bluebruce

We are zero injuries away from no real first choice left back...definitely the priority. Bell played very well last week but is looking wobbly again for me today.

Nobody else in the team is even getting into that position as nobody else is quick enough. Rothwell at a push but never far up enough to be in the position he was, and not a more convincing finisher anyway.

I'm confused...has this post time travelled from late November when he should be fit enough to play again?

Think without so much rain he would have broken through cleaner and had the space to bury it convincingly

More often it means we're not.

After that clash of heads and having been very quiet so far, I don't think we are going to see his usual magic from Dolan today.

Yep, rain not helping his natural game either. This is his biggest test so far. And maybe ours. There's no thrashing on the cards today lads.

Horrible isn't it. Hurting my eyes.

A little luck and he would have had an assist there.

Coral Sports must be on crack. I just had a lot at their first goalscorer market. They've given Brereton 6/1 and Dolan 13/2. Sure, the guy who has scored 2 goals in 2 seasons plus this one so far is a better bet than the guy who has scored 2 goals in just this season so far. (Obviously it could happen, just makes no sense for Brereton to have even slightly better odds)

Important we don't write off Ayala if he doesn't perform strongly today, as it probably is a bit early. You'd think TM must have at least considered giving the start to Wharton instead. With Lenihan out and Ayala not quite fit yet, this probably was the last chance for him to do such a thing and see how he looks in a league game.

Has Arteta come out and said he wasn't in for him? Unless that's the case, there isn't any evidence that he wasn't willing to pay more than 3m for him. There is some evidence (not proof, evidence) that they were though.

Maybe but a penalty isn't really any further vindication of that...

None of that sounds like a reason for Raya to sign a new deal with Brentford. Another interpretation could easily be, based on what we've heard, Brentford were refusing to sell for less than £15 million, which is a lot for a Championship keeper who cost £3 million last summer, and also having him loaned back to them, Arsenal were understandably reluctant to do business on those terms but still lurking, so Raya's agent took the opportunity to pressure Brentford into a big wage bump to put the matter to bed and get their top keeper playing again without this spectre over his head to distract him. Brentford had the choices then of selling him for less than they see his worth to them, which is clearly far far higher than we saw his worth to us, having an unhappy keeper all season and probably losing him for less in future as a result as his value dropped, or paying him a lot more money. They've gone with a lot more money, to protect what they see as a valuable asset. A whole range of interpretations inbetween yours and the one I just suggested are possible of course, but ultimately there's no point discussing them at length, as we simply don't know what has gone on. Using it as a stick to beat Raya with again is daft. He just had a summer were there was clear interest in him from a massive club, his existing club fought hard against that interest and put a huge price tag on him, and he came away with a pay rise to settle the matter (maybe a min fee release clause in there too, but Brentford might be too savvy for that). None of this reflects badly on him. If you don't rate him that's fine, the only undeniable fact from all this though is that his market value is, one year on, a lot higher than we got, and quite a few of us saw that coming, even if a club as big as Arsenal going in for him so soon is probably a surprise to most of us. We need to be more shrewd with sales in future. Tony seems to want to buy at what he thinks players are worth, and sell at what he thinks they're worth, and that's fine except he or whoever is doing the negotiating seems to be a few years behind in understanding the going rates.

The way things tend to work, if he was playing for them he would play a blinder and score. Didn't Cardiff's Bennett score against us last season or the one before or am I making that up? I'm sure I remember thinking we own a Bennett, but more goals have been scored against us than for us by a Bennett. Much like there was a game where we didn't even have the best goalkeeper named Walton on the pitch.

Merlot on you, or you're on the merlot?

Dack isn't though, not really. People should stop saying that, as we have an option to extend a year which we will obviously take up if he doesn't sign a new deal.

Any lingering enthusiasm I had for the window just evaporated. I hoped a King sale might be added (just a little, not all of it) to the budget and allow us to sign either a better standard or an extra cover player. But nope. Think TM will be talking about 'hopefully getting one more in on loan', soon enough, in total from now that is. We pretty much wee with the willy we've got now. We had better hope we get promoted this season. Next season, any loanee we have will be gone (again), Bell and Nyambe stand to be out of contract, Dack in his last year after we extend it, so not worth as much to cover the bills(if he comes back from his injury well). JRC, Rothwell, Holtby, Johnson, Chapman, Williams. Even Evans, Bennett, Fisher, all out of contract in the summer. Some will have extension options we haven't heard about, some aren't great and soaking up large wages, some might renew, but the point is it will be a HELL of a lot of rebuilding required unless most of them do renew (and we don't sound like we are in a great position to offer terms). We can probably expect somebody to be sold to raise funds for the huge rebuilding job and to cover covid costs, but that will just be another key player needs replacing. And we thought this summer needed a lot of new faces (which haven't arrived in any real numbers). Oh the current remaining gaps will still be there too. And we have already shown we aren't great at getting a lot of deals over the line. Think we actually need to go up this season to avoid going several steps back.

They can in order to stop us going into admin or anything like that. Anything above the amount they already put in every year won't be counted towards helping beat FFP though.

Like I said, not bothered about other clubs. I'm comparing him to previous Rovers bosses, who yes, did this sometimes but not as much. If I did go looking at other clubs' forums, which I'm not going to, I reckon most of them the manager only does it with one player, in the opinion of the majority. That's been the trend through Rovers' history in my time watching. I'd be surprised if we have just been lucky in that regard.

Don't agree with that, I don't pay much attention to other sides but I think he does it more than any other Rovers manager I can remember. Others usually have one player they do it for, TM has had several and sometimes two at once.

So if I have it right, the window for non-domestic signings closes on Monday? If the vaunted European scouting network is going to deliver us more than one player this year (or in other words, ever...so far) it is quickly running out of time. Like others, I find it very hard to believe a cheap left back who is better than Bell can't be sourced on the continent. Scandinavian, Eastern European and French markets tend to be pretty cheap for the level of player we'd need. Holland? Belgium? I really don't see how Amari'i Bell from Fleetwood can be the best we could have done in the last few years in the few hundred k price range he cost. Even though he has been a bit better recently and actually had a good game against Derby. (The full window, aka domestic window closing too, doesn't happen til 16th October btw, before anyone panics too much...just think Europe must be our best bet at filling this key position on our apparently limited budget)

I'm unsure of, and disturbed by, what you're implying....

Thing is, Nuttall and Brereton smashed in loads of goals at that level too...McBride scored 1 goal in 14 matches for Stenhousemuir last season, in the Scottish League Two (fourth tier in the pretty poor Scottish leagues). Not that I'm writing him off because of that, and when I've looked up his minutes, he pretty much only played 6.84 full games worth. I'd just expect him to be able to break into, and regularly score, at such a piss poor level, if he really has a future at a decent level in the game. He's 19 btw, not 18. But players can learn and develop quickly. If people who have seen him are saying positive things about him, and he is smashing them in at the level he's playing for now, I'll certainly reserve judgement. I just really hope we don't suddenly have to rely on him, as things stand.

That did make me laugh. But I've messaged the mods to have you banned ? Seems like he's making more than he did as a 17 year old to me...from what little I watch or hear about Prem football these days.