Personally I'd play Wharton ahead of Travis - that Blackpool game was something else. That said, Gallagher is never scoring and Brereton-Diaz is already in Spain, so it doesn't really matter. Hedges, Szmodics and Dolan to come off the bench is Top 6 quality though.

That has as much legal grounding as me saying I can ensure you that Katherine Langford would fall in love with me if she'd just answer my Twitter DMs.

That's not how the world works. He's registered with them, ultimately he's their responsibility. They only signed him in the summer and now he's not even being registered for the PL squad - that's mental.

Agree to disagree about the midfield - both Garrett and A. Wharton have bossed a game at 19 and 18, respectively, in very limited starts. We should use the second half of the season to properly blood them (and continue to develop Buckley and Travis). Morton can go back to Liverpool for all I care. Phillips should start a few games too, as should Leonard (or Burns if they think he's the better prospect?). Any hopes of the Playoffs died when we failed to land a striker in January, so we need to be pragmatic and use this 6 months wisely to prepare for next season.

Really? A cursory look at attendances would tell you the fan base isn't happy. I fancy setting up a business in India - if these idiots can become billionaires surely anyone can do it.

As I said, at least it was nice not to lose to a League 2 team like previous years. The FA Cup run has brought in £333k (not including gates) which is a nice boom too, especially for a club without a pot to piss in.

JDT played with a 4-2-3-1 in Sweden - it's his preferred formation and he's pushed for it here too (after initially starting with 3 CBs to grind out some results).

We're in the 5th round of the FA Cup and got to the Round of 16 for the League Cup. Granted we're not going to progress any further in either competition, but at least it was nice not to lose to Lincoln or some such.

Club statement: https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2023/february/02/club-statement/ Feel sorry for the media team tbh - they should have turned the replies off on Twitter. It's not their fault.

Occam's razor applies here. There's no conspiracy theory - Broughton / JDT can't really complain if the CEO says "sorry, we can't commit to paying £10m for O'Brien if we get promoted". WBA said exactly the same thing. It's incompetence, end of.

He also holds the UEFA Pro Licence (coaching) and Technical Director's qualifications from the Football Association. He lacks experience, which is why he's cutting his teeth as a Director of Football at this little backwater club (thanks Venkys).

I would much, much rather just play Garrett / Buckley / Wharton and Travis. Use that spare wage bill (if there is any!) on a free agent striker - whoever that is.

In Broughton's defence he's literally THE most qualified person at the club. He's failed to get any of the striker signings over the line, which is very poor, but unfortunately we're a small fish these days and beholden to others - Undav didn't fancy it, the french lad was coming until his club said otherwise etc. After all that he managed to get O'Brien and Brierley lined up on deadline day until the Club Secretary / CEO failed to do their job. As I've said previously, the most disappointing thing is that neither he or JDT have brought in a Scandinavian player based on their background - you'd think they'd have a whole Rolodex full of them.

We said that last year too... If you put out an organised side in this league you'll be there or there abouts. You can't win it, but you can sneak into the Playoffs and then it's a roll of the dice.

To be honest they should avoid Forest too - they only signed O'Brien in the summer for £9m and now they're not even registering him.

Agree to disagree. There's no goals in Gallagher and Dolan should be a 20 minute impact sub. Dack and Brereton-Diaz are our only 'consistent' goal scorers, but one of them hasn't found the net for 11 games. Replacing Vale / Gallagher with a goal scoring #9 (of any variety really - target man / quick, whatever) would have seen us win the Boro and Rotherham games quite comfortably.

We've improved, just not enough. Obviously there's a big reset in the summer, but that's tomorrow's problem.

I mean this lot even managed to fuck up the best shirt in football (it's crap and wrong this year too, as it has been for about 12 years) - so I'm not surprised they fucked up a transfer.

His set pieces alone will get him in the team - I like Hedges as an all round player (one of the few that can receive the ball in a tight space and not lose it), but his end product is a lacking. Brereton-Diaz hasn't scored for 11 games...

He won't be here in the summer and that won't be our choice.

Underwhelming, but not terrible - Thomas will walk into our starting 11 and at least Markanday is going to develop out on loan. We really needed a striker.

I appreciate that it's a disappointment, but I don't understand the sudden outburst of anger now that the EFL have confirmed that the transfer is invalid. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew that this wasn't going to get through when rumours started to leak about late submission of documents. The EFL are jobsworths, they'll always fall back on the letter of the law. I'm more annoyed that we haven't signed a striker this window - that's the criminal part and the reason we're slowly slipping down the league. As good as O'Brien is, I don't particularly want to see a midfield of Morton and O'Brien when we have Buckley, Wharton, Garrett and Travis all sat on the bench.

You'd think the EFL would want proven quality players in their league...

Sheffield United should be on the receiving end of a 15 point deduction as they've failed to pay past transfer fees... so they should probably keep quiet.

I'd just point the outraged clubs to Tevez and Mascherano and tell them I'm sorry for their loss. It's a moot point anyway, we won't win the appeal.