I don’t actually disagree with this, but I think that’s more of an indictment on where the game is going. I think we will see more and more young defenders released by academy sides over the coming years for not being as technically proficient who will go on to establish themselves in the lower leagues before moving back up the pyramid. It’s already quite frequent. Another discussion for another thread on another day, but there is a real danger technical proficiency is being valued over being able to influence games.

Well he needs a job more suited to his talents and experience. Him and Benson should be in each other’s roles.

I’m basing mine on how horrific he was when called upon last season, as well as Saturdays debacle. In the previous games this season there were some worrying moments caused by his poor positioning. Fortunately he was very well protected by our superb first choice back 5.

I’m fairly confident he’d still be better than Pears.

Bobby Mimms did great when he was here. He’s currently out of work.

I don’t think Nyambe’s would look as flashy as the Dutch lads. Most of Nyambe’s game is solid but unspectacular. This is certainly no bad thing, and a Gary Neville highlights package would probably be quite boring for a YouTube video. Much of the criticism levelled at Nyambe comes from people who only see 3 minutes of highlights on Quest every week. He’s certainly more loved in Ewood than on social media.

Thinking in a bit more depth about the soon to be out of contract players and their offers… These figures are a mixture of reports, guesswork and conjecture, but theoretically, let’s imagine the “contact rebels” deals look something like this: Nyambe on 4k, offered 6k, wants 10k Rothwell on 5k, offered 10k, wants 15k Lenihan on 12k, offered 15k, wants 20k The wages we have offered would equate to an extra half million a year. The wages they are requesting would equate to an extra 1.2 million a year. It’s no secret that the club have been very much watching the pennies since the Covid outbreak (yes, I know there is an argument about wasted money on Hart, Smallwood etc), but Waggott has obviously been instructed to slash costs wherever possible. A pay freeze across club staff was implemented. None of this is really surprising as the latest accounts made horrific reading. I can’t remember if each of these had the extension triggered in the summer, but by taking up a year option on each player, wherein they are paid at the same rate for another 12 months, the club saves half a million quid. If they had upped their offers and met the theoretical demands outlined above, they have added 1.2 million to the wage bill “unnecessarily”. Obviously it’s a lot more nuanced than that, but you can see why it might actually be appealing for the club to let their deals run right down, and why any offer on the table may have been a lowball. If this is the case you might think the players may be a little bit aggrieved, but this certainly doesn’t show in their performances or their reactions on the pitch. They are obviously all committed to the cause. The stick that one and only one is getting is an absolute disgrace, but I digress… If we were in our usual new year position, somewhere around mid-table, no danger of relegation but not troubling the playoff spots, then we’d probably look at negotiating with these players at somewhere in between our original offer and their demands. However, while there is the possibility of promotion the players would be mad to sign new terms, unless eventual promotion clauses were specifically written in. So, it probably suited the club for them not to sign extensions during the summer. It suits the players not to sign them now. A definitive statement from the club stating that no players are currently for sale, and no further contract discussion will take place until the season finishes would be ideal. The only minimal risk there comes from a potential approach from a foreign team.

The next week or so should be a good sign of our intent. If we’ve got players in and around Brockhall worth a view to signing, let’s get them done quick. For the last few windows we’ve seemed to procrastinate and let things drag before frantically scrabbling round for the last couple of hours. We have ended up missing out on targets for whatever reason, and not had enough time to find alternatives. Another example, it seemed to take weeks to get the Tosin loan over the line. The owners, board and management team all need to recognise the opportunity we currently have, and not let poor decisions and convoluted processes nause up all the hard work so far.

It’s nothing to do with a salary CAP, its to do with our wage structure. Academy graduates are on a rigid structure. Players we sign are on a different one. This is why Davenport has earned more than Nyambe since he first signed. Unless we have some flexibility in the current framework we will have the exact same issues with Travis in a year.

We have to ensure that we deviate as little as possible from our tried and tested back 6 for the remainder of the season. We have little option but to use Edun over the next few games, and Ayala and Van Hecke can both only play in the middle. The Nyambe speculation needs putting to bed, and he needs to be playing. And some of our fans, particularly those on social media, need to stop being dicks. Horrible showing against a poor, lower league team. Even on a real off day like today we’d have dispatched them with relative ease were it not for the worst goalkeeping display I have ever seen from a Rovers player.

Yet we’ve still looked shaky at the back, got two of them on yellows, and aren’t attacking out from the back with our usual threat.

Today is a hell of an advert for a settled back 5! Missing Wharton and Nyambe big time Don’t think Van Hecke and Ayala are suited to playing together. One or the other.

Big worry today is an injury happening. Seems like it happens frequently against Wigan. I worry for our midfield three.

Yes, Adam.

Loyalty was a word used several times by Waggott when discussing Lenihan.

Waggott’s exact words to me and @PeteJD13were “It’s not all about the money with Ryan, his academy in Namibia is very important to him…” This was after he’d talked about Lenihan’s demands being unrealistic and Rothwell fancying a move to Rangers who were looking at him that afternoon. The context was that he was most hopeful of Nyambe signing the deal that was in front of him, and his demands weren’t miles away from the offer. He put Nyambe across as very level headed and grounded, whereas he was pretty critical of Lenihan. I also got the feeling Waggott was well aware the offer wasn’t all that competitive. He spoke a lot about the difficulties the pandemic had caused and how there was a tightening of belts in all areas. This was obviously before our recent upturn in form.

Don’t really disagree with your assessment on Pickering, and I don’t think his or Nyambe’s “injury issues” are an issue at this point. I think those figures are about right to be honest, and I think Nyambe would’ve signed for less than that 18 months ago. We’ve left it too late though. Any of the three out of contract players would be daft to sign a deal with us at this point in time unless the existing contract offers are torn up and re-written to include appropriate and hefty promotion clauses. My preferred approach right now would be to put all negotiations to bed, and hopefully revisit them in May when we can discuss their salaries as Premier League players. None would be sold, unless there is a daft bid comes in. I don’t believe the Leeds Nyambe link one bit, but 3 million would be an amount I don’t think we could knock back, and we couldn’t stand in his way for a move to an established Prem team and a chance to increase his wage by at least 500%. This is from a post I put up a couple of weeks back… That’s funny, because Steve Waggott told me the following: ”It’s not all about the money with Ryan. There are other factors - his academy in Namibia is very important to him.” This was a few weeks ago, and things may have changed, but it doesn’t support the narrative he is either greedy or unrealistic. Besides that, people need to stop thinking of “wage structure” in such simple terms - it’s not just a one size fits all wage cap. One of the issues that has long been reported is that academy graduates get a raw deal compared to players we sign from elsewhere. Their wages are bound by a fairly rigid structure; each contract they sign is capped at an increasing amount. Nyambe has only played about 40 games less than Lenihan, but is 3 and a half years younger. Same age as Trav, but 60% more career appearances. He’s also younger than Harry Chapman, and has been paid less than Chapman over the course of their contracts. So Nyambe is likely hitting his fourth pro contract, and is currently in the same pay bracket as Wharton, who is a couple of months older. Our famed structure brackets Nyambe as an academy graduate rather than a full international with 170 first team appearances to his name. It’s not about breaking the structure, but being pragmatic with its application. What I really think ought to be happening now is Waggott and Mowbray need to be explaining to Venky’s that this is their opportunity to turn Rovers into an asset rather than a massive liability. Mowbray always says selling decisions are down to the owners, so persuading them not to “cash in” on any of these players is a must. They have chucked good money after bad for a decade, but if for once they can show some restraint and common sense, take a calculated gamble and some decent advice, there’s a chance we can start talking about what they have done for us rather than what they have done to us.

190 appearances for the club having just turned 24 isn’t bad for someone who is “very injury prone”. Rankin Costello would need to add 150 appearances to his career total by the end of next season to get near Nyambe’s games ratio. Pickering is out with a hamstring issue for the second time this season, and he’s already featured less than the very injury prone player… maybe hamstring issues are just an occupational hazard for a Mowbray fullback?

Sky Sports outlets throughout the world make millions of pounds peddling transfer rumours with little or no foundation. I might get a bit more excited about it if Rich Sharpe gets an inside track from the club.

Sounds like a lad who has had a good footballing education, won’t have been on much money at all at Groningen, but you think his Hertha wages might be a stumbling block. I’m no expert, but might there be possible work permit issues too? Good age, and much more positive about a signing like this than Cyrus Christie. Not giving it too much thought until something from a more reputable source appears though. I wasn’t sure about Pickering until our recent good run - I’m loath to say much that’s critical about any of our current starting 11, in the last few months they have really stepped up to the plate as a team. I do think Pickering was anointed by some last January as a wonder signing, and sometimes the praise has been a bit OTT. He looked defensively shaky at times during his early games. He had an utter horrorshow away at Huddersfield, though everyone is capable of one of them. I think he’s adapting pretty well to the step up and has been solid but unspectacular since. Another spell out though, yet his hamstrings aren’t questioned like Nyambe’s! I think he’s given far more of a pass due to not being Amari’i Bell.

The next published accounts will read very differently from the last. Bell, Mulgrew, Bennett, Downing, Evans, Holtby and Armstrong between them will have accounted for a massive percentage of our wage bill. The youngsters and loanees we have stopped paying will probably be similar to the amount in wages of those we have brought in. Added to the fact we now have match day revenue and ticket sales coming in again, the picture does look better - still far from perfect. From what both Waggott and Mowbray have said. They believe they have made “good offers”. There hasn’t been any talk of improved deals in the last 3 months or so, when the aforementioned changes have all really become apparent.

I actually think this is massively important. We have been told over the last few weeks that the deals for Nyambe, Lenihan and Rothwell have been on the table for 18 months and remains unsigned. 18 months ago Joe Rothwell was an inconsistent and often frustrating bit part player, nobody could decide what his best position was, and the opinion of many on here was “he can’t play central midfield in a 2”. 18 months ago Darragh Lenihan looked like he’d peaked with mid table championship his ceiling. He seemed prone to rash decisions and costly errors of judgement. While he sometimes wore the armband, he wasn’t our dedicated captain and there were many more senior players like Mulgrew, Bennett, Evans, Holtby and Downing around, presumably with more influence. 18 months ago Ryan Nyambe was a raw 22 year old, trying to nail down the right back spot as his own, with questions over his ability to remain injury free for sustained periods. 18 months ago Blackburn Rovers looked to be content with Championship mediocrity. Never in any real danger of relegation, but content to tread water in the lower mid-table area of the Championship. We were restricted to playing games behind closed doors, so revenues were down, and we had a bloated squad full of high earners in their 30s. Everything has changed over the last 18 months, apart from the terms on offer.

I’m hoping all the speculation around the soon to be out of contract players dies down and we crack on with the task in hand. Any of them would be stupid to sign a contract that we are led to believe has been on the table for 18 months. The situation has changed completely in that time, tying themselves to a Championship wage within our rigid structure (structure, not cap) when we look to have a decent chance of promotion would be daft. Potential last big contracts for Lenihan and Rothwell who would be the wrong side of 30 when these deals end, and a first big contract for Nyambe who Mowbray states has developed beyond a youth team player. Get promoted and revisit it in May!

If we are going by History, 10th - 12th in the country is our level.

. Pears Magloire Ayala Carter JRC Cirino Johnson Davenport Butterworth Dolan Gallagher Eastham Brown Phillips Garrett Harlock Brennan Baker Take this game out of the reckoning for the first team. Give them a weekend off. They can concentrate on the league.