As the creator of this thread and therefore its primary stakeholder, does that entitle me to shut it down?

32 minutes ago, glen9mullan said:

Its remarkable how people still getting sucked in, GB has admitted in his own words we got it wrong internally.

Yeah, but isn't it being reported that the internal errors re were more to do with the Brierley transfer than O'Brien's?

It sounds like (speculatively) we have been less incompetent with O'Brien than with Brierley.  Time will tell I guess, hopefully. 

17 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Tony’s team going great guns. It’s galling to see Mowbray doing well and I wouldn’t want him back but there’s no doubt we’re a worse outfit this season. Tomasson isn’t an upgrade 

 

If only you'd waited another 20 minutes....

Like I said above, patience is sometimes needed over the course of a match, let alone a month & a season. Plenty of time for almost any outcome to come from this season, besides perhaps top 2 and almost certainly bottom 3.

Let's not forget, although we're not scoring many we're conceding even less currently, even without our 1st choice back 4 & keeper. "Build from the back" was a mantra often quoted last season as the basis for a strong team where we consistently failed (as did Sunderland yesterday), yet JDT seems to be getting little credit for progress in that dept.

22 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

No different to West Brom in midweek. We didn’t look like scoring then and we don’t now. Tomasson out

And yet we did on both occasions, to win 6 points and take 10 from a possible 12 against both play off rivals this season, after taking 4 points off Watford.

All whilst without the reliable striker that he wanted out of 2 transfer windows, and the top quality midfielder we're wrangling with the EFL about.

We're in 7th, level on points with 5th and a point off 4th, with a league cup run to the last 16 and a FA Cup run to the 5th round so far.

Did I enjoy the 1st 45 mins yesterday? No, but a match is 90+ mins long so overall I'm happy. TBF JDT warned us to be patient pre match. It was the same way we played at Swansea, but we were on fire up front then.  BBD is off form  Gallagher is struggling to impact games & Dack is knackered / now injured, hopefully not seriously. 

I do wonder what more folk expect JDT to do atm when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Edit: all said above by others in between times, but happy I'm not alone in my musings!

Just now, rigger said:

Shoot on site policy ! 

Sorry, should be shoot on sight...!

Not surprised with the lineup, we showed on Saturday it's a team capable of causing difficulties & digging in. 

Their keeper is making his league debut I think, hopefully there's a shoot on site policy in place to give him some jitters.

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

Set off at about 4.30 and got here about 7.20 so about 2 hrs 50mins. On the M6 it felt like  5 hours. Any other examples of exaggeration would be appreciated 

Come on Rovers

I only saw a quick joke from the 2 hours / 3 hours thing, and have clarified my post above. 

As I say, fair play for making the journey. I do regret not being able to make away games.

3 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

We're setting off in the next 10 minutes

Come on Rovers

Exaggerating again jim?! 

Edit: at the time of posting, the post I quoted said it was 2 hours ago, honest! Back me up on this gav!

Also, no offence intended jim, hats off to making the journey 👍

28 minutes ago, arbitro said:

For all the talk of projects and transfer windows out of the starting team on Saturday all but two were here when Tomasson and Broughton came in the Summer. The two starters are both on loan. In the previous match only three of the match day squad were signed this season.

To be fair Hyam would've played if not injured and so too would Brittain.

And O'Brien too if, well, y'know.

8 minutes ago, JHRover said:

QPR have collapsed since Beale went to Rangers. Dropping like a stone. Haven't won at home in about 4 months and no wins in 10 or something.

Critchley will be under big pressure there soon.

I dread our game there in a couple of weeks because it will either be last chance saloon and turning point for them or they'll make a change right before the game and will be well up for it. 

Now one down at home to Sunderland. 

Surely the Mowbray death spiral ought to be kicking in about now? No sign of it yet though.

15 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

i feel sorry for o`brien,we have royally messed him about

Well someone has for sure, but we're all speculating as to who and how.

It seems we were 7 seconds late with Brierley, and a form was not properly completed regarding his ethnicity. They appear to be internal errors which should have been avoided, and if they are internal errors then the EFL would arguably be in their rights to reject the transfer (esp if late), however harsh that seems.

The only word going round re O'Brien is regarding what happens if we get relegated not having been made clear. I've no idea if we should have done or not, what the rules say about that or if it's standard practice to do so whether required or not. But don't the rules allow a deal sheet to be submitted by 11pm with more detail permitted before 1am?  Did we miss that as well?

All seems v harsh if true, and perhaps why it is taking so long.

I think it doubtful that GB is personally at fault for the failures, but takes that responsibility publicly as the figurehead of the transfer side of operations. He has a right to expect the club will employ competent admin staff and legal advisors. If we don't, that's more on SW than GB imo.

But all speculative at this stage, which is just adding to the dissatisfaction of all concerned.

This delay is certainly not what any of us expected and does nothing but make a mockery of the whole process. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since the events concerned, I struggle to see the point of an appeals process that takes this long in this context, it just leaves all involved in limbo and leads to more ill-conceived speculation and fosters more distrust. 

FWIW, the club had to appeal if they thought they had a strong case imo, regardless of any prior precedent. I'm guessing this is an isolated case based on a particularly unique set of facts not adjudicated on before, so precedents don't apply.

However this ends up, transparency has to be key to any subsequent investigation carried out by the club, and the EFL.

HT v Chelsea, 1-1, another one in the onion bag for Leonard. 

It has to be a close run thing for it to be taking so long, there can be no other explanation.

Like others I'm more confident than I was about appeal prospects. Whatever the outcome though, it's unfair that it has run into a 2nd game week, that can't be right.

TK is clearly injured, there's no conspiracy theories and JDT is NOT like K**n.

I wish folk would let go of the past and not tar the current management team (in this context I mean GB and JDT) with the brush of old. Yes we still have Venkys whose ownership model makes no sense, and there are still some kentaro / SEM staff in place, but I genuinely believe GB and JDT are in it for the right reasons. Whether or not they are sufficiently competent,time will tell.

As for today, I am less nervous about Pears than previously. I guess it's Carter & Wharton again, with JRC & Pickering, which is probably as weak as we have.

I guess Morton will start alongside Buckley, ,though I'd prefer Garrett & Buckley for the former's extra steel.

Up front I'd go Thomas right, BBD left, with Gallagher up front & Dack behind. 

Today will either be a tonking or a masterclass snatch n grab. First goal crucial, if we get it we can defend quite well & use the counter to good effect, esp as I think Watford are quite powder puff like us if they go behind.

If they get it however... 🙈

I've got a sneaky feeling we can do this, 0-1. Here's hoping...

1 minute ago, rigger said:

I love early morning humour.

It's gone half past 10!! I take it you don't have young kids... 😅

I guess this subject deserves its own thread now, can't see it has one. 

Lancs live reporting that the deadline to submit papers for the appeal is 4pm, with a decision hoped this week for the players' sake.

Apparently the appeal will be considered by the EFL board, comprised of different people from those who were involved last week.

Fingers, toes & everything else crossed that we get this over the line... 

17 minutes ago, Hasta said:

I’ll be in Sheffield with work till 5pm tomorrow. That means I’ve got to get back, drop some colleagues off in Chorley, call in my mums, go home, grab something to eat then get to Ewood. Like most midweek games for me it’s a ball ache.

I accept a number of midweek games each season but moving games from the weekend to Friday and Monday is just annoying. I get it’s not the clubs fault, but still I’ll probably end up missing a game Monday which I’ve paid for by a season ticket because they’ve moved it midweek.

That should give you plenty of time, 24 hours in fact before the match starts. Maybe you can do some litter picking whilst you're waiting.

3 hours ago, bluebruce said:

There aren't any? As far as I'm aware. No quotas on foreign players, but you need at least 8 homegrown players or you lose a squad spot for each one you don't have (ie, you can normally register 25 players but if only 7 are homegrown you can only register 24).

You actually understood what I typed? It looks like I was drunk when I did it, but I wasn't unfortunately!!

But you're right, it's irrelevant information whether correctly completed or not, so ought not to be a bar to registration. 

The only reason I can see a players nationality / ethnicity being relevant on the registration form is to ensure clubs are abiding by set quotas re foreign players etc. But that's more something to do with bigger fish who are playing in European competition, as opposed to us signing a 19yr old novice from Rochdale.

Pedantic just isn't the word; this lot give the county court money claims centre a run for its money.

If what Nixon is saying / quoted as saying is true, & there's nothing more to it, then it's a new low in jobsworthness. 

Should paperwork be filled in correctly, & checked? Yes, but come on we're talking about the careers of 2 young professionals. The EFL should be hammered for that if true.

But we'll see, on both counts. There's always two sides to every story...

3 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

Greggy grandstanding with the Premier league boys....probably forgot about the nitty-gritty paperwork.  Schoolboy error and a stackable offence.  I expect Tesco will be rubbing his hands together and having a nice cuppa and a slice of the old drizzle....

Your dislike of GB is so ingrained that you even take accidental pops at suggesting what his next career move should be!

(I disagree, just to be clear!)

3 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/transfer-news/nottingham-forest-lewis-obrien-blackburn-8108176

Cooper and Forest not happy with us.

Not really bothered what he thinks, bearing in mind they bought O'Brien in summer for £10m & are letting him go already (well tried to). How's that treating him well (other than the monster pay rise I guess)?