Just now, Wheelton Blue said:

Man of the match for me by a mile. Proper footballer, that lad.

The ‘next’ special one! 🤩

3 minutes ago, JamieUK said:

I thought Markanday looked well off the pace and missed a couple of sitters.

Of the players that started I'd say Dolan, Dack, Morton, Edun looked like they'd step into the current XI without any issues. Question marks over the rest for me but a lot of that is because of age/experience. Think JRC could do with loaning out - I don't think he's anywhere near first team standard but that would leave no cover.

Agreed - I actually think Adam Wharton was brilliant too tonight but he doesn’t look ready physically yet.

Was happy for Dack, Dolan does what Dolan does, Morton looked every bit a first team player and Edun for Pickering! 

An absolute Joy to watch. Morton and Adam Wharton and Phillips were brilliant, Dack and Dolan showed they can absolutely be trusted to make an impact and I thought Edun staked a claim to start at Lb. In fact the only player who will probably leave Ewood a bit gutted tonight is Vale…worked his socks off and made lots of good runs but didn’t really look like scoring.

A positive night all round!

6 minutes ago, phili said:

Unless the BBD offer hits Venky's £20m valuation, he won't be sold. The likely hood is he will leave for free next summer.

Might sign a new contract yet 👀🤞🏽

23 minutes ago, ROVER_N_OUT1978 said:

Doesn't look like anything is close at the moment.

What would people be happy with? One permanent CB and another on loan?

Personally, I would like to see Callum Styles (there's an excellent all action CM there and as some say he can cover LWB), two quality CBs (Goode and Helik) and the icing on the cake would be an extra attacker (Delap on loan) or possibly a cut price deal for Birmancivic.

One can but dream I know 

 

My feeling is JPvH on a perm plus 1 cb loaned. Then Bowler and we’re done. If we can get BBD to sign a new contract then great! If not then inevitably, he’ll be sold and I’d expect Birmancevic plus 1 (hopefully a number 9, to replace.

Get innnnnnnn

Dolan and Vale on!!… #Dackwatch 👀

7 hours ago, Angry_Pirate said:

I hope that by the end of the window Buckley is not our best player.

 

Ps. It's late, but I'm almost certain he isn't.

For context…in the time Tugay was at Rovers there were many star players, Cole Yorke, Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz - match winners! But the best footballer (in a purist sense) at the club was ALWAYS Tugay.

That’s Buckley now at Rovers. His brain and technical ability is insane. That’s what the club have seen. It’s just taken time for his body to catch up. Sure, we may sign Szmodics who gets 10 goals before Christmas, or a Josh Bowler who gets us off our seat, or a JPvH who we marvel at his defensive abilities, or Travis bulldozing himself through midfield (PL eyes on him too btw) but the Rolls Royce in there is John Buckley. I (and it looks like most others) see that now.

That was my point around him being the best footballer at the club no matter who we sign.

Edit - I saw a post in here a few pages back saying we will be the envy of many Championship clubs this season with Travis and Buckley in CM and I 💯 agree. Savour them and be proud that we created them I say…imo both will be playing in the PL within the next season or two. I just hope it’s with us! 

4 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Bizarre claims, why not just accept that some people (uh, most by the looks of it) have a different opinion to you on the player, rather than make it some sort of collective cognitive dissonance?

I'm on record as having been highly critical of him the season before last. I thought he was too weak, naive, lacking athleticism, and showed far too little glimpses of the talent we were told he had. A certain poster's comments about him being worth 10 million were laughable to me, and I still feel that was a fair assessment by me at the time based on what had been shown. I wouldn't argue he is worth that now, just yet, but at least there'd be a discussion to be had.

Last season completely changed my view on him. He got stronger, and seemingly faster and fitter. He learnt the speed of the game, passed with far more consistency, and became remarkably good at nicking the ball off the opposition. Frankly he looked a different player, and is clearly key for us now despite being moved around a bit too much. The only real let down was that patch he had of missing loads of highly presentable shooting chances, that pissed me off a lot. The lad needs to learn to shoot, I said...cue the end of season rocket he scored.

There's no face-saving from me here, in fact I had to about-face to form my newer opinion of him. I'll about-face again if he starts playing shit again, because I'm interested in my opinion being accurate more than the appearance of consistency. But at least if I do change my mind on him again, I'll know there's a player in there. How you missed it, I don't know - in fact it comes across a lot more like you're the one trying to save face by refusing to admit he has improved considerably.

I refer back to that post now because it’d be easy for me to gloat but the opinion I expressed on Buckley wasn’t even mine…

In context, I’d been told from a member of the coaching team that Buckley was the gem of the academy and someone they believed was destined for stardom. We played a night game and Buckley played. I was a guest at the game of a friend of mine and got speaking to a scout in the lounge at half time. It turned out he and a couple of other PL scouts had been alerted to the fact he was starting that night and had turned up to watch him…fwiw, I couldn’t see why!? But when I pushed a bit harder it turned out that the club knew he was (still is) being circled by PL clubs because he’s a special player and that’s when THEY said it would take “8 figures” to take him from Rovers at that time.

They think Adam Wharton and Ash Phillips are very special too. Harry Leonard the other one to watch!

Buckley has played his whole life as an 8 and will be FARRRR better than Rothwell there. Tony only played him as a 10 or false 9 because of Dacks injury and to protect him whilst he developed physically….

So, for me, Buckley is Rothwells replacement and Szmodics is Buckley’s replacement (as 10 or false 9). I still believe we’ll sign another forward (like Bowler) whether we sell BBD or not but the emergence of Vale could save us the job of replacing Khadra’s goals and assists last season.

Morton is Brad Johnson’s replacement as first sub in that midfield two and Garrett and A Wharton will provide further cover. Fwiw - my next prediction is that A Wharton will the ‘next’ chosen one, after Buckley is sold for BIG money.

Now, we need one permanent cb signing and I genuinely believe that will be JPvH. The sars are aligning. The second will be a loan.

The sale of BBD will likely spark some more signings. We’d need two to cover off his goals and impact. Birmancevic +1 👍🏼

25 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Anyone else worried about lack of Championship nous of our top two?

No, I think there’s plenty of Championship knowledge in the club with both playing and coaching staff. It’s very much a collaborative approach these days so there’s less chance of things being missed.

18 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

Playing where he did, Vale will simply be judged on either goals or assists I'm afraid, no matter how many 'link ups' he has under his belt.

Not criticism at all, just how 99% of football fans will view it.

I've already backed him to both play and score at Swansea earlier in the thread too....

Hmmm, maybe he can be judged aka Firmino on his ability to link up play and assist the assisters though…I must say I didn’t see the same stuff Joe did on Saturday from Vale but I will 100% look for it this weekend….

And…in all fairness to Vale, his career so far tells us that if/when he gets a chance, he’ll probably bury it! He Is more of a natural finisher than Gally, that’s for sure!

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

Peterborough had seen him play when they considered loaning him back to League One.

Prove it. I really don’t wanna go down this line…let’s see if he’s any good hey? If he’s brilliant it won’t matter a jot if he was about to get loaned out or not OR what he cost….if he’s shit then for us to have paid 50p for him will be a waste! 

Just now, bluebruce said:

Haven't seen that reported anywhere, where are you getting that? Only figure I've seen is 2.5 mill. I don't expect that to be up front, no transfer is. Posh paid 1 mill for him, be odd to say they've rejected 3 bids more than they paid and then only take a guarantee of 500k. I can't imagine they're guaranteed any less than 1.5 mill.

£2.5m from Barry Fry!? It’s in his interest it’s in to inflate the fee. The point I’m making is, who knows what the fee is and quite frankly, as fans do we really care? So long as he does the business, right?

17 minutes ago, Neal said:

With all due respect, how do you know this? 

Whoever the source is, even if there is no source…it’s no less believable than those basking in us ‘having our pants pulled down’ at £2.5m for a player that no one has actually seen play. 

5 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Gonna need more than one centre half - Barnes has done his ACL

Whattttt!!??? 🙈

Fwiw, I’m certainly not writing Dack off. I know for a fact that the club were concerned very early on about Ayala and Dack fitting in with the new regime. I posted this at the time (around 5 days after JDT had been unveiled). Since then, this issue has started to play out more publicly and the weekend along with the signing of Szmodics in Dacks position plus the explanation given by GB around Szmodics make for an interesting dynamic…

That said I really hope that Dack forces his way in, runs around like a mad man and discovers his best form! He’s a brilliant player and was the best in the league pre-injury!

I’m pretty sure of one thing though, JDT won’t be relaxing his game plan / style for any player. Even Bradley Dack.

12 minutes ago, TruRover said:

GK: Kaminski, Pears

RB: Brittain, JRC

CB: Ayala, JPVH, Wharton, Carter 

LB: Pickering, Styles

CM: Travis, Buckley, Edun, Morton 

RW: Markandy, Bowler

CAM: Dack, Szmodicks 

LW: Dolan, Hedges 

ST: Gally, Vale

Youth players: Wharton, Garrett, Phillips, Barnes, Burns 

I feel like that’s a fairly realistic window for us from here with remaining budget and portion of Diaz money covering Styles, JPVH and Bowler. 
 

Interested to see who we are next linked with as the main rumours have now been tied up with Styles, Bowler and JPVH having been linked for a while   

 

 

This is what I’d want, plus a ‘special’ signing (aka BBD) - Striker please

5 min warning!!!!

12 minutes ago, Gavrover said:

What rumours?

Just a couple on here saying that he’s close…

3 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Just get him bloody sold already.

If there’s any truth in the Cantwell rumours tonight then BBD must be going! 

There is likely to be a high turnover of players in the next 12-18 months because the former and current manager are like chalk and cheese…

Anyone who thinks Dack isn’t in trouble after yesterdays match really isn’t reading the signs. Dack is our talisman and highest earner. He played 60 mins in his last game and was overlooked in the starting XI buy a young debutant, then again when that debutant was subbed and then made to watch on whilst his team mates ran themselves into the ground and a manager who didn’t trust him to make an impact or even keep the status quo…from JDT’s post match comments it was 17yr old Adam Wharton who he was considering bringing on, not Dack!

Like I say, there’s always a way back. It’s usually through hard work and guts…let’s see how it unfolds.