1 hour ago, J*B said:

Oh man, I loved the division but got frustrated at its repetativeness online and stopped playing a year or so ago. I played for a week or so a few a big update but had been left behind. Is it worth coming back to?

Division 2 is much better in that regard, there is still some repetitiveness but it is much better in that regard with more variety.  It improves on the first one in almost every area.

If anyone is playing Division 2, I have created a clan (for PS4), it would be good to see some of you online!  Clan is imaginatively called "BRFCS".

Those figures are scary for the simple fact that we are totally and utterly reliant on them, if they decide to pull the plug in the near future then we will be in a similar position to what Bolton find themselves.

Well done all involved with this, enjoyed listening to it.

Excellent thread and some very good teams.

Mine is:

Friedal/ Berg, Hendry, Samba, Le Saux/ Ripley, Tugay, Sherwood, Duff/ Shearer, Jansen (before his accident)

What a brilliant match.

Buttler's innings is the one the best that I have ever seen, his last 108 runs came from 32 balls, just sensational.  Gayle at 39 years old at his best with some amazing hitting.  At one point West Indies were well ahead of the game but then 2 crazy shots in that Wood over pulled it back for England, then very brave captaincy from Morgan to give Rashid that 47th given what Braithwaite had done to him in his previous over but boy did he deliver.

Fabulous entertainment.

8 minutes ago, JHRover said:

This 'European network' that we are supposedly developing I feel is codswallop.

I don't doubt that we are miles behind other clubs on international recruitment and development, as I've said before the limit of the club's gaze is the far side of Darwen. That's the result of a lack of investment and neglect of those areas over a prolonged period.

But I don't think there is a serious push from within the club to address this, I don't accept that it should take 3 years to develop this 'European network' and I don't believe that Mowbray is the sort of manager eager to explore that market but has been prevented from doing so by factors beyond his control. I think the club is set up on a provincial, small scale basis, and that is evidenced by the recruitment, and that sort of thing suits the owners and those running the club on a daily basis. It is a result of that provincial approach which has seen Kean-Berg-Appleton-Bowyer-Lambert-Coyle-Mowbray in the dugout and never a foreign or 'outside the box' appointment which would require a far greater level of search and recruitment. As far as I can see Mowbray has never been a manager who has relied very much on the foreign market for his players, preferring instead to source British - that was the case at WBA, Boro and Coventry - so unless he's going to suddenly change his decade long approach to transfers I can't see him being keen to go down that road.

Even if he was desperate to and those running the club were anxious for us to catch up in that area - there are many ways of doing so that are quicker and more effective than taking 2-3 years to build up a 'network'. The recruitment of a well connected and experienced Director of Football, technical director or whatever you want to call it with contacts and know-how of the European market would deal with that issue quickly.

Watford were taken over by their Italian owners and within months had implemented their structure and were expertly navigating the European market and picking up bargains and quality players from all over the place - done by employing people who knew what to do - they didn't sit on their hands for 2-3 years waiting for a 'network' to be put in place and bemoaning having to play catch-up.

If you look at when he was incharge at West Brom he started with just signing UK based players in his first couple of seasons before moving the club on and signing players from Europe/rest of the world, not saying that this is what he will do at Rovers of course but he been known to look at "outside the box" signings:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-albion-tony-mowbray-12793111

7 minutes ago, HowieFive0 said:

Sounds to me as if the whole Rovers structure behind the scenes was/is in total disaray and TM is literally having to go to each dept. and sort out himself. 

The whole lot seems to have gone to rack and ruin. 

What Mowbray walked into was a club that was in total disarray both on and off the field.

The scouting structure was completely dismantled by Kean and then Shebby.  We lost all of our good scouts.  This is not the kind of thing that can be put together overnight, what Mowbray has focussed on was to get the domestic scouting structure right, he now has largely done that and is ready to look at our European/International scouting network.  This is not an easy undertaking.

If the players TM wants to sign our too expensive then I agree with him that it is better to wait until Summer to see what can be done, there is no point wasting the limited resources that we on players that he isn't convinced about just because they are available and are cheaper.  At the moment is looks like the money spent on Brereton was not the right deal to do but we can't change that now, however it is still early in his career with us and we just have to hope that Mowbray can help him realise the potential that he obviously seen in him.

Reports this morning that Southampton have received 4 loan offers for Austin from Premier League clubs, problem for them is that are they going to risk loaning/selling him to relegation rivals? However if there is Premier League interest I would imagine Austin himself pushing to stay in the Premier League.

Looks like we have competition for Gallagher from other Championship clubs.

Just now, DE. said:

Impressive if he has that level of support from them, especially considering how poor the Brereton transfer has been for us thus far. 

 

Ha ha he has credit in the bank by turning the Dack investing of £700,000 into a possible £20 million plus return!!

Just now, DE. said:

If financing these deals with the owners hasn't even been discussed at this point then surely we might as well forget about it? We all know Venky-time tends to stretch to months rather than days. I'm assuming the finances were already in place for a big-ish transfer in the summer long before we tried to panic buy Brereton on the last day of the window. It doesn't sound like any such provisions are in place now though. 

I am sure that the owners have been made aware that these players are available but the big question is how desperate is Mowbray to sign them given the levels of finance involved and him being big on thoroughly looking at a players background to try and ensure as much as possible that he will fit into the culture within the squad that he has built.

I am sure that if TM was desperate to sign them and approached the owners there is a very good chance they would make finance available but I am not convinced that he is desperate to sign them and has continued to focus on getting Gallagher.

Gallagher has always been the primary target because it is a player that Mowbray knows and more importantly he fits within the budget that we have left.  Austin and Britt are players that are available and offered to a number of clubs but in terms of cost it would beyond our current budgets unless there is intervention from the owners.  We need to get a striker in before the deadline so it is sensible that the focus is on the one that we can afford.

Austin and Assombalonga would be amazing in different ways but these are complicated deals which will require more money from the owners which in itself is a complicated process and then we would have to beat a number of clubs who are interested.

This from Mowbray is a little concerning as it does sound as though he would be open to Travis going out on loan once he has got someone in "“Like when all these clubs phone me about Nuttall and Travis, I get told the same, if and when we get the players we are looking at, there’s every chance he will be able to go out on loan".

Travis is ready and deserving of a first team chance.  If he is loaned out, not only is it a stupid move because he is ready to have a positive impact on our first team, it also sends out a bad message to all of the other young players at the club.

TM tried to sign Ambrose in 2017 on loan, so this is one to watch if he doesn't go to Cardiff as speculated above by Bigdoggsteel:

Efe Ambrose Leaves Hibs after Triggering Clause

No deals imminent and Mowbray would like Loans with the option to make permanent type deals:

Loans Deals Key

I do feel sorry for Brereton.  It is very hard to make any kind of positive impact constantly just coming on as a substitute.  

I think @meadows has it spot on with his information that this signing is not one that Mowbray has found, more something that has been suggested to the owners.  Given that information that Jim has come across it now all makes sense.  Brereton doesn't get game time because Mowbray prefers to play with a big strong centre forward who can hold up the ball and bring others like Dack into the game, from the limited bits that I have sign of Brereton he is not that type of player, he looks to be a type of player who likes to get in between the lines and get in behind the defenders, totally unsuited to the way we play.

If there is any get out clause (and I very much doubt that there is) then it should be exercised.  If there is not then the best thing that we can do is to send him out on loan in January to a team that suits the way he plays (preferably in the Championship) so that he can gain some form and hopefully get some belief that he can play at this level.

If the Brereton signing is a Venky's vanity project then it is a massive shame that they didn't just give that £7 million to Tony who would have spent in a much wiser way.

Compared to the last time we were in the Championship this season has been infinitely better and we have a manager who at least seems to have a roadmap for the future that he believes and more crucially the Venky's believe in.  With a squad that is not one of the strongest in the league we are  at present well clear of relegation worries and pushing towards a top 10 finish, hopefully the scouts that have been working hard can help to bring in a couple of players that improves us and then we can do the same in the Summer and evolve our squad.

For me it is Red Dead Redemption 2, closely followed by Celeste, Spiderman and God of War.  I thought 2017 was a good year for gaming but 2018 has taken things to a whole new level.

Also on PSVR there are some brilliant experiences in Astro Bots, Beat Sabre VR, Tetris Effect and Farpoint.  Those games alone justify the PSVR purchase. 

A good season for Dack (and I think he will stay at Rovers this season, barring someone offering crazy money for him in January) will see his value skyrocket to £20 million plus, as per what Leicester paid Leicester paid for James Maddison after he had good season for Norwich. 

Must be true if the "reliable" journo said so!

Sad and terrible news.  Lennie after finishing with football became a teacher and was at St Silas Primrary School when my kids were there so I got to know him, he is a fantastic teacher and genuinely very nice man.

I use it a lot when away from home and even using Premier Inn dodgy wifi I get a decent picture with no buffering.

Sam Gallagher is one that we are trying to sign it would be a loan with a buy clause in January.  There is a difference in our and Southampton's valuation so if we can overcome that then he will be one that we will get.

Just now, Mattyblue said:

But isn't what was a 'realistic level' 3, 4 years ago, now something else entirely? The Championship has moved on and if we are not careful we will be left well behind (if we haven't already).

Absolutely Matt but it does seem that this summer in particular the level has gone up much faster than previously.  We had Wolves last year paying crazy money but the rest of the league was fairly sensible so things remained relatively controlled.

Personally I would rather they carry on doing what we are doing in that we only spend what we can realistic afford to do so, it might not be very exciting but hopefully it will lead to the debt being slowly being reduced and our medium term future being a little bit more secure.