SuperBrfc

Good thread. We had a great opportunity back then to make real headway in the league, at least up until 2000. Money wasn't the issue, as we saw with the heavy spending in '98. We could and should, have been competing with United and Arsenal up until the end of the 90's. We made a bit of a fist of it in 97/98 but started to fall away in Feb of that season (It's always February with us!) For some reason Jack decided not to strengthen us in the summer of '95 and it's something I often look back on and think what might have been. Weren't Zidane and Dugarry at our training ground that summer? They both would have been fantastic signings. Sol Campbell, Ruel Fox and Les Ferdinand would have been excellent business that summer too. I always rated Ruel Fox. A box of tricks, I remember him running us ragged in a game at Ewood in Feb '98 when Spurs won 3-0. He scored in injury time too that day to cap off a miserable afternoon. I read somewhere recently that we had a chance to sign Ruel Fox but Jack didn't want him. I don't know how true that rumour is though.

QPR feeling the heat. That's one of their games in hand wasted too. Brilliant! It should be a belting game at Ewood in a couple of weeks time.

3rd for me. We have a solid defensive base which hasn't been the case in recent years. If we can pinch the lead in games I am confident we can see a lot of them out. Teams around us have to face each other, whilst some are bound to have a dip at some point too. Good to see QPR having a wobble! I think (and hope) we are about to snap out of our mini dip in form. It would not surprise me to see us beat Millwall, QPR and Sheff United within the next few games.

Brown should be given a chance ahead of JRC. Never understood what the fuss was about JRC in the first place.

Come on Rovers, nothing to fear here! This lot have been shite for months.

An interesting thread for the net geeks, Nuttall. Box netting for me every time over the loop. I wasn't a fan of the netting and stanchions used at Ewood pre '95/96. Now this will sound geeky (or sad, take your pick) but the design of the netting at Ewood changed every season for a good few years from '95/96 onwards. It was still a box net but you'll notice from watching highlights that the pattern of the goal net was different in '95/96 than it was in '96/97 and '97/98. My favourite nets at Ewood are those from '97/98. Perfect box shape, good design. I noticed in '01/02 and maybe in '02/03 we went with a narrower looking net, by that I mean there wasn't as much distance from the goal line to the back of the net so there wasn't that box look. Don't know what you thought of those, Nuttall? I didn't like them. We did go back to more of a box shape in 03/04 though. I think my interest in goal nets goes back to the days of Subbuteo when as a kid I was fascinated by the different types of goals and netting you could buy. My dad wasn't though, as you can imagine! Ha. I can't say I've paid much attention to the Ewood nets this past decade. They've been a bit 'meh' as most things have been under these owners. I think we went with blue netting temporarily a few years ago, but it didn't interest me much at the time due to the state that the club was in. I think the manager at the time, it might have been Lambert or Mowbray even, asked for the netting to be changed back to white. Anyway, good topic.

Even though others below us are winning games, Bournemouth are the ones I want Rovers to be gunning for. The antics of that club over the past few days has added extra spice to the rest of this season and I quite like that. We've had plenty of bland seasons with PNE as the only game with an 'edge'. This time we're really fighting for something and Bournemouth know it. Bring it on, I say. I wasn't all that fussed about them up until Saturday, but their behaviour since then has got me going into Keegan mode. Clearly rattled, they try to unsettle Rothwell and our squad. They go on a spending spree to try and blow us out of the automatic race. Then to top it off they beat us to Dembele. The pressure is on Parker and I'm going to enjoy watching them drop points. Just hope we can keep applying the pressure, a win on Saturday would be a big help in that regard. I'm also loving the fact that 6 out of our next 7 are on Sky, there should be more to come later on too, you'd think. It's going to be nervy and exciting to watch it all unfold. COYB.

Just been reading the Hibs forum. I won't do a copy and paste, but one of the posters there says it all. Here's a jist of what he has said: "We have made a significant investment in revamping the Youth Academy under Steve Kean". "We have used the January window to massively invest in the future, rather than focusing on the present". "Investing in youth, developing them, getting them into the first team and then selling them on for big money is clearly what Gordon, Kean and Kensell want to do". "I am all for investing in youth, but a danger sign is that the whole club is turning into a Youth Academy. That's all we seem to be focusing on. We need experienced players otherwise we are going to become the Scottish Crewe Alexandra". "The owner has taken a huge risk in appointing a rookie in Shaun Maloney and also by going with this youth over experience policy. We desperately need experienced quality players to come in, in the summer". "Hibs has changed. It's not the club that it once was. We are going down a completely different route". It's obvious where this is heading! It would not be at all surprising if Maloney is sacked soon and replaced by you know who.

That's how I see it too. Something doesn't add up. Mowbray's words the other day made it sound like the sale of Rothwell was needed to bring in a couple of new signings. Now we are hearing that we had a bid accepted for Dembele. I would like to know how much Bournemouth paid for Dembele as the Posh chairman was saying the other day that he won't be leaving for less than £5m. Are we saying that we bid £5m for him yesterday? Even if that wasn't the fee in the end, it's clear that a certain amount of money was made available to spend on Dembele. Is it a case of the owners only making funds available if they like the player or the idea themselves? What happened with this Dembele money once he chose to sign for Bournemouth? It leaves me questioning what the true position was. It's a bit of a jump to go from the "Rothwell money can be reinvested" to now having offers in for players and playing the hard luck story. We have heard similar in past windows too I.e. "we had offers in for players but it's very difficult" etc. One thing is for sure, the negotiators at Rovers aren't good enough. It took ages to seal one loan deal yesterday. Leaving signings until the last minute to save a few quid is one thing, but then factor in that we've got Waggott and Venus trying to seal deals in a race against the clock. No wonder we are often left disappointed on deadline day.

An all too familiar pattern plays out again. Mowbray talks up the prospect of a couple of signings, interest in a foreign striker, yet on the day nothing comes off and we're left with another "nearly" story. We "nearly" had Dembele this time. Frustrating doesn't begin to cover it. We've done brilliantly up to now in the league, but are now left hoping that injuries and suspensions don't derail our season. It's a tough ask to expect us to steer clear of those from now until May. A big opportunity missed today and a sign that there isn't a real appetite for promotion at the club.

Apologies, Mike. Wasn't meant to offend. I'm always interested in hearing any info any poster may have. I'm just peed off like everybody else that we seem to have wasted today.

Appreciate the info, but let's be real, Solanke and Elliott were never, ever, going to happen in a million years. The Solanke bid was probably a tit for tat response to the Rothwell interest. Mowbray's talk the other day about signings all hinged on Rothwell being sold by the looks of it. No Rothwell sale, no funds to play with. What a disappointing day.

We're clearing the decks, with Chapman gone, Butterworth going, surely? Something must be happening. It can't be just Giles in. We've passed up on Maja, Healey, we've let Forss go to Hull. The latter is a big blunder, imo. Whichever striker we are looking at instead better be good.

Some of these loan fees are getting ridiculous. I seem to remember Mowbray saying the quoted fees are preventing us from landing the higher quality loans. Bournemouth are paying £1.5m for 6 months of Nat Phillips. Different world, I know, but Spurs have just signed Kulusevski on loan with a loan fee of £8.3m. United want £12m from Newcastle for Lingard provided the loan helps them to stay up. It's madness. Five hours left to see how much those at Ewood want promotion this season.

That's the guy I wanted us to sign. Good move for Hull. Just on Bournemouth, how rattled are they by Rovers? 😁. Sign whoever you want, Cherries, you aren't finishing above us!

I remember some posts on here, back in the summer, saying we didn't need to sign strikers as we had Butterworth, Vale and McBride as options. It seemed too fanciful and rose tinted at the time and now they could all be going out on loan. If true, it's an indication of us making room for a few incomings (I hope).

I don't think he is in the loop, personally, I could be wrong, however. History shows that our local journo's are often playing catch up. I think he is just repeating Mowbray's stance from yesterday there I.e Rothwell won't be going without us having replacements lined up first.

I don't think Mowbray has ever rated Rothwell as highly as some of us do. Doesn't make it any less infuriating that we are losing him to Bournemouth, but I'm trusting Mowbray on this one as I believe he has a plan. Let's see who he brings in. Hopefully things look brighter by this time tomorrow. Giles, Freeman and Ejaria would do nicely, or at least two of the three.

Rothwell has turned out to be a prize prat! This is all the motivation we need to bury Bournemouth during the rest of the campaign. A tinpot club that always seems to chase the players we are linked with. First it was Obafemi, then Bogle, now it's Dembele and they want to take Rothwell off us. It's going to be a tasty game when they come to Ewood. This is all on Rothwell. Yeah, Mowbray wants to sell him but that's because the player wants to leave. My view is that Mowbray wants any funds from the Rothwell sale to bring in a couple of new faces. He must believe he can strengthen the squad, or should I say midfield, off the back of this sale. Tin hat time. I think we will be better off with this snake gone. For once, I believe Mowbray has some decent options lined up to come in.

Makes sense. We, apparently, made a £4.5m bid for him hours before shelling £7m on Brereton. At 500k he could turn out to be a shrewd bit of business. He has shown his class in this division before, just hasn't worked out for him at Sheff Utd.

I've given Mowbray plenty of stick in the past, but I don't think he did anything wrong in giving that interview yesterday. I feel for him in a way, as he has been trying to send messages to Pune for a while through the press, but it doesn't seem to sink in with them. He did the same a few weeks ago when talking about 'grey areas'. I see yesterday as him trying to open the owners' eyes and making a final attempt to do so I.e Rothwell wants to leave, let him go and we can get two decent replacements in with the money. I don't see it as him wanting one of our best players sold and him being thrown under the bus in the process. Rothwell wanting to talk to another club clearly shows that he wants to leave. Mowbray, imo, was letting the fans know the situation. I don't think Rothwell will be a Rovers player come Tuesday after all of this. I want him to stay, of course, but is his heart going to be in it? I'm not sure. I know Mowbray has form for talking bull in interviews, but there was something different about yesterday's one for me. I feel he has players lined up and is waiting for the funds/approval of the owners. Letting Rothwell go is one way of getting those funds.

It's well known that there isn't any loyalty in football, but it doesn't make it any less disappointing when these things happen. Rothwell finally turns up this season, positively affecting games for us. Helps us into 2nd place but doesn't want to see the job through? It's a poor do, looking at it as a fan. If the talk is true about his salary being quadrupled at Brentford or wherever, then I can see why he wants to go. I would be fuming if it was Bournemouth he was angling to sign for, though. A Premier League side you can accept. He's probably looking at the Dack situation and how injury stopped him from leaving and thinking he has to take the opportunity now. £6m is a belting offer, if true, and more than I expected. Just hope Mowbray has a couple of good replacements lined up. Fully agree with the Jon Swift shouts, he would be a quality addition. I always look forward to deadline day (even though we don't usually do much) and it looks like it's going to be an eventful one this time. Interesting couple of days to come.

He has been training with Arsenal and has gone with them on a warm weather training camp in Dubai. There's talk of Arsenal getting desperate and possibly giving him a deal. He's probably hoping that happens too as there hasn't been much interest in him.

Wild exaggeration from the reporter. We've dealt ok with whatever Luton have thrown at us.

Gally going off by the looks of it. We've got a lot of activity to do in the next two days.