2 hours ago, smiller14 said:

All those staying it has been twice in 2 January windows are also forgetting we did the same to Brierley. Even more pathetically, it meant he couldn't play for his club - relegation stricken Rochdale. We then, despite promises of a pre-contract, pulled out of that deal too. Bad faith. No chance we sign McGuire if this paltry 'appeal' doesn't succeed. 

He did play for Rochdale afterwards. O'Briens problem was that he was not part of Forest squad registration for the latter part of the season. Brierly was not affected of that, might be because U21 aged players doesn't need to be registered.

(Too much Football Manager for me,)

Pretty excited by the Brekalo news. Someone I highlighted in the summer as one of the few players in the Norwegian League you could be confident would have an impact in the Championship.

At that time I thought he would be far too expensive, and destined for bigger things than the Championship. Viking turned down a 6 mill offer in the summer for the League push, thinking they would be able to sell him for the same later.

However, he got injured and their season faltered. Now there has been a huge fallout since the player claims the club have gone back on their promise to sell if he stayed for the rest of the season.

Viking are now looking to offload this window, and the player is currently not training with the team until the transfer is resolved.

Local media is also reporting Blackburn's approach

4 hours ago, bluebruce said:

That error really is one of the stupidest I've seen a keeper make though. There's a really easy pass on, he looks like he's going to play it, then plays it straight to a Nice player instead. Only 16 so I'll let him off.

Yeah, got overconfident and played a high-risk pass that was easily gobbled up and put into an open net. However it's something that easy to fix and he'll learn from.

Otherwise I thought he was terrific. Very good with the feet, safe handling, came and claimed crosses and generally looked the part. Very rare to see a keeper at that age playing U21 and apart from the big mistake, probably our best player of the night.

Some prospect at 16 based on that evidence.

Pratical questions. Travelling over from Norway to attende the match. Are there any pub supporter are meeting up before the game? 

Poor performance by the whole team..

The defensive work in midfield and forward was awful. A lot of cheating in tracking back

10 hours ago, rigger said:

I have already stated that I don't think Markanday is good emough to force his way into our first team with the system that we play. What I stated was that up front in a pair, is what I would say is Markandays best position. Not whether we would ever play him there. By the way, that might be a workable plan B. 

Think you are spot on. Can't see where he fit in this system, unless you let him play off a striker drifting around the box. I do like him as a sub option, as he is one of the few with some finishing skills. Pretty sharp at creating space for himself in the box to get a shot off. His shooting and finishing is at least up there at this club. 

7 minutes ago, renrag said:

JRC??

The big difference of course is Pickering came to the club as a centre forward

For the sake of the expirement, my suggestion would be Hayden Carter. He played wing-back and midfield for the U21. Good height, fairly athletic. Scored a few goals for Burton in his half season there 🙂

JRC is not a bad shout though. He can probably play anywhere with his footballing brain

1 hour ago, Upside Down said:

Loan or permanent? 

Permanent, 3+ 1 year deal

1 hour ago, only2garners said:

I think Coventry will give an away club up to 3,000 tickets. If that's true, you should be fine as we will not sell that many so they should go onto open sale. They will go on sale to ST holders first as Watford tickets are but will almost certainly be opened up later to anyone. 

Have you been to Ewood before? Are you on the club's database?

Thanks! Yes I am in the system, so should be ok. 

I'm travelling over from Norway with my mate to the away vs Coventry and have some questions on how to get tickets to the game.

Does away tickets normally gets available to to non ST holders? If so, when do they usually get available?

As far as I can see, only Watford is currently available and only available to ST holders.

39 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

The new Speedie? 

Could Todd play the style of play we do? 

Yes we need 1 or 2 experience players but more important we need quality signings that fit into our style of play under JDT. 

If the 19 years old is the best penalty taker on the field at the time then he should take it

Leonard missed a pen in pre-season, think Buckley took one and scored in the same game. Somehow I think JRC would be a good penalty taker. Strange how we suck on pens when we scored 10 straight against West Ham in the shoot-out

53 minutes ago, deanives said:

Any news on Gallagher and hedges? We desperately need something from the bench next week, even if it means them coming into first 11, we'd then have dolan or markanday coming on from the bench 

Jdt gave update in his Rovers tv interview. Gally injured, expected back after Walsall game. Hedges fit enough, but not risked

On 28/06/2023 at 20:59, islander200 said:

Shame for the lad  looked like he could step up before his injury problems 

Yeah, was captain of the U18 in the good FA Youth run and made a an impact at U21. A bit similar to a young Rodwell in midfield, powerful and strong runner. Was probably ready to be involved in the first team pre-season when injury hit, so feel really bad for him.

2 years out and 4 operations on the foot sounds really bad. Not heard what the injury was, but you might suspect ankle. Good of the club to give him a chance and some hope. 

I'm not Pears biggest fan, but in fairness he did enough to keep the shirt. The major howler I expected never came. The second goal of Millwall, the replay clearly showed him screaming for the ball, but Pickering elected his weak header anyway. 

He remind me of Jason Steele in some ways, just lacking the build and size to command the area. That's probably not Kaminski's biggest strength either, but he gives you a bit more confidence so I hope he reclaims the shirt in the summer.

2 minutes ago, rigger said:

The question was not about if another club came in for JDT, but if JDT has the option of just quitting the Rovers.

Going to another club, yes, but can't see him quitting. When he was hired he knew it was a project that would rely on the Academy and not much for transfers. Don't think January fuck-up is enough for him to walk. I very much hope he stays and continues what he started. 

Overall a good and commited performance, they should be proud of the effort.

If the team can keep the same level of effort, there should be enough points in the bag to see us reach the play-offs.

The tactical change made sense at the time, where as the game was stretched and our press was no longer in packs. Might have backfired, but if he hadn't done anything and they scored, he'd take flak for that. 

Upwards and onwards, feels a very different ending to a season compared to the last ones we've had.

I've had my reservations about Travis, but he has really been immense the last couple of months. His energy levels are so much better after coming back into the team, and his distribution/decisions making has also improved a lot. 

On 26/02/2023 at 20:31, riverholmes said:

Wonder if we are hitting a trough, when it comes to the youth conveyor belt, given the struggles of the U23s to compete in what is, admittedly, the top tier of reserve football in this country. It might be unfair to judge yet, as many are new to this level and with the growing investment in the Premier League, those clubs are getting ever bigger squads. Injuries to Cirino, Batty, Whitehall, Barnes, Baker and Burns have weakened the side further and, also, perhaps, the departure of former manager, Billy Barr.

Probably not fair to compare this year's U21 to previous. Most of the talents that normally would be the core has been moved up (Batty, Garrett, Wharton, Phillips) combined with a few injuries as well. Some of the lineups has been very young and pretty weak. The current U18 is not close to last year, but in fairness that was considered a golden generation. 

2 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Very odd that Nixon is describing a 1 yr 30k a week contract as 'huge' and 'stunning'. Does he think it's 1998?

I'd be stunned if Villareal aren't offering more money, and supposedly it's a 5 year contract. This offer is surely a non-starter.

Yeah agreed, it's that strange that you might think there has been some hint that it might be considered. For the club it's obvious that a long-term contract would be the preferred option. He and his partner might have discovered how stressful it is to have a fresh baby and might consider staying around familiar surrounding for another year. It's quite a different scenario for a partner to stay at home with a crying baby in a foreign country.

1 hour ago, Wheelton Blue said:

The only reason he'll accept the offer here is if it betters what he's been offered elsewhere.

What use is a 1 year deal to him? He could get badly injured a la Dack, then find himself with no, or far worse options, at the end of the year.

The only logic I can think of is that he just just became a father for the first time, and staying in a stable enviroment with family for one more year before uprooting his family to another country might appeal. Could be his partner preference.

1 hour ago, BigBar said:

That's a lesson though that he shouldn't really need to be learning. Not good enough to say I'll do better in future. Too avoidable for me to see any silver lining.

Yeah, I get you. Probably not a silver lining, but one of the many small lies I convince myself to get through the day 🙂

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

Because he's not a legal expert and could phrase something in a way that could be misconstrued if quoted in the appeal. It's common to not go into details publicly before a legal case for this kind of reason.

I would also imagine those details do involve things that cast us in a bad light however you phrase them, things they might not mention in the appeal (like Sylvester fell asleep with his thumb up his arse so they couldn't get him to sign anything) but until we find out specifically what happened, I can only speculate. If we don't get the details after the appeal is done, then I'll agree it's to save face.

The other aspect is that anything he said could been seen as an attempt to affect the appeal, which would viewed negatively by the appeal commite.

1 minute ago, BigBar said:

I thought the opposite. Thought he came across nervous and edgy and had the energy of a man who fucked up. Jittery and voice quivering. Weather he didn't do his part as he should have and was too casual or not knowledgeable enough or allowed people under his management to drag their heals. Eithee way the buck stops with him, lots of vague, non detailed, evasive shite imo.  Not impressed at all.

I liked that he looked nervous and edgy, good to see that the situation has affected him and the rest. There was also a little bit of anger shining through, as it seems obvious there has been a fuckup from the admin/legal team that he has to take responsibility for. 

The only good thing coming from this is a man scorned like that will take action to avoid it happen again. You should never waste a good disaster as JDT would have said. 

Huddersfield just announced a loan signing from Forest only an hour ago, which suggest we are not the only ones that we've for a while for clearance.

14 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

why can we not compete salary wise with teams who don't have parachute payments? 

Because most of them has higher turnover (often based on higher attendance) and therefore can afford a higher salary level. Even if we are lower table on wages, we have one of the worst wage to turnover ratios in the division. Very much reliant on Venky's covering the losses every year.

That said most of the Championship are running at a loss, and I doubt we've seen the last club going bust.

51 minutes ago, arbitro said:

He dropped a real bollock for United's first goal last night but then made some terrific saves. His kicking is better than both Kaminski or Pears. He does lack a bit of stature but if they wanted to send Pears out I would say Eastham is more than capable of being a second keeper.

I agree. He's is quite similar to David Raya as keeper. Smaller stature, but agile and very good with his feet. The question marks would be the same as a young version of Raya. How commanding in the box will he be? Will he fluff the crosses/corners against big senior pros? A loan might be the best option similar to what Raya did.