3 minimum needed this week, four before the end of the window. I don’t think we need two centre backs, I would be happy going into the season with Ayala, Carter, Wharton and Phillips if the intention is to play a back 4. I don’t rate Pickering and rate Edun even less at left back / left wing back. I’m concerning Brittain doesn’t have suitable back up, JRC can’t play right back or right wing back either. Centre Midfield we need another enforcer. If Travis gets injured we will have the smallest and weakest central midfield in the league. We either need a striker or a winger, depending where he’s playing Gallagher. I can see Gally scoring if he’s playing as a nine, but that means another winger. So I’d like to see… Starting Left Back Back up right back Central Midfielder (is that guy still at Barnsley?) Winger With a statement left forward lined up for when Ben goes. I don’t think he plays for Rovers again.

Lascelles is on 70K / week.

I’d love to know the time period between when Rovers decided Mowbray was going and JDT was approached.

Happy to give them a week to turn this around, then I’ll panic. If JVH has decided to sign a new deal at Brighton I don’t want him at Rovers. We need commitment and longevity.

We are live!

2-0 Burnley. Blackpool are terrible.

I think it would go down a storm. If you’d enjoy Mercer’s Wine Club, like this post. If we get 15 likes he will do it.

I don’t remember one ever existing?

Would you be open to a thread in I Can’t Believe It’s Not Football titled “Mercer’s Wine Club” where you and others (but mostly you) review wines? I honestly think it would be huge. In fact I’m happy to delete this entire thing and turn BRFCS in a wine website.

Oh fuck me not this again, it’s like February 2022 all over again.

What happened to the van Hecke going to Holland / Belgium because he’s got a family emergency story?

At long distance they’re not great and glasses give me a headache, have you any advice?

This is the team for me. Expecting a loss unfortunately, they’re a strong side and we’re lacking depth to replace some tired legs. Followed up by Usyk beating AJ, then Usman beating Edwards early morning. It’s a sports marathon.

I thought Phillips played very well against Long who’s a wily old pro. The reason we lost was we where overrun in midfield and didn’t have a threat upfront, not because we defended poorly.

It wouldn’t surprise me if he was being told to keep it simple considering he’s starting and we have no viable replacement. The last thing they needed was Phillips to make a game losing cock up vs WBA and Reading by being too adventurous and not being able to take him out the firing line.

Who replaced Friedel, who was significantly better than him.

Maybe, but I disagree. My understanding from reading / listening to him is he sees this as at least a couple of seasons before he can get promoted. It wouldn’t surprise me based on his career at Malmo if he got us promoted, secured us into the Premier League then walked away and that was the end of his “project”.

Then why is he always talking about the ‘project’? What he’s saying in interviews directly contradicts this, so I struggle to see how you can come to this assumption unless you think he’s bullshitting the press about the ‘project’.

I’m a critic of Rovers, I like the Trust’s definition of a “critical friend”. I think we’ve got a lot of decisions really, really wrong over the past 10 years and often have struggled to get even the basics right. But we have to give them a chance. The new approach is a huge change and it won’t happen over 1 window or even 1 season. If we’re not going to give them a chance to change/improve things then the entire thing is a waste of time and we should have just let Mowbray plod along for another 3 years.

If we talk about managerial eras then you’re right, so far they haven’t. But they might be doing now under JDT. Mowbray mentioned it, as did Waggott and they’re right, FFP means that we can’t just buy our way out the league and our income - which could and should be increased by the CEO, but that’s a different story - means that we cannot just buy our way out the league. We need some sort of a plan. You would have Gregg has the autonomy and the power to insist mistakes like all of the above don’t happen. If he doesn’t, you’re right, we will just continue making the same mistakes over and over. It encourages me that GB and JDT are the first people truly hired by Suhail. Now they’re his decisions, we might let them actually run it. They are and we need some loans. But they shouldn’t be at the detriment of our own young players (see Mowbray refusing to play Travis / Buckley / Carter / Wharton and bringing in short term loans instead) and shouldn’t be such key players that when we inevitably lose them we need a full overhaul of playing style (see Elliott).

What did we know about Brittain, or Smodics or Morton from the Rovers end before we signed them? Nothing. Brittain signed within 24 hours of the first news report. Smodics we only knew anything about because of the Peterborough chairman. Morton we only knew about because of the Liverpool fan accounts. We will be signing people and it wouldn’t surprise me if we where close. We just tend not to find out until the last minute or through other clubs when the deal has been agreed.

Well, quite. So just number one, get us into a position where we have more control on that front. Contract extensions or sales, I’ve said it for ages now. Contract extensions start when suitable, but the second you’ve got 19 months left on your deal you’re either sold or have a month to sign an extension. No exceptions. We can’t continue with the way Mowbray and Waggott have allowed the squad to be ripped up every year. No more contracts running out No more confusion as to whether someone will sign a new deal No more having a squad built on loans.

I’d like to this GB can change that. I’m sick of seeing the ‘roles available’ tweets from the Rovers account… and it’s the same ones. Recruitment, Fitness and Marketing all seem to be a reoccurring role.

We should be getting the taxi ready for him when he’s not been in the job for 3 months? Absolutely not for me. He’s only just had a head of recruitment join. He’s responsible for hiring the head coach and has changed the structure of the club. If we sack the DOF after a few months then we will: 1) Make every other DOF think it’s a poisoned chalice 2) Never actually see the results of what he could have done, he’s not even had one transfer window and there’s been huge upheaval in the approach / management. 3) Make JDT think WTF is going on I think we need some serious management of expectations here. I saw on an earlier thread a suggestion of blowing FFP off and going for it this season because the league is weak. We’ve played 4 games, we’ve no idea at this stage what quality the league has. As I responded at the time, for me JDT has 3 years to achieve a genuine promotion push. This would be my brief if I was DOF: Year 1: Establish ourselves without being close to relegation. Sell Brereton, or get him to sign a minimum 3 year deal, so that huge cloud is lifted one way or another. Let JDT assess the squad and take any opportunity to improve it at this stage, but most importantly work out what young players he thinks can break through. Year 2: Top half / signs of a team capable of a top six push. Ensure both transfer windows see improvement within the full squad. Sell/loan/release all players JDT doesn’t think will make it Year 3: Top six / promotion push. Ensure the summer window sees us signing players to improve the first 11, not the squad. Ensure we go into January with budget to fill in any gaps established in the first half of the season.

Again, not sure. I think the remit is promotion, but it’s the ‘slow build’ and developing the squad. JDT has spoken in interviews about how he needs to raise player values. I very much believe we’re in some weird combination of the Brentford (player trading) and QPR (academy development) approaches.