Angry_Pirate

I think Nyambe has been treated shockingly by Mowbray and is always first casualty in "Operation play Bennett". Bennett at RB instead of Nyambe is the cause of so much of our defensive problems and a back 4 of Nyambe - Lenihan - *Hanley* - Bell, would bring down our goals against column by a good 25%. Now of course I'm not saying that Nyambe is Cafu, he will make mistakes, but compared to anyone else in our squad, he the only choice at RB. CB is the biggest priority in our squad by some distance.

Said the same probably 12 months ago to the day. If he was available I would be very happy with him. Turns 35 in January. Flourished as a lower L1/L2 player but never been able to climb any higher with any success.

Its Friday so I'm going to be positive about something I'm probably very underwhelmed about. Downing has played in CM a fair bit this past season or so and is a technical player who is good on set pieces and gives us a left footer beyond Mulgrew. With the emergence of Travis as our unquestioned CM#1 who has an engine, pace, bite and commitment, I much prefer the idea of a Downing-Travis pairing than any with Smallwood and to a lesser extend Evans in it. Downing could be a technical upgrade on Evans and can come and play as we develop Davenport for a year with a view for a Davenport-Travis pairing. Of course, I'd have rather pushed for a Joe Aribo or actually committed half the transfer budget on a proper CM as I'm more convinced Downing will be the next Danny Murphy or Peter Whittingham. Surely we deserve some luck with the golden oldies signing. If not, it's only a 1 year deal ?

Well the pressure is on Mowbray now to get a signing through the door to appease the discontent a lot of us are feeling with the Bauer news. Like him, rate him, whatever, the fact is it's slightly embarrassing to be so linked and for so long and him join Preston. Hanley, Cooper or Linsdsay would do. But we certainly need one, maybe two quality CBs to go with Lenihan. Que Rodwell to resign and Downing.

Low blow on Rochdale ?

Rather him than Smallwood. @ me.

Believe it or not, today is the first day "back at it" from the manager. Scandalous.

TBF You couldn't possibly know that I couldnt possibly know that.

Grant Hanley on a season loan at 30%(?) wages, Patrick Bauer on a free. Keep Lenihan. That's the CB position sorted for me. Check and move on. Lenihan, Hanley, Bauer, Mulgrew, Williams, Rodwell(?), Magliore, Wharton... Not exactly world beating but for the £0 transfer fee involved we should be all over that. 3 big nasty starters who can each play a bit. Mulgrew as first rotation, Williams a 4-5 game option in there and the others to supplement it. Spend the *£7m* on a proper CM to play alongside Travis. John McGinn cost what, £3m? Look for more frees, and then some loans (at a later date). Just please Tony, don't spunk the money and wage budget on the over 30 club - 18 month wonder package from Boro and Albion. (For what it's worth, those clinging to hope that worst case scenario any Lenihan sale to SU would generate £12m+, you'll be very disappointed as it'll be nowhere near that high unfortunately)

I'll pay for your season ticket if that happens.

Can't wait for Monday when we actually start our summer with the manager back in his office. He should really use those first 10 days to go through the list of all free agents in the top 3 divisions and reach out to the best 3 in each position group. See what's what... then revisit them after they have been a free agents for a week and got over their delusional wage demand dreams. Speaking of free agents, hearing Paul Downing could be making a somewhat surprising signing to a major L1 club next week, pretty sure it will be Sunderland. Not bad for our 5th choice...... If our first signing is a U20 PL loan, or an ex M'Boro, WBA or Coventry player, I'll be annoyed.

So this is the 4,277th post in this transfer thread, I swear about 3,000 of them have been related to Ben Brereton, a player we already own! It's getting old ? Hugill is one I've never liked and get the feeling it was a mutual dislike for Rovers from his perspective. Would prefer we splooged this years £7-10m elsewhere.

GK Zabaleta - CB - Kompany - LB Keane - CM RW - Zidane - Dugarry Lewandowski I think those 7 would beat almost every Blackburn starting 11 from the past 8 years. ? Were we not linked with Gareth Bale at one point during the Bentley to Spurs period and turned down the part exchange, also we turned down signing Son Hueng Min for the weekly wage of a championship player, did we not? Stick Bale at LB and Son on RW and that team is only a CB and CM shy of Champions League domination... I'd personally keep Raya in goal ?

Kompany and Zabaleta were both signed for £6m (ish) within weeks of Hughes leaving Rovers for City. They were Hughes' top targets for us that summer and the wheels were in motion on both. Hence why it was such a quick double signing at City. Imagine if City had waited a few more weeks and we signed both of them in 2008 instead of Grella, Andrews and Simpson. They can join the fantasy 11 players we almost had along with Keane, Zidane, Dugarry and Lewandowski.

Also don't expect to see any action this week with transfers as the manager is off to Spain on Friday before he's "back at it" from next Monday. (???) 250+ pages it is then.

The irony is that this is probably the most relevant Rigters has been since the day we actually signed him ?

"And it is understood enquiries have also taken place about the availability of Republic of Ireland international Glenn Whelan, though he is set to join former club Stoke City." Woohoo ? There are literally 50 players from the Prem, Champ and L1 released on free transfers that we could be targeting that could add to this squad... yet we're here confirming the price tag of Maceo Rigters from the mid-2000's ? Love it.

Same. IIRC he was player of the tournament and top scorer at an Under 21 World Cup. Sure we paid some daft figure like £3m for him... That's almost half a Ben Brereton for Christ sakes. I confess I was also buzzing about Corrado Grabbi and Javier De Pedro... I am not buzzing about any of our links so far this summer.

That list of names is flat embarrassing. Good job Sharpe didn't keep going as it was probably Carlos Villanueva in 2008, Maceo Rigters in 2007, Jason Brown in 2006, Shefki Kuqi in 2005, Javi De Pedro in 2004, David Yelldell in 2003, Sebastian Pelzer in 2002 and Ciccio Grabbi in 2001? The sad list of our first summer signings probably (likely) goes on...

Take this next sentence with a pinch. Whelan did start in the first leg, was woeful, was 100% at fault for the WBA goal, was hauled off after 65 minutes... oh and he never played for Villa again. The first names being confirmed linked with, seem to be the closest to signing first, first is occassionally the priority. If we want 1LW and 1CM on our transfer budget, spunking it on 35 year old pair Downing and Whelan and their potential wages before mid June is just abysmal in my eyes. Especially when you look at the free agents out there born after 1990. Can see the headline now... "Rovers announce the signings of Stewart Downing and Glen Whelan on 14* month contracts. The remaining 10 months of the pairs 2 year deals will be paid off on September 1st 2020." Might get myself down to Eid in the Park on Sunday and try and talk Tony some sense ?

GLEN WHELAN!! ? Called it 10 days ago. Couldn't be less surprised, or more underwhelmed. I had backed off the Mowbray out campaign a bit in the last 2 months, but (if) his transfer window is being driven by targets like Stewart Downing and Glen Whelan as priority first signings, then he needs to go. I'd rather have kept Conway and keep Smallwood... and I hate Smallwood (as a footballer)

I remember that Norwich game with Bradley Johnson and saying the same thing - he was the outstanding player in the championship. Age, wage, type of player may be a problem - him and Travis is solid but too negative. I see that Charlton have offered terms to Aribo and Bauer. Rovers must find out what terms they are offered from Charlton and then "Gazump" both offers by a few £k. ... of course, we would then be "Gazumped" by other teams. ?? I don't expect either of them to be at either Rovers or Chalton come August. Still, lets be proactive for once.

Personally I wouldn't mind if the first 2 players in the door were free transfers followed by two genuinely exciting Premier League Loans. Plenty of "Free" agents that could walk into our 18, if not 11. Martin Olsson, Patrick Bauer, Joe Aribo, Todd Cantwell, Nick Powell, Moses Odubajo, Leroy Fer, Yohann Barbet. Even names like George Honeyman and Graham Carey from league one could come in and add depth we've lost or could lose from Reed, Conway, Rodwell and hopefully Smallwood, Gladwin etc.

Would be upset and underwhelmed with Keogh, he's a mistake waiting to happen for me. Don't see him as a realistic target either. Not many players on those two teams I wouldn't want for the right price but hes one of them, Glen Whelan would be another I'd be worried would be a TM player. Upgrade on Smallwood, but such a dull, uninspiring player. Watching McGinn this season really makes you wonder what if. Shows the benefits of being proactive in June and not waiting till August when everyone is watching.

Mings, Abraham, El Ghazi, Tuanzabe, Mount, Wilson and Tomori. 32% of the starting players on the pitch in the Championship Playoff Final are on loan. Phenomenal stat. We simply must do better in the loan market this summer. Harrison Reed was possibly one of our best (championship) loans to date but we need to get more ambitious in this area and not splooge our signings on the Rakeem Harper's, Martin Samuelson's and Jack Byrne's of this world. I'm not suggesting we built a squad with 5 or 6 loans in it, but 2 or 3 quality loans make the difference. If our team had even 2 of those 7 names listed above we would be a playoff chasing team too. Imagine our defense with a Mings in it, or a Tammy Abraham up top.