The deal won’t have fallen apart due to not understanding the need for a permanent contract. It will simply be down to how long it took to draw up and submit. The fact that we ended up submitting it but it’s taking nearly a full day for the EFL to consider clearly suggests that it’s coming down to seconds either side of the deadline. 

5 minutes ago, J*B said:

Pure speculation based on hearsay but I don’t think this happens. I think the problem is we didn’t agree a contract with O’Brien in time if the future fee was activated. We agreed the loan deal and the future transfer obligation, but not the specifics of the player contract. 

But if it wasn’t agreed at all then why are we still waiting for news? It sounds like we got everything agreed but submitted the paperwork late. 

Whatever the circumstances, if it was happening, we’d know by now. Waste of time.

No way this gets over the line now. There better be a phenomenal excuse to explain it. 

Just now, Mellor Rover said:

is that article not just an article from 5am showing what deals had been confirmed at that time? Don’t see anywhere on it saying that the deal didn’t go through?

I’m not putting a lot of weight on that article. A very broad overview of their window, not a statement that the deal is off.

The silence this morning is far more damning. I assume Forest pulled the plug at the last minute.

I can’t see it having gone through. It’s one thing delaying the announcement from midnight to the morning but there’s no reason to keep it under wraps now. Want to be proven wrong but rapidly losing hope/interest.

4 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Tbf a simple announcement could have been made. Just something like:

'We won't have any further news this evening, but initial paperwork was submitted before the deadline for (X amount) players. We will give an update in the morning and hope to have good news!'

That wouldn’t make it better. You can’t react to every rumour on the internet with a statement providing a transfer update before anything is final, just because some fans would like to hear about it.

Presumably, there is a reason for why we haven’t announced anything - possibly because there isn’t anything to announce. I doubt the club are doing this for the sake of it.

1 minute ago, Torgeir said:

Matt Doherty released by Spurs. Good player.

Atletico Madrid just pipped us to that one.

2 hours ago, Mike E said:

A fair point.

BUT

It would've been easy to address the incidents separately even within one statement than to word it as Waggott did.

It is pedantic to focus on the statement considering the bigger picture. Turning this into a debate about Waggott is missing the point and unnecessary. 

6 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Who was that , that let the city striker waltz past him before kaminski made his balls up.

I agree on the bitter worth comment , he would offer far more than vale, it’s not even close whose the better of the two.

I’m going to Watford in a couple of weeks, it’s going to be another long afternoon isn’t it 😅

Butterworth put in some pathetic performances last year. Nowhere near up to it. Both will end up at a similar level to Joe Nuttall in a couple of years.

6 minutes ago, roverandout said:

I'm not negative.  REALIST.  When rovers play well or a certain player does well i am the first to pat them on the back. No one was happier than me when jdt was appointed 

What selection would you have gone with today instead given the players available?He’s gone with the strongest line up we have. 

8 hours ago, Butty said:

If we get 3 points on Saturday, we’re staying in the championship. No way is this squad of players good enough to go up. 

I don’t think this gets mentioned enough. We’ve overachieved to get to where we are in the table and it’s an indictment on the league that we can lose so many games and still be third. 

It’s been a bizarre season and it would be incredible if we could keep it up, but I’d be very (pleasantly) surprised if we finished top 6.

Last year felt like we’d earned the right to say we were in the mix. This feels like a complete fluke.

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Such an embodiment of a backwards club that we dont sell an asset (even if it was allowed by the owners) whose contract will otherwise run out because for some reason they wouldnt allow reinvestment. It is literally the opposite of well run clubs like Brentford and Brighton.

Clubs like Brighton in the PL? Because their financial/league situation is directly comparable to ours..?

If we sold BBD, fans would scream that the owners lack ambition. The owners write off a potential transfer fee to keep hold of our best player and we’re a ‘backwards club’ who don’t want to get promoted.

Can’t win.

21 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

No one has ever doubted that Giles was misused and Hedges was perhaps underused, but the bigger problem is the lack of spending and even the lack of flexibility to sell a player running his contract down to reinvest from owners who have said in the past that they want to get back to the Premier League.

The fact that a loanee and a 200k signing could have done a bit more feels like splitting hairs in the grand scheme of things.

Last Jan, the primary concern was that the owners were going to cash in on Lenihan, Rothwell and BBD. The fact that we retained all three and signed several (Giles, Zeefuik, Markanday and Hedges) was more than most expected. In hindsight, it didn’t work out, but I don’t blame a lack of ambition. 

4 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

There's £105k in prize money if we win this match.

I understand putting a rotated XI out for the Carabao Cup, but this is an opportunity to bring some much needed money into the club AND it's not midweek so we have a week until the next match.

No excuse not to go for the win here. It's a free hit. 

How much prize money do we get for winning promotion? 

League is the priority. Can’t afford injuries at this stage. Go with a blend of youth and experience but keep the big names out of it. 

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

https://roversfans.com/index.php?threads/rovers-shutting-riverside-for-forest-game.1427/

An alternative view on tonight's potential attendance.

Do people think that the amount of people slagging off our fanbase makes an impact on Waggott's decision making regarding pricing etc, or do we think that he is tone deaf enough to not even be aware of it?

If he was to think, low attendance tonight is proof that lower prices make no difference, then it would be massively out of context.

I’m disappointed with the likely home attendance although understand the reasons.

The overall criticism of Waggott is justified, but he got the prices right for tonight so that’s not an excuse. 

The fact that away fans will likely outnumber home fans tonight is a real shame - considering the ticket price and that we’ve had a decent season so far. 

Saying that, the league takes priority and Forest are hardly a glamour tie so not worth losing sleep over. 

I know it’s midweek before Christmas but this game is a good example of why (I imagine) Rovers won’t risk significantly dropping ticket prices long term. £12 a ticket and the BBE lower will be half empty and the Riverside is closed. The derby defeats are a big factor but still, a shame.

26 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Kaminski

Rankin Costello Hyam Wharton Pickering

Buckley Wharton

Hedges Dack Brereton

Dolan

Subs: Pears, Mola, Phillips, Travis, Morton, Szmodics, Markanday, Hirst, Gallagher

There is a quarter final at stake and a chance to build momentum. Lets bloody go for it.

Any one of those starting players get injured and JDT gets slaughtered. Can’t risk it. League is bigger than the cup. Go for a similar team to the Wham game and bring on a few first teamers towards the end if it’s close. 

England are a good side but not the best. Better teams than England have failed to win a major tournament and I didn’t see a single person predict that we’d win the World Cup before it kicked off - yet there is outrage by some that we got knocked out by the World Cup holders and favourites.

I don’t see how another manager significantly improves us. We played as well against France as we could have hoped and they were slightly better. No shame in that.

14 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

To play our tournament top scorer for 5 mins at the end was criminal.  Southgate has his mates in the squad, he plays them before the younger ones....Kane, Mount, Hendo.....all part of his crew.  Rashford, Grealish, etc not in the crew.

So you wouldn’t have played Kane? Henderson adds balance to the midfield and had a decent tournament. Grealish has done nothing in an England shirt. I wanted Rashford on earlier but don’t think it made a massive difference to the outcome.

Gutting but proud of the effort. Better team won in the end but there was very little in it. They gave it a good go and this feels very different to Croatia and Italy.

Re Southgate. Think it’s unfair to reduce the argument to the fact we haven’t won the three tournaments under him and therefore he should go. We weren’t strong favourites in any of them and he took us much closer to a win than anyone expected.

Put simply, he got a lot of big calls right this competition. Took flak for Maguire but he played well and got most of the selections spot on.

I’m not sure that a different manager would have got us playing much better than yesterday. This French team is better and their quality ultimately made the difference. 

Annoyed that I overlooked his. Kits look great. Definitely would look to pick one up next time around (ideally long sleeved).

9 hours ago, J*B said:

Thought Adam Wharton looked bored and disinterested. Which only adds further fuel to my suspicion every single first team game he doesn’t play is seriously hampering his progress. 

If that’s the case then I’d question his attitude and temperament, rather than question the selections. He was bullied against West Ham in his last outing. Still got a long way to go - but fantastic potential all the same.

Not going to think about a full XI but for entertainment value I’d include Kinkladze, Juninho, Robert, Huckerby, Lua Lua and Okocha.

19 minutes ago, Shirley Crabtree Wrestler said:

There is only one way this will be a poor gate, and that will be commercially suicidal pricing by the powers that be at Ewood.

Anything up to £15 a ticket for adults is a no brainer. Anything over that and it becomes a conscious choice, which might not go Rovers' way in the run up to Christmas.

It is an opportunity to fill Ewood, make no mistake. But then, the words 'make no mistake' are hardly the hallmark of the club's commercial management in recent time, are they?

Like someone above has already stated - it is a free hit for the club. Let's hope they decide to knock it into Row Z!

COY SWAG

We won’t get close to 20k regardless of price. United, Liverpool or Burnley at home - different story. Forest is not a big draw and the game isn’t of significant consequence. Hope I’m wrong though.

31 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

Potentially one of the biggest gates of the season, potentially. Didn't expect to say that for a Carabao cup game but the timing of it is very fortunate. 

I think I'm more inclined to expect Swag to balls the pricing structure up though, again.

Forest at home to be a big gate? Not seeing it. Hardly a glamour tie and we’re unlikely to field a strong team. Regardless of prices, can’t see us getting a bigger crowd than the league fixtures.