He only travelled to Lancashire on Friday. Was probably done yesterday but unlikely to announce on the day of a match… My bet on why it’s come in today is to get it done and dusted because tmrw is going to be BUSY!

5 min warning for Hedges…

I’ve listened to the clip a few times and I think he’s being very specific about the two he wants.

The clubs stance on Rothwell makes it win win for me. If we can’t get the two top midfielders in who Mowbray wants then Rothwell stays and gives 100%. There’s no scenario where Rothwell stays and tosses it off because he’d basically be taking cash out of his own pocket. A poor end to the season into the summer would change everything for Joe. My advice, sit back and let’s see what we can do between now and tmrw at 11pm. Im actually more concerned about getting a forward in along with Hedges and some midfield cover for the ones we’ve got, whether Rothwell goes or not!

It’s not overly hard to work out guys. There’s no value in us allowing players to run down contracts. There’s no evidence of us doing this either….we’ve offered new contracts to every player we’ve wanted to keep. Some sign them, others don’t but the decision really is the players to make. If they’re looking around the market and their form and thinking ‘this is the best deal I can get’ then they sign…if THEY believe they can get more then they hold out. The Sam Gallagher contract renewal is a great example. The club see the potential for him to kick on and want to protect their investment and position so they offer the extension….Sam, having shown some promise (6 goals in 13 starts) but not set the world alight signs the contract because he knows he won’t get any better. If he subsequently fires for the next 18 months and has PL interest then it strengthens his position and suddenly he sees the money and his name up in lights…so he refuses to sign another extension! The only way we win is to get in front of the contracts we have with a view to renew or be sold at 24 months before end of contract.

Buckley and Travis will eventually be that axis anyway imo. If we bought Styles and Dembele we’d be flying. Dembele and Dack fight out the false 9 and Bucko, Trav and Styles fight it out for two spots.

It dies if they’re doubling his wages!

Travis, Buckley, Dack and Gallagher spring to mind. Stop making the the rhetoric fit your argument. See, we can all select names to fit our argument. Just admit to yourself that there’s many many reasons why players don’t sign contracts but it usually comes down to the two parties not sharing the same belief around value. It’s no one’s fault, just differing opinions like you and I.

Sound 👍🏼

Yup. No one batted an eye lid when Mowbray picked JRC over Nyambe (as a FULLBACK)…you do even less defending as a wing back. My prediction is that Zeefuik will ease him out pretty soon. Assuming he’s even still here by next Tuesday. Seems like we have quite a lot of cover at RB now…

Yup, we’re second and therefore we cannot possibly find a better option than what we have….right? Nah, not for me. JRC and Dack are long term injuries that would have been playing the whole way through had they been available. Weve got people slaughtering a striker who’s scored half a dozen goals in a dozen games and then others lauding a wing back who hasn’t created a single goal as “integral” 🙈 Lets get it right, Nyambe’s a good championship defender. But a wing back, NEVER! He’ll be out of the team once Zeefuik and JRC get upto speed. Let’s see 👍🏼

Apart from the fact that prior to his injuries, JRC was considered by the manger and lots of the fan base to be the better option. So yeah…

Eh? You remember don’t you that prior to his injuries, JRC was preferred over Nyambe? It was pretty much accepted. Crazy this!! 🤣🤣….you watch, JRC will get fit, then start showing his quality on the ball again and people will start acting like it’s fresh news 🙈

Just my opinion. I think JRC has a lot more quality than Nyambe and I believe he’ll prove it to. It won’t be hard tbf….Nyambe’s assists are probably less than five in his career and zero goals….so yeah 👍🏼

Be crap in mid table with or without the bonus… BUT our target is promotion and so if they’re not going to sign a contract then the bonus is absolutely the best next thing the club could’ve done to motivate them!

Hahah - I’m not defending the club, I’m asking you to stop relentlessly blaming them for doing something that you can’t even prove they’ve done! 🙈

All opinions of course and pace is a bonus but I’d say that the key attributes for high performing attacking full backs / wing backs are around their ability to assist goals and deliver quality in the final third. For my money JRC is far and away in front of Nyambe on that front. Nyambe has absolutely no idea what to do once he crosses the halfway line and his end product is woeful. Good, solid championship fullback (in the traditional sense) but nowhere near enough quality to play wing back. Im hoping Zeefuik embodies Nyambes pace and more importantly JRC’s quality 🙌🏽

Argh, I give up! A bonus is outcomes based. The promotion bonus is GENIUS because whether or not this three believe they are too good for us, it keeps them motivated to drive Blackburn Rovers towards its goal of getting to the Premier League. Without that bonus what would three ‘soon to be out of contract’ players be killing themselves for between now and May?

We don’t know mate. We don’t fuckin know! Tbf I’d suggest that our history tells us we probably give people too much on huge contracts! My point is, there are two (or three parties Inc agents) in these negotiations. Any one of those parties (or more) could be holding up the signing of the contracts! So why must it ALWAYS be automatically the clubs fault? It may well be the club at fault, but it’s not nailed on is it? SW told me that DL believes he can get a PL club. Said that Nyambe’s agent was the problem there but that he thought DL and JR would prob sign. All anyone is asking for is a bit of balance 🤷🏽‍♂️

Turn it in mate. Yeah, the same manager who now has us second place with the 15th highest budget in the league. It’s laughable that you could even consider yourself more qualified to pick a player than him. Football is all about opinions but you waxing lyrical about Nyambe is painful. I stand by the my opinion that a fully fit JRC is a better WING BACK than Nyambe who’s a decent fullback but attacking abilities are average at best. Zeefuik provided a glimpse of what a decent wing back can do in 20 mins at the weekend. In those two fleeting moments he provided more penetration than Nyambe has done in 5yrs! Back on point. Maybe the contracts on offer aren’t great? Maybe they are….the point I’m making is around people like you who chat so much bilge in order to run the club down. You don’t know anything about those contract negotiations …I don’t either (other than what SW told me) and even I don’t go round making out that was gospel….the end.

Eh? Simple answer - No.

I find it amazing that people are so adamant we’ve managed the contract situations so badly. It’s pretty obvious that we’ve offered them all new deals that have been on the table for months. None of us know the details of those deals but it seems that many are surmising that the deals are not good enough when it’s just as likely that the deals are fine and that the players are choosing not to sign because they feel they can get more. The signing of the deal is the job of the player guys, if they don’t want to sign and we aren’t prepared to break our wage structure then so be it. It doesn’t have to be a failing….just is what it is.

As an affordable option I think it’s worth us bringing him in now ideally to support our push but a PCA is fine by me too. We don’t own Khadra or Poveda so we’re potentially quite light in those positions by the summer…promotion is by no means nailed on with 18 games to go and Hedges is a good option in the champ. IF and that’s a big IF we go up then we’d probably have to look at replacing a lot of first team just to stay up….Hedges would be the least of our worries and either way it’s a good problem to have?

I’ve watched him play three times since the rumours started and quite liked him on each occasion. He’s direct, powerful and drifts off the right side into goal scoring positions. He’ll suit our current system perfectly… But my assumption on him is based more on the furore that him leaving has caused. Aberdeen have seemingly rolled out the red carpet in an attempt to get him to sign a new deal. The manager has spoken specifically of Hedges and the “unbelievable” deal he’s been offered there. That type of stuff is saved for your best players / player. As for the fans, I think a lot of their anger is based on them losing tonight as well as anger at the player for refusing to sign. Id 100% get him in this window to help us get over the line. Fwiw I think he’ll end up more of a squad player behind the likes of BBD, Gally, Khadra and Markanday - but if they can get him in and fired up he’ll be a good option - imo

Correct - he’s been brilliant for them! Their most creative player. Very suspicious that they’ve replaced him after an hour when they needed a goal!