13 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

Dolan is a good player with a good work rate.

There doesn't need to be much more of a deeper discussion about it. The final ball will come.

Buckley has developed leaps and bounds from where he began and I'd wager Dolan has started at a higher level than JB did in terms of first team football

I think Dolan will have a role to play in JDT's squad. I'd hope so anyway, I love the boy

Buckley has always been the far more talented player. He will be our most important player now imo. I'd sell Dolan for £3 million. 

Love his workrate, but he isn't much better than Chapman, if he even is. 

12 hours ago, Mike E said:

Cantwell was one of Broughton's recruits to Norwich. We could well be in there.

He came to Norwich at 10 before Broughton. Though Broughton was obviously impressed with him at young level.

20 minutes ago, andyroversmad said:

Will be interesting to see if JDT targets any players from his previous Malmo teams

Hopefully Antonio Colak. 

1 hour ago, Neal said:

Wonder if JDT will ask about Colak who scored a load of goals for him including a brace against Rangers. Currently at PAOK but not getting much game time. 

Yes, would be a great replacement for BBD if he goes, and for buttons in comparison. 

5 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Nice wiki grabbing, but: he doesn’t have more than ten years experience as manager/head coach. He’s been assistant as well, and arguably being assistant manager for a national team is a job that anyone can do. 

Winning 2 years out of 2 with Malmö is very impressive. Especially when they only had won 6 out of 28 previously.

I think JDT is plenty food enough for us.

Some fans need to realise we are not Barcelona.

5 minutes ago, Trinidad Rover said:

John Dahl Tomasson's Blue and White Army! 

Has a ring to it

I stuck £20 on him at 3/1 5 minutes ago. 

Seems a solid choice.

32 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Could leave Rovers with an interesting decision 😂

Like which taxi firm we are sending him to the airport with.

Hands down our best defender. 

32 minutes ago, Mercer said:

We now begin to see the consequences of our shambolic managerial recruitment process.

Lenihan off to Middlesbrough is, IMO, an avoidable loss.  Seems, quite reasonably from his point of view, he was waiting to see who our new manager would be but the lad wasn't going to wait for ever.  The signs were the new contract with us had been agreed.

Not a world beater but will be difficult and costly to replace at this level.  This means immediately our new manager will have less to spend on strengthening other parts of the team as we will need a replacement for Lenihan because if anyone thinks we will get through a season with two from Ayala / Carter / Wharton then they need to think again. 

Don't think our owners and Waggott will ever learn - completely and utterly shambolic management.

 

Hopefully the likes of Ash Philips step up. But Ayala has always been a better player than Lenihan imo. Though Lenihan finally had a very good season last year. 

I would think Slaven Bilic would be a good shout for the Rovers job. Haven't heard him mentioned. 

2 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Ok, so I guess you'd also be happy with Tyson Fury as manager?

Yeah, he'd be excellent. 🙂

Would take a punt on Big Dunc. He commands respect, and should've learned from a couple of excellent managers. Not too keen on other candidates.

1 hour ago, Sparks Rover said:

Brightons best u23s are on loan and playing in first teams like ours and boro....this isn't a good yardstick at all.

Nice to beat anyone 6 but let's not get too excited.

Brighton have been in 7th place without them all season. It is a perfectly fine yardstick.

4 hours ago, booth said:

By advanced forwards, do you mean players who don't score many goals?

Players that work their socks off and share goals. Remember Germany being the best team in the world with a midfielder upfront. 

35 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Why is it nonsense?

He's 26 and has NEVER scored more than 11 League goals. That was the season he was with us.

In fact hat's, that's the ONLY time He's hit double figures as well.

And how good had the team been previously?

Last year he was played horribly out of position.

The striker we were after has scored 5 in 20. Gallagher has scored 6 with a good few less starts. 

I am certain Gallagher would feed off Giles very well. 

1 hour ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Some posters seem to have kidded themselves Gallagher is a 1 in 2 striker.

He isn't, he's a one in four (at best). And that chart confirms the trend, 6 goals from 23 appearances.

The reason he hasn't been starting regularly is, the Boro game apart, he's been crap.

If we need more goals we ain't going to get them from him. The only hope as I see it (unless Dack comes back quickly and fully firing) is to try and get more out of Khedra, Rothwell and Buckley in terms of goals.

Players of that quality should be targeting 10 goals a season.

Absolute nonsense. Most of those appearances are from the subs bench. 

Has he had more than about a dozen starts? 

I'd say he'd have 8 to 10 goals if he started 23 games. A one in 3 striker. 

1 hour ago, booth said:

For those that think we'll be okay if Brereton is absent for a period of time, turn away from your tv screens now.

Gallagher's appearances have been often from the bench. I think he'll be okay as a BBD backup..

Gallagher will also thrive of on the service from Giles.  

If we keep defending like we are we won't need many goals. 

1 hour ago, Mellor Rover said:

Against other 18 year olds.

I remember Wayne Rooney coming through pretty quickly at Everton. Ash Phillips and Adam Wharton are definitely going to be in our squad before the season is out. Possibly Leonard too. 

44 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I wouldn’t class any of those players top signings.  Markanday is potential nothing more same as zeefiuk. Giles has only done it half a season 

I would say we have made 4 fantastic signings. Hedges looked great in training the other day.

Remember we are not Liverpool. We must cut our cloth accordingly. 

39 minutes ago, Irish_Rover said:

So it looks like we did make a bid for Dembele but the player himself wanted to go to Bournemouth for presumably much bigger cash. If we were the only team in for him I would be fairly certain he would have joined us, and I think the vast bulk of us would be more than happy with the window if he landed (with just the CM position being the only one not addressed).

Have a proper dislike of Bournemouth after yesterday though. I have a feeling they went in for Dembele purely to keep him away from their rivals for promotion, I honestly cant see him having a big impact there, especially from the starting X1 (watch him prove me wrong now!). That combined with their pure d**khead pursuit of Rothwell which it seems the main aim was to unsettle him has rightly peed me off!!

I would find it hilarious if it all backfired on them, which it may well do with trying to get all those players integrated. If it was the start of the season then yeh would say no problems there but with only 17/18 games left you wonder how long will it take them all to get on the same page.

When Parker is such a poor manager that is pretty likely. Remember a great manager like King Kenny even struggled with a lot of great players at his disposal in the Championship.

If our defence stays strong we can do it.

24 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

A poor deadline day for us but a good window overall. We kept all of our best players which was the absolutely key bit of business for us. 

We've had a real coup in getting Markanday permanently, Zeefuik looks a good player and a permanent deal is there if we want it, Hedges I'm not so sure about but let's see what he can do, and Giles will be a good addition on loan with his set pieces. 

Think we're a bit light up front and we have to hope Diaz can keep scoring. If he gets injured then we're in real trouble.

My main concern is CM though. Take out Rothwell or Travis and we don't have any real quality to come in. Johnson can plug some gaps for 20 minutes here and there but doesn't really impact a game. Davenport and Edun are just not that good imo. Buckley doesn't have the same impact in a deeper position.

Top 2 will be a stretch too far I think but play offs is very realistic. In fact, I'd be disappointed if we didn't get top 6 at this point and that would be an outstanding season.

Let's not even think about next season yet with no Lenihan, Nyambe, Rothwell, Diaz, Khadra, Van Hecke...

I think with our defence we are favourites for 2nd place. And the reason Bournemouth were panicking. 🙂

21 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

A poor deadline day for us but a good window overall. We kept all of our best players which was the absolutely key bit of business for us. 

We've had a real coup in getting Markanday permanently, Zeefuik looks a good player and a permanent deal is there if we want it, Hedges I'm not so sure about but let's see what he can do, and Giles will be a good addition on loan with his set pieces. 

Think we're a bit light up front and we have to hope Diaz can keep scoring. If he gets injured then we're in real trouble.

My main concern is CM though. Take out Rothwell or Travis and we don't have any real quality to come in. Johnson can plug some gaps for 20 minutes here and there but doesn't really impact a game. Davenport and Edun are just not that good imo. Buckley doesn't have the same impact in a deeper position.

Top 2 will be a stretch too far I think but play offs is very realistic. In fact, I'd be disappointed if we didn't get top 6 at this point and that would be an outstanding season.

Let's not even think about next season yet with no Lenihan, Nyambe, Rothwell, Diaz, Khadra, Van Hecke...

Hedges, Giles and Zeefuik could all play in a central midfield position. Also Edun when he returns.

2 minutes ago, starscascade said:

So what Strikers have we got now? Not even McBride!

Vale. 

Young Leonard looks quite handy in the U18s though. 

3 hours ago, ben_the_beast said:

Unlike some I'm not too concerned with us not adding an attacker. I'm quite pleased with our recruitment this window. There is one glaring hole in my opinion though and that is centre midfield. We desperately needed another body in there. The drop off down to Bradley Johnson is enormous. 

Anybody know if Giles can play in there once Pickering is back?

Wing back is Giles's main position, but can definitely play centre midfield. 

Giles, Zeefulk, Hedges and the young lad from Spurs. Pretty happy with our signings..

So much versatility in the squad now. 🙂

50 minutes ago, roverandout said:

How do u know Bournemouth don't have complete togetherness?

Because many of them haven't met yet..