Devon Rover

While I'm loving your spirit, I'm not sure that would have a hugely destabilising effect, unfortunately.

I like this angle. Just imagine if he actually said that, though!!

Is it OK if I am just beginning to feel a bit excited about things?? I really should have learnt by now....

Same here. But to sell either we'd need a buyer. I'm not sure any 'smaller' clubs would use their very limited budgets to pick up these guys, based on their careers to date. I can only see them both being released on free's, either in the next few days or after a season's loan. JRC might, just might, offer us something as a squad player if he goes and gets a full season behind him and learns a position.

That's an image I'll never be able to get out of my head, now. Most disturbing moment of the transfer window, for me!

One of the things I have felt really positive about since JDT arrived is his apparent honesty and openness in interviews. It will be interesting now that there is some justified "heat" to see if this continues and he accepts his selections led to the result today. That lineup was horrible. He certainly needs the club to step up and support him to have more to choose from, but he also screwed up today with that starting 11. He made some good mitigating decisions, but the damage had been done. Window closing, it could be a big moment for JDT to really tell it like it is...

You think we should stick with today's starting line up for the sake of consistency??

Random steward?

This is totally unacceptable: Selection, formation, performance, substitution, transfer window approach. Painful.

Sounds like we are being taken apart here. I've got that nostalgic feeling of a Rovers team being selected like a group of lambs for the slaughter. Rankin-Costello isn't REALLY a professional footballer, is he?!

But that's enough about your Friday evenings, unleaded.

Dave Nugent?

Thank you, I missed that. So it is three ("Hopefully"). Even if Brereton is sold in the end (which seems likely now)? And two of those three seem to be uninspiring central defenders? Yeah, it's not good, at all, is it? We needed a lot more and a lot better.

Where has the suggestion of a total of three more signings come from? (Attributed to JDT, but I must have missed it). I can't believe that anyway, as Chaddy seemed very confident there would be 5 or 6 more in, didn't he?? We sign just three players from now until the deadline and I'll be ready to spend the season anxiously watching the gap between Rovers and the relegation zone. Whilst there is a gap... It's a far cry from the optimism I felt when JDT and Broughton came in. Hugely disappointing.

Yep. Like our "healthy budget". I'm still not sure there is any evidence of "healthy" in this context meaning many £ more than 'negative'.

Hope you aren't encouraging a 'live stream'.

Would Brighton sell both Clarke and JPvH?

This is the bit that I'm most worried about. We had such a palpable increase in enthusiasm and energy with JDT's appointment. It is still there with every interview he gives, and every spot-on observation he makes. But he has not yet been backed at all in the transfer market and this is having effect, with the reduced squad size already exposed. That enthusiasm, hope, optimism, whatever you'd call it, is only going to survive so long before it fizzles out. The abject failure of the club so far this Summer in bringing in players to back up the coach's ideas and ambition, will cost us - and I can imagine JDT walking away from this in due course, as his energy burns out. With him would go a lot of supporters' positivity, which should have been (and still might be) built upon. I await any sign of the "healthy budget", but still believe this to be a statement with no real meaning behind it, whatsoever.

Phew! Good win, that. Especially when we clearly need a few more players in. Great to see the JDT enthusiasm being carried into the season. Stunning goal by our new captain, who will hopefully be being encouraged to have the confidence to be more dynamic now (like he looked to be when he broke through, and before his ambition was shackled). First three points on the board on day one. Well done, lads!

No Butterworth on the list. Have i missed something about him leaving?

By all accounts, Bowler would be a great addition. I would imagine IF he joins then it is a sign the wing-back system isn't our Plan A?

If we are going to be playing wing-backs, then I think we have to be spending money on someone of quality and pace to play that position. Pickering as back-up would be just about ok, but I can see a wing-back system being totally exposed down our left if Pickering starts there. If Styles would be as good a LWB as people are suggesting (I haven't seen him play there) then this would seem an ideal fit.

Phew! I feared a different word would be typed, there.

Totally agree.

Hi Chaddy. I agree with the first part I've highlighted in bold. But how do you define 'over paying wage wise'? I would suggest ALL high level professional footballers are overpaid, just as most houses are 'overpriced'. But, if you accept that costs are what they are then, if you can find a way to afford the best you can, surely you do - on an individual basis? Or just let someone else get the player/house and invest in it, whilst you fall behind, with a load of regrets. What I'm trying to say is 'overpaying' is completely subjective, based on what you are trying to achieve and based on the investment (financial/emotional etc) you have made in something? Sometimes stretching for that is better than the alternative, which is where we are now: Hoping something else comes up that might, possible, replace what we missed out on...