roversfan99

I agree, said the same the other day. Even if we sign a centre back, Hyam and Carter will start. Kargbo and Hedges will be wide with De Neve on the bench and Tavares wont start even if he is fit.

We also did well when we had McCarthy, Bellamy, Jansen etc banging in the goals. We havent done particularly well in the last 15 years regardless of who we have had. In fact, some of our highest finishes in that time did include a main goalscorer or 2.

For every striker who has underwhelmed in the Championship before ending up a Champions League club a year later, I suspect that quite a lot more do not have the same progression.

I think the way the club is run sort of makes regular criticism the natural course of action. But like you, I said I didnt want Forshaw to sign a contract. Difference being, now he has I am not going out of my way to defend the decision. Because again like you, I disagreed with it. Some of those 7 goals that arent a big deal would have come in handy in those games. Glad you agree.

We certainly didnt create loads of chances in the season before last. We just had a player who became clinical.

Yeah, he probably wont play much. But when he does from the start, he isnt good enough. You speak as if it doesnt matter who is backup because they wont play much. Also, one of those 7 goals would have got us into the play offs. No big deal though according to you. Just stick to your guns. You dont have to defend a club decision you have clearly said that you dont agree with.

And Eustace, who certainly got the side performing beyond the sum of its individual parts. We scored 7 less but conceded 26 less. We didnt fill the void and people didnt chip in to make up the difference. But overall as a team we did better because we were so much stronger defensively. 3 key variables that led to that (Batth, Eustace, Beck) have now gone and Brittain may follow so lets hope that doesnt cause a regression there.

As above. Everyone didnt chip in to fill the void, we scored 7 fewer goals. We did better as a team but our attack was worse.

We didnt fill the void left in attack though.

Yes, you gave your opinion on Forshaw that you wanted him to go. Since we renewed his contract you have bent over backwards to justify it. No good having squad players who if needed to start a few games arent up to it. Jason Lowe should be re-signed as he would also only be a back up and has plenty of Championship experience. If thats literally what is needed. Or Corry Evans. We need 1 or 2 centre backs, a right back, a right winger, a number 10 and a striker as a minimum. Then probably replacements for Travis, Brittain and Tronstad seeing as we havent bothered to even offer any new deals.

People did say that we wouldnt fill the void when Szmodics left. And we didnt. We scored 7 less goals and no one hit double figures.

I think Legia are playing tonight and he isnt involved. But wasnt an issue that he didnt want to come to a Championship side? Before you even consider finances.

Crucially of a team that didnt score enough goals to begin with, that never even as a team came close to filling the Szmodics void and whose attack is the main (on pitch) weakness. We are still 3 attackers light and loads of goals. Badly need a right winger straight for the first team, it always seems to be a debate between people thinking that Hedges is a reasonable squad player or simply not good enough, then he ends uo being a regular. We need someone to compete with Cantwell off the striker, and another proper striker. Ohashi I dont see being prolific but Gueye certainly wont be. Even wide left, we dont really know what we have on our hands

I see that Elliott Jackson is basically reported that we wont be replacing Batth and Weimann. Bit of a propaganda piece justifying the decision and even saying that there is no downside to giving Forshaw a new deal. What about that he isnt good enough? I dont get how you can go from thinking you need say 6 or 7 to still needing the exact same number after 2 unexpected exits. Surely you decided on a certain squad size for a reason. I recall that the stats regarding us starting new signings on opening day are particularly low and I wouldnt be surprised to see none in the side on opening day this season. The 2 we have signed feel like squad signings (especially De Neve) and I wouldnt be surprised to see a bit of a wait before anyone else comes in. The only change to that IMO would be if any of Brittain/Travis/Tronstad leave beforehand. I feel like our main 11 will include Hyam, Carter, Brittain and probably Ribeiro, probably Toth in goal, Travis and Tronstad and then Cantwell, Kargbo, sadly Hedges and then Yuki. We will just sign 4 to pad things out, and we do need better squad players but we need more than that and also to improve our main 11.

Gestede specifically mentioned free agents when he talked about plans this summer. But especially with domestic based ones, I am guessing the financials have proved too much (signing on fees and wages) on our budget.

And hes laughing as so many willingly hand over their money. The answer of "things change in football all the time" to a question about signings is the perfect example of what he does.

Dolan clearly isnt crap. Hes clearly a Championship level player. And we have not struggled to find players that contribute much less than him in a similar position.

In the transfer kitty?

I have been critical of Dolan but he has improved this season especially since he has played on the right. He is a good Championship wide man, not outstanding or stand out but he is our best player by quite a bit in that position. If we signed him for a million from another Championship club, we would see it as a good signing. Its not impossible that he makes a poor career move and doesnt kick on but some of the crap on here because he is leaving us this morning is laughable.

I have never once said that I dont favour youth players coming through. You suggested that we can rely on Montgomery though. I dont get how you can possibly have come to that conclusion yet.

"Its on him and his agent." You dont seem to acknowledge that theres a chance we simply did not offer a reasonable wage for a player at his level. Also, how can we "rely" on a player who has made only 1 start above the 8th tier, at right back, when he got sent off? As well as 3 or 4 other cameos. We could hope he will at some stage be ready, but we cant or at least shouldnt just assume that he is ready now. By all means keep him around and give him a chance here and there where required, but we cant "rely on him yet as we would do so without any evidence.

Its an impossible question to answer though about any player. We dont know what hes on, what our top earner is on, what the average is etc. People like to quote random websites but you cant trust them, I suspect they get them from football manager or something similar as they cant possibly know. There is a chance of course that he as an individual has unreasonable demands. But as you touch on, 18 months ago his stock wasnt as high, nor was his bargaining power. Thats the one where I struggle to accept that he was asking for silly money beyond our pay structure. The contract he has been on will be very low because he signed it so long ago. The main issue is beyond Dolan anyway, if only one or even two players had refused to sign it might not be worrying. The other issue is the timing, when we wait so long we get to the point where the players power is higher and they also have more reason to justify a higher wage. The club can also spill out that their demands are beyond our wage structure.

How is it a simple question to possibly know what he currently earns, what he was offered, what he wants etc? All that is clear is that we have failed to offer a number of key players in the last few years sufficient terms to get them to sign new deals, so it goes beyond one or two unreasonable sets of demands or dodgy agents.

Well obviously not. I think we can deduct though based on the sheer quantity of important players that we have failed to renew the contracts of. That the pattern suggests that its not just isolated and silly wage demands. My response wasnt made to be taken so literally.

Chaddy, how could I possibly know what he or indeed any player would accept or is even paid? I dont need to know either. He was offered a deal 18 months ago that he didnt deem satisfactory so didnt sign it and hasnt been offered one since. Whether I thought x and you thought why is irrelevant to whether Ismael will be happy with how the squad is going into pre season tomorrow. You are keener than anyone to take every word he says as gospel, he said he wanted 90% done. I dont think that was realistic but he clearly wanted a big chunk of business done ahead of a full pre season. I would argue that 2 ins, 2 unexpected outs on top of Dolan etc who we knew about, and still crucially absolutely no clarity on 4 key players and their futures doesnt really fit that remit. On Forshaw, you havent been keen to stick to your guns and say that you dont agree with the renewal. Since it happened, in typical chaddy fashion youve just endorsed it repeatedly.