Thursday deadline.

[RovingRover]

I think the disappointing thing about the latter end of this transfer window for me is seeing the likes of Ipswich Town and Wigan Athletic making tidy squad depth enhancing signings.

Some really good players have been signed.

I know it's not really Mowbray's job to settle fans nerves. But a couple of carefully chosen loans with a view to sign permanently could really do a lot for fan confidence over the next week!

Also might be worth taking a look at the Free Agents available. Jack Rodwell, Robert Huth, Jan Kirchhoff, Kazenga LuaLua, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and are all without a club. Maybe worth a trial and short term deal to offer a longer one?
Thoughts? 

Edited August 9, 2018 by RovingRover

[Mike E]

2 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Agreed. None of our loans last season were ‘loan to buys’. So why has this suddenly turned into the done thing and our saviour?

Because the structure of the window has changed.

[JHRover]

4 minutes ago, danger19_80 said:

This whole loan-to-buy thing that a lot of people are assuming will be the answer to our problems is a strange one to me. For a start the pool of players available for loan will be limited compared to those we could have potentially bought and they will be of a different profile. Also anyone who thinks the likes of Peterborough and Forest will loan out Maddison and Brereton now when they could just keep them and potentially sell in Jan is mad.

And that's all before the concern that, if a player does well, the price will inflate massively when it comes time to buy them.

Don't think this is the answer some are clinging on to.

Course it isn't the answer, the club however will play it as such with their acolytes at the Telegraph, and some supporters will cling to it as a comfort blanket as they will the January window but anyone who thinks it through will realise that if we were struggling to get business done in the permanent window it is likely to be much more difficult in the loan window.

We'll probably get a couple of Premier League loans until January once they've got their new signings settled in which i suspect has been our preferred option all along but I can't see much incentive at all for Championship or League One clubs to let decent players out on loan at this stage when they could have sold them today or wait until January to sell them. Someone like Gallagher on loan may be an option but that's only 1 of 4 or 5 Mowbray wanted.

Edited August 9, 2018 by JHRover

[JacknOry]

No, to me the disappointing thing is the 'we have money to spend', 'we expect 2/3 or in before the deadline', 'we want 5/6 in to add to the squad' - all stuff that has come out in the media in the last couple of days.

5/6? We didnt get 1.

If they have had told us that there would not be any incomings or lessened our expectations then fine - but no, its a load of bullony in a last ditch attempt to sell a few more season tickets.

 

[Oldgregg86]

4 hours ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

No.  January is a terrible time to buy.  Prices are over inflated because clubs know you are desperate.  Best wait till next summer.  

 

Sadly we might not have a choice 

[Sparks Rover]

4 minutes ago, RovingRover said:

I think the disappointing thing about the latter end of this transfer window for me is seeing the likes of Ipswich Town and Wigan Athletic making tidy squad depth enhancing signings.

Some really good players have been signed.

I know it's not really Mowbray's job to settle fans nerves. But a couple of carefully chosen loans with a view to sign permanently could really do a lot for fan confidence over the next week!

Also might be worth taking a look at the Free Agents available. Jack Rodwell, Robert Huth, Jan Kirchhoff and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas are all without a club. Maybe worth a trial and short term deal to offer a longer one?
Thoughts? 

I'd take that Kirchoff if he's fit. Quality player

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

6 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Sadly we might not have a choice 

Sorry that post was second guessing the rhetoric from Ewood  at the end of the January window!

[FGS5635]

There are things we know, things we think we know and a whole lot we dont know

Going off what we know and what we think we know it seems like we had a 2 point plan to this window.

1 - Try and pick up some of our cheaper targets early ie Bauer etc. Seems the selling clubs held firm and we werent prepared to overpay on our valutation.

No problem with that really, its better not to blow the cash when we aint flush

2 - Part 2 is where the plan came unstuck. Seems we had a plan to make some late bids for good players and try and get some good deals from teams under pressure late to generate some funds. If it comes off you look great and bag some top talent under its market value. The flip side is what we have, when for whatever reasons the risk fails and you end up looking a tad silly.

Its fine margins like most things in football these days between success and failure. Its probably the 1st window in a long long time that TM has had some decent money. As with all things in life, you learn your lessons, move on and try and improve next time and Im sure TM will.

I do think due to the landscape of the window changing this year, this second period under the loan window is going to be very productive.

Edited August 9, 2018 by FGS5635

[Paul Mani]

25 minutes ago, Stuart said:

We are just seeing every single cliché rolled out at this point.

It doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do in the window. It’s all good and it is always the fault of the other clubs or players.

There should be no excuses and no cliches imo. The window so far has been...underwhelming. 

Do I think we’d go down with this squad? No? Is it better than the one which went down? Yes, I believe it is. Just about.

I do know one thing. You have here one of TM’s staunchest supporters BUT if we don’t sign some pretty decent players on loans with a view then I smell a rat. That just wouldn’t add up. It’d mean that he’s ‘refused’ to spend his budget for two windows in a row. 

 

[Tom]

Just now, Paul Mani said:

There should be no excuses and no cliches imo. The window so far has been...underwhelming. 

Do I think we’d go down with this squad? No? Is it better than the one which went down? Yes, I believe it is. Just about.

I do know one thing. You have here one of TM’s staunchest supporters BUT if we don’t sign some pretty decent players on loans with a view then I smell a rat. That just wouldn’t add up. It’d mean that he’s ‘refused’ to spend his budget for two windows in a row. 

 

Very fair and balanced post from someone who is openly positive at the worst of times.

Balance is key people, it’s ok to be disappointed if things haven’t gone as expected 

[Ewood Ace]

1 minute ago, Paul Mani said:

There should be no excuses and no cliches imo. The window so far has been...underwhelming. 

Do I think we’d go down with this squad? No? Is it better than the one which went down? Yes, I believe it is. Just about.

The squad is marginally better than the one that went down purely because of Dack however this is a stronger league than the year we went down it is probably the strongest Championship in a very long time. And the squad is not all that different to the one that went down, 7 of the 11 that started on Saturday were regulars in the team that got relegated along with Conway who came on as sub.

[47er]

8 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

Hahah - No chance mate! Us ‘Happy clappers’ have been singing from the roof tops. 

Good to have you on board!

Edited August 9, 2018 by 47er

[pick32]

Wonder if Chapman can buy himself out of the contract 

[Baz]

1 hour ago, RovingRover said:

I think the disappointing thing about the latter end of this transfer window for me is seeing the likes of Ipswich Town and Wigan Athletic making tidy squad depth enhancing signings.

Some really good players have been signed.

I know it's not really Mowbray's job to settle fans nerves. But a couple of carefully chosen loans with a view to sign permanently could really do a lot for fan confidence over the next week!

Also might be worth taking a look at the Free Agents available. Jack Rodwell, Robert Huth, Jan Kirchhoff, Kazenga LuaLua, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and are all without a club. Maybe worth a trial and short term deal to offer a longer one?
Thoughts? 

Kirchoff may be worth a look, he's the strong defensive sitter. Can also play centre half if needed.

Not mobile, not going to get forward (bar set pieces), but tall, experienced and strong. Only 27 too.

[JacknOry]

36 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

There should be no excuses and no cliches imo. The window so far has been...underwhelming. 

Do I think we’d go down with this squad? No? Is it better than the one which went down? Yes, I believe it is. Just about.

I do know one thing. You have here one of TM’s staunchest supporters BUT if we don’t sign some pretty decent players on loans with a view then I smell a rat. That just wouldn’t add up. It’d mean that he’s ‘refused’ to spend his budget for two windows in a row. 

 

Respect you for that comment - sometimes it feels like us versus them in this thread but there has to come a point when the 'positives' - there i said it, have to admit have to climb down from their horse and agree that things have not gone as 'positively' as they would have liked instead of then changing the rhetoric.

I dont think anyone can dress deadline day up as anything other than disappointing. We dont know the reasons of course but for whetever reason, we left it late to bid (allegedly) multiples of millions for players that were valued far more than what we bid. Were these gesture bids to try and convince the fans we were trying or just smoke and mirrors to deflect for the fact that we ballsed everything up and have to make it look like we actually did something?

The QPR lad, did we do any work to establish before hand whether he might be available? How about the Forest kid? We were knocked back sharpish on both it seems which to me sounds like desperation or as I said earlier, smoke and mirrors. We left these bids to the eleventh hour - seemingly after we had realised we were not getting anything but had to create some kind of stir in the media.

The media has been dumbing us down bit by bit to expect loans to be our main bit of business while the club has been telling everyone we have 5/6 planned to come in and millions to spend. 

People keep harping on about the loan window but I think most will be bitterly disappointed if they think we will be tieing up loans with a fixed future fee. it serves no function to the selling club unless they have players they want shut that they dont deem able to grow in value during that loan period.  TM himself said himself last season that the loans he made last season were with a view to more permanent business - only AA has come from that so far. Chapman possibly too to come but I dont think TM sees him as a top target.

Anyhow - lets hope something good happens in this loan window as we go into August with a decent first team but nothing else behind it. By August 31st if we have not picked up a decent amount of points we might come to regret it - especially as any new loans that do come in will have to bed in and learn our way of playing.

 

[47er]

4 hours ago, DanielMB said:

TBH Im quite disappointed today. This is mostly based on TMs words about signings. I had been looking forward to today and expected a minimum of 1 signing. That being said its not the end of the world. Hopefully we can get some decent loans in with a view to making them permanent.

The thing I hate about loans is they are always youngsters who've never featured in the first team but we are always told they have a brilliant future and "we could not possibly afford them."

Then they take time to get up to speed, then, when they get their chance, we find they are no better than what we have already and in some cases, worse.

They then disappear, turn up at some other club and end up being sold for a small fee to a lower league club or abroad, never to be heard of again.All the Premier League teams do is to hoover up all the talent they can find so no other team gets them, then their playing list is unmanageable so they palm them off to mugs like us. One's already cost us two points and we've only played one game!

Seriously what proportion of loanees from the Premier League end up playing there? And yes, I did know that Beckham once played for Preston but he's the exception that proves the rule.

I guess this is partly why Mowbray stated he didn't want to rely on loanees. Pity he wasted such a long time drawing up his 2 Lists back in the day and sat on it.

No excuses, this is an effin disaster. No extra season ticket sales on the basis of this window, not exciting as we were told. The very epitome of what Venky ownership has been about----spin but no delivery.

Very disappointed but not surprised.

[Ricky]

Nmecha to Preston has been the big one for me. We should have been all over that.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

2 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

There should be no excuses and no cliches imo. The window so far has been...underwhelming. 

Do I think we’d go down with this squad? No? Is it better than the one which went down? Yes, I believe it is. Just about.

I do know one thing. You have here one of TM’s staunchest supporters BUT if we don’t sign some pretty decent players on loans with a view then I smell a rat. That just wouldn’t add up. It’d mean that he’s ‘refused’ to spend his budget for two windows in a row. 

 

Been a strange 48 hrs Mani. LT expecting us to go for a premier league attacker.  Everyone expecting somebody in permanently.  Random bids for midfielders. Left field last minute bid for a pretty obscure (if promising) striker.  Sounds a complete shambles.  What's your take on the two reported bids today? There can't have been a sensible recruitment plan in place surely?

My gut feeling is that TM will regret this window of opportunity.   As you say, he needs some rabbits out the hat now.

Also very noticeable that Rovers media department fell off the face of the earth today.  Be interesting to see how they try and spin things in the next 24 hours.  

Edited August 9, 2018 by Wing Wizard Windy Miller

[RoverKyle]

Severely disappointing end to the window. However if either of those reported bids were accepted, there'd be a completely different mood in here. I don't buy that the bids were to appease fans. If they were accepted, the players would be here.

On reflection Armstrong signing is massive for us. Along with Palmer joining that's a statement of intent. The window can easily be salvaged with a winger and a striker on loan (ideally with a view to buy), which Mowbray will no doubt be targeting. 

[G Somerset Rover]

1 hour ago, Ricky said:

Nmecha to Preston has been the big one for me. We should have been all over that.

Looks like we were pi55ing around making pointless bids whilst other clubs were actually getting realistic business done.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Gavlar Somerset Rover!

[alex l]

There is a lot of criticism of late bids and even had they succeeded I get impression they'd have still been labelled panic transfers. Does the same apply to Everton with Mina and particularly Gomes? Fulham, West Ham and other Prem teams also had very late, left field deals. 

I don't understand why so many deals are attempted on deadline day when as many have rightly pointed out there's been months to deal with it. But pretty much every club does it. Last year we got three in on deadline day and 2 have been terrible. If the squad doesn't cope in the league then TM will need accountability. 

[islander200]

8 hours ago, Mike E said:

Because the structure of the window has changed.

It has'nt changed, teams where always able to sign players on loan with a view/fixed fee obligation to buy in next window.Wednesday did it with Rhodes.

The only difference this year is the premier league window closes early.The better players who may become available can still move abroad up to the 31st 

[Stuart]

8 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

There should be no excuses and no cliches imo. The window so far has been...underwhelming. 

Do I think we’d go down with this squad? No? Is it better than the one which went down? Yes, I believe it is. Just about.

I do know one thing. You have here one of TM’s staunchest supporters BUT if we don’t sign some pretty decent players on loans with a view then I smell a rat. That just wouldn’t add up. It’d mean that he’s ‘refused’ to spend his budget for two windows in a row. 

Welcome to our world. Your yardstick is the last two windows. Presumably because you believe that Mowbray represents a brave new world. The truth is that while Venkys are here we are still subject to their spoiled brat ways and changes of mood. It may even be that Mowbray ‘has worked with this kind of owner before’ and thinks he can manage them, put on a brave face and still get the job done. One thing about Mowbray is that he is a consummate professional. He won’t start whinging. He will have his limits and move one. Like many a manager (and player) before him, who had gone through a bad spell, has seen his stock rise massively here. He will not struggle to get a new job.

Meanwhile, we are stuck with these chumps. Who could get lucky and bring in a good manager like Mowbray or more likely  another chump like Coyle.

My yardstick was reached long ago. It’ll take a little more than ‘talk’ of big budgets for me to think we have turned any kind of corner on the owner front. We lucked out last season with the squad we had and the manager who got it to gel. If we are relegated again (like Wigan were so not just defeatist talk) we may not be so lucky.

Let’s see what the loan window brings. If we get Maddison, Chapman and Bauer with a view to permanent moves then Mowbray will have pulled a blinder. I have my doubts and want to be proven wrong. Really! (I’m sick of being right about these bastards).

Let’s see.

[Neal]

8 hours ago, Ricky said:

Nmecha to Preston has been the big one for me. We should have been all over that.

See for me it's Edwards... At that price given our budget, its a big opportunity missed. Given his performance right under Mowbrays nose at Ewood... We should have snapped him up. Can't fathom why he passed on that one. 

Edited August 10, 2018 by Neal

[dinglebasher]

2 minutes ago, Neal said:

See for me it's Edwards... At that price given our budget, its a big opportunity missed. Given his performance right under Mowbrays nose at Ewood... We should have snapped him up. Can't fathom why he passed on that one. 

How do you know he passed on it? Perhaps the players in question told him they weren’t interested in signing for us. 

Preston and Ipswich are both established Championship teams and are arguably more attractive than newly-promoted Rovers. 

I don’t think the window has been particularly inspiring, but some of the conjecture on here could be toned down a little. 

Perhaps potential targets would also prefer loans to see whether they would consider signing for us permanently, given that we are a newly-promoted team with a chaotic background and a recent relegation.