Ben Brereton Diaz

[Stuart]

24 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

He's half English.

No. At best he would be a dual national.

[Husky]

19 hours ago, tomphil said:

Part right, all good gaffers have a plan and I think TM has but no way ever should you rest on your laurels or shoulder shrug and say it's ok we didn't expect too much this season anyway.

Realistic is one thing but complacent is another, remain ambitious at all times, That doesn't have to mean promotion it just means try and have the best season possible not settle a midtable plod.  To be fair I think he's trying to do that as you can't complain about the way they went about the game from the off on Sat but it's some of the players mentality I worry about and he's almost give them a free pass by pledging his loyalty to the regulars this season.

Lets hope they don't switch off now the window is past !

We don't want to become The Nokia of the smartphone world.

[Sparks Rover]

2 hours ago, Stuart said:

No. At best he would be a dual national.

I dont know his passport status but his mum is English, dad Spanish.

[Stuart]

3 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

I dont know his passport status but his mum is English, dad Spanish.

Not that it’s worth getting into a huge debate about but was born in Spain.

[DanLad]

Which way around does he do his question marks?

Edited February 5, 2019 by DanLad
Typo

[Husky]

2 hours ago, DanLad said:

Which way around does he do his question marks?

Both ways. One for each parent.

[Bbrovers2288]

Surely despite saying to the contrary, mowbray can’t be happy with how this signing is turning out. This one for the future is a lot of cosh, if he was good enough he would be playing. He was playing for forest so it doesn’t make sense. For all the positives this season this is the huge elephant in the room and the one that in future years supporters will remember. Our supposed marquee signing getting brief cameos and contributing nothing. Never mind chris brown, I think this lad is Kevin Davies mark 2. Does nothing for us and we sell him then hits it off somewhere else, I can just see it 

[JBiz]

3 hours ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Surely despite saying to the contrary, mowbray can’t be happy with how this signing is turning out. This one for the future is a lot of cosh, if he was good enough he would be playing. He was playing for forest so it doesn’t make sense. For all the positives this season this is the huge elephant in the room and the one that in future years supporters will remember. Our supposed marquee signing getting brief cameos and contributing nothing. Never mind chris brown, I think this lad is Kevin Davies mark 2. Does nothing for us and we sell him then hits it off somewhere else, I can just see it 

I doubt Mowbray is ecstatic about his impact so far, but I don't think he will have expected what some fans will.

The discussion on what his wage/fee will actually be has been done to death, as has the arguments about how 7m could've been spent this year differently.

That said; There seems (from my view) a lot of naivety about the financial climate and level of competition in the championship, combined with the current wage scenario at the club.

The response I often get to that is a lot for Rovers, and whilst I agree to an extent, its a very insignificant amount of the 200m+ spent by Championship clubs so far in 18/19 or the 250m+ spent in the same league in 17/18. Not forgetting the average wage in the premier league is 2.5m a season before taxes, its not difficult to imagine that many of the deals made in an attempt to get teams into that league came with contracts worth a lot more than 7m. Many of them players come with no potential re-sale value, and many of them will return nothing on the cost.

For all the sarcastic remarks towards the managing director saying there was scope to move the budget between wages and fees, the 7m figure has been used as a "cosh" to suggest this particular transfer was intended to be immediately key to the first team. For example; You call him a marquee signing, but by the words upon his deal completing and comments since, combined with the way he has been used (Graham the number one forward) suggest this was never the case.

I would've liked to see more so far, but there is not the rush suggested in my opinion. If you look at the squad as a whole - combined with a few of the u23's on the fringes, its quite easy for me to get excited about the near future. It will only take 2 or 3 making similar jumps to what Travis did last month, or Nyambe early season, to see this squad improve drastically.

If he does do, as you suggested - leave here and make it somewhere else (the devil on my shoulder has also suggested this possibility) then it will certainly be the fault of the manager(s) and coaching staff, for the way he was used during his time with us.

 

[den]

Sorry Biz, can’t go along with much of that.

Bottom line is that he hasn’t shown us a thing. Nothing. Zilch. That’s nothing to do with how he’s being used.

is your desperation to defend him blinding you to that fact?

Edited February 12, 2019 by den

[Dreams of 1995]

He should be a better prospect than Nuttall. We got Nuttall for free from the Scottish Leagues and Brereton cost us £7m from one of the most competitive leagues in Europe.

His contribution so far is indefensible really, despite all the new buzzwords like "project signing" and so on. I look forward to the time he starts banging in the goals, until then his displays in a Rovers shirt average about 2 out of 10 - he's been shite. 

[JBiz]

27 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

He should be a better prospect than Nuttall. We got Nuttall for free from the Scottish Leagues and Brereton cost us £7m from one of the most competitive leagues in Europe.

His contribution so far is indefensible really, despite all the new buzzwords like "project signing" and so on. I look forward to the time he starts banging in the goals, until then his displays in a Rovers shirt average about 2 out of 10 - he's been shite. 

Is that more down to the way he has been utilised? I don't recall making a post that set out excuses for every missed placed pass, poor reaction or mis hit shot.

 

[Dreams of 1995]

42 minutes ago, Biz said:

Is that more down to the way he has been utilised? I don't recall making a post that set out excuses for every missed placed pass, poor reaction or mis hit shot.

 

He looks bereft of any confidence if you ask me. Whether that's because he is being asked to play as a winger or what we don't know. It certainly won't help. Yet, despite myself trying to find any excuse for him I can't help but feel as if there is a distinct lack of effort.

Sounds petty but him taking 4 minutes to tie his shoelace vs Sheffield United won't leave my head either. It might if good form prevails but silly moments like that stick in somebodies head when the rest of his game has been so poor. On the other hand, clever bits of play that won us the penalty that time don't so much stick in my head - I can't even remember who it was against. I think that line of thinking is leading people to the probably premature judgement of Brereton. Until his form improves all of the negatives will stick out like a sore thumb whilst any positive will sink into oblivion.  

[DeeCee]

Lads a player, got to give him time and opportunity's, but how much and how many?

 

[blueboy3333]

Has anyone got the receipt?

[chaddyrovers]

good performance tonight Ben. keep it up

[blueboy3333]

14 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

good performance tonight Ben. keep it up

Did he not miss a sitter? 

[Rover_Shaun]

So far even the signing of Kevin Davies eclipses Brereton.

That's shocking in itself.

[tomphil]

Played well tonight early doors then became quickly anonymous again, always looks better when he gets in the middle up front. He did graft tonight though so that penny might be dropping with him even if it doesn't with the manager.

Brereton really wasn't the problem again tonight.

[Bbrovers2288]

Anyone else think- Jonathan stead.....without the goals 

[Mercer]

25 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

good performance tonight Ben. keep it up

Don't be ridiculous.

What did he do of note?

He missed one sitter in the 2nd half and put in an appalling cross just before being hooked.

For £7million+ he should be our 'big' player producing 'big' moments like Oliveira.  What Brereton did tonight can be seen in any league in UK right down to the National League and lower.  I think what Brereton did tonight is akin to asking a window cleaner to climb a ladder!

[Husky]

10 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Anyone else think- Jonathan stead.....without the goals 

10 goals for Notts County this season. Not bad for a 50 year old.

[tomphil]

21 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Anyone else think- Jonathan stead.....without the goals 

I'd wager he was better than Ben at a similar age that's why he ended up in the Prem but he never turned into a big multi million pound player even though he proved himself ok. Seems you don't need to do that these days you just need the right connections.

[Hasta]

Played well by comparison to previous performances. Looked up for it with some great first touches to turn away from defenders. Good cut back to set up a chance after a poor ball by Armstrong. Faded after about half an hour. Fell over a lot. Missed sitter.

[skous18]

He is CLEARLY not a winger! Its just so so obviously.. He had a good game tonight thou but then again non of his good moments came from the wing ?‍♂️

[Exiled in Toronto]

It was good to have a good look at him tonight. He clearly plays a very different way to Graham: comes short for it a lot, turns the defender then runs at them. No surprise his cameos have been poor in a team set up for long diagonals to Graham. Be interesting to see him play in a team set up to leverage what he does.