Makes sense for a move to be in the balance if he played 90 minutes at the weekend. God forbid we spend the money needed to sign a player that actually gets in his team at this level..... 🤣

SIGN SOME PLAYERS and the tickets will sell themselves.

Not just the fans, it must be so demoralising for the players too to get within touching distance of some success and then realise no one is taking it seriously year after year....

The chances were always high of a recall here given the similarity between the two teams. I always find these kind of moves odd, a bit like Buckley to Wednesday. Anyway it shouldn't be an issue, we sold a central midfielder for £20m last year and haven't spent a penny of it yet .........

Pretty sure if you are paying a fee you are within rights to negotiate a no recall option to protect yourself. No fee and no one would ever agree to that. Which will be the structure of nearly all our loan ins.

A risk you take when you also refuse to pay a loan fee.

No doubt we are still incredibly following the one out one in cheap policy. Likely result - missing out on players as we wait to sell ours, and the squad doesn't gain the required depth by the end of the window. Keep up the excellent work Steve, or prove us wrong you total plodder.

As posted a few pages back, if the owners insist on spending an average of £1.1m per window... it's going to be another long one as always... We need at least 3 players, ideally more. You're searching for permanent players around the £500k mark or less. Not many of those around today that have the required quality. People criticise Hedges but he was signed for circa £200k. He's been better than expected for a £200k player and was identified as a signing when the season expectations were much lower. We continued with the signing even though we were in 2nd and completed it on January 30th. He was never going to get us promotion that year. James Brown was another addition, another that didn't correlate at all to our league position. There was no strategy and no real interest in promotion. No Indian government restrictions were in place to my knowledge at that time. This is where we are at under Venky's ownership. They are still not in touch with football and by the evidence still not interested in signing the required quality.

We made 3 signings for a fee in the 2023 season for a total of £1.45m. Wahlstedt, Nail Ennis and Telalovic. The rest were free. We sold: Adam Wharton - £17.4m, Thomas Kaminski £2.4m, Ashley Philips £1.9m, Nail Ennis £485k and received £22.2m in transfer fees. This season we have spent money on 3 players for a total of £2.98m. The rest were free transfers again. Makhtar Gueye for £1.5m, Balazs Toth for £995,000, Todd Cantwell for £490,000 We sold: Sam Szmodics - £8.9m, Sam Gallagher - £1.49m, Wahlstedt - £830,000. Receiving £11.2m in transfer fees. PLUS £4m in add ons for David Raya. That’s a total of a total of £37.4m through player sales. and £4.43m spent across 4 transfer windows or spending approx £1.1m per window. An absolutely unacceptable level of reinvestment for the amount received and the quality of player lost. … it's an astonishing amount through player sales for this level too. This is without the Adam Armstrong sale. It’s no wonder we haven’t beat Burnley in 14 years, haven’t made the playoffs once… and most seasons are derailed after about 2 or 3 injuries due to a lack of squad depth. In terms of ownership the above is called taking the piss and having zero interest. To add to that a transfer budget should not be completely reliant on player sales. They are billionaires and yes... the Raya add on and sale of Nail Ennis alone covers our transfer spend across 4 windows........ Venky’s are a complete and utter disgrace.

Suspect ACD is more comfortable on the right as a left footed right winger. Like Nwaneri and Saka. We are light on numbers and quality in attack though and are having to pick between a fairly bad bunch. Dolan ran his socks off but just doesn't have it... I still expect his career to go downhill if he doesn't sign a new deal with us. Still think ACD will do well on the right against weaker defences but struggled physically today. We need a CM that can open the game up and score. We need a left winger with pace (I'd take a new right winger too) and we need a better striker. CB cover would be a bonus. We also should have spent money on left back cover by now. We're stretched after just a few injuries and are being left short by the owners as usual. The squad has been padded out by a couple of aging free transfers and youth players that aren't quite up to it... It is all on the owners and the lack of proper money being spent. Plenty pocketed though. Was it a total of around £2m spent in transfer fees in the summer? Pathetic.

Think we are being led astray on Siggy. Not happy with his minutes. Don't think he'll play for the club again.

Even worse when you realise it was the Adam Wharton replacement. Laughable.

Can we please take a moment to remember that someone at Rovers, whether it be chief scout or at board level identified, approved and signed John Fleck last January, who had an erroneous metal plate in his leg, managed 17 minutes of football and can't play a minute at League Two Chesterfield. The whole club should be ashamed about that signing and needs to do better this time around... but my god is the bar set low....

All of my responses have been in reply to an opinion that playing wingers on the "wrong" side handicapped them. Which is complete nonsense and yes, I do think Hedges plays better on the right and he'd agree, hence why he was uncomfortable on how to finish his infamous chance vs Preston away. Cozier Dubbery seems to fancy himself as a left footed right winger - Arsenal and Brighton agree... and Dolan seems to be favoured on the left as a right footer, as did Brereton. Rak Sakyi is another left footed right winger. It's football. The goal is smaller if you are finishing from the same side as your strong foot.

This argument is wild. Nearly every winger plays on the reverse side at Championship playoff level and above. Patrick Roberts IS an inverted winger, he is left footed playing on the right and is..... as I said earlier today crossing with his right foot because every pro winger is expected to be able to cross well on their weak foot. It did not handicap Roberts and is the preferred choice of Cole Palmer, Mo Salah, Mbuemo, Pedro Neto, Sancho, Doku, Savio, Gordon, Bowen, Saka, Musiala, Hudson-Odoi, Gakpo, Diogo Jota, Olise... and their respective managers. The majority of footballers you're watching go to the byline and cross are doing it with their weaker foot. Nearly all Rovers' wide men prefer it too. I can't write about this any more. There is a winger issue at Rovers and it's a lack of pace to be able to go on the outside NOT them playing on the "wrong sides".

Sunderland's number 10 is Patrick Roberts, who is literally another left footed right winger.

That's not the argument, the argument is fans saying playing wide players on the wrong side "handicaps" them, when nearly all professional coaches play their wingers on their "wrong" side today. I struggle to get on board with fan views that are based on football decades ago... or their own Sunday league experience..... and decide based on this that professional managers are wrong and handicapping their player by playing them on the opposite side... they simply aren't. I listed a bunch but could almost name nearly all effective wingers today... Anthony Gordon, Jared Bowen, Cole Palmer, Saka, Savio, Luiz Diaz, Madueke, Grealish, Harvey Barnes, Mbuemo. They all play on the reverse side...... it's genuinely wild to still hear this in 2024. Football isn't a game of run to the byline on poor pitches, whip it in and score any longer... hence why nearly all top wide players play on the reverse side.

Good point for Rovers. Signings are needed if we're to push on and get a playoff spot.

Well you won't see many wide players play on the side of their strongest foot in the top 8 of the Championship and above. Running down the wing and crossing is a basic ability expectation and the consensus is they should still be able to do it on their weaker foot. I'm not saying a good winger on their "correct" side isn't effective.... but the idea of "right footed winger on the right and left footed winger on the left" is dinosaur football, proven at the highest level. The reverse changes the size of the goal entirely for finishing when through on goal from a wide area.

Wingers on the wrong side is one of the most effective moves in football in terms of goalscoring. The reality is the goal is central and if they cut inside they should be facing goal with more space on their stronger foot = more efforts on goal. That's preferred by most good wingers today. Hence the likes of Saka, Cole Palmer, Jared Bowen, Mbeumo, Cristiano Ronaldo in the past, Mahrez was an expert and closer to home Ben Brereton at Rovers or Harvey Elliott. If it handicaps them they aren't good enough. Mohamed Salah is a left footed right winger, so this opinion... that I hear fairly often around me during football I'm sorry to say is wildly wrong. Nearly every good winger you're watching today plays on the "wrong side" and for a good reason. I hope this changes your mind and gives you a new outlook on a winger. If they can't still run to the byline on their weaker foot and cross... they aren't good enough.

Interesting that Millwall paid £3m for Mihailo Ivanovic in the summer. Isn't that more than our entire transfer budget AFTER selling Adam Wharton, Szmodics and getting £4m extra for David Raya?

Loved the first half display, we made Luton look very ordinary. Gueye was a real handful and skilful, also ran his socks off. Tronstad was absolutely outstanding, first half in particular; he's always been great at breaking up play but his passing and first touch seems a lot sharper this season. I feel he is the player we'd really miss. Quite fitting his new song mentions Rodri. ACD showed glimpses of what we've lacked this season - a directness, offering tricks whilst actually progressing and entering the box... I would look to loan out Leonard and bring in a quality striker, then attempt to get Sigurdsson off the books. If we can bring in 4 players in Jan and keep the squad together we'll be looking a decent force. £2-4m might be all it takes, it should be there, we didn't spend it in summer.

The goal was absolutely miles offside. Rovers are very fortunate to be ahead but it was a great move. At the same time Boro should have 10 men.

Dolan doesn't have the right footballing brain or ability. His work rate is good though but that's about it. It's a sorry state of affairs if we've no one better.

This is extremely safe from the manager. Zero ambition shown.