bluebruce

Danish pastries anyway.

But we aren't going to be in the fight for promotion. Not this season, not realistically. I think it's important for fans to grasp that this will be a transitional season. Whether we like it or not. Regardless of the posts I've seen that 'we finished 8th, we need to do better this season', it's not a realistic ask. We had a purple patch for a few months last season, but we were absolutely abysmal for an entire half a season after that, the most recent half. It just came together beautifully for a bit, and one man (BBD) who won't be here next season in all likelihood was a huge part of that. We need to face facts. We have half a squad, probably not much of a budget, and a new management structure and team that we have appointed a few weeks later than would have been ideal, who have all switched countries. If we do replace the squad losses adequately, the new players will still need time to settle in to their new environments and teammates. The existing squad are clearly going to need to adapt to a new playing style. I'm not saying this to be doom and gloom at all. I'm just preaching patience, and giving JDT the time he needs to make things tick. With all the above factors, there is every chance we get off to a slow start to the season, and it's crucial that despair doesn't set in amongst the fanbase. Obviously we don't want any several year journey to nowhere bullshit again, and losing all our first 5 games wouldn't be acceptable, but it's unlikely we achieve success overnight with everything considered. Not saying it can't happen either, maybe everything comes together perfectly again but without an incompetent in the hotseat and we get over the line. But being realistic, a mid-table finish with signs of growth as the season goes on is all we should really expect this season. With a promotion challenge the next season being a must. So I'm not surprised they're not talking about promotion this season. They've talked about becoming a stable Prem club though so it's clearly in the plan going forward. (p.s. - Totally agree it's a bit concerning if Broughton thinks Mowbray overachieved for years, but hopefully he's just paying lip service)

Because a head-hunting agency found Broughton and then Broughton found JDT? Nah that doesn't cut it. Even if you're right and we have Waggott to thank for these appointments (if thank is the right word - time will tell of course), a couple of weeks of good work after years of pretty much sabotaging the club for 300k a year...no, he's not just a very soft target, he really can go fuck himself.

Nope. Got to do some work worthy of the name to deserve a holiday...

Anderlecht are one of the bigger clubs in Belgium. In fact historically at least they're the most successful team there, and have dominated it more than Malmo (most successful team domestically in Sweden) have dominated Sweden. 34 top flight wins to 22. I don't know much about their recent fortunes, but they are definitely a bigger club than Union Saint-Gilloise who were in their first top flight season for decades last season but finished top of the league. Looks like they use one of those stupid playoff systems in Belgium now to decide the title, that are becoming more common. That had better never happen over here.

I'm sure it won't be for the sake of it, but it's a region our new manager and DoF have extensive experience of between them. So it's a natural assumption they will consider the market and that links and speculation will be made for players there. Frankly I find it a refreshing change from links to the usual candidates.

So what you're saying is, he will take some of our best players when he leaves, and he will jump ship if we get relegated, got it 😉

But it means plenty to what they pay I bet. We need to carefully source a replacement here. Thing is, being a Championship club that isn't well resourced and has an excellent academy competing in the top youth league and churning out first team regulars, anybody working in our youth setup is going to not only look good but look highly poachable to Prem teams whose academies aren't as good. This sort of turnover amongst our youth managers is likely to continue until we get promotion (if we ever do) or until the U23s get relegated.

Plus this 5 hours ago: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/20210135.blackburn-rovers-coach-leave-premier-league-side/ Nixon doesn't get credit for this one.

Thinking about it logically and requiring proof of the pudding is precisely what everyone else is doing. God knows what logic you're using or what type of pudding you enjoy if you think Swag is alright.

Why is Swag still in post, or why does the fact the utterly incompetent liability still being in post mean the owners haven't wised up? I shouldn't think the latter needs answering.

Dunno if that was just in Sparks Rover's view

You're right he's better than Pickering from what little I've seen, and it's a move I'd be happy with if the budget allows, but our priority has to be in other areas. By the time we know if we have money to spare for positions like LB, Pedersen will probably already be fixed up. If he has announced he is leaving he has probably been sounded out, maybe even agreed to join somewhere in principle.

Dunno if you guys are aware of this, but it has affected me on both my laptop and phone for months now. If someone has quoted a user, we used to be able to click the little arrow on the top right of the quote box and be taken to the quote itself. This was very handy to quickly find the full context of the conversation (to see what the person they had quoted was replying to etc) and also for if we want to quote the person ourselves. Now clicking that arrow results in a page that says 'page not found' and usually crashes the tab too. Would be very appreciative if that could get fixed, would save me (and probably others) quite a lot of trawling.

I think it's a time for people to feel...however they feel about the appointment. I'm sure the poster you were talking to is absolutely also a Rovers fan that's wanting the best for the club and to see us succeed.

Ouch, that's far beyond what we can afford for a RB. Doesn't sound like he has been out of favour long enough for a significant drop in value, but transfrmarket really just plucks those figures out their arse.

1 point short of qualifying for a work permit. Would have to go to the exceptions panel.

Not sure why they felt the need to show some of those clips repeatedly through the video though. I'm sure one of the moves got shown in 4 different occasions! Looks like he could compensate for losing Nyambe's pace and stamina, with a bit more quality in the final third. Hard to gauge his defensive work though. Only 21 I see, nice! Lots of time to improve. Any thoughts what price range they might expect? Smashes the work permit points needed btw, with 28. Damn that calculator Joe posted is handy...I've bookmarked it. Also tells me he has played 62% of domestic minutes and 78% of European, so not THAT out of favour as he's getting more than any other RB they have. Unless he fell out of favour recently.

Nah, don't like that at all. Why should the 5 mins of stoppage time be treated any differently to any other 5 minutes in the game?

Just because we haven't lost those two in recent years (we are losing one right now though) doesn't mean we haven't leaked others. Dunn moved on, and I'm sure we have had at least two other u23 managers move on in the last few years. I think you've misunderstood what I meant by 'bosses'.

That's fine and all, I'm just not sure why you're telling me?

I've felt for years that something like this would be fairer and discourage time-wasting (although it should still be punishable, as some teams would still do things slowly to kill the momentum of the game). I've never understood why only injury time stoppage is added. I'd probably have said make it 2x40 mins, but then I read the article in this thread, which says research found the average Prem game only had the ball in play for 55 minutes!! So I guess even 2x35 mins would leave us all going home at least 15 minutes later each time. I also wonder if a change like this would make it harder for tv companies to schedule things, as the match length in real terms would largely depend on how often the ball went out and how quickly or slowly teams got it back in play, could add a fair bit of time variable. And we know how powerful tv companies are in modern sport...

Wow, that's dumb, I hope it doesn't get past the trial stage. The logic is dumb too. They want to do it to speed it up?! It will probably slow it down! They will essentially be free kicks, which I wouldn't say are taken any quicker than throw-ins. In fact, further up the pitch they take a lot longer than throw-ins. It's also punishing to full backs who block off a player's run down the flank with a block or interception, which is a big part of the game. Suddenly they're basically giving a corner away when they do it close enough to the goal. Why should players bother beating their man anymore when they can just kick it off them? This will achieve nothing positive. I also just found out from that article that Wenger is FIFA's Head of Global Football Development. At least his suggestion for the idea involves a 5-second time limit on taking it. But...why make it a kick? Why not just put a 5-second time limit on throw-ins?

Thanks Joe, I knew you had all this info! So the Norweigan league would be Band 6? That appears to make it borderline impossible to qualify from there unless you play for one of the top teams in the league who make European competition, and you play regularly in it. Such players will be known throughout Europe and be very unlikely to be available for a few hundred K like we like to go for. Funnily enough, I wonder if Glimt might actually be our best bet for a bargain from there, since they'll be poorer resourced. Obviously Broughton knows the players there well. I gather some are linked with fairly big moves though. Also, you'll know this, but unless it's changed there are also points available for being an international, even at youth level. I'm guessing you left that out to save space.

Wow, we really leak academy bosses in recent years! I'm going to take it as a compliment on the whole, that our successful academy draws attention to them, but we always seem to replace them with internal promotions. That can't keep working indefinitely. I hope we headhunt this time. It's also a slight concern we never seem to be able to keep them, although they're probably getting better job offers and money tbf. I wonder if it has anything to do with us appointing a new DoF with a clear focus on the academy. As Head of Academy Coaching, he was already under Stuart Jones, maybe he felt like he was going a further rung down the ladder of importance and influence on Academy issues. Maybe the timing is coincidental though. Do you know what club and what role he is leaving for?