, Mulgrew, Zurab, Amoruso, Furguson.... heck even Callum Davidson. Shay Given would have been excellent too if he'd been given a chance.

Ferguson was a case of right player, wrong time and Amoruso was probably too old at 32 and very injury prone. Zurab did a job when called upon and I think Tugay did okay too  

We'll forget about the younger projects like McNamee, O'Brien and Greer.

Miles Anderson doesn't count.

23 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

Smallwood is fantastic at harassing and chasing players, but players at this level have that little bit of quality to produce a little bit of skill to sidestep him.

I haven't seen Smallwood 'chase' anything in 8 months, as that would involve sprinting.

Honestly, the only time I've seen him even attempt a sprint since before Xmas was after his goal at Fleetwood.

Seriously, watch him.

I really hope that it isn't too long before we start lining up with this front 6 (assuming Armstong signs and no other 'A' listers do)

-------------- Graham --------------

-- Armstong - Dack - Palmer --

-------- Bennett ---- Travis* --------

The * could be Davenport or Evans, basically not Smallwood, I'm quickly going off the guy. Samuel, Rothwell and I presume new signings can be our bench options.

We can't be having Nuttall and Conway as our 70+ minute options. If that wasn't clear before today, it has to be now.

If Maddison is better than Edwards, why hasnt he been taken yet by someone? Edwards at £700k would have been fantastic for our right wing.

Considering the result. The timing couldn't be better, we are crying out for better subs as Nuttall and Conway cannot play that role this season.

Williams might need to call 999 after what Edwards did to him today.

Smallwood, not for me.

I think as long as the signing of Armstrong hasn't totally splooged the whole of our budget for other  'A, B and C' list players - we will all be happy.

If it means we now have to sign a 'Z' forward and CB. Less so.

34 minutes ago, imy9 said:

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/charlton-athletic-takeover-latest-update-football-league-preview-league-one-a8475686.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Really interesting article about the state of Charlton. Reason I put it here is that their best player is valued at 1 million pounds! The defender we want is surely coming in the final few hours for between 750k and 1 million imo. 

That stuff makes my blood boil, can't recall the exact quoted figured but the guy has bought the club for £18m 4 years ago and subsequently plunged them down a division and now won't sell for less then £40m.

Be like Venkys if wanted £100m for us now... ?

(Closing that can of worms)

It does feel like Bauer will be a Rover before we play Millwall (and for less than half the £2m quoted). He is probably the 'A' list CB but the 'C' priority signing.

29 minutes ago, Pedro said:

All I keep thinking is how much we took quality players and multi-million pound signings for granted in the pre-Venky era.  What I'd give for an Emerton, Nelsen, MPG, or even Jason Roberts now - never mind Bellamy and Santa Cruz.

Scary thing is that 2006-2009 Jason Roberts would be almost perfect for us nowadays. Remember us shifting him out to reading and him being the driving force behind their rise up the table and ultimate promotion.

I remember saying to all my mates in 2006/07 that if you could combine the flair, control and finishing of Benni McCarthy with the drive, passion and power of Jason Roberts, you'd have Samuel Eto'o.

Re loans: seems like we have set the bar pretty high this summer and not falling into the trap of Harper and Byrne. Players like Tammy Abraham and (Patrick) Roberts don't seem as far fetched as they did 2 month ago.

Nsiala or Bauer are both upgrades on Downing, Ward and Wharton. I would be pleased if either of those come in.

Re: Tammy Abraham, he still doesn't have his next loan club does he, that would be an exceptional loan although you still feel a basement PL team will go there. 

IF we walked away from this window in a weeks time with Abraham loan, Bauer or Nsiala and Maddison or Armstong signed up... hat's off to Rovers.

... If.

Call it blind optimism but I feel we are working fully on the £1m+ target(s) currently. Once they arrive or fall through it will start the domino effect on the rest of our options. 

No way we can sign a backup GK first to swallow even more of the budget before we get our 'A' player over the line... saying that though, money can't be that desperate otherwise presumably the likes of Tomlinson, Nuttall and Gladwin would have got their loans and we could have paid Caddis off by now.

I do actually think we will sign 3 and loan 1/2 more before the respective windows close and get at least 3 off our books on loan too. Maybe even a 'shock' outgoing - like Luitwiler.

Hoping Travis isn't one of them to leave.

I find this concept of 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' lists as a load of illogical nonsense.

I can accept there are positional lists - Bauer (A), Beavers (B) Elliot Ward (Z) - but if he buys Bauer for 5x the price of Beavers, will the money be available for the 'A' player on the Winger and Striker lists (Maddison or Armstrong)

Basically if (overall #1) player 'A' is someone like Marcus Maddison, TM knows he can't afford his top 2/3 options for CB (Bauer) and striker (Luca Toni).

There is probably zero chance we can get every player from his A list... we probably can't even afford all from B. 

The question is does he go and sign one 'A' player (Dack, 2017) if it therefore means all we can afford are scraps from list 'D'... a la Caddis, Hart, Gladwin.

I do understand the dismay from some on the likes of Nuttall, Wharton and to an extent Tomlinson being potentially loaned out due to lack of current better bodies at CB and CF.

The fact remains that all are currently way off being reliable options at championship level and a loan to a top half pushing L1 team like Bristol Rovers is a far better option for Nutall. The choice of Lincoln for Wharton is the only issue I have with him as it rather him go to a higher league.

We need a strong CB more than some people appreciate as we have Mulgrew in his final year and Lenihan who's reputation is trending upwards. We need a CB3 to come in now who we know will be able to be a quality championship starting CB in 12 months time, just in case... as I don't think Downing is at this level (however he is much much better than Ward)

Forget long term, loans and whatever, for this current season; would you rather have Sam Gallagher (example) or Joe Nutall on the bench? 

Season long loan??

#45 shirt? How many signings are we making, we only have a 22 man squad?

RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!

Im so excited I might just have to read the rest of this in the bathroom ?

2 hours ago, AAK said:

Exactly my thoughts in respect of Downing. He probably isn't good enough for the championship so why sign him, unless it really was a cheap deal.

He was signed in January with (IMO) 100% the precaution of us missing out on promotion and losing both Mulgrew and Lenihan. Still, not like Downing would have turned us down this summer had we stayed in L1.

In some parallel universe out there we are preparing for Luton away in our second L1 season with a team of Leutwiler, Caddis, Wharton, Downing, Hart, Smallwood, Tomlinson, Conway, Gladwin, Samuel, Nutall.

The horror.

34 minutes ago, Al said:

Just to eat a little humble pie for a minute I know I have criticised Ryan Nyambe in the past but against Liverpool and again against Everton he showed a huge improvement. We may have a player there after all.

3 hours ago, islander200 said:

Didn't think Smallwood was good last night.Hoping we can see the return of the Smallwood that we seen in the first half of last season.Not convinced he will show enough quality in the championship to keep his place but hope he proves me wrong

He does a lot of things well, and i thought he played very well for the most part yesterday as his passing and composure were better than it has been for months, but all you need to do is actually watch him when the opposition are counter attacking, it's appalling how slow/pedestrian he has become.  

There was one counter attack in the second half where Dack was dispossessed in the top corner of the penalty area when Evans, Nyambe and Bennett all forward in support and Smallwood near half way - fast forward 15-25 seconds and Everton had a scuffed shot from 12 ish yards out. Evans, Nyambe and Bennett were all back in our area with Bell, Mulgrew and Lenihan, whereas Smallwood was still at least 35-40 yards from goal. He puts not effort to try to get back as it will lead to more yellow cards - which now seem to be his Kryptonite.

I genuinely feel that two from Bennett, Evans, Travis, even Davenport should be starting ahead of him, i honestly see him as our weak link and hope we can get another winger in to push Bennett back there for good and allow the likes of Davenport and Travis game time next to him. Smallwood should be no more than a squad player for us right now. Until he rediscovers what he had 12-8 months ago, he would be my 5th choice for CM.

I'm sure many people will be fully disagree with me, however i have always felt he has been given so much support from the fan base simply because he wasn't Jason Lowe.

Travis however, i see big things (and plenty of Red cards) for that lad!

Watching Smallwood jog back when the likes of Nyambe and Bennett are sprinting past him full pelt is really starting to grate on me. 

Beyond that, very happy with the team performance,. Our through balls need some slight work but you can tell this team has been together and has an understanding. Well deserve to be 2 up. The optimism may be returning. Everton look way off the pace tbh.

Antonsson grew on me after his debut vs MK Dons where I honestly thought it was the worst debut I have ever seen... including Garry Flitcrofts ?.

He was much better as a LW/LF and had a knack of getting in good areas (much like MGP in his first few years). It was a shame when he got injured vs Scunthorpe around Xmas, however maybe that directly lead to us perusing Armstrong who did equal if not more for our promotion IMO.

Doesn't change the fact that I was dreading the prospect of Marcus in the Championship, no way we could carry both him and Conway.

Jeez do we need a proper winger.

Like him or loathe him, I miss the days of Nicko's thread with his (BS) 11 o clockers each day linking us to 4 new players... gave us something to talk/rant and moan about besides Derby's attendance, love island women and the managers fashion taste in players attire.

This current window is more boring than the build up to all the Royal baby births combined. 

Can't wait for the game tonight......

12 minutes ago, renrag said:

However, it wouldn’t have made any difference, we would still have been down on goals scored. Lack of goals and Coyle were the main causes of our demise

True, but it would have been a whole other ball game that last day if we were two goals closer. All what if's though isn't it. What if Gallagher had kept it in the corner, what if Gallagher had got that stone wall pen vs Brisol etc. 

What if David Raya had played 46 games...

What if the window closes and all we do is loan a few unproven premiership kids ?

31 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

If everything else stayed the same, but we had played David Raya, we would have stayed up.

Don't forget the team that stayed up by those two goals - Nottingham Forest - and the fact we won the corresponding home game 2-1 instead of 2-0, thanks to Steele literally dropping a  simple cross into our own net in the 96th minute. 2 goal swing right there. 

... Raya should be entering his 4th season as our #1, not his 2nd. Bowyer, L*mbert and C*yle are all as guilty for that. 

Other thought.

Since there are no apparent imminent incomings, I've turned my thoughts to our U23's and convinced myself that Travis should be a weekly starter and is already better than Smallwood and Evans. At least he has a 3rd gear.

Well this is dull, something happen! ??

Can hardly wait for the game tomorrow night with us adopting the 4-6-0 formation again.

Just now, unleaded said:

The blame lays at the door of the manager .. they offered a bigger budget but TM refused this for whatever reason ... now he’s messing about  for PL Loans and Players he knows ... bigger budgets come with bigger pressures.... 

Not suprised by this if true, which judging by who posted it, I suspect it to be. Another reason I currently can't see him lasting the season unfortunately. I want to be proved wrong, but I just don't sense any "real" ambition with the man. 

Never one to give Venkeys much credit, but I'm sure for the first time in 8 years even they realised they had a brief amount of feel good within the club and possibly would be open for a 'bit' of spending to keep the positive momemtum going. However all those players apparently wear caps backwards and ripped jeans.

Time to prove us wrong, past time.

9 minutes ago, neophox said:

For its worth... Nzonzi is currently interesting some club for a fre around £36m because of a release clause. That would mean some money in sell on fees for Rovers as I understand.

Even if it's only 1% which seems best case scenario since he's been at two clubs since. An extra £360k will do nicely.

Wonder if the £200k from the Sky Aston Villa game will be rewarded as transfer money. ?

James McLean is one of the scummiest footballers going. I remember one Wigan game when he must have had two or three two footed lunges on our players. I rarely think this but i can't wait to see him get his comeuppance one day. 

16 minutes ago, neophox said:

Both Foden and Diaz could be here when season starts ultimately..

This is assuming we beat Carlise away and make it to the 3rd round of the League Cup and draw Man City? I cant see it any other way.