Summer Transfer Window 2019

[JHRover]

Just now, OJRovers said:

Any idea what sort of budget Tony got when he was in India?

I suspect it will be like previous years' where it is a very small budget, until it is too late and we've missed all the best targets (see Brereton signing).

I'm expecting a flurry of Gladwin-esque signings in early summer to fill out the squad, followed maybe by some bigger signings at the end of the window.

 

 

 

 

My prediction, and I'd love to be proved wrong, is a similar routine to last summer. We'll see maybe a couple of freebies early doors, be hoping on a couple of half decent loans arriving down the line, I don't think there will be direct pressure from upstairs to sell anyone but Mowbray might eventually decide that he has to do so to generate enough funds to play in the market, with the outside chance of Balaji or whoever coming up with a bonus at some stage like with the Brereton deal.

[Guest]

Just now, JHRover said:

Bloody hell, that didn't take long. So we're not even out of May yet, Mowbray and co. only just getting back from India yet we're already through Option A ideas and onto the B and C list? Where will we be on deadline day in August/September?

If Downing is on List B I shudder to think who is on list E,F and G.

No evidence Maher was ever a serious target. The fact he's agreed a move at this relatively early stage of the window suggests that one has been in the pipeline for some time now and given we're still at the deciding budgets stage of proceedings I doubt we ever had a realistic chance on that front. If we'd have been in with a chance we would have needed to get everything teed up weeks ago and that isn't possible under this regime.

IF we're keen on Downing it just sums up the haphazard, inconsistent and bonkers strategy we have. Mowbray talks about developing assets, signing players who will improve and grow in value and be better than what we already have and talks about tapping into new markets and being clever with our business yet his first port of call is to go to a 35 year old being released by his hometown club whose supporters are glad to see the back of? Random. More likely Mowbray is just lining up who he can in the absence of a serious plan or budget.

Apart from the fact Mowbray travelled to Holland to see him in person...

[Admiral Nelsen]

Just now, OJRovers said:

Any idea what sort of budget Tony got when he was in India?

I suspect it will be like previous years' where it is a very small budget, until it is too late and we've missed all the best targets (see Brereton signing).

I'm expecting a flurry of Gladwin-esque signings in early summer to fill out the squad, followed maybe by some bigger signings at the end of the window.

 

Not really, other than the one Nixon story saying we'd probably need to sell before we could afford Gally for 5 million.

Obviously that could mean:

i) our overall budget is less than £5 million

ii) our remaining budget for a striker, after setting aside funds for all the other positions is less than £5 million

iii) Nixon is guessing because he said 'probably need a sale'

iv) Nixon is guessing because, well, obviously he is

 

I don't really know what I'm expecting. I don't see any Brereton-scale outlays if we're going for players in their prime. If I had to guess I'd say a couple of frees (of which it seems like Fielding could be the first, but lets see), one maybe two transfer fee signings from Europe and maybe one player in the Freeman mould who would cost a few million quid. 

[JHRover]

Just now, JoeHarvey said:

Apart from the fact Mowbray travelled to Holland to see him in person...

He went to Holland to watch a match. Any evidence that he was the one he watched or that it went any further than a scouting trip?

Anyways, even if he was the focus of the trip and Mowbray was keen, given he's just completed a transfer whilst Mowbray is flying around the world finding out his budgets suggests to me that we were a bit behind the game on that one.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, JHRover said:

He went to Holland to watch a match. Any evidence that he was the one he watched or that it went any further than a scouting trip?

Anyways, even if he was the focus of the trip and Mowbray was keen, given he's just completed a transfer whilst Mowbray is flying around the world finding out his budgets suggests to me that we were a bit behind the game on that one.

Or maybe he just picked a team playing in Europe ahead of us 

[JHRover]

Just now, OnePhilT said:

The issue is more about getting business done early when the manager tells us that that's what he wants to do. He clearly can't, can he? He has to wait a few weeks after the season has finished, take his two or three budgets to put in front of the owners, wait for a week for them to tell him what he can or can't do (and even that probably ends up being a vague answer), return home, take a two-week holiday, and perhaps then begin. So we get our arses into gear a month after the season has finished, while other clubs who want to move up in the world have already got things well underway.

The trip to India and working around the owners is the main problem. If they want Rovers to progress by means of a good transfer window - regardless of the budget amount - they should be coming over here for the last game of the season and, as soon as it's done, spend the next week or so laying down the plans for the window and the coming season. Instead, we are constantly a month behind the rest.

Correct. We're at a disadvantage before we even start. The fact that Mowbray will have only just have had his budget confirmed in the last week at the end of May, having known since early April that we were mathematically in the Championship, suggests to me that the period in between has been wasted. A competent club and structure would have pencilled budgets in on the basis of Championship football and automatically approve those upon securing that status and the ball would start rolling then.

You might have got away with such a lackadaisical attitude and approach 30 years ago but these days in such an intensely competitive industry it is the proactive, quick, decisive ones who get where they want to be. The laid back, indecisive, incoherent ones end up struggling.

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, OnePhilT said:

The issue is more about getting business done early when the manager tells us that that's what he wants to do. He clearly can't, can he? He has to wait a few weeks after the season has finished, take his two or three budgets to put in front of the owners, wait for a week for them to tell him what he can or can't do (and even that probably ends up being a vague answer), return home, take a two-week holiday, and perhaps then begin. So we get our arses into gear a month after the season has finished, while other clubs who want to move up in the world have already got things well underway.

The trip to India and working around the owners is the main problem. If they want Rovers to progress by means of a good transfer window - regardless of the budget amount - they should be coming over here for the last game of the season and, as soon as it's done, spend the next week or so laying down the plans for the window and the coming season. Instead, we are constantly a month behind the rest.

All speculation in paragraph . As for the last sentence and please answer, what business have other clubs in the division done? Apart from Stoke. 

I agree with the 2nd paragraph for sure 

[JHRover]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

Or maybe he just picked a team playing in Europe ahead of us 

So Mowbray made his bid and offer before going to India and Maher turned us down whilst they were out there?

Or no serious bid or offer was ever made by Rovers because it couldn't because nobody at the club had a clue what the budget was?

[Mattyblue]

I don’t see why the meeting can’t take place in the last international break, end of March. Only about a half dozen games of the season left by then.

By that time any progressive football club should be thinking of the following season, surely?

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, JHRover said:

So Mowbray made his bid and offer before going to India and Maher turned us down whilst they were out there?

Or no serious bid or offer was ever made by Rovers because it couldn't because nobody at the club had a clue what the budget was?

A bid wasn't required as he is out of contract. I imagine Mowbray didn't need sign off on offering terms, particularly as he stated that there was budget left over from January. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

I don’t see why the meeting can’t take place in the last international break, end of March. Only about a half dozen games of the season left by then.

By that time any progressive football club should be thinking of the following season, surely?

Depends on if we know what division we will be in. I think this season it was still, somewhat, up in the air. Definitely needed to happen sooner than it did though. 

[Mattyblue]

We were very, very unlikely to go down. In fact, we were the first club in the division to be confirmed as stopping in this league - we couldn’t go up or down. Even so, you agree two budgets.

Most clubs will be involved in something either promotion, play offs or relegation. Doesn’t mean planning just stops until the manager and Chief Exec fly half way across the world two weeks after the season has finished.

Edited May 29, 2019 by Mattyblue

[Crimpshrine]

Just now, OnePhilT said:

 

The trip to India and working around the owners is the main problem. If they want Rovers to progress by means of a good transfer window - regardless of the budget amount - they should be coming over here for the last game of the season and, as soon as it's done, spend the next week or so laying down the plans for the window and the coming season. Instead, we are constantly a month behind the rest.

In terms or organisation and readiness we are light-years behind!  You correctly identify the reason.

[Miller11]

15 hours ago, JoeHarvey said:

How our team SHOULD look for the first game next season:

                    Raya
New    Lenihan    New    New
                   Travis
            Dack      Maher
Rothwell                Armstrong
                Brereton

How our team WILL look for the first game next season:

                        Fielding
Nyambe    Lenihan    Mulgrew    Bell
                    Travis Evans
Bennett            Dack            Downing
                        Graham
 

On what planet should Brereton be starting before Graham?

If Brereton was a youth team graduate he wouldn’t make most people’s 18. Graham was far and away our most consistent performer last year, scored his fair share of goals, leads the line fantastically, and though getting on a bit, we should be getting every bit of game time out of him we can. I very much doubt his eventual replacement will be anywhere near as effective as he is... whether that is Brereton or anyone else we can attract at present.

[roverstdt]

i think this will be a super interesting Window and i don't believe we need drastic change to the team. I think our defense was weak this year due to being plagued by injuries. 

We have some great great young players in Nyambe, Chapman, Brereton, Armstrong, Davenport. We need to use our wise heads being Mulgrew and Graham to get this team over the line. Raya i rate he just needs time he is a young keeper who will learn and grow. There are some great players from the French ligue 1 i would be curious to look at. One being Jordan Ferri who is being released from Lyon and who is a gifted little deep lying playmaker. 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Just now, Miller11 said:

On what planet should Brereton be starting before Graham?

If Brereton was a youth team graduate he wouldn’t make most people’s 18. Graham was far and away our most consistent performer last year, scored his fair share of goals, leads the line fantastically, and though getting on a bit, we should be getting every bit of game time out of him we can. I very much doubt his eventual replacement will be anywhere near as effective as he is... whether that is Brereton or anyone else we can attract at present.

Graham will never get this team past a mid table season. He’s very consistent, but consistently average. It’s time to move on for me and try something new.

[Mattyblue]

And BB is anywhere near ready to fire us to the top 6?!?

Edited May 29, 2019 by Mattyblue

[AdamRochina]

Just now, JoeHarvey said:

Graham will never get this team past a mid table season. He’s very consistent, but consistently average. It’s time to move on for me and try something new.

consistently average?  without him we would be back into league one!  we look a different team with him 

[rovers11]

I strongly suspect the players we end up signing will be players that haven't been linked yet, and we probably won't know a huge amount about the players that we do sign as I think we may try the European market. I'm not sure we would have predicted many of the players that TM signed last summer, perhaps only Armstrong and Rothwell would have been predicted.

I would also suspect that the budget will be about the same as last year, either room for one big money signing and several smaller purchases or no big money signing and several decent sized signings instead. I think he may sell one of our assets to add to his transfer pot, possibly Raya or Nyambe. 

Edited May 29, 2019 by rovers11

[Sparks Rover]

Just now, JoeHarvey said:

Graham will never get this team past a mid table season. He’s very consistent, but consistently average. 

Errr, scores when he wants, no?

[Admiral Nelsen]

3 minutes ago, JoeHarvey said:

Graham will never get this team past a mid table season. He’s very consistent, but consistently average. It’s time to move on for me and try something new.

Have to take issue with that, almost all of our attacking play last season went through Graham. Dack & Armstrong relied heavily on him for any sort of platform. Rothwell managed to create for himself towards the end, but Graham's holdup play is up there with the best in the division.

He might not be a 20 goal a season striker anymore (even though 15 at his age isn't at all to be sniffed at!) but his contribution is certainly well above average. Next season is about taking some of the burden away from him having to do it consistently three times a week, not massively upgrading on his quality imo. 

[Guest]

Just now, Admiral Nelsen said:

Have to take issue with that, almost all of our attacking play last season went through Graham. Dack & Armstrong relied heavily on him for any sort of platform. Rothwell managed to create for himself towards the end, but Graham's holdup play is up there with the best in the division.

He might not be a 20 goal a season striker anymore (even though 15 at his age isn't at all to be sniffed at!) but his contribution is certainly well above average. Next season is about taking some of the burden away from him having to do it consistently three times a week, not massively upgrading on his quality imo. 

Exactly. Graham is never going to take us past mid-table... how can you take umbrage with that? It's the truth.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Errr, scores when he wants, no?

Well he doesn't want to score often enough for us to finish above mid-table? We need a 20+ goal striker to even consider a top half push.

[Sparks Rover]

Just now, JoeHarvey said:

Well he doesn't want to score often enough for us to finish above mid-table? We need a 20+ goal striker to even consider a top half push.

Let's hang on to our 15+ goal a season player while we find him eh?

[TugaysMarlboro]

1 hour ago, JoeHarvey said:

Apart from the fact Mowbray travelled to Holland to see him in person...

The only 100% factual part of that post, is that Mowbray travelled to Holland. The last part is conjecture.