Exiled_Rover

Exactly. Football has increasingly become a squad game - especially in the Championship where you're often playing a brutal schedule of 2 games a week. I'm all for playing Academy kids - it's one of the few sources of pride I've gotten from watching Rovers the last few years - but it has to be sensible. You simply can't expect a bunch of them to come through at the same time - 'The Class of '92' is a documentary for a reason, it's basically unheard of. I think realistically you can only count on Carter to add dependable depth to the squad next season - if any of the other touted names do it's a bonus. We should approach the season as such too - it's not going to do Phillips et al any harm to be in and around the 1st team squad for 6 months, but he shouldn't be relied upon as first change on a wet and windy Tuesday night.

We saw what happens last year when you don't concede many, but literally can't score.

They were in discussions with Kompany when they were in the Prem. They've been waiting for i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed. I'm sure they were discussing transfer plans during that time. We didn't know who JDT was until Broughton was hired. It's a different kettle of fish entirely.

That wouldn't leave us any budget for any other positions.

Edun isn't a Championship quality LB at present - if JDT turns him into one (or a CM) then he won't be our manager long. He'd be destined for bigger things. Isn't Ash Phillips 16? Unless he's the next Jude Bellingham and, therefore, about to get poached, he won't be a first team player this season.

Nah, we just need 5 or 6 good ones. Don't care if they've played in the Championship or England before tbh.

It must be nice to have PL money. They've essentially written Armstrong off as a massive waste of money.

I sit in the Jack Walker Upper - and no, is the answer. The Waggot tax for walk ups is ridiculous. So are the Cat A prices. Just get fans back into the ground - especially those schools / local community initiatives in the Blackburn End Upper.

It's a bit frustrating that Burnley seem to be doing good business quickly - but our lot have only been here 5 minutes, so unfortunately we have to be patient.

I've never been able to tell whether you're a complete fantasist or incredibly well connected. Randomly running into our new Director of Football on a Sunday morning at Manchester airport has me leaning to the former.

That's pretty much everyone over 18 at the club!

JDT is no mug - he knows we need to bring in at least 4 quality a starters.

Two weeks. The Head Coach has been in place a week and only taken about four coaching sessions. We have a two months to get players in - I'd prefer us to take our time and bring in the right ones, rather than rushing.

Having just listened to this interview with Broughton, he's clearly going to want JDT to play our U23s next year: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-g3f24-111bd9a He talks about how they need to be exposed to senior football at 17/18 to aid their development. He's clearly covering his back with a number of them now - signing them up to professional deals should they be needed later on in the season.

Broughton has been at Norwich and Luton before. He knows what a healthy Championship budget looks like - obviously the worry is that the owners have promised X, but will only deliver Y.

Please never use the term 'oven ready' again. As for the rest - I'm mildly concerned, but we have to trust JDT and Broughton to get on with the job. If they have anything about them they'll quickly realise which areas we need to strengthen and will have a shortlist of players to go after. Selling Brereton early in the window will be crucial. It was always going to be a tough ask with how long the manager saga rolled on (and the earlier start to the season) - we just have to roll with the punches now.

There's no different standard where I'm concerned - just expect a stony silence rather than a warm round of applause when you return to Ewood for your new team.

Rothwell will do nothing in the PL. Those mazy dribbles he goes on only happen because he has a decent turn of pace. Everyone in the PL has a decent turn of pace.

One of the many problems I had with Mowbray is that every offseason was a firefighting / patchwork job just to assemble a squad - mostly by bringing in 5+ loanees. He never actually built a squad, just survived year to year with loaned players. In a way it's good that now the buck has stopped, JDT has almost a clean slate to work with (Ayala's ridiculous wages aside), but he has a lot to fix in a short time.

Vilas lost control in the middle overs - we were strangling them in the power play, then started leaking 10+ run overs. They scored about 50 more than I expected them to. He's a poor short overs captain imo.

So have the new administration not offered him a contract? Why is he suddenly announced as leaving?

Our Director of Football and Head Coach have only just arrived - they need to watch a few training sessions (and a few games from last season) to work out what everyone can do before diving into the transfer market. Burnley's structure hasn't changed - and they must have known they were losing their two starting CBs and their starting GK the second they went down. We need to make the right signings, not just quick ones.

Duff was forced out, wasn't he? I read a story that basically he was told his bags had been taken off the plane (I assume we were off somewhere for pre-season) cos Chelsea had met our valuation / his release clause and he had to speak to them. I gather he was pretty miffed about how it all went down.

Friedel pissed me off on Five Live a while ago when he didn't correct the interviewer - said interviewer seemed intent on focusing on his time at Liverpool and Spurs, rather than y'know the bulk of his career and the reason he was considered a success. 'Big club' bias, as per. Never had any time for Brad after that.

Really poor from England today - gave New Zealand at least 50 too many runs with their moronic bowling before lunch and now you'd think they'd never seen a ball swing with how they're batting this afternoon. Test over. As Boycott used to say 'you can't win a Test in a session, but you can certainly lose it.' This is a textbook example - 4 down for nothing with an extremely long tail chasing 300+.