RevidgeBlue

Nail, hammer, head!

Couldn't resist again .....grrrr..... Are we actually buying this yarn that has been relayed to Sharpe?. I might be missing something but if one of the 2 deals we are allegedly waiting on is the young lad from Rochdale, how come a picture of him holding a Rovers shirt has surfaced at the Rochdale end? Sounds suspiciously like an attempt to shift blame for our own negligence onto the EFL to me.... BUT ......we'll see I suppose.

Wasn't going to comment until something official was announced but can't resist any longer. Why the assumption that IF things have gone wrong it's the owners fault? Surely it would be the fault of those on the ground tasked with getting the deals done. The only way in which the owners could be to blame would be if they'd changed their minds about a deal/deals at the last minute which hardly seems likely. IF everything has gone wrong I think I could cope with an announcement that we've signed no-one and Waggott and Broughton have received their P45's. I could also cope with it if deals have been done and it's merely poor PR but whether it's sheer incompetence or they're sitting there for a few hours pissing themselves watching everyone work themselves up into a lather it's extremely poor form. Right that's it, definitely over and out until official word is forthcoming.

Because?

Hopefully this is just a case of shocking PR. I mean the Club couldn't even be arsed confirming or quashing the rumours about whether our star player has signed a pre contract agreement to leave in summer which surfaced 3-4 days ago. If not, and we've messed up the O Brien deal and failed to land a striker after offloading Hirst and letting Markanday go out on loan then it imo it marks a new low in the day to day running of the Club by those on the ground. The longer the silence goes on the more likely it seems they're trying to compose their excuses. How difficult is it do issue a brief one liner confirming any signings then hold a press conference with the players when convenient? Not commenting further until there's some sort of official word

Ah the site's resident contrarian in full flow this morning. Such a pity the season doesn't end on January 31st.

Why were you so adamant last night it was done then?

Don't be silly. It'll be Markanday off on loan BBD has signed a pre contract agreement to leave at the end of the season AND That concludes business for the day.

Been out. Has O Brien actually signed?

Resigned to it. Anything else will definitely be a bonus.

Why, can we part-ex them for a decent CM and striker? If Carlsberg did transfer deals...............

They haven't had the courage to announce BBD's pre contract agreement yet assuming it's genuine. Allegedly trying to water it down by announcing it alongside another signing.

That's good to hear - no rush. I will lose my shit even more than I have already been doing about the recruitment process if tonight's game is wheeled out as an excuse for not being able to get business done in time at the end of a 31 day window.

Based on what?

Well, we'll only know when any future sale takes place if it included any the training complex. There's no obvious cause for concern on that front at the moment albeit whispers in the background tend to indicate Waggott would still like to move to some random brownfield site somewhere.

To be fair, that was Waggott's idea, which must have been subsequently shelved by someone else, presumably the owners, who then proceeded to inject £16m into the Club for an asset they already owned to keep us temporarily FFP compliant and the training facilities intact.

Obviously there must be some money available as the recruitment team of which GB is a key component have been scurrying around failing to land their chosen targets. It's not been a case of "we're not even looking to add anyone because we've no money." Secondly, money was really badly spent In summer imo. £1.8m plus add ons for Szmodics to sit in the treatment room? £10k p.w. in wages for Hirst to never feature? Mola? God knows how much it's costing to loan Morton out. Won't be cheap if the estimates of £1m for HALF a season plus full wages for Sorba Thomas are correct which in itself doesn't strike me as particularly good value either. So yeah, let's not let GB off the hook for not doing his job and revert back to the default position of automatically blaming everything on the owners. There's little doubt in my mind that if we were going down the DOF route we should have picked an actual experienced DOF rather than a recently out of work Academy Director but nevertheless you'd expect GB to have an actual working knowledge of the market and where there are gems to be unearthed and bargains to be found.

Couldn't disagree more with this either. Arbitro is quite right.

I couldn't disagree more. Maybe the expectation in summer was that play offs were not probable given the mess Mowbray and Waggott left us in. However having unexpectedly reached in January in the play off positions, you HAVE to give it a go. Otherwise, what is the point of the football Club existing in the first place? There is none. Secondly, you can't absolutely guarantee success at any point, whether or not you claim to be following some nebulous long term plan (which in reality is probably only a ruse to keep certain individuals on the gravy train for as long as possible anyway) If an opportunity unexpectedly arises in the meantime, even if it's earlier than anticipated, you HAVE to try and go for it.

It's all part of the "long term plan". Start the window off with aspirations on unloading certain players then give up and welcome them back into the fold regardless of whether they're good enough.

Brilliant post. The mental gymnastics some posters indulge in to absolve the recruitment department of any responsibility is truly something to behold.

On BBD have the Club's PR Department actually got round to announcing he has signed a pre contract agreement yet or did I miss it?

I've commented on this in the past, instead of identifying the players we want and going out and getting them, we just scratch about at the 11th hour for whatever scraps are left in the loan market. Therefore we are totally at the mercy of parent Clubs changing their mind at the last minute or selling another player etc It's a complete lottery and an absolute farce. There's zero planning involved, it's sheer luck or otherwise as the case may be. "Recruitment" my arse.

My, there is a surprise.

Touché! Ah well, 3 minutes of my life I'll never get back.