I meant that he is a number 10/attacking midfielder or had played there when I saw him for Coventry. Either way, point is that he even as one of the more involved loanees has still only started two games and has had very little impact. Clubs wont be looking at us as keen to lend us their players if they base it on this season.

When managers (or in this case, a coach) "explain" their decisions it is always going to be what they thought, but its key not to just take it as being right. He isn't going to admit that they lacked the bravery or were content with a point. It was the wrong decision and the result wasn't good considering the circumstances. Also I agree with @Bohinen1983 on McFadzean. He clearly purely in defensive terms knows what he is doing, and he is a leader, a proper old school defender through the lower leagues. But his frailties mean that we have to have a 3rd centre back as an attempt to cover them. We clearly dont try to play out from the back nor am I saying we should, but you still need to be somewhat capable on the ball. He just aimlessly lumps the ball in the air more than anyone else. We have limited attackers like Gallagher and Dolan but their job is made impossible when the ball isnt often even lumped in their general direction. He is also so slow that we have to play further back or risk a repeat of the Plymouth game. He should be let go at the end of the season.

They are the cheapest way of getting players as opposed to paying fees or even freebies who can demand higher signing on and agent fees. Hence why we borrow so many. I think it was reported by Rich Sharpe that Poveda was the first one that we paid any sort of fee towards. Unsure if we have since but id hope not. I think hes steady. Nothing special, not quick, and certainly not a wing back. But a solid, consistent left back at this level, good on the ball and reads the game well.

The issue is that all of those permutations are not equally likely so I suspect our chances are certainly higher than 2 in 81, although still a long shot. For example, us losing at Leicester is 90-95% likely id say. Sheffield Wedneday getting a point at Sunderland is over 50% likely I think as well. Its the other 2 games that bring the probability right down.

Centre backs are 6 and 5. Amidst the barrage of jargon that has started to filter into the game for whatever reason, people wrongly see a number 6 as a holding midfielder. Either way, the loans this season have been poor again, 2 seasons under Broughton (maybe low wage contribution available this season has played a part) have seen a lorry load of loanees that have all ranged from underwhelming to total wastes of time. Ayari hasnt played much, Chrisene hasnt played that much, Koumetio hasnt played at all. Moran has been a huge disappointment after all the hype and has barely played for months. You mention Elliott @roverblue but to be fair, Van Hecke and Khadra came in the following season. Mowbray in his time here had some strong relationships with clubs and brought in some very good loanees. That has not continued under Broughton though.

It wont affect the summer business. Absolutely nothing has changed since January when they wouldnt even allow a slither of the Wharton funds to be reinvested on McGuire. Deary me.

Picked wrong then.

Not really sure what relevance that has to the point I made. Although we could have got £50m for him and none would have gone into reinvesting like all Venkys sales so its nothing to be excited about. Johansson has a release clause so us trying to sweeten Rotherham up by loaning them a shit keeper wont make a difference, any team can activate that clause. And it almost certainly wont be us when he will likely have lots of interest and it would require Venkys authorising £1m to be spent especially on a position we have 2 keepers in already. They dont care how bad they are.

He barely played at all but he definitely at least played sometimes as a number 10. I remember watching the game in which he scored for them when the ball just hit him and he played behind 2 strikers and they played wing backs. Certainly didnt play as a 6 as that is a CB's number. Traditionally anyway. But either way, gone off point. The original point was that teams might be less enthusiastic about loaning us players considering how poor our loan signings have been this season and how they have barely played.

If its another expected summer of Venkys cutbacks then I doubt there will be any improvement either in general or up front.

Doesnt sound like something Venkys would purr over. Spending 1m when as far as they are concerned, we already have 2 goalkeepers. They arent too bothered if they are any good or not. He wouldnt come here I dont think anyway, he should get a better move on bigger wages elsewhere. Giving Rotherham a supposed sweetener in Wahlstedt would make no difference to negotiations as anyone can activate that release clause. Plus no way would Steve Evans want Wahlstedt anyway. Based on the one cameo he had, I suspect the only chaos Koumetio would have caused would have been in our own defence. You look at the levels that his previous 2 loans were at and then consider that he couldnt even get regular gametime at those clubs, and you can maybe understand why he hasnt been used here, clearly a very late and desperate move. Pickering is a solid left back at this level and was a key part in the teams that finished 7th and 8th. He is being hung out to dry at the moment under Eustace in a position that doesnt suit him. But Chrisene isnt better than him. Ayari has had a mixture of ineffective cameos and ones where he has had somewhat of an impact, he was decent yesterday. But he came as a number 10 which was one position we didnt need, but with the shit show of a window we had losing Travis and then Wharton, the only place he has had a chance of getting game time in is deeper. I wonder if he could be trusted in that position. Either way, the point is valid that clubs may be less likely to loan us players having seen how little this seasons batch has finished.

He has been absolutely awful in games too. As youd expect from a player signed from the German 4th division. There was no reason to not bring other attacking players on and sacrifice a centre back though, it is just Eustace for you.

Yeah we wont get the result we need, but I can't see 3 results all going against us elsewhere. And you might see people say how unlucky we are if all of those results do go against us. It certainly wont be bad luck if we go down.

I meant that chaddy wouldnt say a bad word about him and was fuming when he left. Now all of a sudden like with Mowbray before, he is happy to criticse him and shield the current manager from any sort of criticism. I agree with you and as we will likely just about stay up, its the first third of the season that has done all of the work under Tomasson.

I dont get why you dont have enough faith in your opinion to just pass it off in favour of McKenna's. We dont even know if he picked him but he wont have seen him week in week out for years like us. That being said, there is an element of truth in what you say about losing him. Hes proven himself over many years to be somewhat effective at this level, he usually gets 8 or 9 goals and he offers other things, I'd say he is Championship standard but bottom half. If we signed a player with his record for a free, we would probably be saying he is a decent squad pick up. We are also likely to be scrambling around in the frees and loan market, and we know from experience that it is difficult to get anyone anywhere near good enough under those conditions, so to get 2 up to standard will be hard. That being said, he has had a particularly bad season this season, especially with his recurring injuries, and he is the top earner. It would be a no brainer to let him go if we had competent owners and room to manouevre budget wise, as we likely wont then it is a bit of a risk but I still think he should probably be let go.

I love how Tomasson has started to get some criticism now he is no longer our manager. Same happened with Mowbray and now Eustace can do no wrong.

Yep, by the owners who decided they clearly wanted Wharton sold so we had no choice, and rejecting substantial Brereton bids when he had a year left.

Not the narrative you ran with when he was here, similar to Tomasson, and more importantly, not relevant to the point I was making.

No, thankfully. I wonder how many first team signings weve made who havent played a senior minute.

In the final season, he wasnt backed at all. He had to sell Armstrong and that summer was all loans and Edun for a nominal fee. Then in January, he spent another nominal fee on Hedges, a couple of loans and Markanday for 500k who instantly tore his hamstring and missed the rest of the season. The death spirals are a result of us constantly having thin/young squads and never getting backed in January, regardless of manager.

Especially when Koumetio is on the bench. His only contribution was a sub appearance in the cup where he seemed unfamiliar with a football.

I dont see how anyone is pining their hopes on a Broughton interview where he merely said that he RECOMMENDS that we invest in the playing squad etc. He knows more than anyone that its probably unlikely, and even though his competence is at best highly dubious, hes a good speaker and it isnt hard to know that the normal thing to do is to reinvest some if we have even a shred of ambition. We did sell Wharton late in the window but dont swallow rubbish about it being too late. Simply because we had a McGuire buy lined up for a fraction of those funds and the owners refused to authorise it. So clearly no willingness to invest. Then there is Armstrong, even if you believe that every single penny had to go to FFP, thats another sale where we didnt reinvest. Then when we sold Rhodes, we got a few loans and didnt buy anyone. Then there is Gestede, Cairney, Hanley, Duffy, the list goes on. On the rare occasions where we have had a bit of money to spend, it hasnt ever been the direct proceeds of a sale. And its usually following a few seasons of frugality so it boosts us a bit but not from a position of strength. They spent 4 or 5 million when Tomasson came having been directly responsible for players leaving for free. They also gave Mowbray 10 million but that was on the back of a League 1 campaign that happened after years of budget cuts that led us there in the first place.

There were plenty of teams between us too. Although the gap we had on Wednesday was considerable has now been wiped. Partly down to them picking up, partly down to us picking up less than a point a game since.

Im not saying they will or can be. Just that holding any of the clueless employees they keep in situ on behalf of them is fairly pointless.

We had a 7 point buffer when he came in.(I think)