[Archived] Transfer Window - January 2016

[Norbert Rassragr]

I'd rather try for a quality loan than a rubbish free agent.

[Iceman]

Err because the managers we have had tactics have been taking us one way down...wouldnt you want to leave if Derek and co are tryng to flog you off every window

Cmon pal, we could have had Mourinho In charge and Rhodes would have wanted to leave. We are a championship team struggling, he wants to play there, and he stands more of a chance with Boro right now.

We couldn't afford to not take the money, and we needed players all over the pitch who at least puts the mileage in. If the 6 signings puts the effort in, and we are doing well, then I don't think anybody will complain.

Fact of the matter is, that Rhodes was struggling with motivation imo. He lost focus and the goals dried up. Nobody else in the team were contributing, so Lambert was right to try and bring in players who will give 100%

[Mike Graham]

So we're relying on loans to come in and keep us up this season. That's either very brave or very stupid.

I said early doors that we wouldn't be spending money in January regardless of how much we brought in.

I don't believe we'll see much of the Rhodes money come the summer. Anyone know what happened to the Gestede/Cairney/King/Nzonzi money from last summer? That's right. It went into a big black hole and now 5 months on its consigned to history. I've no doubt a similar thing will happen in May and June.

Lambert might get a million or two at most to rebuild and get his 'big hitters'. That's assuming he keeps us up this season which given our recent form and performances is going to be a tough ask.

You won't get anywhere these days doing things on the cheap or relying on loan signings. Nobody has in this league for a long time.

I'm going to place my faith in Lambert but I'm very concerned and uncomfortable with once again cashing in on our prized assets and replacing them with journeymen/cheapies.

We did it last summer by losing Gestede, Cairney and King and replacing with jokers like Delfouneso, Petschi and Koita and I pray we've not just done the same in swapping Rhodes and Olsson for Jackson and Bennett

I see where you are coming from JH but disagree.

The last thing we would want is a manager with £9M in his back pocket who would spend, spend spend in the last hours prior to the deadline. Other teams would be aware of our position and not be prepare to negotiate downwards.

I would rather get a decent player on loan (Gomez) and see if he fits, has the right temperament, and is motivated etc before offering a permanent contract.

I do think Graham, Ward, Jackson, Watt and Gomez are decent. The jury is out on Bennett.

[arbitro]

I believe that it has been a decent window with a turnover of twelve players and some real dross going out amongst these. However as many have said this is a longer term project and there will be a significant number leaving in the Summer.

Operation cleanse Ewood has started.

[miqaayil]

i would put my neck out and say, this has been an excellent window, and funny feeling we'll make playoff(i know ,i may sound like i'm smoking bad weed) ...praying hard

[koi]

i would put my neck out and say, this has been an excellent window, and funny feeling we'll make playoff(i know ,i may sound like i'm smoking bad weed) ...praying hard

Bad weed? Think you've been on that dodgy heroin doing the rounds in Accy

[The Rover of Finland]

So we got pacey striker and a creative midfielder. That's great. Rhodes departure is only a good thing. It's not healthy when one is paid crazy wages. The spirit in the dressing room should improve a lot. Watt and Graham sounds better than Rhodes and Lawrence. Gomez will give us a huge boost.

[miqaayil]

Bad weed? Think you've been on that dodgy heroin doing the rounds in Accy

me in asia...au naturale

[beanie]

So we got pacey striker and a creative midfielder. That's great. Rhodes departure is only a good thing. It's not healthy when one is paid crazy wages. The spirit in the dressing room should improve a lot. Watt and Graham sounds better than Rhodes and Lawrence. Gomez will give us a huge boost.

I dunno Watt and Graham sounds a lot less goalie to me.

[Jammy]

Overall I think we improved a bit. As I see it Rhodes was the main goal scorer and up front and we had Brown, Koita, Lawrence and Delfouneso who weren't exactly helping in the goal scoring. What Lambert has now done is put the onus of goal scoring on the team and if Graham, Watt, Jackson, Bennett, Gomez, Marshall can all score 4 or 5 between now and the end of the season then that would be more than an unhappy Rhodes would have got.

On another point Graham, Watt and Gomez are all loans so wouldn't that only leave one space as I thought they'd brought a rule in regarding maximum number of loans???

[chaddyrovers]

You can have 5 loan players in your match day squad and an overall 8 loans in the squad

[JBiz]

Steele

Marshall Duffy Hanley Spurr

Conway Gomez Akpan Bennett

Watt Graham

Or away from home.

Steele

Marshall Duffy Hanley Spurr

Akpan Evans

Gomez

Watt Conway

Graham

If we lose any key player from that to injury, especially a full back, Graham or Conway - we are going to be struggling.

I see fox or another full back joining on loan and potentially another striker - although Delfy is back soon and he could make up the 4 forward berths.

Bennett hasn't yet managed to contribute - I would love to see us add more pace on the flanks.

A bitter coincidence that we are playing a team with "guaranteed" goals on Saturday. Hopefully they will carry on form from their last two despite spending more than we have since the 90s.

It will be intriguing in one way - watching how Boro fair with an enigma of a born goal scorer who doesn't do much else!

[chaddyrovers]

I can see Lambert possibly signing a full back in the loan window but we do have Henley who can play right back and left back.

we do have 5 strikers already at the club

[rovers11]

Overall, a decent window for us. Gomez is the standout signing, he's the most talented player in our squad by an absolute mile. Massive coup to pull that one off.

I do, however, find it bizarre that we let Rhodes go this window if the intention was always to spend the money in the summer. Why not sell him in the summer? Think that tells you everything about how Lambert felt about him, didn't rate him at all. There were many, including myself, who felt that despite being an absolute goal machine he actually impedes the rest of the team chipping in with goals due to his inability to hold the ball up, run the channels, and generally offer anything in terms of an all round game. That was Lambert's view as well. In saying that, you have to play to his strengths and I think he would have thrived playing with Watt and Gomez threading through killer balls.

People question whether we now have enough goals in the team. I actually think we have MORE of a goal threat. Four of our new signings - Jackson, Watt. Graham, and Gomez - all pose a goal threat. Compare that to Rhodes, Lawrence, Koita, Delfouneso and Brown (ok, the latter two are still here but not going to get a look in) - only Rhodes has goals in him. So, collectively we have more of a threat.

In saying all that, a year ago we had Gestede and Rhodes up top. Cannot therefore say we've strengthened in that area over the past year.

Our team now has far more class, style and pace before it did before the window. A squad of players that should be more than capable of finishing mid table (which is the aim this season), but still a squad that is a million miles from mounting any sort of play off challenge.

I expect a winger and LB to come in on loan.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I'm fairly happy with what has gone on. I think there's a limit to how many new players you can absorb into a team all at one time and we're very near it. A pacey winger would have been nice but I think we ran out of time there.

The shape of the team is better for me. We look a more balanced outfit. We should be firing on all cylinders now and I expect a big improvement in work rate and attitude. We've got cover in more positions and the new players have given us different ways of playing. We were one dimensional and too easy to play against previously.

It's a shame that our next game is probably the toughest test we could possibly have. A home game against a mid table side would have been preferable but we are were we are. I hope we have enough time during this week to get the players to gell as a unit. A good result would really get the ball rolling.

My last word on the Rhodes issue - we've tried to develop a style of play that played to his strengths ever since he came to the club and we've signally failed. Our team play has suffered as a result. How many managers in that period ? None of them have managed to solve that conundrum. How many players has he played up front with without ever forming a real partnership with any of them?

Come on Rovers.

[rovers11]

I'm fairly happy with what has gone on. I think there's a limit to how many new players you can absorb into a team all at one time and we're very near it. A pacey winger would have been nice but I think we ran out of time there.

The shape of the team is better for me. We look a more balanced outfit. We should be firing on all cylinders now and I expect a big improvement in work rate and attitude. We've got cover in more positions and the new players have given us different ways of playing. We were one dimensional and too easy to play against previously.

It's a shame that our next game is probably the toughest test we could possibly have. A home game against a mid table side would have been preferable but we are were we are. I hope we have enough time during this week to get the players to gell as a unit. A good result would really get the ball rolling.

Come on Rovers.

I fully expect panic stations on here come 5pm Saturday. We'll lose to Boro as they have a phenomenal squad, and if you look at the fixtures Charlton and Bristol play each other and Rotherham have Bolton. Could be 2 points off the bottom 3.

I think we'll end up mid table though.

[ada2020]

Overall, a decent window for us. Gomez is the standout signing, he's the most talented player in our squad by an absolute mile. Massive coup to pull that one off.

I do, however, find it bizarre that we let Rhodes go this window if the intention was always to spend the money in the summer. Why not sell him in the summer? Think that tells you everything about how Lambert felt about him, didn't rate him at all. There were many, including myself, who felt that despite being an absolute goal machine he actually impedes the rest of the team chipping in with goals due to his inability to hold the ball up, run the channels, and generally offer anything in terms of an all round game. That was Lambert's view as well. In saying that, you have to play to his strengths and I think he would have thrived playing with Watt and Gomez threading through killer balls.

People question whether we now have enough goals in the team. I actually think we have MORE of a goal threat. Four of our new signings - Jackson, Watt. Graham, and Gomez - all pose a goal threat. Compare that to Rhodes, Lawrence, Koita, Delfouneso and Brown (ok, the latter two are still here but not going to get a look in) - only Rhodes has goals in him. So, collectively we have more of a threat.

In saying all that, a year ago we had Gestede and Rhodes up top. Cannot therefore say we've strengthened in that area over the past year.

Our team now has far more class, style and pace before it did before the window. A squad of players that should be more than capable of finishing mid table (which is the aim this season), but still a squad that is a million miles from mounting any sort of play off challenge.

I expect a winger and LB to come in on loan.

With regards to selling Rhodes now, it makes good sense in my opinion. It took until the final day of the window to get the deal done, frustrating to everyone I'm sure, now though we have the cash sitting and waiting to get who we need quickly in the summer. Meaning we can bed new players in, give them a full pre season and hopefully hit the ground running come the start of the new season.

Good luck to Rhodes, he's been good for us but he was a necessary sacrifice in my opinion.

Window has been good for rovers Imo, now the team needs to dig in and get away from the bottom three.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I fully expect panic stations on here come 5pm Saturday. We'll lose to Boro as they have a phenomenal squad, and if you look at the fixtures Charlton and Bristol play each other and Rotherham have Bolton. Could be 2 points off the bottom 3.

I think we'll end up mid table though.

Like I said, a very tough test on Saturday. It's important not to panic if things do go against us. Plenty of more winnable games to come.

[rovers11]

With regards to selling Rhodes now, it makes good sense in my opinion. It took until the final day of the window to get the deal done, frustrating to everyone I'm sure, now though we have the cash sitting and waiting to get who we need quickly in the summer. Meaning we can bed new players in, give them a full pre season and hopefully hit the ground running come the start of the new season.

Good luck to Rhodes, he's been good for us but he was a necessary sacrifice in my opinion.

Window has been good for rovers Imo, now the team needs to dig in and get away from the bottom three.

I agree to a certain extent. Lambert can now work on his targets knowing he has a huge budget at his disposal. There was always a risk we wouldn't see a bid like that again for him. However, we haven't signed anybody in Jan that we wouldn't have signed if Rhodes had stayed, so there is no competitive advantage for us to sell him at this stage.

I'm not sure I'm totally convinced that we'll be able to get players in early, teams will play hardball with Rovers knowing we have many to spend.

The decision to cash in on Rhodes was 100% correct but would have preferred the summer. No point having one star man if the rest of the team is poor.

[Lancaster Rover]

I think the sum of our parts is definitely stronger, I also believe we will get a draw or even sneak a win onsaturday. As a rule we've played better against the so called better sides this year, I expect that to continue.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

What guarantee was there that we would get £9+ for Rhodes in the summer. Boro have been the only serious bidders and I doubt they would have come in for him again if they got promoted. Rhodes has been bought to get them up. They won't need him in the premier league.

[rovers11]

What guarantee was there that we would get £9+ for Rhodes in the summer. Boro have been the only serious bidders and I doubt they would have come in for him again if they got promoted. Rhodes has been bought to get them up. They won't need him in the premier league.

Very true. Plus, he wouldn't have signed another deal with us so his value would dwindle, therefore potentially missing out on the chance to rebuild the squad.

[Tom]

Like I said, a very tough test on Saturday. It's important not to panic if things do go against us. Plenty of more winnable games to come.

My expectation is we will get in or very close to the relegation spots due to our run but ultimately be ok

[sambo]

Very true. Plus, he wouldn't have signed another deal with us so his value would dwindle, therefore potentially missing out on the chance to rebuild the squad.

Plus, given Boro's track record it's have likely rumbled on all summer at the very best, throwing our plans up in the air and meaning we were left waiting to bring players in. Doing it now is probably for the best.

[Al]

With several new players in I'm not expecting too much until they have time to gel as a unit. We must be patient.