9 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Well.....he's started as he's gone on since he's been here.....a 37 Yr old for 4 months and £2.5m plus add ons for a guy with no experience of English football.

And I suspect it might get worse before tomorrow night.

If that's his list expecting to imminently bank £18m I'd hate to see the ones where he hadn't.

But hey, the McGuire signing will be OK as long as the family all follow us on social media, and if we just get behind the lads FFS everything will be OK.

Genuinely want to know who you think we can reasonably and realistically sign. Say we can spend maybe £12m, including signing on and agents fees etc, who do you suggest we sign which doesn't break our wage structure i.e. around 15k for our key, senior players. 

Apologies if already posted, Telegraph journo stating fee agreed and an Orlando fan account indicate the team is in turn spending the cash (albeit a player in a different position)

19 minutes ago, JHRover said:

You know that the club is in a financial straitjacket. You know the owners are having to go to Court to meet obligations. Yet you don't think offloading one of our most experienced players might have financial motivations? 

Surely you are past the point of believing that it was all because "JDT didn't rate him"?

He will have been top earner or certainly close to it. Maybe Gallagher higher that's all and he wasn't fit at the time.

Let's say £8-£10k a week. 

Ipswich pay it all, we resume paying Buckley's wage in full whilst injured and take on the nominal costs of the two loans from Villa and Brighton

Money saved

That's the name of the game here, nothing more.

We'll also have likely received a loan fee. Even £100k, as little as it is in football terms, would help us if there have been any more cash flow issues.

Update on potentially signing a player's mum/family member/fan with the same surname: they've liked a couple of goal highlights from Monday night and someone asking a journo for updates on McGuire's move to Rovers. No owls related likes I can see. 

7 hours ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

We won't get any permanent talent from the prem.  Our wage structure is too low.  Unless the 'flex' comes back. 

Exactly the type of player we should be trying to sign if we actually have a little cash. 

Said it before though, nobody comes permanently that's not from league one or below or a European minor league. 

Even with flex we won't sign many Prem players - our top earner is believed to be on around £15k a week. We might even be trying to get this down given the lack of negotiation with Gally. Plenty of Prem youngsters are likely on this or significantly more. 

We did, however, get a player permanently from Erdivisie. I'd say that's a relatively big and certainly not a minor league. 

3 hours ago, DeeCee said:

Would it have been possible for AW to say he wasn't going to that shower of shit club?

He doesnt have to sign a contract with them or even entertain negotiations. 

13 minutes ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

Is his mum following the Owls?

Doesn't look like it. Following official Rovers account and 2 Rovers news accounts. 

4 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Haven’t we got the message yet ? Players only come to Rovers when we manage to alight on a player nobody else is bidding for. If there’s a choice they go elsewhere, and who can blame them ?

Putting aside that he isn't flavour of the month, Wahlstedt clearly evidences this isn't the case. Pulled out of a move to Brondby when we came in. 

13 minutes ago, callumrovers said:

Duncan McGuire’s mum has started following Rovers on Twitter 👍

Post of the day. Slightly stalkerish too. 

49 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

No they don't if they have any aspirations of promotion.

Very few clubs i.e. only the elite ones don't sell on their best players. Go support City or Real Madrid. Rovers have had to for 30 years so it's not changing when we're in the second tier. Shearer, Hendry, Sherwood, Sutton, Duff, Dunn, Bentley, McCarthy, roque....

We've not been sustainable for 30 years and we're not the team who wins everything. This is the football food chain.

Now Fabrizio official. 

Will be sad to see him go, be it now or whenever. But in another way, great to see one of the academy lads get a move to the prem. It's one thing buying and selling an Arma or Kaminski, but this is a product of the club. Well done to him.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/january/30/injury-update--callum-brittain-and-harry-leonard/

Brittain out for a month. We're really struggling with numbers for defence. JRC will be a CB, RB, RWB, CM hybrid at this rate. 

3 hours ago, philipl said:

From what I understand...

.

I am saying manic because there are no done deals and a few chains of X happens if Y and/or Z which is why I am suggesting Thursday. So could easily be crazy behind the scenes with zero transactions completed come Friday morning.

Two completely different scenarios in play depending if someone (Everton but particularly Newcastle looking at you) hits Venkys magic Adam number and I have no idea what it is today. The hearing in March is complicating  mattees. The FA Cup draw gives Newcastle the added need for insurance against Adam dumping them out...

So in short, we're really busy behind the scenes, but it could result in nothing or something. 

Is that you Nicko?

Apologies for the sarcasm. I fully get things don't always fall into place when work towards transfers is done but aside from those who believe we're not even trying to do anything transfer-wise, I'm not sure what this tells us that isn't known or would be common sense. 

Let's not have the Wrexham keeper on any shortlist, longlist or any sort of list. 

7 minutes ago, BankEnd Rover said:

It's such an ambiguous post the team news will be interesting either way. Play him and it's a sign we or he may have rejected, not playing and no doubt many will claim he is off. Yet we're playing a league 2 side, so wouldn't be surprised if one or 2 aren't used. 

19 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Fun fact - until the industrial revolution Norwich was the second biggest city in England outside London as the economy revolved around the wool textile trade with Europe. Then the population growth moved west to staff the factories that exported out to the empire....

Blackburn is in a very unusual position that there are just so many clubs nearby. Only other part of the country with so many professional clubs so close to one another is London and obviously there is a lot higher population density and it is a lot richer. 

I think there are 12 pro clubs within 30 miles of Ewood - Rovers, Burnley, Liverpool, Everton, man Utd, man City, accrington, Preston, WIgan, Bolton, Blackpool, Fleetwood

Way more density of clubs that Leeds (3 pro clubs within 30 miles) Sheffield (5 clubs), Birmingham (5 clubs), Newcastle (2 clubs), Bristol (2 clubs).

There was a period of time around 2010 where I think 5 Lancashire town clubs were in the premier division at the same time  (Rovers, Burnley, Blackpool, Wigan and Bolton). Then of course you had both Liverpool and both Manchester clubs. So pretty much half the division was Lancashire. 

Map that shows this density pretty well : https://www.myfootygrounds.co.uk/AreaMap.asp?view=ENGLAND

How dare you provide a fact-based argument. 

8 minutes ago, KentExile said:

Spot on

The truth is, we do not want Adam Wharton to move to a "destination club" where he will stay and play for the rest of his career.  We may be able to ask for more than 25M if that is the case, but probably not that much more at this stage or in the summer.

The ideal scenario is Dortmund, Brighton or similar (Palace will do at a stretch) for £25M and a healthy sell on fee, and then for him to move to a European giant in 2-3 years time for circa £100M

Sell on fees would be replaced by achievement fees i.e. international caps or more realistically, euro qualification and competition wins. 

5 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Football is baffling, isn't it?

After pulling our pants down with the Phillips transfer (ably assisted by Phillips and his agent) we're lead to believe they're going to come waltzing back with a smile on their faces for Wharton?

I wouldn't even answer the phone.

Spurs did nothing wrong and certainly nothing Rovers wouldn't do. They were told Phillips was available at a price they were happy to pay, if they waited until a certain date. If Rovers had the same opportunity but paid more just to get the player a few weeks earlier they'd rightly be slammed. 

As for not answering the phone to them, if they offer the highest bid and meet the valuation, why would you cut your nose off to spite your face?

4 hours ago, martonrover said:

It's clear that many people can't distinguish between a manager and a head coach, and see JDT as the former.

At the same time I'm pretty sure GB is on record as saying JDT approves all signings. It's also clear he speaks to the potential signing before the transfer goes through. 

25 minutes ago, neophox said:

I'll repeat it...GB/Waggott brought the wrong scouted striker from Plymouth....had we may have been up there in the table.... terrible decisions made in the summer. GB/SW responsible.

This time 12 months ago were you thinking Szmodics and Brittain were a waste of money? Tbf you wouldn't be the only one but both, to different degrees, show it's dangerous to write a player off after 6 months 

5 hours ago, Eddie said:

Why?

It has happened many times before. Dunn eventually wanted away. Duff wasn't born and bred, but was very much Blackburn through-and-through until he very quickly wasn't. 

Even when the club is doing well, heads will be turned by bigger clubs.

 

Very good post. Off the top of my head the only players in recent(ISH) years who stayed when they probably could have played for a bigger club is Pedersen. Seem to recall there was an instance where he didn't renew until the last couple of months of his contract and so could have gone on a free. 

As the post highlights this happened when we were a top division side nevermind where our standing is now. Palace may be having a poor season but they're established in the prem and play young players. I'd be puzzled if any of our players didn't give a move to them serious thought and that's before wages are considered. 

As for Gally I can see why he would be frustrated if we haven't opened negotiations with him  - hardly the signal he's wanted. But he's likely in the Dack situation albeit he would play more when fit. Club probably considering if we can afford the highest earner to be unavailable so much. 

7 minutes ago, Devon Rover said:

We are not a club that does this.

Anyone (I know you have just said "if") thinking selling Wharton gives us a chance to strengthen hasn't been paying attention. 

The apparent court non-decision means this will be our bill-paying money. And we lose our only creative central midfielder.

This will be the test of GB as DoF. It'll be the first time he has had a genuinely significant windfall. In fairness the more expensive signings he has made - Sam, Hyam, Brittain - have turned out between ok to very good so maybe bargain basement isn't his forte. 

If we get £20m guaranteed for Wharton and it allows us to spend at least £10m on 3 quality players, I'd reluctantly say we should. CM is probably our strongest area - Tronstad and JRC will probably play and there's Garrett and Buckley when he returns, as well as the Swedish loanee. Sometimes you have to cash in to build the rest of the team. 

3 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Must have suddenly found £500 k up front for O Riordan though? Might have got it from savings elsewhere then were just checking the Court case didn't go the wrong way?

Not necessarily. Maybe a higher down payment or shorter full repayment period which they accepted, or even other clauses like £350k now, ££200k in the summer and 10% of a future profit. Could be all sorts of ways to find an agreeable deal. 

17 minutes ago, yankfan said:

I have a strong feeling O’Riodan isn’t the answer to our defensive problems. His £500k release clause has been well documented and if he was rated by any other club they would have stepped in and trigged it ab lbs sigh led the player. The fact no one else is willing to pay makes me think he’s just a project. 

By the same logic Ash Phillips isn't all that to be bothered by as there's no indication any other club wanted to pay 2m for what some believe will be a generational talent?