Would imagine this will be the start of the shopping list https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/league-one/endendevertraege/wettbewerb/GB3 (League 1 players out of contract in the summer) With the hope that may never materialise of moving up to some of these (not the ones from Leicester, Southampton etc, don't get too excited) https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/championship/endendevertraege/wettbewerb/GB2 (Champiosnhip players out of contract in the summer) Add one or 2 Scandinavian freebees before a mad dash for Prem youngsters on loan in the last week of the window Edit - I feel quite depressed that I would consider a summer raid on Barnsley for Kane, Williams and Cole on free transfers to be a relative success

Just imagine the "quality" of the French lad on loan from Liverpool. He cant even get off our bench, and Chrisene was preferred over him at CB (which is apparently Koumetio's natural position)

It does look that the debt was possibly cleared as part of their recent takeover https://www.sportindustry.biz/news-categories/news/west-brom-announces-new-owner/#:~:text=EFL Championship football club West,Florida-based businessman Shilen Patel. "Lai had acquired West Brom from Jeremy Peace for over £200m in 2016, but recently agreed a deal to repay a loan he secured on shares in West Brom’s parent company to speed up the takeover process." They still have no more parachute payments though, and numerous players on well over £20K/week

West Brom don't get any parachute payments next season. If a club is relegated from the Prem after only 1 season, they only get 2 years of parachute payments A club gets 3 years payments if they were in the Prem for at least 2 years This article goes into more detail for anyone interested https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-city-parachute-payments-efl-8301767 What the above means is that... * Assuming Leicester, Southampton and Leeds get promoted this season (which is not beyond the realms of possibility), then the only clubs who will be in receipt of parachute payments next season will be whoever gets relegated from the Prem this season. * If any/all of Leicester, Southampton and Leeds are not promoted this season, they will still have another 2 years of parachute payments left (unless they are promoted back to the Prem in less than that amount of time), * If any/all of Dingles, Sheff Utd, Luton are relegated this season, they will only get 2 years parachute payments (unless they are promoted back to the Prem in less than that amount of time), all other clubs would get 3 years (again, this is unless they are promoted back to the Prem in less than that amount of time),

Yep, I get the feeling Moran will go back to Brighton in the summer and not look out of place there at all. But if he was to get a loan to a struggling Prem team then he would also struggle badly. He would probably also be fine at one of the top 4 in the Championship this season despite struggling for large parts of his time here

Hedges to start at LWB, Pickering to come on to replace him if/when Hedges starts to tire or if we need to be more solid to hold onto a win/draw

Leonard has a back injury of some sort and is out for a while You cannot release anyone who is under contract without paying them off. Markanday is under contract until the end of next season (with the option of an extra year)

All strikers miss more than they score... by some margin Haaland only has a shots to goals conversion rate of 25%, so by the definition you have given, he is not a good goal scorer https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/top-scorers Incidentally, Gallys shots to goals conversion rate is 28% https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/blackburn-rovers/top-scorers Edit - No I am not saying Gally is anywhere near that level, just that "missing more than he scores" is a metric that does not give the full picture 2nd Edit, just noticed you were talking about Leonard, not sure where I got the Gally angle from, but the main point in my post stands. "missing more than he scores" is a metric that does not give the full picture.

Yep, they did play him wide more often than in midfield. Then when he didn't perform there (wide) ,which any one of us could have told them wouldn't work, dropped him almost completely https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/john-buckley/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/503781/plus/0?saison=2023&verein=1035&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=

Not until the summer

Bloxham looks a hard working player, but has not played many minutes for Harrogate on loan in league 2 (Edit - Just checked, he has been brought on only once, when they were already 7-2 down away from home in a game they lost 9-2). That being said, he is only 18. For me it seemed very odd to loan him out and not Gilsenan (unless there was a plan to play Gilsenan in our first team ) Nsangou looks more promising than Biniek (who is a year older than Nsangou) for me, but whilst Nsangou did look quite prolific at U18 level, he has not really brought that into the U21s yet. That being said, he is only 18 so has time to adapt and step up

It does seem like his "knock" may have involved a double decker bus and an elephant

We should pin our hopes on the memory that Moran looked like a world beater against this lot in the cup earlier this season, maybe Cardiff cant handle very slight midfielders?

Has "a knock" apparently, which could mean anything

He was playing as one of 2 forwards (Biniek was the other) in the first half. O'Grady Macken was the number 10 in the first half. Does look like he was the number 10 in the second half with Nsangou (who replaced O'Grady-Macken) moving up top. Similar to how Rovers played in that last season with Mowbray with Buckley as a10/false9 and Brereton and Khadra as forwards who would drift wide

Apparently Beale had sock puppet twitter account that he used to big himself up and have a go at Sunderland fans. I can imagine Steve Kean may have done similar if twitter was as popular then as it is now

Hedges probably the closest to it

Salah plays on the right for Liverpool, not a natural winger, but very effective at what he does. Brereton played on the left, certainly was not a winger. There are very few wingers these days. Most who would in the past have been seen as "natural wingers", have recently been converted into full backs (and I do not mean just at Rovers), although the recent trend towards inverted full backs will presumably push them elsewhere on the field

Atcheson (centre back) may get a few minutes next season, Batty (left back) was meant to be involved with the first team squad this season but didn't look ready (maybe next season, unless he is loaned out for game time). I cant imagine any others would be genuine first team contenders in the next 2-3 years, although a few may become squad players. Duru (right back) looks better going forwards than back, James Edmondson has been absent from the U21s (maybe through injury) for a while but was looking good in early season. Whitehall was very highly rated but missed the best part of 3 years with injury, so maybe at 21 it has passed him by now? Finneran (midfield) and Tyjon (striker) are both 15, so assuming they sign scholarships rather than moving elsewhere in the summer, are 2 to keep an eye out for

I think Ayari, along with Koumetio (and possibly also Chrisene) were just a case of getting a cheap body in through the door to fill up a squad place and hopefully they would surprise us.

A number 8, so a box to box midfielder for those who don't like using numbers to describe positions Although from what I have seen of him, he seems to spend more time hiding than Moran does

Gayle is past it at this level, 34 years old now, and this season has scored less goals in similar minutes for Stoke than Ennis did for us (which is probably why Stoke replaced him with Ennis) Gayle 0 goals in 402 minutes for Stoke Ennis 1 goal in 424 minutes for Rovers

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/february/19/watch-bluebirds-battle-on-roverstv-/ They did that this afternoon

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/dilan-markanday/leistungsdaten/spieler/530807/plus/0?saison=ges Markanday has scored 5 goals for the first team (4 in the EFL cup, and one which turned out to be the winner against West Brom on the opening day of this season in a 2-1 win), so the comment that I highlighted is a little hyperbolic and harsh. However, I do agree with you that Gilsenan has surely done enough to deserve a spot on the bench ahead of players such as Markanday

Eustace said earlier today that due to JRC and Fleck injuries, Buckley will now be on the bench tomorrow v Cardiff. Cannot fathom why Gilsenan cant get a spot on the bench for the first team