roversfan99

You also said that Tomasson and Eustace were aligned.

It happens though. Sometimes a player comes in with little evidence that he will be a good and he will considerably exceed expectations. And sometimes a player comes in who is a big name or has done well in the past and be crap here. If people arent convinced by a player, they shouldnt be told not to judge until he has played for us. Judge away positively or negatively, as long as you are flexible to say when you get it wrong. You could easily say it shows how well Batth has done that hes massively exceeded expectations rather than it being a case of dont say anything negative. He could barely get a kick at another Championship club and was already well into his 30s, those concerns werent illogical or invalid just because thankfully he went on to do really well for us.

We dont know if they are aligned or not. I suspect if we have to lose key players having not offered new deals that Ismael wont be too happy.

To write someone off would be final. To say that you dont agree with a signing is not writing someone off if they then do well and you praise them. If people were saying now that Batth has been a shit signing despite his performances then that would prove that you did write them off and nothing could change your mind. I mean its not true that im negative about every signing. But even if I was, that isnt writing players off. Also, this only works one way. Take Cantwell, I was all for him signing, he had a poor season but no one ever goes back and says you shouldnt assume a singing will be good before theyve played.

But the fact that people perhaps didnt want Batth (although I dont recall him being that badly received) and now are desperate for him to stay proves that people DIDNT write him off before a ball was kicked. Otherwise he would have been unable to change those peoples mind. And proves that people have judged him on what he has done in a Rovers shirt.

People do judge based on how they play for Rovers. If they didnt then people wouldnt have adjusted their opinion based on how well he did. The opposite of writing him off before a ball is kicked. But when a player signs, people will likely have positive or negative opinions based on whatever they have. Whether they have seen the player lots or whether its more limited. People should freely share their opinions otherwise this thread is null and void.

He is definitely better with a more dominant partner but he won player of the season next to Carter in his first season here. Carter when he has played in the last 2 years has been shaky yet for some reason all of the criticism goes to Hyam. We cant afford to lose key experienced players and he is one.

You said that he wont be an immediate enigma.

Chaddy will be straight in to remind you of Ribeiro, a player who we only signed a couple of months prior. Its an absolute joke. The excuse they always use mid season is that they dont want to do it in case we change division, or to not distract the player. Mid season is the opportune time to do it when you arent focusing on bringing in new players. Now we are left in a position where we have to simultaneously bring in new players and try to sign our best players on new contracts. These players havent even been offered new deals which suggests that there is no appetite within because these are players who can justify competitive Championship players.

An immediate enigma? He may well be an immediate enigma but that wouldnt be good.

We seem to be looking further afield for players which is fine but you need a proven group of Championship ready players to guide them. You look at our core of best, proven Championship players. Brittain, Travis, Tronstad and Hyam all have a year left and are at risk of sale. Batth and Dolan are off.

We wont be loaning him out. But how do you know if Ismael rates him?

Kargbo only has 2 years left on his deal without even mentioning an option. That was very strange to give him such a short contract.

Not sure that Hedges and attack go in the same sentence.

Seems to have snowballed from a bit ofna windup, although I think Bendoni is a fairly well known journalist. We wouldnt pay the fee anyway, but hes crap.

The thing about that back 4 was that it was set in stone. There is so much uncertainty now. Left back is a real problem, Lewis Skelly has been fast tracked and isnt totally convincing and Hall again is a bit of an unknown. At right back, you are replacing one of the very best full backs in the world at the time. Trent is the obvious option there but Walker at his peak could neutralise any wide man, although his continued inclusion is unwelcome. Im not convinced that any of the back 4 can be fully confident of being a starter next summer and thats not a healthy position to be in. And its not because we have loads of quality.

Has anyone suggested that they wont support him or that they dont wish him the best?

The idea would make sense to get a manager proven to win trophies in order to get over the line. Southgate built a base on team spirit but came up short whenever he came up against a good team. Problem is, that platform isnt necessarily there, the squad of players has now regressed and is not at the level of previous tournaments. Much of the base and the foundations have aged and are over the hill now. You are left with a sub par set of defenders People mention the likes of Wharton, Branthwaite, Lewis Skelly, Livramento etc as players coming through but they are not top level players, yet anyway. Wharton is as close as any but unproven at the highest level. It feels like we are between generations/cycles of players with The mess at the end of yesterdays game saw maybe 4 players who all want to play in the same position all crammed in similar to what Carsley did. All of our best players do the same things in the same position. We are miles away from the levels of the likes of Spain.

If Curtis Jones, Connor Gallagher and Jordan Henderson are serious contenders to anchor the midfield then you probably arent going to get very far. Same with the likes of Colwill, Chalobah and Burn at centre back. The vast majority of the attacking players all want to play the same position and its not the first attempt to try and squeeze them on together. If you even play 2 of Bellingham, Palmer, Eze, Gibbs White, Rogers and Foden at the same time then you are going to end up imbalanced.

England are miles away from the worlds best. Defensively so poor and confused and imbalanced in attack.

I dont think I was too unfair, especially as I essentially reserved judgement on 2 of the 4. Gueye for the majority of the season was really poor. He did have a decent run of games but that proved the anomoly and it didnt last for 3 months. I dont rate him personally, he only scored 6 goals and of our 19 league wins, only 6 came in the 23 he started. Toth in his initial games was really shaky but looked much better in the last 4 or 5 games, albeit he was rarely tested as we reverted to being excellent defensively. Like with Kargbo, there is something to cling to in terms of something to build on but neither has proven themselves as a success yet, for circumstances beyond their control. Either way, I certainly dont see evidence in our foreign recruitment to just assume theyll get it right. I disagree. As mentioned above, poor goal record (worse than all but one of your mate Gallagher's seasons here), we won significantly less games when he started and he was a liability more often than not.

We need to have at least 2 options in every position but particularly in attacking areas. You need options off the bench more than ever, especially if Ismael plans to play a pressing game, he is known for regular subs on the hour mark once he has run his players into the ground. Kargbo and De Neve can presumably just rotate with one starting and the other coming on. Im not sure theyve worked out to the extent that we just give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that their judgement is really good. Ohashi has been a good pick up for the cost, Gueye a poor one and both Toth and Kargbo have not really played much. Hopefully this lad will be a shrewd addition.

Based on the limited we know, hardly an inspiring and exciting signing. The Belgian journalist in the Lancashire Telegraph seemed surprised with big question marks over his quality and an expectation that he would stay in the Belgian second division. That being said, he is apparently quite quick and we have sorely lacked any speed in our side for a while. One player who seems to be stunted more than anyone by this was Cantwell who needs movement and pace around him to thrive I think. And hes still quite young so hopefully he can improve at a higher level. I wonder if the plan is that Kargbo will be first choice on the left and De Neve will be competition as Kargbo himself appears to be very raw. We need goals in the attack as we didnt score enough and the attack isnt good enough. Hopefully that will come through signings right across the front line which needs an overhaul, we need a first choice winger as well as needing a striker and number 10. It is imperative that we keep and extend the deals of the core of the side (Tronstad, Travis, Brittain and Hyam) amidst trying to find value abroad which on its own makes a lot of sense. It wouldnt warrant praise as deals should have been sorted long ago for these players but for lots of excuses. I fear that the plan is to allow at least some of the higher earning key players mentioned to go and replace with foreign players on cheaper wages. But lets see. And to qualify everything. Like anyone else, will be judged on how he plays here, obviously.

Im not the only person to conclude that.