Do you know if he got on the pitch?

Did you watch this game btw?

Sorry what do you mean not only in profit?

Don't worry, it's tongue in cheek.

This is the point though. The relatively unknown players probably aren't available, most of them anyway, because of the restrictions. I'm not sure Pukki would have met the requirements. I think he would, with Brondby being one of the best teams in Denmark so probably qualifying for Europe, but can't say for sure. But if we are just shopping at the top teams in this league, we probably don't have the budget for it. Can anyone remember if we determined Kaminski would have met the criteria? From memory I think it was an 'only just'.

Fast forward 6 months... "A big part of why I agreed to come here was because the club said they were fine with me commuting from home every day. But being honest, the 6 hour journey twice a day and the jetlag has started to be a bit too much for me. That's why, starting today, I'll be working remotely from home via Zoom."

He's one to watch, if the injury hasn't caused longer term issues, but clearly THE one to watch as you put it, would be Ash Phillips.

People do like to keep ignoring this.

Eek don't put it like that, bit scary! (Also, plus half a squad gone)

That's probably even worse, for me. We do have young players who need to come through, especially with our weak budget, but we also need to rebuild half our squad. We could do with a manager with a decent record in the market, although presumably that's mostly going to be in the hands of our new DoF. Whose experience....oh...is mostly with bringing youngsters through too.

It's annoying enough when someone says a player's replacement is already at the club, but it's usually a youth player they're referring to. In this case they're referring to someone who has already been in the first team for two seasons (and has a piss poor injury record). How is that a 'replacement'? It's just downgrading.

I think Waggott would be delighted with that show of 'non-support'. It will mean more money in the coffers if you don't buy a season ticket but buy individual tickets to all the games.

You don't think we need to sign a CB? Our two best are gone (disagree Ayala was our best but agree he currently is, but either way he's only good for half a season at best, more often about a third). I'd say it's one of 3/4 signings we absolutely have to make no matter the budget. Others being CM, RB when Nyambe goes, and a striker when BBD goes. There's no way we should risk 2/3 to half the season relying on a pairing of Wharton (has had injury issues too) and Carter, with only 17 year old untested Phillips as backup, which is what will happen when Ayala inevitably gets his injuries slash it's-cold-I-can't-be-bothered patch. It's not just 'not ideal' for that to be the extent of our options, it's borderline suicidal and absolutely can't be allowed to happen unless the budget is actually zero. Bringing in a loanee for it again would count as 'not ideal'. If we can't afford to recruit in that area I shouldn't think we are recruiting in any area and we will be in major trouble. Like roversfan99 suggests, relying on kids to fill all these gaps is madness. More likely to get relegated than be happy with the results.

Who is filling the void of Lenihan (and Van Hecke) then? If Carter and Phillips are 3rd and 4th choice, presumably you have Ayala and Wharton as 1st and 2nd? Meaning our two best CBs just left and you don't want to replace either? Or are you just saying until we sign a CB?

My pet theory has been that Waggott has realised he is shite at stuff like contract negotiations, despite being an ex-agent, or just can't be arsed with it, and has brought someone in to delegate some of his duties to. So what you say about the partly Ops nature of the role fits.

Amazing! Every word of this is wrong. (Yes I cut off the last bit, which was right)

So have all of us. Yet, here we are.

Hopefully, absolutely out of it or was never in it.

I've just thought now, not only is it Broughton's first time as DoF, but the club itself hasn't had one since Dalglish in the mid-90s as far as I can recall? Certainly not for a long while in any case. So, not only is Broughton learning on the job as you put it, but the role he is learning is to all intents and purposes, new to the club. So who is going to reliably show him how it's done? Guide him on what he can and can't do? It's a vague, variable (between clubs) role in football at the best of times, that he doesn't have experience of, and here there is no frame of reference for him. In the additional context of self-serving people in the corridors of power at Ewood, I can see him being given more limits than freedom. Does anyone know if Waggott has worked with one before?

Does it? I only remember reading generalities. He didn't even say what sort of market we are shopping in. Will it be League One, Norway, all of Europe? Loans? What positions will we prioritise? Do we have a budget to pull it off? Sure he wants young players, that's been our transfer policy for years.

Agreed, absolutely. It's still as successful as we have been in this horrendous Venkys reign though, and it took that abysmal second half of the season, largely the fault of dire management and a little bad luck with player availability to it up. Most managers would have been able to get us across the line to reach the playoffs at least. We have had one similarly bad collapse, last season when we pissed about with a going-nowhere possession style and finished even lower. I do believe the right manager could make that approach, with some alterations, work. But I also think we lack the right personnel to be truly effective with it. If the new manager wants to go back to that, the new recruits will have to be very good at it to compensate. Only Buckley and Dack are up to it from our current crop I'd say.

What's your point? I was clear that pace alone isn't the only thing that matters, and I clearly explained why missing pace in a team is a problem. I've been over my points fairly rigorously and I'm just not sure you've been reading them. Side note, we finished 8th, it was our joint best season since relegation. We ballsed up crossing the finish line, but overall it was as successful as we've been for a decade. We were at our best when our defence was really solid and we were punishing teams on the break. With our pace.

True, and I've previously said I have a feeling he will more or less replace Khadra. I think we are going to want a quick attacker to replace BBD when he leaves. Then we can possibly survive by just being down Rothwell's pace, as it's probably more important in the final third than from the middle third. Long passes onto quick attackers can compensate, so we are probably reliant on Buckley and whoever replaces Rothwell.

Rothwell bursting forward this season worked a lot better than Holtby and Trybull keeping the ball ticking around in no mans land. A team that doesn't have any pace doesn't have an easy outlet when under pressure, can't stretch the play as easily, can't exploit a slow defence as easily. A team needs a style and we have shown we are better at countering, which needs pace in the team. Of course it isn't enough to just be fast or Usain Bolt would have become world class. I wouldn't advocate signing someone who is fast but shit. But I want someone who is quick and can play. You can get away with being a bit slow these days still if you're an absolute baller, but you can't have a whole team of those - I can't think of a successful recent team with no pace in their locker.

Ok so when you said 'vast experience of that market' shortly after mentioning 'different parts of Europe', the market you referred to was just Norway.