roversfan99

The plan will be different next season. Unless something dramatically changes, Tronstad, Cantwell, Carter, Wharton etc will have to leave.

They also said that they think that the squad is stronger. So why wouldnt they commit to saying that the aim is the play offs seeing as we finished 7th with a weaker squad, in their eyes?

Theres a lot here but you say that some of the players that have left werent giving 100%. What makes you say that?

The video is as everyone expected. A heavily sanitised pile of shit. Hand picked questions, the 3 of them sat comfortably knowing they wouldnt be pulled up on anyone. I dont think any of them come across well, I would love to know what Ismael really thinks about the window. Gestede in particular is not a likeable figurehead and again reverted back to the crap about a minority spreading division. Some take away points to mention are again the painting of players as just wanted to move without any probing. Why are no players willing to sign here? Is our wage budget really that restrictive? Where the offers put to them in writing as it feels like we happily got rid of players earning competitive Championship wages? The contract record or lack of over an extended period of time cant just be ignored. Ismael also said that this was a summer of transition that wont happen again. Why not? Loads of other players are out of contract in 1 or 2 seasons, what will change? Will players finally start signing up here? It also seems that we wont be signing another defender. Love how they are pushing that Miller is one of 4 centre backs now based partly on a cup game, and it seems like TGH is going to cover right back. Which only leaves Tavares who has been very questionable to partner Tronstad. They also mentioned how much pace we have now. In attack, have we? None of the attackers we signed seem quick. They also kept pushing Montgomery, I havent seen this development that they have seen. Also, whats going on with Pears? When is Baradji back fit?

They arent top class. Guehi is the better of the 2, but hes not a top class defender. Konsa is a good Premier League player. Left back is possibly the biggest concern. Ultimately they werent tested too much against a very defensive Serbian side. Wharton has played 1 international friendly. We know he has potentiala nd ability but he has to prove that he is "made for international football." Anderson has more to prove too. And left wing. Grealish has been out in the cold for years, has started well at Everton but its 2 games. Gordon very hit and miss for me. Madueke better on the right. The problem is, you always will say that England players are better than they are. Obviously we do have some very good players, and ultimately its subjective. But I think the current set of England players is down a level from previous tournaments due to key defensive players aging/being past their best and out in the cold, and there are imbalances. Wouldnt have us as a serious contender to win it personally.

Defence, left wing, holding midfield. Question marks across all those positions, both in terms of quality and who will play. Tonight was an excellent performance against a limited side, we blew them away, but its important to not get too carried away, same as on the flip side where we call for a change of manager after scraping past minnows in Andorra. We will learn very little from such a poor group in which weve essentially already qualified.

Even for us. What an absolutely ridiculous signing.

You are just making up random figures and suggesting that players are wanting wage structure shattering amounts based on nothing, purely to defend the club. The concept of a wage structure does not invalidate the point that it is extremely damaging to be in a position where we cant keep any of our main players on new deals. It depends what that wage structure is and the ceiling to ours is clearly not competitive enough. You keep saying fixating because you are underappreciating the fact that as expected, the issue has totally undermined the whole summer window. The overhaul has been more than anyone including the manager would have wanted because instead of topping up a solid core of players with a few additions, we have had to blow apart that core and replace it with cheaper replacements from abroad, all at the same time. Your last jibe is just totally out of context and is not specific to our club. If the TV money for everyone goes up, and wages across the board go up, yet ours keep going down, that doesnt keep us competitive.

Yes I am yearning for something that isnt happening. I am also desperate for Venkys to sell up, that isnt happening either but it doesnt dampen that desire at all. My and many other peoples point is that it is a huge problem that we are unable to get any contracts sorted with current important players. Its not the odd one which would be understandable. Us being able to sign new players from abroad at a fraction of the cost of wages of those leaving doesnt disprove that. I dont get why you are being so pedantic about whether its an inability or a choice as the end result is the same either way. You could argue it is an inability within the very low budget set under the owners. We certainly have been unable to sort contracts out, that is a fact.

Obviously it is choice. They are choosing not to pay competitive Championship wages. Hence why nearly all of our signings are from smaller leagues abroad, often players relegated so their wage demands will be comparatively tiny. You make it sound like the likes of Travis and Hyam in particular just werent very good and we chose to discard them.

I dont get why people correlate it with potential transfer funds. They have to cover losses every year. It is in their best interests obviously to not have to have that guarantee in place purely to do that.

We will see. Assuming they become established and their value goes up and they want better money, I am sure we wont agree with that either. Just to clarify. You dont have any worries at all with our inability to get new contracts sorted for current players?

I dont think the rules are different but their window closed ever so slightly after ours. For example, they were selling Idah and wanted a striker called Dolberg who in the end chose against joining. So they went for Iheanacho very late before the deadline. To get the deal done, he agreed to rip up his contract at (I think) Sevilla so that he was a free agent when the Scottish window closed to allow him to then sign for free.

We have gone one step further and literally signed a replacement for our captain who is injured right now with an unknown return date.

Exactly this. Its an excellent deflection tactic to start going off on tangents about individuals. Its the pattern. The indefensible pattern.

Its only Ribeiro as a first teamer (and even he was a weird short term deal that then got extended) out of any of our players that have signed new contracts over the last 2 seasons. That is the fact. Go off on all the tangents you like to try and justify it, but that is not normal. Brittain, Travis, Dolan, Batth, Hyam, Weimann. And Tronstad also unsigned. But yes, just 3.

Again, I am saying what the decision IMO should have been. You are just taking everything literally and assuming that if the club did it, then its probably correct. Equally, replacing Travis with an injured loanee doesnt make sense.

It wasnt too good to turn down for Hyam. Maybe you could argue earlier in the window. But his value to us massively increased so late in the window. Take Guehi as an example. £40m was a great offer for someone who will otherwise leave for free. But they couldnt get a replacement so had to keep him. That £2.7m taken will be offset by a much greater risk of relegation. There wasnt clearly any chance of getting any of them to sign because we cant sort the contracts of current players. Which is a massive problem that undermines any other plans we have, and any other decisions we make. He played Travis in every game and he remained as his captain. Theres no suggestion that he was happy to move him on as if he had fallen behind in the "plan."

Offer better terms and also offer deals earlier. I know it is obvious that its not happening. We clearly arent offering competitive Championship wages hence why only Ribeiro has signed a deal in 2 years from our first team. And believe it or not, thats my grievance.

You are making massive assumptions, including assuming massive wage demands, and are also trying to pull the debate off onto tangents about individual players. Again, the worry is that we havent got a new deal sorted for any key player in years. Its not one or two, its EVERYONE. So that suggests that even if its true that we would have to "break our wage structure" to get any to sign. Then our wage structure is too restrictive to begin with. And it wont help that we wait so long to offer deals in the first place. You are fixated by this Ismael throwing him under the bus situation. Yes, I still think the same but its not very important in the grand scheme of things, its not the problem. Ismael had question marks over man management at previous clubs and with incidents like that and also the Pears one, I can see why. Obviously you after a blip are fully in defence of everything he does, but in this case as I said its not a big deal and not the problem so dont fixate over it.

It will work in reducing the wage bill. It wont help from a footballing perspective. Nothing has changed in terms of being able to sort out contracts. And I suspect you know that, even if you have now been trying to claim that Ismael just was happy to let them go anyway.

There is no way that he was happy to get rid of all of those players. Certainly if he has even a shred of competence. They are more than capable of signing players yes on really cheap wages from abroad. But again, we move away from the pattern. No one is signing contracts. Its not the odd player who has outgrown us or the odd one we want or are happy to discard. Its beyond that. You speak as if the club hae changed for the better.

Gueye is worse than Gallagher although I am not sure why he gets a mention. I would be pleased if I never saw Gueye in a Rovers shirt again because he weakens the team so much when he plays. Thats all my point was. I do sort of get the logic especially if its only a loan offer to keep temporarily due again to lack of recruitment but even if he stays I hope he isnt ever needed. Sort of get the point about potentially being short but its not comparable to losing Hyam who not only was a key player but we are genuinely ridicilously short in that position without him.

You are just making figures up to defend the club. A club that cant get any of its current first team players to sign over such an extended period, that pattern suggests a huge problem and has massively undermined the whole summer as many expected it to do. We dont have time to wait for the potential replacement for our captain if hes out for ages. Travis was a box to box midfielder and a bloody effective one at this level. Lets not pretend his departure was part of a tactical overhaul.

Its not the same and you know it. You are purposely avoiding the fact that we have become totally unable to get current first team players to sign new deals. The only one in two years was Ribeiro who initially signed on a strange short term deal and then extended it. Its not normal. If you think that what we have seen suggests that contractual issues have been left in the past and we have learnt our lessons, then I suspect that you are in a very small minority.