JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

11 minutes ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

I'm a little disheartened by Mowbrays comments about foreign markets. You look at Norwich and a key portion of their squad have been plucked cheaply from the German 2nd division, like with France a few years ago there's always a few markets with good value for money. He must have reasons for doing this probably due to a poor scouting structure. But he also said that he's unlikely to go for lower league players like say North End or doing. It gives a very limited pool of players to pick from especially when you consider we aren't throwing big money in wages around.

I agree, we got Samba, Nzonzi and Givet from low level foreign football clubs.

[RoverKyle]

12 minutes ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

I'm a little disheartened by Mowbrays comments about foreign markets. You look at Norwich and a key portion of their squad have been plucked cheaply from the German 2nd division, like with France a few years ago there's always a few markets with good value for money. He must have reasons for doing this probably due to a poor scouting structure. But he also said that he's unlikely to go for lower league players like say North End or doing. It gives a very limited pool of players to pick from especially when you consider we aren't throwing big money in wages around.

It's quite concerning isn't it. Especially when you look at some of the players we've picked up from abroad for cheap. There's a lot of value out there. 

[Burrells Boy]

Did quite well with Scandinavian players in the past, Berg etc, surely value can be found, didn’t do to badly on re-sale value also.

[SBlue]

I’m sure other teams will look at Dack, Armstrong and Travis etc and bemoan the fact that they are ignoring the opportunity to pick up cheap English players or to develop their own from the academy.

The grass is always greener and it’s rare we notice other teams poor signings.

 

not saying we should discount other markets completely btw

Edited January 25, 2019 by S8 & Blue

[rovers11]

I wouldn’t be too bothered if we didn’t sign anyone in Jan. I’d rather we gave the younger players a chance who could potentially become first team regulars, rather than buying an average squad player who is never going to develop into anything more than that. 

We spent our Jan transfer budget last summer, so I don’t think we’ll make any cash signings. It would have to be a loan with a view, as TM has said. Chapman will end up here at some point. 

[Tom Stinny]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

When you say “good all round”, you are presumably not including Sunderland in that...?

I don't think there is a massive difference between the two players, and as a lot of scouting is just as much on reputation as it is seeing someone play then it would be the best deal Sunderland could get.

 

The lad Maja has only done well for half a season in a poor division. He's scored 15-16 in adult football all together. 

 

Compare that to Brereton who is around the same age who has scored 8-10 in adult football in a higher league.

 

A lot of people and pundits seem to think that Sunderland with a young striker with 6 months left on his contract who has publicly stated he won't sign another will get 5-6 million for him. It won't happen.

[arbitro]

5 minutes ago, renrag said:

I read it slightly differently Tony, it seems to me that Rodwell (and/or his agent) who holds the aces, is not ready to commit at this point and will see what the options are in the summer.

However, the Ewood boss hasn’t ruled out an extended stay for the utility man further down the line.

“Jack Rodwell’s situation, I know his contract expires at the end of the season but I don’t sit here thinking ‘let’s go and offer him a 10-year deal’,” Mowbray said.

“I have every respect for Jack, he works hard every day and listens, brings the right values and cultures to our football club. And I hope that at the right time he’s telling me that he’s enjoying it and wants to stay, and then we will talk about his situation.

“At this moment, because he’s had one man of the match, he doesn’t just get a new five-year deal.

I saw it as Mowbray sounding flippant making reference to a five year deal because he got man of the match. If I was Rodwell and saw the above I would question whether or not I would be better off elsewhere. 

[DE.]

Just now, arbitro said:

However, the Ewood boss hasn’t ruled out an extended stay for the utility man further down the line.

“Jack Rodwell’s situation, I know his contract expires at the end of the season but I don’t sit here thinking ‘let’s go and offer him a 10-year deal’,” Mowbray said.

“I have every respect for Jack, he works hard every day and listens, brings the right values and cultures to our football club. And I hope that at the right time he’s telling me that he’s enjoying it and wants to stay, and then we will talk about his situation.

“At this moment, because he’s had one man of the match, he doesn’t just get a new five-year deal.

I saw it as Mowbray sounding flippant making reference to a five year deal because he got man of the match. If I was Rodwell and saw the above I would question whether or not I would be better off elsewhere. 

Something doesn't quite sound right there. Tony certainly doesn't sound as keen to sign Rodwell up as our fans seem to be. I have to say I'd be wary as well. Rodwell has done alright recently, yes, but he wouldn't be the first player in our colours to play well for a contract and then sit back to coast for the next few years until the expiry date creeps up again. We've got a certain player in the team right now who's an expert at it.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 minutes ago, arbitro said:

However, the Ewood boss hasn’t ruled out an extended stay for the utility man further down the line.

“Jack Rodwell’s situation, I know his contract expires at the end of the season but I don’t sit here thinking ‘let’s go and offer him a 10-year deal’,” Mowbray said.

“I have every respect for Jack, he works hard every day and listens, brings the right values and cultures to our football club. And I hope that at the right time he’s telling me that he’s enjoying it and wants to stay, and then we will talk about his situation.

“At this moment, because he’s had one man of the match, he doesn’t just get a new five-year deal.

I saw it as Mowbray sounding flippant making reference to a five year deal because he got man of the match. If I was Rodwell and saw the above I would question whether or not I would be better off elsewhere. 

Me too.

[Stuart]

12 minutes ago, DE. said:

Something doesn't quite sound right there. Tony certainly doesn't sound as keen to sign Rodwell up as our fans seem to be. I have to say I'd be wary as well. Rodwell has done alright recently, yes, but he wouldn't be the first player in our colours to play well for a contract and then sit back to coast for the next few years until the expiry date creeps up again. We've got a certain player in the team right now who's an expert at it.

It sounds to me like any deal we might offer would be a short one. A good plan might be a rolling style contract which only has a one year pay off and that either party can give six months notice on. I don’t see him ever being a big signing ever again and we got him on a free so it’s not like we are protecting an investment.

Rodwell probably wants four or five years given his age and he isn’t getting it here. Sometimes these comments are as much for agents and players benefit as much as answering fans clamourings.

We do hold the cards to an extent because he is damaged goods. Whether he could get a better deal elsewhere. Probably. Maybe a pay day in China would be an option for him. In this case, I think Mowbray is right to be wary.

[DE.]

Just now, Stuart said:

It sounds to me like any deal we might offer would be a short one. A good plan might be a rolling style contract which only has a one year pay off and that either party can give six months notice on. I don’t see him ever being a big signing ever again and we got him on a free so it’s not like we are protecting an investment.

Rodwell probably wants four or five years given his age and he isn’t getting it here. Sometimes these comments are as much for agents and players benefit as much as answering fans clamourings.

We do hold the cards to an extent because he is damaged goods. Whether he could get a better deal elsewhere. Probably. Maybe a pay day in China would be an option for him. In this case, I think Mowbray is right to be wary.

When it comes to judging a player's character, I trust Mowbray to know when something is amiss. Admittedly I think he's probably signed too many "nice lads" and not enough proper winners with a bit of a nasty streak in them, but by the same token under Mowbray's management we've had no players like Murphy, Etuhu, DJ Campbell, Leon Best, Bradley Orr, Shane Duffy (good player for us but a collossal bell), or countless others of the past seven years who have disgraced the shirt. It's obvious that Rodwell has the natural talent - it's his personality and character that Mowbray will be observing, and it sounds like he's still waiting to be convinced that a long-term investment is worthwhile. 

[Bbrovers2288]

Not searching the foreign market, astonishing. Teams that have made it up with solely British players the last few years are few and far between, only one I can really recall is Burnley and Newcastle was largely British- all be it they paid top dollar for that, a budget we have nowhere near. 

Norwich and Leeds are flying with a vast sprinkling of cheap foreign talent. In my opinion the best defender is the league is Pontus jansson, cheap Scandinavian market purchase. 

Why we wouldn’t utilise this market annoys me greatly. 

No wonder we aren’t getting anyone, we have ruled out abroad, or lower leagues so we are shopping in champ and prem which is well known to be inflated, when we have next to no budget having already blown a wad on brereton from this market and isn’t ready- as he stated he wants.

my scepticism on mowbrays vision is increasing by the day 

[rigger]

Just now, Bbrovers2288 said:

Not searching the foreign market, astonishing. Teams that have made it up with solely British players the last few years are few and far between, only one I can really recall is Burnley and Newcastle was largely British- all be it they paid top dollar for that, a budget we have nowhere near. 

Norwich and Leeds are flying with a vast sprinkling of cheap foreign talent. In my opinion the best defender is the league is Pontus jansson, cheap Scandinavian market purchase. 

Why we wouldn’t utilise this market annoys me greatly. 

No wonder we aren’t getting anyone, we have ruled out abroad, or lower leagues so we are shopping in champ and prem which is well known to be inflated, when we have next to no budget having already blown a wad on brereton from this market and isn’t ready- as he stated he wants.

my scepticism on mowbrays vision is increasing by the day 

I don't think we are shopping anywhere.

[AAK]

7 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Not searching the foreign market, astonishing. Teams that have made it up with solely British players the last few years are few and far between, only one I can really recall is Burnley and Newcastle was largely British- all be it they paid top dollar for that, a budget we have nowhere near. 

Norwich and Leeds are flying with a vast sprinkling of cheap foreign talent. In my opinion the best defender is the league is Pontus jansson, cheap Scandinavian market purchase. 

Why we wouldn’t utilise this market annoys me greatly. 

No wonder we aren’t getting anyone, we have ruled out abroad, or lower leagues so we are shopping in champ and prem which is well known to be inflated, when we have next to no budget having already blown a wad on brereton from this market and isn’t ready- as he stated he wants.

my scepticism on mowbrays vision is increasing by the day 

Wonder whether he only shops at mid range food outlet Asda and refuses to shop at Aldi or Lidl, because the meat might take a bit longer to adapt to the slow cooker?

[rigger]

Just now, AAK said:

Wonder whether he only shops at mid range food outlet Asda and refuses to shop at Aldi or Lidl, because the meat might take a bit longer to adapt to the slow cooker?

If your cooker is slow, get rid of her.

[Spankus Munky]

8 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Not searching the foreign market, astonishing. Teams that have made it up with solely British players the last few years are few and far between, only one I can really recall is Burnley and Newcastle was largely British- all be it they paid top dollar for that, a budget we have nowhere near. 

Norwich and Leeds are flying with a vast sprinkling of cheap foreign talent. In my opinion the best defender is the league is Pontus jansson, cheap Scandinavian market purchase. 

Why we wouldn’t utilise this market annoys me greatly. 

No wonder we aren’t getting anyone, we have ruled out abroad, or lower leagues so we are shopping in champ and prem which is well known to be inflated, when we have next to no budget having already blown a wad on brereton from this market and isn’t ready- as he stated he wants.

my scepticism on mowbrays vision is increasing by the day 

That's not what he said though. He has ruled out and January Foreign signings without prior experience of the English leagues as they take time to settle. He would rather have them in the summer to have time in pre-season to adjust on and off the pitch which is fair enough if you ask me.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, deryck guyler's spoon said:

Yourself and Roversfan99 et al maybe didn't read my opening sentence (well, you must have and chose to ignore it) which, in a nutshell, acknowledged that this is a forum for debate and the sharing of opinion. I was just frustrated that some contributors don't question the manager's decisions but relegate them to being inferior to what their own would be.

 

By Roversfan99's logic we are to conflate the careers, experience and integrity of messrs  Kean, Coyle and Mowbray, so...………...

I dont understand quite how that frustrates you, if we have an opinion then we obviously hold that for a reason and will back that up even if that disagrees with the opinion of the manager. That doesnt mean that anyone on here is about to put themselves forward for the managerial job, it just means that Mowbray is only human and some of his decisions will be subject to debate.

And I in no way have suggested that them 3 managers are on an even keel in terms of their managerial ability. I was using extreme examples of managers who we consider to be terrible still having far more managerial ability than any of us.

If you are looking for a place where people will debate to death the decisions that our manager makes and suggest what we would do in Mowbrays shoes whether it agrees with what then an internet messageboard is the right place. Something you suggested as you said before going on to

If you choose to think that everyone thinks they can do better than the manager in general then I suggest you will be wrong. And what players do in training is somewhat irrelevant, if a player is outstanding in training and shite on a match day then hes no use.

Your comments on number of messageboard posts are particularly bizarre.

[SBlue]

17 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Not searching the foreign market, astonishing. Teams that have made it up with solely British players the last few years are few and far between, only one I can really recall is Burnley and Newcastle was largely British- all be it they paid top dollar for that, a budget we have nowhere near. 

Norwich and Leeds are flying with a vast sprinkling of cheap foreign talent. In my opinion the best defender is the league is Pontus jansson, cheap Scandinavian market purchase. 

Why we wouldn’t utilise this market annoys me greatly. 

No wonder we aren’t getting anyone, we have ruled out abroad, or lower leagues so we are shopping in champ and prem which is well known to be inflated, when we have next to no budget having already blown a wad on brereton from this market and isn’t ready- as he stated he wants.

my scepticism on mowbrays vision is increasing by the day 

Sheffield Utd, Boro and Derby are doing alright.

Edited January 25, 2019 by S8 & Blue

[Ewood Ace]

8 minutes ago, Spankus Munky said:

That's not what he said though. He has ruled out and January Foreign signings without prior experience of the English leagues as they take time to settle. He would rather have them in the summer to have time in pre-season to adjust on and off the pitch which is fair enough if you ask me.



But if you sign them now they have plenty of time to get settle and be ready for next season. Whereas if you sign them in July and they take time to settle it could easily be a few months into the season before they are up to speed. It's a flawed argument from Mowbray especially considering how he has spoken about building a team for the future.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Ewood Ace

[SBlue]

“Sign players ready for the first team!”

”Brereton is a shit player because he’s one for the future!”

 

”Sign players for the future!”

 

The goalposts move so much on here Chris Brown could score.

[roversfan99]

4 hours ago, Angry_Pirate said:

I'm of the view that you can't state that the likes of Williams, Smallwood, Downing, Samuel, Gladwin, Caddis and Whittingham etc are no way good enough... yet be concerned or unhappy due to "lack of depth" upon their departure.

If they are clearly not good enough for our current team/league position, get rid. Maybe one of our youth team players is actually (far) better and just waiting for a chance to move up the queue... Travis, Raya, Nyambe or Smallwood, Steele, Caddis?

We aren't going down, so now would be the perfect time to get rid of as many "deadwoods" (regardless of their previous contributions), and see if we have any other Lewis Travis type potential in our club already that we can test out in the result of a major injury blitz some people expect and fear so badly.

If we have to blood another Jay McEveley, Grant Hanley or Phil Jones instead of playing a Downing or Williams for 10 games, would anyone really be unhappy if they are the difference between us finishing 9th or 12th?

Thanks Paul, really nice bloke and honest pro, hope he does great at Donny. 

I find the hypothetical scenario that you have put in bold very strange and specific. There is a chance that in the last couple of games, we may reach a stage where we cannot mathematically reach the play offs, nor be embroiled in any danger towards the bottom 3, that I concede. Even if that happened, we should still want to finish as high as possible, but I would appreciate there is more scope to blood a youngster or 2 if they are ready. Win tomorrow however, and we would have 17 games to go and be 3 points off the play offs. I dont get this suggestion that we should already be looking to next season! We need to ensure we have enough quality and enough depth to sustain us to do as well as we can for the rest of this season.

I cant profess to be an expert on our younger players in the under 23s but from what I can gather, Wharton and Grayson are the young centre backs closest to being ready and they are both out on loan. I have seen no suggestion that Magloire is ready for Championship football.

We have to be careful to manage not to become over reliant or overly dependant on the academy. What I mean by that is that we do have Raya, Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis and Nuttall all within the first team. You have to be careful not to rely on the others as immediate cover and only bring them through when they have shown enough to warrant it. The latter 2 are the most recent break throughs, seemingly standing out in the younger teams, and now Travis has made a midfield spot his own in the area we are arguably the strongest. If we were promoting based on areas we are weakest in terms of senior players, a new young central midfielder would not have been the priority to promote. You promote youngsters based on their quality, not what we are short of in the senior team. 

[Gone to seed]

Just now, S8 & Blue said:

The goalposts move so much on here Chris Brown could score.

Nah, I don't buy that. Big brown lump wouldn't score if the goals were as wide as the entire Blackburn end.

[Spankus Munky]

3 minutes ago, Ewood Ace said:

But if you sign them now they have plenty of time to get settle and be ready for next season. Whereas if you sign them in July and they take time to settle it could easily be a few months into the season before they are up to speed. 

Yes but the business end of the season is January onward so any signing now needs to be ready to hit the ground running, especially if he is bought in to be a "better than we have" replacement.

How many Foreign players new to the English leagues signed in January have pushed a team from mid table to Play-Offs/Europe?

[tomphil]

I think Mowbray is playing it right with Rodwell at the min i'm sure he's said to him get yourself fit and prove and you can do it and there'll be something on the table for you soon enough.

If he starts wanting silly numbers he's out of our market anyway but if he carries on like he is i'd like to think they'll bring their offer forward and try and nail him down to something. Just a pity he isn't on a contract that kicks in an extra year after so many starts.........

[Parsonblue]

41 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Not searching the foreign market, astonishing. Teams that have made it up with solely British players the last few years are few and far between, only one I can really recall is Burnley and Newcastle was largely British- all be it they paid top dollar for that, a budget we have nowhere near. 

Norwich and Leeds are flying with a vast sprinkling of cheap foreign talent. In my opinion the best defender is the league is Pontus jansson, cheap Scandinavian market purchase. 

Why we wouldn’t utilise this market annoys me greatly. 

No wonder we aren’t getting anyone, we have ruled out abroad, or lower leagues so we are shopping in champ and prem which is well known to be inflated, when we have next to no budget having already blown a wad on brereton from this market and isn’t ready- as he stated he wants.

my scepticism on mowbrays vision is increasing by the day 

He didn't say that he wasn't searching the foreign market full stop, just that the January window is not the one he would want to use to bring in foreign players.  I assume he means that a summer signing gives the player time to adjust to a move to a new country and a pre-season to adjust to English football.  From previous interviews, he has talked about scouting across Europe for the right players.  The fact that we have brought a Lithuanian player into the Academy set-up, one who has attracted a lot of attention from top flight clubs, suggests that we are looking abroad for players.