The highs and lows on this messageboard are more extreme than the crypto markets. 

Most expected a defeat here, most would have taken 9 points from our opening 5 matches. 

Our squad is too small, we're playing 3 matches in 6 days. What did everyone truly expect against one of the better sides in the division? 

I'm choosing to see this as a positive and hope that it reinforces the need for signings. 

34 minutes ago, neophox said:

He wont get game time there. We could sell him in a year or two for mega bucks if we dont reach the premier league. Think JDT has played a big role here. With Mowbray he would had been gone.

IF, and it's a big if, he stays, then have to agree with this. I simply cannot imagine Mowbray convincing someone to stay.

The change in tone and optimism that is coming from people in leadership roles has to be felt throughout the team. 

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

The reason the Brereton situation has ended up in the way it has is because having committed big money to him, persevered with him for 3 years, done nothing on his contract and then he's suddenly come good quite rightly he's now in a different stratosphere on his expectations and demands. But had we had one eye on the medium to long term in the summer of 2021 we'd have extended his terms if we were so confident of his ability and the investment.

I don't want the transfer topic to turn into the contract renewal topic, but there's no way we could have offered Brereton big money before last season.

I was always a Brereton optimist, but we could never have seen this sort of upturn in form coming. I think even the biggest believers were hoping that he would simply be able to establish himself as a viable option to start up front. 

This messageboard would have gone into meltdown had Brereton signed a 20k+ longterm deal in the summer of 2021. 

I'll also add, even as someone who was a Brereton optimist, I'm still not a complete believer that this current for is truly sustainable. 

13 minutes ago, Butty said:

BBD’s stock is at a high right now, why would he want to risk staying and having a poor season and playing himself out of a move that may never come again? With the clubs apparently linked he’s going to want to move to a Leeds or a West Ham so the club should be doing all they can to get a move sorted for a decent fee and getting shut of him. 

You (some people) think that his stock is very high right now. It's unclear as to whether or not there are top division clubs that agree with that. 

He's been linked with a few moves, but he's got a good PR team behind him now. I'd say his stock would be significantly higher as a free agent. I'm not sure many clubs will be willing to risk 20m(ish) on the basis of 6/7 months of good form. 

21 minutes ago, SuperBrfc said:

Just wanted to highlight a few quotes here to illustrate how certain people within the game view the 'project' at Rovers. These quotes are from Lenihan, Mowbray and Hourihane. If you read between the lines it is clear what is being said.

1) This is Lenihan talking to the Boro Gazette a couple of days ago:

“Middlesbrough is a club going in the right direction, with Premier League ambitions and that’s where I want to be. The manager has been there and done it, and with chats with him it was clear he knows what he wants."

The inference being that Rovers are not going in the right direction and do not have Premier League ambitions. Below is the Lenihan article.

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/lenihan-middlesbrough-settling-tony-mowbray-24396001.amp

2) I'm far from a Mowbray fan, but when he left he dropped a few hints as to what the situation is really like at Rovers. He made the following comments:

"If you want a winner (as the next manager), if you just want to win, then you need to spend some money. Or you can get a coach in who can work with the younger players and help them to develop and grow as footballers."

"I want to give myself a chance to compete in the Premier League if I can. I want to be at a football club with a chance, that has got the finance, the backing, the support, everything around it, the base to compete in this league at the top, and be disappointed if you don't get out of this division". 

The inference being that Rovers have none of the above under these owners. The comment can be found on the video below. I don't think this version of the clip has been shared here before. From 1:30 onwards. Note how he was about to say "there's lots and lots that needs to change in order for me to stay" before stopping himself.

3) Assume for a moment that Hourihane turned Rovers down and chose Derby instead. This is what Hourihane said about choosing to sign for Derby:

"I am 31 and I was looking for something that was going to excite me, something that I can be a big part of.

I've played all the way from League Two up to the Premier League but having analysed it as a free agent I was thinking what do I want next, what do I want to achieve and what do I want to be a part of? Derby ticked all of the boxes".

The inference being that the Rovers project did not excite him and that he'd rather play in League 1 at a club that he saw as having a plan.

The common theme here, being put forward indirectly, is that Rovers have no ambition to go up, there is no desire or finance from the owners to even attempt to make promotion a possibility. Any talk of promotion is hot air, in reality the setup isn't there for it. The talk of becoming a "sustainable Premier League club" is nothing but fantasy, imo.

How they have got JDT here, I don't know. Well, actually, we can guess. It's pointing more and more towards a Lambert to me by the day. When he realises what has happened, he'll be off. He did not come here just to develop some of the youngsters and to sit in mid table.

Or, we can just assume the following. 

1 - A player has signed for a new club and has to talk up how excited he is to join a bigger and better team/project.

2 - A manager has lost his job and has to try and explain why he had such a horrible second half of the campaign and why he was no longer wanted/wasn't the right person for the job. 

3 - Who knows. Players join clubs for a variety of reasons. 

1 hour ago, Hi Mack said:

Waiting till the last week to do deals helps no one though. The players need to integrate. That’s why we start so slow. We basically use the first half a dozen games as preseason friendlies.

You have to understand the frustration of losing your better players and not have a whisper regarding replacements. 
 

its 3 weeks until kick off!! 3 weeks!!!

Of course I do, certainly not my first rodeo when it comes to Rovers and that issue. 

But 3 weeks is a long time in a transfer window and the season isn't decided in 3 weeks anyway. I'll judge the window when it is completed. 

Patience, as usual, is in short supply on this MB.

Yes, we've lost some players. Yes, some clubs have made moves. But there are still plenty of deals that will be done and plenty of time for us to take part in them. 

No need to be too desperate now and judge things every 6 hours. 

I feel part of the problem is that so many people add too much weight to what is said in the press - even in public statements from the club - and also try to fill in gaps in information that we will simply never have access to. 

Of course a new manager and DoF are going to take a bit of time to assess a squad before they start signing players. Would we want them to do it differently? Even if they did their research coming into the job and have an idea of what is needed, I'd still want them to take a closer look before signing new players. 

As for how many players we are signing. Do you want a new regime to come out and say that we need 10 players? 15 players? How do you expect the existing squad to take that? 

10 hours ago, Fraserkirky said:

There is no way he stays, we will be cashing in as we have just had our trousers yanked, losing three of our better players for free.

In spite of their many flaws, I don't think Venkys have ever shown themselves to be overly concerned by the thought of losing money on transfers. 

If someone at the club tells them that he might make the difference and if he doesn't force a move, I think we could well see him stay until at least January. 

Given the current economic markets I don't think that there will be too many clubs in a rush to spend 15m+ on what still represents a massive gamble. 

I think he may well stay. It's unlikely to be the type of summer where middling clubs are likely to feel all that cash rich and I'm sure that there will be plenty who are quite happy to reserve judgement and see if he can keep his form going into next season - with the possibility of a knock-down price in January or a free transfer next summer. 

Brereton himself may also be in no rush as he may feel being a free agent puts him in the most powerful position and in line for the biggest payday. 

35 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I have my doubts Chaddy. I’ll tell you why. Putting his coaching background to one side. Has he ever lived in this country ? Have you ever worked away from home and family for any length or time ? I have and it’s hard, really hard. Only guys who never wanted to get married in the first place enjoy working away. I’ve known a few of those but mainly guys find it hard. Living out of a hotel room is crap, even if it’s a good hotel.

That’s just one of the reasons why I’d rather have somebody who’s managed in England previously.

As someone who has spent all but 4 years of their adult life living outside of their home country I can tell you that you've being a little bit dramatic and you'll find plenty within expat communities, including those with families, who love living abroad.

Factor in that JDT has lived in England before and spent his professional life living outside of his home country, it all seems like a total non-starter as a negative. 

His body language, as always, is awful.

But I have zero sympathy for him. I'm not going to be made to feel bad about a manager who's contract is running down when he's allowed multiple players to run down their contracts.

I know that isn't entirely his own decision and he might be barely involved in that process, but he's been willing to tow the line in the media about how there's time to sort things out for others, so why should it be any different for him?

Not to piss on the Buckley parade, but Twitter trends are determined by your own interests and the number of mentions and the particular hashtag used will vary greatly depending on what you set your location and language to be.

So, not that surprising to have Buckley trending if you're a Rovers supporter and follow a fair number of Rovers, Championship, and football accounts.

22 hours ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

 

I know many will agree with you, so I'm not saying you're wrong to bring it up, but personally I don't get why his body language/interviews etc. riles people so much. He's had a pretty miserable demeanour since day one here as far as I see it, and plenty of that coincided with the team doing well. I don't agree that his signings were mostly bad either. I think there are enough success stories to say that he can spot a player.

 

I agree though that it's hard to concisely summarise all the different aspects of his time in charge. If I was to try, the thing that it really boils down to is your point about the major drops in form. I think if these were just a little less predictable/less severe, you could even now make a perfectly good case for him being worth a new contract (not least because we'd still be in the play off mix). But sadly they're not, and it almost makes all other aspects of his performance irrelevant because it means that we'll always have that ceiling of what we can achieve under him. 

I'm actually less concerned about his body language and demeanour in interviews and more concerned by how he presents himself on the touchline.

He is often just lifeless, head in hands, sitting with a thousand yard stare. He's supposed to a be a motivator and it's impossible to think that (at least some) players will see that and think it is an assessment of their chances or, possibly even more damagingly, the capabilities of their manager. 

I also think that his overall demeanour contributes to a lack of accountability and that probably permeates every area of the club. I can think to my own work and know how much it means when a senior person takes the lead, takes accountability, and sets a real example.

I find it very difficult to place all of my thoughts on Mowbray's reign into a concise summation. 

He does deserve a tremendous amount of credit for stabilising the ship after relegation to League 1. Yes, some managers might have been able to avoid the drop in the first place and relegated sides are always promotion favourites, but many sides have struggled to go back up and it was essential that we do it at the first time of asking.

Since promotion, he has managed to reestablish this club as a solid Championship team, but after that the positives stop. His inconsistent tactics and inability to get the best out of most of his players has been tremendously frustrating. His signings have been mostly questionable and he seems to be a poor judge of talent. 

Yes, he gets some credit for our form in the first half of the season, but he was unable to regain momentum once the luck ran out and things started to slip. He feels very much like a manager who struggles in the face of adversity and who is unable to adapt. Each season has been plagued by major drops in form (particularly towards the backend of Championship seasons) and the fault has to be placed firmly at the doorstep of management in that regard. 

But my biggest criticism of him has to be in his demeanour. I cannot imagine having a boss who carried himself as he does. Who'd body language and messages were so negative. It's impossible to think that this has had no impact on the team.

He won't go down as our worst manager, but it is his time to go (and has been for some time) and we can hope for someone to come in with more energy and more creativity.

I don't disagree with the prevailing opinion that we shouldn't sell Rothwell to a promotion rival and that we should be very reluctant to disrupt a team that is clearly working well and where all of the players seem to be really pulling in the same direction - HOWEVER, it's impressive to see how people's estimation of Rothwell have increased over the past 6 months. 

I have little doubt that many would have happily accepted a similar bid 12 months ago. I don't want any changes to the squad right now, but we also don't want to risk evaluating our players purely based on their best form (and not a pretty large sample size or mediocre performances and inconsistency). 

2 minutes ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

Totally agree, 16/1 is bonkers  - though I can't find better than 14/1. 

I'll happily offer you 20/1. Minimum stake 50.

2 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

...but.... they said we had a list to chose from.

I'm not really bothered about that. 

I'm never interested in what is being said publicly about our transfer dealings, nor do I know how close we may have come to one or two signings or the reasons why those may have fallen through.

I think another manager could do better. I think that the club is poorly run. But I think that this squad should expect to be midtable in this division and has every chance of challenging for a playoff spot if things go our way (which happens to one or two mediocre clubs every season).

2 hours ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

I will give you the good start, far better than we could have dreamt of. However, what happens when we get a few injuries? We have absolutely no depth.

And - you don't think replacing 54% of our goals last season was an absolutely necessity? You also think Mowbray will change from his insistence of playing our £12m strike force on the wing? 

The only way I can see us being top 10 is Mowbray's hand is forced and he HAS to play Gallagher down the middle and we have a huge slice of luck and Ayala doesn't get injured all season - highly unlikely given his history. 

In reality, if we can go on the mother of all death spirals of 2 wins in 17 last year, when we had a 28 goal striker and a mercurial talent that is now starting for Liverpool, how do you expect us to BETTER that this year when we've lost 12 players, 54% of our goals, brought in a few kids on loan and a chap from Lincoln?

I think that some of those goals will naturally be replaced by someone else filling the void (penalties, for starters).

I feel comfortable with the strength in depth at the back, it's the most depth we've had defensively in years.

And, I just think the overall balance of the squad is better now. I expect us to be a bit better. Only time will tell.

4 minutes ago, CrouchingNunhiddenCucumber said:

8/1 to be relegated at the start of the season now looks generous after this utter shit show 

I mean, it doesn't. We've already shown enough this season to be confident that we can stay up.

The board is being a little bit dramatic at the moment (not surprising).

I'm disappointed that we haven't done better, but don't think that signing a striker/forward was an absolute necessity. I hope that this means that Gallagher and Brereton will be used in more central roles and that the wingers that we have and have brought in will give us more creativity and pace in wide positions. 

I actually think our squad has decent balance and will look fairly strong when we get our injured players back. I think there's every chance that we are in the top half when January comes around and that might put us in a position to splash out a bit on a player that we really need.

5 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Why do we always leave the most important transfers for deadline day?

 

Not just us.

I think the market just moves more quickly and efficiently on the final day when clubs and players realise that they don't have as many options as they would have hoped/liked.

6 minutes ago, callumrovers said:

Ive read Maja was on 57k at Bordeaux, how can we afford that? He would want minimum 35k.

Where have you heard that?

3 minutes ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

you're welcome Karen. 

Oh good one. You've got him there. Very clever.

Regarding the Nyambe rumours - although using the term rumours might be generous - our owners are incompetent, but they've consistently shown that they will hold out for a good price for players. Raya is probably the only one we've got majorly wrong, but even that was more down to the fact that Mowbray had decided to move on.

I can't see them letting a useful player go for a million or less. At that price they will hold onto him.