superniko

If they’re misleading, then they are extremely consistent. 2 seasons in a row he’s at the top of the assist charts (laughable compared to some of our lot). Also didn’t Sharpe pull a crosses stat out, that he’s put almost as many crosses in as our entire team and the most in the league? That suggests it’s clearly more than set-pieces. You may watch Huddersfield regularly and know better mind you, but I think you’re doing a disservice there

Millwal bidding £2m+ for Kevin Nisbet, a striker at Hibs

Don't know anything about Sorba Thomas but he finished with 12 assists in the Championship last season, behind only Wilson and Swift. 15 across all competitions. For what it's worth, our highest was Rothwell with 10, then Buckley with 7, then nobody.

Don’t rise to the Chadsters fishing. He just said Cameron Archer isn’t for him (7 in 20 for PNE in Championship last year) whilst he was gagging for Hirst to get more game time to show his quality for months (0 in 40 for Rotherham and Rovers in Championship)

Has he ever played in Germany? It’s the Belgian league isn’t it?

Better* Well organised team that have been run well over the last few years. Themselves and Luton are the two who will take it to the parachute clubs this year.

Archer, Bowler, Ebiowei, Delap, Lowe all seem like realistic players in our budget who have gone elsewhere and would start for us (and likely improve us).

Bit odd that we’re going after players who wouldn’t massively improve us then?

CM is clearly the area most needed for improvement. We have lots of bodies in Travis, Garrett, Buckley, Morton, Wharton but they’re just that…bodies. Teams walk through the middle of us. Doesn’t sound like there’s any interest in strengthening there in Jan though, so we should get used to 20 more games of Morton + whoever is drawn out the hat

10 points from our last 10 games then, with a -9 GD

It isn’t. Our problem is creating chances. We’re 2nd last in the league in that regard. We actually convert at a pretty high (unsustainable as shown recently) %

I look forward to the day when I can again.

Thanks for adding the proof to what I was trying to explain earlier. Can go all the way back to 2020 in that thread and see nothing but praise for him, over 2 years ago. Complete nonsense from the lot saying everyone wanted rid until he scored 20

Agree completely. It's not surprise, just more disappointment / frustration

It's more the point that we had 2.5 years to sort it. I'd imagine it comes down to a combination of the club being cheap with lockdown and reduced revenue and also the fact for some reason our assistant manager was allegedly in charge of contracts. What an effing football club we are.

What are you on about? I said 2 things: 1) If you let an £8m striker leave for nothing on his first contract as a club in our state then you're a moron (directed at our owners and CEO who was in charge of contracts at that time - although I believe Mowbray said something about Venus being in charge of contracts so if that doesn't validate the point I don't know what would) 2) People saying "we all thought he was rubbish and we'd give him away for free" are not telling the full picture, as this was 4 years ago and he's been good for 2.5 years now. I didn't say anything about selling him 4 years ago.

I believe I said "well run football club". Besides he's got another year and half left on his contract and if they get their act together like they seem to be I'd wager it's heavy odds on he signs longer.

You think we'd have only got £2m for him last January?

Yeah 4 years ago, not in the last 2.5 years.

The "nobody rated him", "fans would have driven him to a bidder for free" stuff is complete drivel too given how long ago that was. Yes, he looked like Bambi on ice in his first season, but it was 4 and half years ago, and he was 19 years old with an £8m price tag. He's looked good for us for 2.5 years now: 20/21 7 goals and 5 assists 21/22 22 goals and 3 assists 22/23 9 goals and 4 assists That's a long time to be having contract negotiations. I agree you can't force somebody to sign, but if that was the case 2 years ago then we should have been actively looking for a buyer. I've seen the example of Pogba or Sterling in here regarding running down their contracts. The difference is, those two weren't their clubs star player, they weren't 23 years old, weren't their only international, and weren't their golden goose for FFP. Do you think Ten Haag or Guardiola are bothered they lost Pogba or Sterling? Of course not, they're over the hill now on their last pay day whilst younger and better players will replace them whilst they get a big earner of the books. Completely different scenarios. It'd be more like Foden or Elliott/Trent or Saka running down their contract and leaving for free which just would not happen at a well run football club

It's pretty simple. If you decide to spend £8m on an unproven, young, project striker, when you've barely got a pot to piss in, you'd be complete morons to let them leave for free at the end of that 1st contract. Add in the fact he's now an international and has scored 30+ across the last 1.5 years even more so. (I'm not blaming Broughton with this, but a certain David Brent type has been around throughout it all)

Just the position we needed to fill as a priority with our first signing. Personally I'm really excited to see what he can offer in the League Cup next year.

Probably more thought has gone in to that than anything at Rovers for 10 years. ”Make sure he’s January in case we sell him in the window”

No sell-on fee could be something that haunts us here, as well as the actual fee we're missing out on for selling him. We think he's a £10m-£15m player now.... 1 good season in La Liga and you can double that to £30m.

It's a ridiculous rule/law when you actually think about it. Like you say we're essentially paying and maintaining an asset that will be somewhere else in 6 months. I guess it's a bit like working a notice period for us regular plebs, but when that happens you're usually recruiting and training up your replacement and getting them up to speed, or more likely if you're staying in the same industry with a competitor, you're put on gardening leave. And lets be honest, when people are working their notice period, they're really on the beach with their feet up putting in <50%.