KentExile

Yep, O'Riordans seems a good one, and Edmondson & Pratt are being given a chance, but at the moment, the rest seem to be nothing more than squad fillers at their loan clubs

I think the likelihood is that they will have made a deal that they could stretch to if he has a real break out season and becomes a key player (which would probably also see Cantwell who will only have 1 year left next summer, departing to fund his salary) However, the most probable eventuality is that he is useful cover for a season, and then his loan ends and he returns to Birmingham in the summer

The permanent contract has to be agreed at the same time as the loan deal, yes, but there is nothing stopping Rovers from having the option of a permanent deal to take over his £20K ish per week deal and then simply not doing so... unless he randomly makes 20 odd goal contributions over the season and it makes sense to do so

Leo Durus San Diego playing friendly in Tijuana on Wednesday, in what I think is the only game potentially involving our loanees until Saturday Game kicks off at 3am Wednesday UK time score/update

He was a 19 year old kid herre, in a higher league, its amazing what a year can do at that age

Tavares seems to have the ability, but lacks concentration, which in turn leads to him being sloppy in possession. Hopefully this improves with time, no reason that it can't TGH is a physical utility player for me. Useful to have on the bench, not sure he will impact the starting 11 when everyone is fit, but it's a long season & injuries/suspensions will happen. He was a sensible signing on a loan RE TGH, apparently his contract wage (he signed for Birmingham during the summer), is close to £20K/week, Rovers are paying half of that, so unlikely a permanent deal will get done given the current wage structure

We can't give ratings for TGH or Gudjohnsen, is that an easy fix?

I had him at 6 out of ten, and thought I was being generous

I was under the impression that they always do (and back again), to save on hotel costs

Pears still in a cap (45 seconds in)

I am willing to accept that some of the new players will come good, and in a couple of cases, given time, they may even end up being better than who they replaced. but there has certainly been another reduction in what wages we are paying

Morishita, Wharton & Carter start Gudjohnsen, Gardner-Hickman & Pears on the bench

The wage bill stated in the accounts staying roughly the same over the past 5 years (£25.5M give or take £200K apart from the 21/22 season when it was £24.3M), despite obvious cuts to the playing staff would indicate that something is not as it seems

I fully expect the next set of accounts to show that the overall wages paid are inexplicably the same as the last god knows how many years, which would then point squarely in the direction of certain non playing members of staff

Whilst what you say is true Toronto, If we ignore averages, our weekly wage bill for the 24/25 season was also stated above as being the 17th lowest out of the 24 in the division. and that was before Birmingham & Wrexham came up with much bigger wage bills than ourselves, meaning we are down to 19th out of 24, and Rovers then decided to cut our own wage bill on top of that. We are now comfortably in the lowest 5 wage payers in the league (at most). And possibly rank even lower depending upon how much we have cut the wage bill this season (and how much more our rivals are spending. Derby probably had a lower wage bill than us last season, probably not anymore based on their spending) Obviously Sheff Wed will have the lowest wage bill, as most of their players have now left. But our wage bill will now be comparable to Portsmouth, Oxford and Charlton. Even so Portsmouth are paying enough to take Chaplin on loan from Ipswich, Charlton are signing Kaminski, who wont come cheap, & Oxford are signing players who we were after)