It doesn't seem they have played him as an attacking midfielder very often in his 3 years there. Granted goal scoring midfielder does not necessarily mean attacking midfielder if he gets his goals from long range shots and free kicks https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/lewis-baker/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/198589/plus/0?saison=&verein=512&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=

It seems to be a trait in East Asian teams in general. South Korea are definitely similar

Completely different profile of player to Travis, more a deep laying midfielder with a decent long range shot on him rather than the pressing Travis offers. Closer to Tronstad in style (so having 2 of a similar age & standard in the same 11 seems a very odd decision) unless my mind is playing tricks on me

He has only ever transferred clubs once, all his other moves were loans when he was at Chelsea https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/lewis-baker/profil/spieler/198589 Cant see it happening unless it would be on a lower wage than Travis (which I cannot imagine it would be, Stoke were throwing money around when they signed Baker) to allow Rovers more wiggle room in their wage budget, or unless Stoke are buying Trav and Baker comes this way on loan maybe?

RE Szmodics The best predictor or future behaviours is often past behaviour When Rovers signed Szmodics. he played for 78 mins for Peterborough in a friendly on the 30th July and then signed for Rovers on 1st August. A few weeks into the season, the Peterborough owner/chairman did an interview "You go through the Szmodics deal. First off, he wanted to go and he will tell you that himself. He was [coming up] 27 and this was his chance to get a good payday." "He'd been really, really good for us." "To be fair to the player and his agent, with the first few offers they were cool because they understood they weren't great." "Then when the bids were better, and it's not a dig at them, at that stage the player is saying you're stopping me getting a really good move to a really good football club on more money." "The problem was that there was no other club that could compete so I could inch the deal up." Despite the above quotes, Szmodics still played for his club in friendlies. Based on this, I see no reason why if Rovers asked Szmodics to play (in friendlies and/or competitive games), he would refuse to do so. I imagine the scenario is almost identical, to what is described in that interview, however Rovers seem to have a policy (probably set by Venkys/Waggott rather than Eustace etc) of not playing players who they are trying to sell (eg Gallagher, Gent, Adam Wharton), probably because they cant afford for the deal not to happen. Obviously speculation on my part, but based on what Szmodics and his agent did in an almost identical situation (wanting a move to a club in a higher division on probably 3 or 4 times his current salary) 2 years ago Edit - I am sure he will go when the bid reaches £10M + suitable add on's, which is surely not ridiculous for a player in his position. Boro got that amount for Akpom who was a similar age, and also had one stand our season but only had 1 year left on his contract. Another Edit - If Szmodics doesn't have his move by Friday, Would he and his agent not think that his best chance of getting a move would be playing and banging in a goal or two against Derby? Last Edit - Just had a quick check, he also did not kick off, or refuse to play before moves from Colchester to Bristol City, or Bristol City to Peterborough, although the Bristol move was end of contract, and the Peterborough move was a "backwards step" which began with a loan)

What if he replaces him with Leos slightly shitter brother? 😉

Thanks 🙂 any sign of Pratt, Baker or Whitehall?

West Brom under an embargo type thing https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11698/13189875/west-brom-transfers-championship-club-to-be-restricted-by-efl-business-plan-amid-financial-concerns

Man City Luton (I cant bring myself to pick those lot) Birmingham Chesterfield

Thanks for the report, do you know who played for Rovers? (Barrett and Mafoumbi aside)

If only we had held off on selling Telalovic, We could have probably got at least £750K from Stoke for him at this stage. Year in, year out, they spend millions on absolute rubbish Think they only have Ennis left up front now

Rarely injured either. Played nearly 150 league games in his 4 years here. When we have JRC, Siggy and Hedges as other players for those 3 spots behind the front man, its useful to have someone who is normally fit

Gallagher off injured after 28 mins for Stoke, replaced by Ennis

If anyone is interested Garrett on the bench for Bristol Rovers friendly with Cardiff, & Gally starting for Stoke v Alkmaar.

You would hope so, but the Rovers academy twitter admin is only 25% (at best) likely to tell us 😉 We may find out some point last week, but are still waiting the result of the U18s game from Tuesday, so don't put your mortgage on finding out unless someone on this forum is in attendance

The Dingle promotion team a couple of years ago was flooded with them

I thought the same last week and it turned out they had won both the U18s and U21 games, scoring 8 & 5. You would think an enthusiastic work experience kid could manage to post lineups, results, goal scorers at minimum for the "wage" of free entrance

I would have still thought that Gent could have done a decent enough job on the left wing (like Hedges last night), especially with Gueye to aim at. Have to hope that his sale was only sanctioned because a better left wing option than both Gent and Hedges is coming through the door imminently. Hopefully one with real pace

With the upside being he is a large enough target that our wide players cant seem to miss him and/or he has decent enough movement to be in a position to miss those chances, so even if it does take him 4/5 chances to score one, odds are he may get those 4/5 chances I have moved into the cautious optimism stage, ready for the inevitable let down in a month or so 😉

The made up Georgian defender is at least partially my fault I think Someone posted somewhere (maybe twitter) that Rovers were looking at a left sided, defender, based in Italy, with a hard to pronounce name. I jokingly asked if Zurab Khizanishvilli had a family member in Italy Turns out that there is a Georgian player in Serie B who fits the original description (he does not however seem to be related to Zurab though)

That's a very strange comment to make on a forum dedicated to people talking about Blackburn Rovers, Football Club

well done

Watch us both be wrong and Dolan will play central, JRC left and Hedges right, lol

and the new keeper Barrett isn't even there. Have we binned him off already? the 2 more senior U21 keepers Michalski & Goddard both out on loan

Will be interesting to se the makeup of the 3 behind Gueye, Would guess at Hedges right, JRC central and Dolan left, although all 3 could play in any of those 3 positions Hardly matters, but strange that Eastham has suddenly appeared on the bench having not featured at all in pre season and not being taken to Austria