Connor Mahoney? Was at Gillingham on loan from Huddersfield last season in League 2, recently moved to Barrow

No idea, seeing some guesses online of £1M-£2M Villa probably have a buy back option on him like they did with Philogene and Archer

My guess would be trying to develop them all. A duty of care type thing (at least up until a certain age), Which presumably helps the club sell itself to new young recruits. but only a guess Not just keepers (Eastham etc) who have been "frozen out" from playing. Harlock, Cirino, Pike etc got to a certain age and the club stopped using them in U21 games and eventually released them

Chrisene signed for Norwich on a permanent deal https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/city-complete-signing-of-ben-chrisene

I wondered that, presumed it must be "zoomer speak"

U18s played vs PNE earlier, no idea what the score was, but this was the team

Wasn't Armstrong's best season also the one when he played central with Brereton and Harvey Elliott wide of him and Gally on the bench?

there will be add on and sell on fees the initial fee will be tiny

This was were I heard it, & it was £140 when I bought it at the beginning of July. Thank you OsloRover Ridiculous that Rovers didn't announce it themselves

It states verbal agreement. It will happen, but will need a written agreement before either club announces it. Doesn't force anyone hand

Not sure Ayari is ready for the Prem. Edit - I am sure, he isn't ready for the Prem at this stage He wasn't first choice here. Probably needs a full season at this level playing week in, week out

When he gave it away for Rotherhams first, and missed a pen? That was a year after he signed. In all fairness, for many of us, the jury was still on on him at that point in terms of quality, if not effort and usefulness to the team. He scored a couple in the 2nd half though and never looked back

From the LT re Gueye from a Recruitment Analyst based in Belgium Nothing that wasn't pretty obvious from his highlight reels really imho https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/24483832.expert-explains-blackburn-rovers-can-expect-gueye/ Blackburn Rovers are close to confirming the signing of striker Makhtar Gueye from RWD Molenbeek. The 26-year-old completed a medical on Monday and is now set to sign permanently at Ewood Park. This deal represents the first noteworthy outlay from Rovers since selling Adam Wharton in January. Of course, Gueye is an unknown quantity in English football having spent his career playing in Belgium and, briefly, in Spain. So, we've drafted in some help to get the lowdown on Rovers' impending recruit. Here's the view of Oli O'Connell, a Recruitment Analyst who has worked in the Belgian Pro League for the past three years. What sort of profile is Makhtar Gueye, what can he offer a team? He’s a target style 9 who has good height and understands how to use his body in duels. He’s relatively mobile, but tends to stay central and won’t do too much running into channels. He allows for direct play into his body and he’s a major threat from crosses. He will likely dominate Championship stats in terms of aerial duels won. What are his main strengths and weaknesses? As touched on, his main strength is his aerial prowess, both in terms of direct play into his body and then finishing attacks from crosses. He’s strong in duels and he’s improved his link play in the last couple of years too. In terms of weakness, he’s a really big unit and he lacks that top-level speed and agility as a result, and he isn’t going to be someone who covers huge distances and pops up everywhere so he’s quite a niche 9 in modern-day terms. He's never been polished technically and that’s unlikely to change. Do you think his skillset will suit the Championship? How does the Belgian Pro League translate, skill-level-wise? The Pro League is a great level for younger players to develop, with some outstanding individual talent, but the bottom half of the League is relatively poor, which is where Gueye dominated. The Championship is more duels-based and physically demanding, although they are relatively similar levels in terms of quality. Gueye’s physicality will allow him to dominate Championship defenders, but he will need to add intensity and consistency throughout 90 minutes as he’s quite temperamental currently. 11 goals for a relegated team is a decent tally. Is he a natural goal-scorer or does the team need to play to his strengths? He isn’t a natural finisher, as I mentioned he’s technically quite scruffy and he doesn’t always pick the right finish or find corners. He’s outstanding with his head though, which is a dying art, so if he is provided with crosses he’s likely to score a few. His area movement is good from all scenarios too, so he will find himself in scoring areas often and will likely score as a result of frequency rather than pure quality. Any reservations about him adapting to English football? Whether that is on or off the pitch. I think it’s fair to have some reservations. He didn’t adapt well to Spanish football at all, which is admittedly very different to both Belgian and English football. He will need to right support around him and hopefully, he clicks with John Eustace and his teammates. If he does, and if the team is set up to suit his strengths, I have confidence he can make an impact. How excited should Blackburn Rovers fans be? I’m not sure excited is the right word, but it’s definitely an interesting signing. In the right environment, Makhtar has proven to be a clutch player and someone who can drag his team through games and score important goals. He’s coming into peak age now, and he really needs to prove that he can put together a full season of strong form. If he’s motivated and well-supported, he’s the type of player who can become a talismanic figure. But equally, there’s a chance this could go very wrong!

My personal cheap signing video would involve each new signing getting to use Waggott as a pinata.

We can all hope bits of paper are not involved, but I suspect they will be limited by Rovers budget, which was likely the reason for why bits of paper were a thing last year

Would love him back in whatever capacity. Suspect that unless any option to buy is contingent on promotion (which is certainly not on the cards), that the fee would be out of Rovers reach by some margin though Unless Rovers maybe did and Armstrong type sell on fee for Bournemouth (circa 40%) in order to get a low initial fee

Bournemouth about to sign a CB from Juventus for £15M. That may start things moving with a potential loan for Hill. But suspect that any loan will not happen until the last week of the window and we will be left crossing our fingers that Bournemouth do not pick up any injuries before then

Indeed they did, thanks for that, have edited my original post Although by all accounts the initial fee was about half that https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5238109/2024/01/30/morgan-rogers-aston-villa-transfer-2/

They have sold Akpom, Spence, Tavernier & Rogers for about £40M. They may have also banked a sell on fee from Woods move from Swansea to Southampton this summer. But based on that, Rovers should have a vaguely comparable spending power to Boro On a slightly related note Akpom had a similarly prolific season to Szmodics (having done nothing quite like that before) before he got his move and apparently went for an initial fee of £10.5M. Rising to £12.5 by all accounts Slight differences are Akpom was in the last year of his contract at Boro, but was a year younger (27 at the time) than Szmodics is now.

The initial fee will be low (I would imagine no more than £50K-£100K up front), But there will be appearance fees and a sell on fee (even if the clubs cannot agree and it goes to a tribunal) so it is well worth negotiating. An extra couple of % sell on fee is worth potentially millions in a few years time. Hopefully that that point, Venkys will be long gone and whoever owns the club will spend the profits on the team. Completely agree that Newcastle will not do us any favours with loans though

Goddard has had his past 2 seasons curtailed by two pretty serious knee injuries which probably stifled his development somewhat. (He is currently as you stated, 20 years old) Michalski only turned 17 in March, and was in the U21s for a fair chunk of last season, so he is well ahead of the curve developmentally, and imagine it is a move into men's (rather than boys) football to toughen him up and make him a little more streetwise For reference. Raya was 19 when he went on loan to 5th tier Southport Hyde (also 7th tier) beat our U21s 3-2 a couple of weeks ago (only a friendly) RE the glut of young Keepers - Hilton, Eastham, Barrett, Goddard & Kahn are all out of contract at the end of this season, albeit a few do have year options. I suspect at least 2 more will be sold/loaned this summer. This leaves (barring any additional sales/contract extensions or options taken up) Pears, Honor & Michalski (and the 15/16 year old keepers who will play for the U18s this season Wolsoncroft and Thompson if we want to be really pedantic) under contract next season

33 in a week

I am assuming you are both talking about Gueye rather than Ohasi I will leave this here, He is in yellow wearing 29

Useful to have a Plan B Edit - Under Venkys we often have not even have a Plan A, so it is very novel to have an option 😉