That loan seems to have done him the power of good, Gamble (who was ahead of him during pre season judging by him being selected in friendlies) has gone to Fylde (towards the bottom of the same tier as Olson) and not really been anything more than back up/squad player

Starts today for Olson won 3-1 Powell lost 2-0 Honor won 3-1 Saadi won 3-0 On the bench Batty won 2-0 - First time in over a month that he has been in a match day squad since a knee injury Edmondson won 3-1 - Looks like Edmondson was just rested, Savage mentioned in this interview that Macclesfield are in talks with Rovers to extend his loan Not involved in matchday squad (possible that some of these loans may have ended but not yet seen confirmation) O'Riordan lost 1-0 Wood drew 1-1 Mullarkey-Matthews lost 2-0 Ramwell won 4-2 Game postponed Gamble Eastham No game until next weekend Atcheson & Montgomery Play tomorrow Vale Markanday

Possibly. JDT seemed to have him pegged as a poor mans Szmodics. I think either of those roles could work for him, but not so much the Tronstad role sitting/screening role in front of the defence

Garrett recalled

Its from AI, so it will have pulled numbers from across the internet, sites like Capology ect, and amalgamated them. All of those type of sites are guesses, but the ordering doesn't look too far out at first glance to me, although I would have thought Oxford & Plymouth would have been 23 & 24 on the payroll order

Probably (and hopefully) right. They no longer have parachute payments, and if I remember correctly, they had to cut the wage bill a bit during the summer to stay compliant. That being said, if I was the West Brom owner/etc, Eustace would be exactly who I would go for. Has proven at both Rovers and Birmingham that he can do a similar job to Corberan and get the maximum output from a relatively limited group of players. And even though West Brom have had a drop in income recently, they surely still have more than Rovers do

Starts today for Markanday lost 2-1 Edmondson won 5-2 Eastham won 2-0 On the bench Atcheson won 2-0 Not involved in matchday squad Garrett lost 3-2 O'Riordan lost 3-1 Batty won 3-2 Montgomery won 2-0 Mullarkey-Matthews lost 3-1 Ramwell lost 2-0 Game postponed Olson Gamble Powell Honor Play tomorrow Vale came off the bench for the last 15 minutes in a 1-0 loss In regards to loans ending. Not seen any announcements of recalls yet, but I think we all expect Garrett and O'Riordan to have their loans ended. Gambles minutes have dried up in recent weeks too. I think both Batty & Montgomery have been injured for the past month which explains their recent absences. Below is a list of players whose loans will end during January as things stand. "January" but exact date unspecified Atcheson & Montgomery - Atcheson named in Marine's squad today, so his loan is still currently active Eastham - named in Ashton's squad today, so his loan is still currently active Wood Mullarkey-Matthews 4th Jan Olson Ramwell 8th Jan Edmondson 22nd Jan Powell

Vale is back for Motherwell

Starts today for Markanday - lost 2-1 Not involved in matchday squad Vale - drew 2-2 Garrett - lost 3-0 O'Riordan - lost 2-0 Batty - lost 2-1

following an internal investigation into claims that items belonging to his team-mates had gone missing from the training ground dressing room, he has since been suspended by the club and told he will never play for Rovers again. I would assume that those team mates were from the Rovers U21 team at the time, so not even the expensive gear that the first teamers may have had, kind of makes it even worse to me

If Stoke were relegated, it would enable them to reset and rebuild without Championship FFP rules in the same way that Ipswich and Birmingham have done. FFP rules in League one are based on income, not profit and loss, so relegation can be the best option now for any medium or large sized club who have owners who are willing and able to pump money into player purchases

Starts today for Markanday lost 2-0 Olson drew 0-0 Powell game abandoned at half time whilst losing 1-0 Atcheson lost 3-2 Edmondson lost 2-1 Eastham game abandoned whilst winning 3-0 Honor lost 2-1 On the bench Garrett lost 3-1 Gamble lost 3-1 Not involved in matchday squad Vale lost 4-0 O'Riordan lost 2-1 Montgomery lost 3-2 Mullarkey-Matthews lost 3-2 Ramwell lost 5-1 Game postponed Batty Saturday 28th Dec Wood not involved for Annan who drew 1-1 Woods loan has been a strange one. Appeared in the first 6 games of the season in league and cup, scoring his first senior goal, then had 2 games as an unused sub, and I do not think he has not been seen or heard from since early October. Maybe an injury, maybe frozen out/completely out of favour, I think his loan expires after this game.

Interesting that Honor seems to be doing well at that level whilst Michalski, despite being the more highly rated of the two, was recalled from his loan at the team at bottom of the table in the same division after they brought in someone to replace him,. From memory, Atherton were second bottom when Honor joined them, and they have since moved up into mid table

Powell loan at Chorley extended for another month & Michalski's loan ended at City of Liverpool https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/december/24/powell-extends-magpies-stay/

Last one of these before Christmas Saadi started this evening in Cyprus and played the full game in a 2-2 draw Random bit of trivia - Blackburn born Greek International & son of former Rovers player George, Anastasios Donis was on the opposing side

Ryo Germain, see below

He cannot be recalled until the window opens next week. When it does open, I am sure that Garrett (and O'Riordan) will both be recalled due to lack of game time, but will probably be loaned out elsewhere, rather than used by Rovers this term (I am pretty sure, that having played for one loan club already this term, if they do play for Rovers, then they cannot then be loaned out elsewhere this season)

Giles did well as a left back for Middlesbrough, and well as a left winger for Cardiff. Gent is doing well at the level he is at, but he is not a Championship level player at this time (if ever). I was just using former Rovers players as examples we would be at least familiar with, rather than saying that they are wonderful players Another traditional winger who was converted into a full back was Le Saux

Also, a lot of players who would have in the past been considered as a winger, are now played as wing backs or full backs, Giles, Gent etc

Not the position, the role. Salah & David Beckham play/played wide on the right. Both however, played completely different roles requiring completely different skillsets. Personally feel Markanday could play as a 10, or a wide forward (not as a winger) on the right at at least League 1 level. But I will leave that there. Merry Christmas all x

Maybe I am being pedantic with this statement, but for clarity, when he starts on the right, Markanday is played as a wide forward rather than a "winger" in the same way that Salah is used for Liverpool (I am not comparing their abilities, just their role)

Markanday started the season on the right for Chesterfield, had a short spell as a 10, but has played the last 5 or 6 back on the right. This could be for numerous different reasons. I've just created a profile on the Chesterfield board to ask them what they think of him (aside from him being one of their best players which I always thought was a given considering he is probably playing at a lower level than his ability) & his best position, they have probably seen him more in half a season than we have during his time here. (but apparently I cannot post topics until I am approved, lol) https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/dilan-markanday/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/530807/plus/0?saison=2024&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id= He did (from memory) play as a 10 with some success for Rovers during this pre season

Majority of his goals scored before a head injury in the summer. 12 in 12 (which may well have been a purple patch) before the injury . 7 in 20 afterwards https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ryo-germain/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/511448/plus/0?saison=2023&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id= However, He is out of contract in January, so he is Waggotts favourite price