JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW

[SBlue]

Just now, Mercer said:

I am not the one confused.

Yep, Liverpool have some fine prospects and tonight played a 16, 17 and 18 year old.

Posters on here keep saying that in Brereton we have a fine young prospect, however, 19 year old Brereton, who will cost the club £10million+ over his contract term, is deemed not ready or not good enough, or both, to start a league game for us.  Now you tell me who is confused? 

 

Maybe, just maybe, shocking I know - Liverpool might have even better youngsters than us...

 

 

And Brereton has started btw. Did you watch the game?

 

 

[Butty]

18 minutes ago, Mercer said:

Show me where I have said that?

Aiming for survival is not good enough.

Aiming for a top eight finish is not an unreasonable aspiration.

Last time we were promoted from Division One (then Division Three) under Howard Kendall, we finished 4th the following season failing to get into the top division on goal difference only.  If I recall then, fans weren't talking about a second consecutive promotion, however, the team had momentum from the previous season and with shrewd management, tactics and recruitment (1 fee paid and 4 frees) we went very, very close. 

If you have an able manager who is ambitious and driven, a manger who gets his recruitment right, a manager who is is tactically sound and a manager who is able to set up a team (not square pegs in round holes) then you have a chance.

Tonight at Wolves, Liverpool have three lads playing who are 16, 17 and 18.  If you are good enough then you are old enough.

I am a supporter who is fed up of what I think is shyte football and tactics with Rovers, an unambitious manager who talks about a promotion push in several windows time and a £7million+ 19 year old who the manager is 'nursing' when in reality I suspect BB will prove to be a signing as disastrous as other strikers like Davies, Ward and Grabbi etc. 

Aiming for top 8? Really? Me personally I’d happily take a mid table finish as it’s something to build on. Expecting a top 8 finish is a bit too ambitious for my liking Mercer. We don’t have enough quality. If we can finish around 15th this season and sign some players who will definitely improve the squad for next season then we can expect more, the majority of our starting line up were players who played in league one last season, why would you expect us to be around the top 8 seriously? Spending 7 million on Brereton I can’t defend at all as it should have gone on 2 or 3 players to supplement the rest of the squad, but until this summer is over chill out man. Let’s see what our squad looks like on the first game of NEXT season before we start talking about top 8.. This current squad is where it should be for me. If we finish anywhere between 11th-15th it will have been a more than solid first season back in this league. 

[Stuart]

15 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

Maybe, just maybe, shocking I know - Liverpool might have even better youngsters than us...

And Brereton has started btw. Did you watch the game?

I get that you being goaded but you are on a really sticky wicket defending Brereton. And it all hinges on his price tag.

Liverpool may have better youngsters that BB but nobody has shelled out £10m on them on fees/wages. For that kind of money we could probably have bought one of them (with a sell-on clause).

[SBlue]

4 minutes ago, Stuart said:

I get that you being goaded but you are on a really sticky wicket defending Brereton. And it all hinges on his price tag.

Liverpool may have better youngsters that BB but nobody has shelled out £10m on them on fees/wages. For that kind of money we could probably have bought one of them (with a sell-on clause).

Hopefully our scouting network can convince Ajax’s best youngsters to sign for us too.. 

 

I’ll leave it now and look forward to more game time for Big Ben.

Prove those doubters wrong Tombstone Teeth!

[G Somerset Rover]

44 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Did he say that? For real?

Pretty sure it was strongly rumoured after someone caught him cold (or warm) after a few too many ales on a night out. 

[davulsukur]

Just now, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Pretty sure it was strongly rumoured after someone caught him cold (or warm) after a few too many ales on a night out. 

Goes without saying that beer and footballers (and abysmal "managers") are not a good mix.

[tomphil]

4 hours ago, Ewood Ace said:

Brereton and Armstrong up front together is something I hope we don't have to see for a long time. Both lazy and both very weak, it would be a centre backs dream to be up against those two.

Down to the boss to send them out to do a job, two young lads tell them to close down and hassle from the front for twenty mins of less surely isn't too much to ask.

Agree they aren't exactly a pair of battering rams but if he can't eradicate laziness on matchday he should be ordering them in the day after for a training session in the importance of defending from the front !

[Leonard Venkhater]

15 minutes ago, Stuart said:

I get that you being goaded but you are on a really sticky wicket defending Brereton. And it all hinges on his price tag.

Liverpool may have better youngsters that BB but nobody has shelled out £10m on them on fees/wages. For that kind of money we could probably have bought one of them (with a sell-on clause).

Right now, I am thinking that the signing of BB is indefensible-if the fee is correct....and that is from a fully paid up member of the John O'Mara Appreciation Society!

[RevidgeBlue]

23 minutes ago, S8 & Blue said:

And Brereton has started btw. Did you watch the game?

Hmmmm......I did. I thought he did all right  but predictably he was promptly dropped for the next game. If he was a 27 year old and had played like that in the opening game of the season there wouldn't have been the slightest suggestion he should be dropped. Everyone would have been saying he'd be fine when he'd bedded in and got used to the rest of the team etc.

His age is irrelevant for me. If we're spending £7m on a player he needs to be going straight into the side as first choice in his chosen position. As others have said we aren't a Man City who can afford to spend £7m on a player and stockpile them, the rest of the side isn't good enough and it's even more relevant when we've got FFP waiting to bite us in the arse after a 3 year period.

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

 

Tonight at Wolves, Liverpool have three lads playing who are 16, 17 and 18.  If you are good enough then you are old enough.

Sweet, sweet. Just remind me, how did that work out for Liverpool tonight?

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Wish we had a passer in the middle like Neves.  Can't believe he's only 21.  Class act -  Young Tugay!

[SBlue]

25 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Hmmmm......I did. I thought he did all right  but predictably he was promptly dropped for the next game. If he was a 27 year old and had played like that in the opening game of the season there wouldn't have been the slightest suggestion he should be dropped. Everyone would have been saying he'd be fine when he'd bedded in and got used to the rest of the team etc.

His age is irrelevant for me. If we're spending £7m on a player he needs to be going straight into the side as first choice in his chosen position. As others have said we aren't a Man City who can afford to spend £7m on a player and stockpile them, the rest of the side isn't good enough and it's even more relevant when we've got FFP waiting to bite us in the arse after a 3 year period.

Yeah I was disappointed to see him dropped and thought he’d get a start at Newcastle too tbh.

Although I can’t complain about the results of the last two games.

 

Maybe Mowbray knows what he is doing?

 

Edited January 7, 2019 by S8 & Blue

[davulsukur]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

 If you are good enough then you are old enough.

That's not really a great saying.

I mean, everyone's different, handle pressure differently etc. 

Just because someone might have the ability (or potential ability) to play at a certain level doesn't necessarily mean they will be able to perform at that level at the age of 16/17. Some will be able to, for sure but not all. You can't just tar everyone with the same brush and expect it to work.

[Paul Mellelieu]

2 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Dack Palmer Rothwell Reed Travis Rodwell?

The 'passer have to be in front of the back four, picking up the ball and playing in those across the front players.

Dack plays up front. Palmer can't, Travis, we don't yet, Rodwell gives the ball way too often.  Reed maybe.

The idea that we play a long-ball game really doesn't hold up either.

 

 

[ben_the_beast]

Would it not be possible to discuss Brereton in the Brereton thread?

[gumboots]

Now there's an original idea! Threads staying on topic . . . 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

Would it not be possible to discuss Brereton in the Brereton thread?

This would be a wasteland if that were to happen ? be lucky to sign a new dinner lady at this rate, not even a sniff of a concrete link to anybody.

[RevidgeBlue]

17 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

Would it not be possible to discuss Brereton in the Brereton thread?

The mere fact we're discussing him shows how quiet it is in terms of actual rumours.

The Club are also playing it quite craftily with this "there won't be much to see here this window" facade IF the bloke I was talking to is right who said we had a large budget at our disposal. 

[joey_big_nose]

4 hours ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

Wish we had a passer in the middle like Neves.  Can't believe he's only 21.  Class act -  Young Tugay!

Fabulous player. That whole Wolves team is brilliant, reminded me of us in our best days under Hughes.

What you live for one day as a football supporter. Hope the Wolves fans enjoy it while it lasts.

[Bbrovers2288]

Haha a lot of the recent pages has been a lot of hot air and tosh. Also the brereton topic, jeez give it a rest. Transfer only talk please! 

Might not be the popular opinion but I do agree to an extent with mercer, the football under mowbray has been dire since he came, really needs to stamp a style down that lets us keep the ball and dominate. 

[MarkBRFC]

I'm going to predict we'll be scrambling around in the last few days of the window for a loan signing to "help out" the team. He will then spend 95% of the rest of the season on the bench.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Haha a lot of the recent pages has been a lot of hot air and tosh. Also the brereton topic, jeez give it a rest. Transfer only talk please! 

Might not be the popular opinion but I do agree to an extent with mercer, the football under mowbray has been dire since he came, really needs to stamp a style down that lets us keep the ball and dominate. 

I agree, but he needs to sign the players to do it as well which is on him again. 3 of our back 4 are like cats on a hot roof with the ball at their feet, Reed looks the only CM capable of passing forwards, Travis had promise and how you can keep the ball with a one touch finisher in Armstrong and the limited Bennett on the wings is beyond me. 

Change of formation and almost half the team would have to happen in my opinion to play any sort of possession based football.

[JacknOry]

Sticking Reed and Travis in CM together would be a start in my opinion - at least at home. Away to the better teams you could put Evans or Smallwood alongside one of them.

[G Somerset Rover]

Palmer off to Bristol City on loan according to SSN. I knew that ‘illness’ was a load of rollocks.

[yellowsubmarine]

Maybe we should swap Palmer for Chelsea's other youngster Hudson Odoi. 2 assists from crosses on the wings for Morata over the weekend.