Dack anc Armstrong linking up fantastically tonight. Graham may find himself on the bench on Saturday.  

Guy on Sky Sports says Travis has been brilliant. 

I like Chapman a lot, he has the potential to be a premier league player imo. He can ghost past a player at pace and create havoc. Injury record a concern but one I would love to return. Think he may well return before the end of the month. 

5 minutes ago, islander200 said:

He said he isn't for sale but they might be willing to loan him out if it's right for the player and then.

I don't see how that article suggests they are willing to sell him?

Would have loved if we had bought him, but don't want him being brought in if it's just a loan with him going back to Forest at the end of the season 

“No, we are not in a rush to sell him” 

That basically means they will sell him if a good bid comes in and the player wants to go. If not, he’s happy to have him stay and fight for a place. That’s essentially what Karanka is saying. It’s hardly a “he’s not for sale at any price” type comment from Karanka. 

Still think Gallagher is more likely though. 

49 minutes ago, islander200 said:

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16413975.forest-boss-comments-on-rovers-interest-in-ben-brereton/

Well we can rule him out coming in on loan with a view to making it permanent. 

I doubt anything is close Mowbray seemed pretty downbeat about things yesterday.

I don't think it is us in for Maddison either.

 

I’ve interpreted that very differently, it sounds like they are very willing to sell Bereton if the deal is right. 

The transfer window isn’t closed for championship clubs.

Window to be judged at the end of August. So far, I’d say a poor window with nowhere near enough quality in. Have a feeling that may change come the end of the month.

I do think central midfield is an area that needs addressing. I don’t think Smalllwood/Evans are of the standard required. Smallwood is fantastic at harassing and chasing players, but players at this level have that little bit of quality to produce a little bit of skill to sidestep him. Evans is unable to produce the goods on a consistentl basis, but he probably is our most talented CM player when he’s on form. Whittngham’s career is well and truly over,; Travis I have high hopes for and think he’ll become a regular,; Davenport/Rothewell I know little about. I think Davenport could turn out to be good, he did well at burton last year, but I’m unsure about Rothwell. 

Obviously frustrated with the last minute goal, but I’m pretty pleased with that performance and result overall. I would certainly have taken that result before the game.

i thought we looked solid and pretty comfortable throughout. We lacked a lot of quality going forward, but what we lacked in quality we made up for in hard work and organisation. 

Armstrong and two other quality attacking players needed. We’d be looking a lot stronger then. Bennett, Samuel, Nuttal, and Conway are not good enough in those forward positions. 

Armstrong all but completed then. At the numbers being talked about, I think that’s a real bargain. A young player with lots of pace and an eye for goal. 

I do feel a front three of Dack, Armstrong, and Palmer behind Graham is pretty strong. Lots of pace, trickery and match winners in there. We do need a target man to come in too, Graham won’t last the whole season. I also feel we need one more attacking player to replace Payne. 

Interesting comments from TM, clearly he’s targeting some more proven players at this level, which can’t be a bad thing. I still think Armstrong may end up here but I’m not sure he feels he can rely on chapman with his injury record. 

Presumably he has some ambitious targets in mind. 

Excellent signing. He’s certainly a matchwinner, of which we’re lacking. 

I would expect our “big” signing will be Armstrong, and that’s where the baulk of our budget will go. I would anticipate another loan coming in the forward positions, probably a target man.

Add a decent back-up centre half and I think we’re looking relatively strong.

On top of that, I think Lewis Travis will cement a regular place place in the centre of midfield this season, which will feel like a new signing. He looks like a top player. 

1 minute ago, Heinz said:

Just seen this on twitter. Not sure if true though, but given the fact we don’t have much else to discuss about right now..

 

This wouldn’t surprise me at all. Certainly fits the bill with what TM is looking for - young, pacy, and room for improvement.

Not seen him play much but pace is important in any league and he clearly has potential. The way we’ll play next season is by soaking up the pressure and hitting teams on the break, so pacy players are a must. We’re not going to outplay teams or have the majority of possession in a lot of games. 

I think the problem is we don’t really have the funds to compete for players in the championship, whereas last year we were financial giants in league 1, hence why we were able to do our business early and get the players we wanted.

I don’t have any reason to doubt TM when he says he came back from india with a decent budget, it was clearly enough to give our key players improved contracts and be in the market for new players. However, when you see players like Waghorn going for £8m, that really puts into perspective how much you need to spend in this league to be competitive. 

I do believe TM has the nous to keep us up, even with the current squad, but it would be a real struggle. As always, new owners desperately needed to inject some serious funds into the club. 

As it stands, we are well short of the quality required to compete in this league. But TM knows this and there will be signings so no need to panic just yet.

A severe lack of firepower as it stands; Graham is injury prone and Samuel/Nuttal are nowhere near the level required. Two strikers badly needed, ideally Armstrong and a target man. We are also short in the wide areas IMO, we need two pacy wingers. I think we will sign Chapman but we also need one other. Central defence is also a concern, I think Mulgrew may get exposed on the counter at this level with his lack of mobility. Plus, we need an 'in the hole' player to replace Dack if he's off-form/injured. Six players required imo. 

Overall, we need some more pace and mobility in the squad and most certainly some more match winners. I'm confident TM will address those issues before the window, he knows what he's doing. 

Five straight league wins in any league is an excellent achievement. I wasn't able to follow the match but sounds as though Dack  and Smallwood, in particular, had good games. 

Automatic promotion is well within our grasp. Shrewsbury and Scunthorpe both unexpectedly dropped points. The wheels have come off for Shrews.

As for January, a tricky winger is needed along with a striker. Danny Graham has been poor this season, I wouldn't be surprised if he left for somewhere like Scotland. Not to mention Chapman and Lenihan are to return in the new year as well, very strong squad. 

Also good to see some youngsters coming through. Promising times?

Gut feeling is that he will turn out to be a very shrewd signing. Knows this league well and has been a top performer in this division previously. We need someone who can get stuck in, we've been far too easy to play against for far too many years. It's about time we added some steel in the middle of the park. Have a feeling he'll be a fans favourite due to, what sounds like, him having "get stuck in" attitude. 

Impressive signing. A marked improvement on what we had in central midfield last season. 

If this is a sign of the calibre being targeted, we should do well next season. 

Really hope he stays. Been a real positive since coming in. This pathetic excuse of a squad should have been relegated weeks ago, he almost pulled off the miracle.

New owners and TM to sign a new deal. There's gonna be huge pressure on Venkys to sell, more than ever before. And certainly more than there would have been if we'd stayed up. That's the only crumb of comfort right now. 

Needless to say, I've been very impressed by Mowbray so far. The sign of a good manager is one that can come in and quickly make you hard to beat. Hughes did that when he first came in, and so did Allardyce. You get nowhere if you constantly have to score 2 or 3 to win a game. 

I also am impressed by the work he's done on working on two different styles of play (he spoke about his recently in the LT). You always need a plan B, whereas we never had that under Coyle. Plan B won us the game yesterday. 

It's a really patched up squad that he's got well organised and hard to beat. We've always had good attacking players this season who can produce a bit of magic and score goals, it's the defensive side Coyle didn't have the nous to sort out. 

Real belief that we may stay up this season. There's still no long term future for this club until Venkys leave though. 

I disagree, Fulham won, Bristol city won, preston won and mk dons won, all in and around us with our goal difference dropping again.

We only need there to be three worse teams than us. We've just played the top two and they've made up no ground on us at all. They still have those two to play so unlikely to get points from those games.

Results were actually decent for us today. Expected Bolton to lose, but Rotherham and Charlton had winnable home games.

Do you go go to all u21 games or have you based that on 45 mins ?

I don't go to u21 games, that was based on my impression of the first 45 mins so I could be completely wrong about those players.

Many of them I am seeing for the first time, as I suspect is the case for many other Rovers fans. It's not my job to decide which youth team players get promoted to the first team so I tend not to focus on that level too much!

They've done well. Saints look far more talented on the ball, but we look strong.

Nyambe does look very talented, Mahoney also looks very good. Raya looks very assured, and Rittenberg looks quite dangerous. Mansell is a real handful and puts himself about. Bauress has really impressed me, he's picked up all the loose balls in midfield.

None of the others look like they'd ever have the potential to make the first team.

FFP has worked very well in the lower Leagues and the issues you raise also applied to them. Last season Yeovil were promoted with very small gates whilst the likes of Sheffield United, with huge gates by comparison missed out on promotion. Since the abolition of the maximum and until Jack came along, the Rovers struggled to compete with the big city clubs. It is a fact of life. The fact is that the Rovers, even when we won the League, couldn't fill the ground week in and week out. Suppose Venky's build up the debt over the next two years and we don't get promoted. They decide to pull out and leave the Rovers with a debt they can't repay. The future of the club is then, as it may well be already, under threat.

FFP is working in the lower Leagues and will work in the Championship as club's will have to live within their means. You will never get an even playing field. Some clubs will always be disadvantaged but FFP should ensure that clubs are not driven to the wall by poor financial management.

There will always be surprise packages and Yeovil are an example of that. It can't be denied that FFP strengthens the big clubs and weakens the smaller clubs and that doesn't seem right and certainly doesn't constitute a level playing field. Small town clubs like Rovers will struggle to compete.

That's exactly my point, Rovers couldn't even fill their ground even when they were a title winning team yet we still outspent and outperformed the big clubs. That couldn't happen with FFP. Football will become predictable and boring. I agree that you'll never get an even playing field but small town clubs won't be able to compete with big city clubs on a consistent basis. Using your example, Yeovil got promoted last season but they will get relegated soon, Sheff Utd will get promoted. Yeovil sink whereas Sheff Utd will grow under FFP.

Again, your last point comes down to having responsible owners in football clubs and not FFP issues. People like Jack Walker were a breath of fresh air, people like Tan and Venkys are a disgrace.

Taking the brake off clubs spending beyond their means is not good news. FFP will force clubs to live within their means and not gamble their future on trying to get into the Premiership. Venky's are the perfect example of why FFP will be a good thing in the long run.

We need to avoid another pompey situation for sure but surely that comes with tightening up the fit and proper test and not the FFP. Rovers wouldn't have won the league without outside investment. Clubs like Fulham and Wigan would never have got to the premier league without rich owners.

Clubs with massive parachute payments will have a huge advantageous over every other club. Club with big fan bases will also have a huge advantage. Why shouldn't a wealthy owner be allowed to pump their own money into a club if they want to live the dream. How are Rovers going to compete with the likes of Brighton and Leeds in the future with them getting around 25k supporters each home game and us getting around 15k with very cheap tickets. Also, how are we going to compete with clubs relegated from the premier league with them having 50m or whatever it is in parachute payments. FFP simply won't work and can't be allowed to come in as it will create a big divide and the dream of many smaller football clubs will die.