J*B

The most frustrating thing about Gueye is he has all the attributes and opportunity to be a successful footballer but for whatever reason (effort? commitment? desire? intelligence?) is going to let the opportunity pass. He should be doing extra hours drilling every week - even if that means paying Danny Graham or Jordan Rhodes out of his own pocket. He’s certainly paid enough to do so.

You won’t get a ban for it, that’s silly. You’re more than welcome to your opinion as long as it falls within the site rules, which everyone (including me!) has to follow. I think Gueye has shown over the past year that he doesn’t have the intellect to play football at this level. Perhaps calling him “thick” was a bit too brash, more of a “say it in the pub to your mates, but not on Twitter” comment, but I stand by the sentiment. I can reel off four or five occasions where he’s done things which lead me to believe he’s isn’t clever enough to be a success at this level.

Toth, Alebiosu, Tronstad, Cantwell, Hedges, Ohashi all looking good. Tavares and Kargbo looking terrible.

I know I say it every week but Kargbo is rubbish.

This money? We’ve brought in more money than we have spent (again!)

I’m not sure. I’d much rather he was thinking “I’ll move to crazy Rovers, score 20 in a season and move somewhere else”. I’m being deadly serious when I say I’d be asking him if he was seriously considering Azerbaijan and if he answered yes, I’d move on. Not the right character.

Any player considering moving to the Azerbaijan league over English football raises serious alarm bells.

Can we delete this before it becomes an internet meme?

Like Lord Sauron, he's always watching.

One things for sure - he'll have the game of his life when he returns to Ewood. He'll have the home end pulling their hair out and his replacement sent off by 60 minutes.

Apologies, you're correct RE Ribeiro. He's our best left back. I don't think Montgomery is good enough (yet) based on what I've seen. It's important to remember 12 months ago he couldn't get in the Chorley team. Kargbo I really don't see. He's quick, but so incredibly wasteful he makes Dolan look like Pirlo.

My officially unofficial "good enough or not good enough" ratings below, based on what I've seen over the last 12 months: Good Enough Toth Alebiosu Hyam Mclouglin Pickering Tronny Cantwell Ohashi Unknown Michalski Miller Carter Wharton Tavares Baradji Henriksson Tyjon Miro Not Good Enough Montgomery De Neve Forshaw Hedges Kargbo Gueye

Most stay at what was The Avenue, now owned by Dunny, especially close to the end of the window and are then given advice on where to live from the captain and liaison. Younger players tend to go towards Manchester, those with families often stay local.

God, I’d love to see the package Suhail puts together for this. €1.5 million upfront. Paid over 5 seasons. €1 million if we finish top 10 in the Premier League in the next 3 seasons. €1.5 million if Isak is a Newcastle player in 2027. €1 million if Motherwell beat Barcelona in a Champions League fixture before 2030. €1 million if our owners beat a tax case against the Indian Government who have a 97% success rate in court.

Forshaw signed because he’s English, so helps that quota, is happy to sit on the bench and if we need someone to bring on when we’re comfortably winning he can do a job?

I actually feel like Buckley - in the right headspace - could make a really good career for himself. If he moved to Portugal, for example, he’d have loads of time on the ball and could look brilliant. The reality is that in this league unless he’s 100% up for it, he’ll get bullied.

Toth Alebiosu Hyam McLoughlin Riberio Tronstad Tavares Hedges Cantwell Morishitma Ohashi Winnable game.

Good luck, John. I’ll always believe the emergence of Adam Wharton had a massive impact on his development here. John was the next one through, the midfield player and very quickly got overtaken and overshadowed on an undeniable level. Not convinced Saudi is the right option, but it’s a place to find some confidence again and find a move back. I suspect he won’t be getting paid boatloads of money like is suggested, he just won’t pay any tax.

Based on the evidence I’ve seen (not much) I’d rather Dolan and Weimann over Kargbo and Henriksson. But it’s way too early (as I said!) to start making accurate assessments. Dolan for work rate and Weimann for G/A returns. I’m hopeful both turn out to be significant improvements, but right now, I’d take knows.

Whilst I do think this is all a way of reducing costs, I can see the logic in the ESC approach. To get out this league you need 4 or 5 really good players. We (because our owners are terrible) will not pay the fees or the wages for really good, established players. It's the total opposite of Wrexham, for example, who have come up and paid the fees and wages for players that come with gaurantees. So I can see how the latest 'transitional period' plan is to bring in cheap players from Europe, hope they're good enough (or back your recruitment team, however you want to phrase it), convert them from ESC as soon as possible and loop the cycle. So far we're looking at: Pears to Toth - I'd argue (so far) thats an upgrade, although mostly because Pears is a terrible goalkeeper Dolan to Kargbo - I think that's quite clearly a downgrade, but Kargo does have the attributes to be a success Travis to Baradji - we'll wait and see, whilst Travis isn't technically brilliant and doesn't have great returns, he was club captain, an academy graduate, is experienced and has been promoted from this league before. Weimann to Hennrikson - so far, a downgrade. The only thing you could argue is Henrikson has age and fitness on his side. Weimann contrubuted last season in key moments and have a good return. Too early to write Henrikson off, but as a like for like so far you'd take Weimann. One success story, two 'immediate net negatives, but potential long term' and one 'unknown'. Ultimately, like all of our 'transitional periods', we'll see over time. They haven't got one right so far, so history says this will be a monumental fuck up and another change in direction, but as I say you only need 4 or 5 players to be very good at this level and you're into the playoffs which is a lottery.

Earliest we can get another ESC player is January if we convert Kargbo and/or Toth. So we can firmly rule out any ESC player (this window, at least).

First start tonight. Playing really well.

Can we start some conspiracy theories about why Rudy Gestede will only sign players over 6 ft 2 please? Some ancient French/Benin tradition with a questionable link to witchcraft or something?

Seems a very odd thing not to do. Albeit would probably require us doing some paperwork, which we’re incapable of doing.

I saw on Twitter someone saying that if Mafoumbi plays 1 minute of league football for us, he would qualify for a permit and we could move his ESC spot. Not sure how true that is - does anyone know?