Some are overreacting here. We are currently a selling club, especially to PL teams. If any player gets a chance to play in the PL, they'll take it. In the case of Szmodics, he pretty much single-handedly kept us in the Championship during season 23/24 and deserves to be appreciated for that. We should be way more concerned as to why the club is not reinvesting the money generated from player sales to push the team forward.

Pretty sure a change of formation to a back three is coming for next season given this signing (De Neve will be used as wing back) and rumours about getting centre backs in. A team looking to play with intensity and hitting teams on the break rather than relying on individual quality. Makes sense if you are cheap and not looking to spend money to get quality wingers or strikers (to replace Dolan for example). Wouldn't be surprised if Kargbo is shifted to a number 10 role if this scenario plays out. Toth Carter Hyam Wharton Brittain De Neve Travis Tronstad Cantwell Kargbo Ohashi Be interesting to see how Ribeiro and Pickering fit into this as neither is suitable for a wing back role. Pickering can act as a back-up in central defence but wouldn't surprise me if Ismael is looking to add athleticism across the park.

Things will start to move one way or the other after June 30th when several first team contracts expire: - Domestic clubs can make official offers to sign Dolan, Weimann, Batth on a free. I'm dicounting whatever compensation fee we might get from Dolan since his current market valuation will probably exceed that by at least 5x. - Rival Championship clubs will probably make cheeky bids for any of Travis, Tronstad or Brittain to see if we are in desperate need of cash. I bet a lot of the teams are alerted of our situation given what happened to Eustace and might decide to raid the club for cheap assets. Any of the newcomers Wrexham or Birmingham can see it as an "easy" way of getting proven, experienced players at this level without paying over the top. Good deals are often done early in the window to avoid competing bids later on. Desperate (and often poor) deals are done later in the window when your primary targets have decided to join another club. We often act late because: - We are looking for the cheapest deals possible, not necessarily the best ones. - We can't offer decent wages to free agents because that will reduce whatever transfer budget we might operate within. - Transfer budget will remain constant regardless of player sales, meaning quality of squad is likely to decrease as the seasons go by. - We seems to operate on a salary transfer budget rather than having actual transfer money available to spend, meaning we have to sell players first before buying any. Happened last season with the sales of e.g. Gallagher and Wahlstedt for Gueye and Toth. - If we sell a highly-rated player relatively late in the window, we often fail to find a suitable replacement due to the budget constraints mentioned previously (examples: Szmodics and Wharton).

Posted this on another thread a while ago. Would argue that losing Batth is damaging if we can't replace his experience. We currently have two keepers who doesn't command their box or instill confidence to the backline (although Toth has made some improvements lately), meaning that there will be a lack of leadership at the back if Batth goes.

This is Rovers' transfer history under Venky's tenure (from November 2010 to present): Source: Transfermarkt Winter transfer, season 2010/11: Net expenditure: 4,8 million Euros (biggest signing: Formica) Season 11/12 (relegated from PL): Net income: 20 million Euros (biggest signing: Dann, biggest sales: Jones, Samba, Kalinic) Season 12/13: Net expenditure: 6 million Euros (biggest signing: Rhodes, biggest sale: Nzonzi) Season 13/14: Net income: 3 million Euros (biggest signing: Marshall, biggest sale: Olsson) Season 14/15: Net expenditure: 3 miilion Euros (biggest signing: Duffy) Season 15/16: Net income: 25 million Euros (biggest sales: Rhodes, Gestede, Cairney) Season 16/17 (relegated from Championship): Net income: 13 million Euros (biggest sales: Hanley, Duffy, Marshall) Season 17/18 (promoted from League One): Net expenditure: 1 million Euro (biggest signing: Dack) Season 18/19: Net expenditure: 10 million Euros (biggest signings: Brereton Diaz, Armstrong) Season 19/20: Net expenditure: 3 million Euros (biggest signing: Gallagher, biggest sale: Raya) Season 20/21: Net expenditure: 1,8 million Euros (biggest signings: Pickering, Kaminski) Season 21/22: Net income: 16 million Euros (biggest sale: Armstrong) Season 22/23: Net expenditure: 4,8 million Euros (biggest signings: Szmodics, Hyam, Brittain) Season 23/24: Net income: 25 million Euros (biggest signing: Wahlstedt, biggest sale: Wharton) Season 24/25: Net income: 8,6 million Euros (biggest signing: Gueye, biggest sale: Szmodics) ----- Total net income from 2010-2025: 76,2 million Euros Club made a loss on the following players: Gallagher, Rothwell, Brereton Diaz, Formica, Dann, King, Best Club made a 'considerable' profit on the following players: Szmodics, Wharton, Armstrong, Jones, Samba, Nzonzi, Gestede, Cairney, Hanley, Duffy, Raya Note that the club has struck gold on a couple of occasions with academy products / youth intake in Wharton, Raya, Jones and Hanley. Players that cost next to nothing to bring in / develop yet generated relatively large fees. So you barely got a handful of players who the club has made a profit on by acting in the market over the course of 14,5 years. ----- Board has been on record this year saying that player sales won't affect the summer's transfer budget so I wouldn't trust us to spend anything unless it involves players going the other way.

First of all, I found it funny that the wording of the two comments were basically the same. Secondly, Markanday hasn't been a regular starter at Leyton Orient of late. Why would he, all of a sudden, be a player that competes for a starting spot here? Main weakness of Markanday when I've watched him is that his work rate is nowhere near Dolan's, meaning he's far less likely to track back to help defence and win the ball back. Same weakness that you could see in Cozier-Duberry and a probable cause as to why Ismael dropped him outside the match squad for the final league games. Cantwell struggled with this initially when coming here being seen as a 'luxury player' (see Hull's match-winning goal from December 29 last year and how he blatantly disregards his duty to track back and follow his man), but he seems to have either improved his fitness or changed his mindset lately. We can't afford having luxury players on the pitch if we want to be successful, simple as that. Once you have players that work hard for eachother, only then can you start adding a bit of flair and skill to make a difference. Or you gonna end up with a team conceding 74 goals again like we did in season 23/24.

Hi Suhail. Two accounts I see? Impressive.

Shame about Gilsenan getting released. Thought he had potential but his career has been hampered by injuries. Still would've triggered that one-year extension and then trying to find a National League or League Two club to sell to and insert a 40-50 % sell-on clause. Only 22 so can imagine him reaching perhaps Championship level one day if he stays injury-free for the next few years.

If Ismaël wants to play a more expansive/attacking football next season, then he probably needs to break up the double defensive pivot in Tronstad and Travis. Works really good in a mid- to low block system and in trying to keep a clean sheet but the downside is that it doesn't offer enough men going forward centrally during transitions or counter attacks. Looking at the squad briefly suggests that there's an imbalance with a lack of good, left-footed players across the pitch. Wharton, Pickering/Ribeiro and Hedges are all decent as backups but they're either struggling with injuries or doesn't possess the athletic profile (lack of pace/mobility) that the head coach wants. We can't have slow players at the back if we want to start pressing higher up the pitch. You might ask: why trying to balance the number of left- and right footed players? The answer is that it enables players to attack space on both sides of the pitch more effectively. I've seen many times this season where our attack breaks down in final third because a player gets "trapped" on the wing with his weaker foot and is forced to stop his run and turn to play a pass backwards instead (e.g. Dolan or Kargbo running all the way to the byline on the left hand side). On that basis, I would probably switch formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 and go for the following transfer strategy: Sell (4): Pears, Hyam, JRC, Buckley Buy/loan (6/4): - Experienced goalkeeper as backup to Toth (permanent) and as replacement for Pears - Athletic left-footed center back (permanent) that goes into starting XI and as replacement for Hyam - Athletic left back (loan) that preferably goes into starting XI (like Beck did) - Athletic right back (permanent) as backup to Brittain and as replacement for JRC - Defensive midfielder as backup to Tronstad (loan) - Two left-footed central midfielders (one on loan, one permanent). Permanent signing should be good enough for starting XI and act as replacement for Buckley - Left-footed pacey winger (permanent) that goes into starting XI - Right-footed pacey winger to compete with Kargbo (loan) and as replacement for Dolan - Physical & mobile striker with good aerial presence to compete with Gueye (permanent) Of course everything comes down to money available for the summer so I wouldn't bet on this being probable/realistic given what has happened in previous transfer windows.

Fear a relegation battle to be honest. Ipswich, Southampton and Leicester coming down plus money-spending newcomers in Birmingham and Wrexham means that the league will likely become tougher next season. If we don't start well and have a fifteen or twenty point cushion away from relegation spots heading into January, then we're in trouble. We all saw the collapse at the turn of the year with a fragile squad once key players got injured due to the intense match schedule. In addition, if we can't get Travis, Tronstad and Brittain to sign new contracts or replace them properly if they're sold, then we're pretty much doomed for season 26/27 anyway. So yeah, my expectations aren't particularly high given how the owners and board have treated the club for the past fifteen years.

Of course everyone can make mistakes, including Batth. But Hyam seems to be making them more often which I've tried to point out, hence my criticism towards him. We conceded 48 goals this season, a massive improvement on last season's 74. Which kinda goes to show the remarkable job Eustace did given the limited budget and squad at disposal. The signing of Batth on a free proved to be a really good one: Games played: 35 Wins: 15 Draws: 6 Losses: 14 Goal difference: 38-33 Number of clean sheets: 13 (37 % of all matches) Average goals conceded per game: 0,94 Games not played: 11 Wins: 4 Draws: 3 Losses: 4 Goal difference: 15-15 Number of clean sheets: 2 (18 % of all matches) Average goals conceded per game: 1,36 Hyam was part of the defence that conceded 74 goals last season. You can argue loss of form, injuries, tactics etc. as reasons behind it, but there's no doubt in my mind that he has benefitted massively from having Batth next to him this season in terms of racking up clean sheets.

Fair enough, I respect your take on him. For my part, I've seen enough and would like to bring another central defender in during the summer window.

Haha, good one :)

Might be true. I only looked at the second half of the season. Hopefully Pears gets sold and we bring in an experienced keeper as backup to Toth.

Watch the highlights again and make your own opinion instead of listening to a journalist. Yes, these are all my own, subjective takes as to where the fault lies. But it doesn't change the fact that Hyam is directly involved or in close proximity to situations that leads to goals conceded. Coincidence? The way I see it (and this has happened many times), is that he appears to 'give up' on many occasions only to have a deflated look once the opposition scores. As if he couldn't do anything about it. To me that's either a sign of a player not willing to sacrifice himself for the team or he's simply not good enough to be starting in the first place. You would have thought that at 29 years of age with vast Championship experience that he would grow and become a leader for the team and help the likes of Carter etc. Instead, he has to rely on the leadership and experience of Batth to drag him around the pitch and tell him where to stand and who to mark. Without Batth next to him, he's completely lost.