I feel like I remember seeing it was likely to be played behind closed doors and has been before when we've met? Not sure though.

Had a look to see how Fisher is doing on loan at FC United. Seems to have played every game. Shipped 10 goals in his last 3 though. FC United could just be bobbins? Would have thought he'd be loaned higher up the ladder really...he's 21 now, wasn't Raya loaned a league higher at 17?

Seriously? Not a league I watch but my perception of it was utter tinpot.

If we lose the next game to Stoke, I'll be firmly in the leave camp. It'll be the tipping point for me. If we get something, I'm still going to be a bit worried about next season and whether TM will take us forwards or backwards. If we can regain some form though for the remainder of the season, I'll just sit back and nervously hope our transfer activity will be better than it's sounding so far.

Agree, I'd be very surprised if this turned out to be the signing we need. We aren't short on CMs. If we recruit there we need to get a GOOD one or it's pointless. It would just be another body in the way of the likes of Buckley. Course, the article could be cobblers.

No it's bollocks.

Spot on. Bizarre approach to take. As others have said, playing defensive-minded mids, including two actual defensive mids in defensive mid at all times, isn't helping anyway.

Yes, a bit, but I said big sale. Mahoney was a million including potential add ons if I remember rightly. I know it's more than this sale, I'm just saying we haven't recouped much financially from it lately so it's nice to have some of these little fees trickle through at least, especially for players way down the pecking order. (Unless he turns into a damn good player obviously!)

It must be nice being able to spend 350k on a goalkeeper for the bench of your under-18s. Plenty of teams in this league who would spend that, or less, on their main goalkeeper.

...and him.

I do think some fans overrate Rothwell. But TM underrates him far worse. Some say he's our best player. He isn't. He's highly promising, has great assets and currently deserves a long run in the team (and has done before, a few times). We should remember he has zero goals and two assists though, one of which only came very recently. In 26 appearances. Yes, I know a great many of those are sub appearances. 6 were starts. He had a further 3 starts in the League Cup against weaker opposition, and a sub appearance in the FA. Brereton has come in for a lot of flak, rightly so for plenty of reasons, but one of the reasons has been his zero goals return. In 21 appearances, with 3 starts. Yes he's a striker but he's been mostly played in midfield. He's also 5 years younger than Joe. He has an assist (two really as he won a penalty) and incorrectly had two goals disallowed. Bell has 3 goals from LB. None of this is to say that Brereton or Bell are better players, not at all. They're not. I'm just pointing out that he, so far, hasn't shown enough end product to be classed as our best player. I feel the reason for that is partly that he can be a bit reckless. What he does though, is completely change the way we play and put us on the front foot. Part of that is the reckless energy he plays with, but he also has an excellent turn of pace and some fine technical touches. Needs to be starting regularly and it's very worrying he isn't. He's going to be disillusioned and some other team is going to spot his talent, the fact that he isn't highly rated, then put two and two together to realise they can buy him for less than he's worth.

Presuming this is true as he doesn't have a profile on the official website (and I assume used to, especially as there are two goalies in the academy team photo but only one goalie profile). 350k seems very reasonable indeed for a 17 yr old goalie nowhere near the first team, with the likes of Fisher already well rated. We only got something like that for O'Connell when he was on the fringes. Hopefully this doesn't backfire so spectacularly. I expect there's a sell-on fee to minimise that danger. Our academy costs what, 3 or 4 million a year to run? Last big sale of a player we developed from it was Hanley, so it's good to see us getting a bit of return from it. That's paid for Rothwell essentially.

In fairness, most of us predicted much worse. We looked so much better when Rothwell and (surprisingly) Brereton came on. We were no longer able to play route one, started playing it on the deck, and had someone to actually link the play in order to make that work. He really has to stop benching Rothwell or he's on a hiding to nothing.

The Brereton one? Nah I wouldn't say so. Feck knows how he got a free kick against him though. Wow, awful pass from Rothwell at a key moment there. He's been so good too. Game over now I expect.

We play so much more on the front foot with Rothwell. Tempting to say he is man of the match really, despite only coming on with half an hour left and the game not done yet.

Again, he's actually playing quite well and looking more threatening. He didn't go over because he's physically weak, he went over because he was cheating for a free kick! Didn't get it of course, right in front of the linesman.

Embarrassing dive from Brereton...think he has played quite well though. Looks a lot quicker than he was looking back in December.

Rothwell already showing why he should have started. I'm sure Tony will dismiss him as a liability again, with Conway pondering around.

You'd hope, but why does he keep starting him if he intends to let him go? I'm starting to fear he is getting a new contract.

So you don't want to sign Rodwell? Just curious, I'm a bit on the fence but probably wouldn't either. In which case I do want to see us get two good CHs. How does Bell, Williams plus one new left back mean 2 left backs though? (Not accounting for jokes about how one or both of them don't really count).

Exactly, he keeps muddying the waters on this. Interviews range from saying he is just looking for 'competition' or 'depth' to saying he wants to sign players for the first XI. Separate quotes from just today's LT about signings, in two articles (the first two are explicitly about the defence): "It’s an area of the pitch that we have to strengthen. When I say strengthen I mean add competition." "I talk about the depth." "We need to get to the summer and get the recruitment right, finding players who will make the first XI better week in, week out.” The last one is encouraging, the first two are worrying as all hell.

I don't think the LT have it? Unless it's buried in one of the articles I haven't read yet. Here's the official site: https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2019/march/lewis-leaves-rovers-for-barrow/ Good luck to him. Doesn't sound like he is going to fulfil his promise, but that's down to him now.

Two French lads in the under-18s. Boyomo is a big lad, centre half I gather. The other one is a midfielder I think.

They're in the under-18s so you'll probably have better luck asking in the Academy thread. Someone in there posted highlights of a U-18 game I think it was a few weeks back, where I'm pretty sure that Boyomo was playing. Great big lump at the back. Edit - @neophox I just realised, I think that somebody was me! Here's the link, I haven't re-watched it thoroughly but I'm sure I saw him pop up a little on the clips when I first watched it: https://www.manutd.com/en/videos/detail/under-18s-highlights-blackburn-rovers-2-man-united-2-23-february-2019 The Lithuanian 'wonderkid' we signed is on there too, creating our first goal.

Agreed. He should be the first name picked...on the substitutes bench. He's a fine utility player to have to fill in for a number of positions and give a burst of energy. Occasionally he'll merit a start too, largely down to his inspirational work ethic. But starting regularly? Nope. We have better first XI players in every position, and we need to strengthen those as it is. If Bennett is a regular starter over the course of next season, it means one of two things, or possibly both: 1) We haven't strengthened appropriately. 2) Tony simply can't pick a player. People might as well stop wishing him away altogether though. He's one of several players who we are probably paying too much money to for anyone to want to take them off our hands unless they accept a wage drop. Not that I mind in his case, solid squad man. Although as said, I bet we are paying him a little more than we should. Not that I'd know, just a feeling.