I literally talked about the manager factor right after the part you quoted. I'm not at all convinced we do have the technical players for an effective possession style at present, they would need to be signed. We have Buckley, that's about it.

Farke would be as good as we can get, but a couple of concerns after watching this... He seemed to rely heavily on scouring the European market. Thanks to Brexit, that is a lot harder to do now. He prefers a possession based approach. That worked badly for us in the season before last as we don't have the right personnel for it and demonstrated this season that our squad works better with a counter attacking style. That said, that may have been partly the manager lacking an actual plan of what to do with the ball in a possession game other than keep it, and perhaps the right players being brought in could also make it tick better. On more positive notes, he seems to like to work with a DoF, which we want to bring in, and likes to bring through youth players, which is our greatest asset.

I have to agree with Glen here, behave. We have enough pointless arguing about ITKs. Glen has given us quite a lot of specifics that he says he has heard. Even the point you were pulling him up on was semi-specific at the least. He told us something about the decision making structure. He didn't say he knew something then not say anything about what it was, like all the 'changes are happening but I'm not even going to allude to what kind, but cheer up anyway because it'll be good' tripe we were getting from some a few months back. He said there are a set of advisors inbetween Ewood and Pune, and that they're not agents. That's information, whether people believe the information or not. It isn't vague nothings just because he didn't divulge everything about what he's heard. We don't need some more circular back and forth sniping arguments.

I have a Galaxy as well. It might be the app, maybe it doesn't do a full refresh and only puts up the new data or something. Either way it's obnoxious. I get that the site needs funding, but could we not just have those ads I'm sure we used to have that appear inbetween people's posts occasionally and you can just scroll past them?

I think there is a possibility we could have managed a Nuttall type situation, probably for a bit less money. But I think the player was a bit overrated. As Ben says, a lot of his goals were penalties. From memory he only got about 8 from open play? I do think it wasn't managed right though, that as you say he should have been sent on loan after that fairly successful PL2 season. Instead we kept him around to pad out the numbers and never used him once. He failed pretty badly in a very poor Scottish league, which doesn't bode well for how he would have done in League One or Two, but as I always say, I think momentum is extremely important, especially for young players. It's not just about opportunities, but the timing of them and the psychological effects etc. He probably expected either a decent loan or a shot in the first team, and he got neither. Then eventually he got a shite loan, which likely wasn't very motivating. The strongest personalities can shrug such things off, but not many youngsters have that, and it isn't only the strongest personalities who are capable of carving careers if managed correctly. Overall it's not such a big deal for me in this case, as I don't think he was ever gonna be big or anything. But I do agree with you that I feel we have a wider problem in maximising the potential of young talent. That said, our overall results at it are better than basically everyone else in this league. Doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement though.

As in, they can't solo sign off on anything worth more than 5k? Even those youth contracts would be worth more than 5k in total each though?

Do you have to do something to earn those? I haven't got one as far as I can see (assuming they show on notifications) but then again this is my first login since October haha

Farke would be a great appointment (on paper - you never know how things will turn out in practice). But it's concerning (albeit not surprising) to hear about 'another tier of advisors beyond Ewood' who have more power than our actual board. Our board are shite, but that's no way to run a club. And if they're in charge, what are we wasting 300k a year on Swaggott for? Just put those lads in charge. Of course, that would be too transparent, and we are probably only a relatively minor concern even to these shadowy advisor go-betweens. Could you clarify, when you say those at Ewood 'can sign off literally nothing', you don't mean literally nothing? Or presumably you might mean when it comes to a new manager and any serious financial outlay. Because I really can't see Pune lowering themselves to deal with the youth team contracts or the u23 player we just signed. Or even things like ticket pricing.

If I refresh the page, it just pops back up immediately on the new page. It also slows down the scrolling considerably for me. Very irritating and I've just closed the site for a few hours a few times due to it.

If you'd definitely take that, then you deserve it. Most of the rest of us deserve better, like a manager who has managed.

He's had a League Two loan before, two seasons ago. Yet, last season, he only got an AFC Fylde loan.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20175823.blackburn-rovers-move-released-preston-north-end-winger-ethan-walker/ For anyone who wants to read about the new recruit. He is coming with a bit of senior experience at least. Loan stints in League Two (Carlisle, 16 apps) and Conference North (AFC Fylde, 7 apps 1 goal and Altrincham, 2 apps). Two games for PNE first team too, one in the cup and one in the Championship against Villa. Slight concern about where his appearances have been...he had his League Two loan before his AFC Fylde loan, which suggests he didn't do great on the former. His Preston appearances were also a couple of years or so ago. Suggests he hasn't really kicked on. Maybe the experience will stand him in good stead yet though.

In no conceivable way is Ferguson the best of the rest. He has no bloody experience!

I bet 200 quid on Berg when it had already been announced by the LT.

Nobody is shocked. Outrage is fair whenever our club isn't ran as it should be. Just because it's expected doesn't mean it's acceptable, and doesn't mean the previous shit manager should have stayed in situ. It was time to roll the dice, for better or worse.

I'd just like to casually mention again that this thread title says u21s and there is no such age category at the club, nor has there been for several years. Could someone change it please?

And I thought he was decent in it and it got over hyped because he had been so shite previously.

No, I very much think he did. The exaggeration is only slight. Raya in his last season with us probably only made about 3-5 actual balls ups with us in his last season. I don't mean mistakes, proper fuck ups like Pears. He also never threw the ball into the net in all his seasons.

Pears made more or less a season's worth of Raya's cockups in that game.

Total clown, horror show...sounds about right.

I can't imagine Magloire will be sold for much if anything, with the calibre of clubs likely to be interested. Probably a 50-100k job, if not free. Negotiations likely to centre on what percent of a sell-on fee in case he develops. The Stergiakis deal was likely similar.

Yes, he supposedly is the fastest player at the club based on training sprint times, faster than Mbappe's scores at PSG even. Then I saw him play RB live at Blackpool. He was slower than a turd in treacle. I don't think he is as slow as he was that day, but I suspect he has problems with his mentality.

Did I say it was? Am I somehow forcing him not to be? Let me talk with Chaddy. Not hurting anyone.

I know you're a positive person by nature in general, that's been very clear and it can be a very useful attitude to have in life. I'm just asking how that has worked out in the last 12 years specifically in regards to Rovers, not life in general. Surely you have ended up disappointed after those expectations far more times than you've ended up happy, again specifically in regards to Rovers in that period? Btw there are probably a lot of fans who say negative things about the club these days who are positive people in general. After a long enough period of being disappointed by the same thing, it's easy to identify a pattern and adjust your expectations accordingly. Which, when the good things happen, only makes them more enjoyable because they were unexpected, and the bad things aren't as crushing because you were mentally prepared.

NGL, I don't even know who that is.