Summer Transfer Window 2019

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

I think we have some genuine quality in that squad now and some good young Championship players who will only get better. 

Davenport, Travis, Lenihan, Dack, Rothwell all have the ability to be quality 1st team Championship players. 

Chapman, Butterworth, Armstrong, Nyambe, Raya, Bell all look at least to be Championship squad players. ( I think Butterworth will be the best of the lot)

What's missing is 4 or 5 quality 1st teamers to go with the first group of players. I think we'll probably get 2 or 3 as the LT said the other day that 'wholesale arrivals aren’t expected this summer' 

GK, RB or LB, CB, LM, CF are hopefully the positions being looked at.  

 

Chapman is definitely good enough for me and properly handled with a manager who has faith in them Raya and Nyambe too.

If they were top class might get away with  (just) a CH, CM and CF although ideally other reinforcements are required as well.

Even at that that's not to say it will be easy as top strikers are rare as hen's teeth and extremely expensive in themselves. I think to a large extent our success next season will hinge on how good the striker is we bring in to replace Graham who should be used sparingly as back up or from the bench.

[DE.]

Chapman has some clear ability but unfortunately with his injury record we can't go into a season relying on him as long-term first choice. Until he's had a decent period of full fitness and 90 min games we have to assume he will only be able to play a bit-part role.

[BankEnd Rover]

The thing that annoys me most is how people have some sort of apprieciation of Evans & Smallwood. One comment , on the board earlier, I believe said they are useful players? We have young fresh n blood players screening to get in the squad and these two average joes are stopping them. Davenport who I thought started poorly (nervous) closed down and looked double the players the crabs do. Enough of the loyalty Tony and get rid of them!!

[AdamRochina]

gary hooper has been released from wednesday, always liked him,  so has a george boyd whos a decent player too, could do worse

[DeeCee]

1 hour ago, AdamRochina said:

gary hooper has been released from wednesday, always liked him,  so has a george boyd whos a decent player too, could do worse

I scan read that and thought it said Boy George ?

[bigbrandjohn]

If everyone in the championship is saying goodbye to ten of their squad it will be a right old car boot sale this Summer. 

[joey_big_nose]

1 hour ago, BankEnd Rover said:

The thing that annoys me most is how people have some sort of apprieciation of Evans & Smallwood. One comment , on the board earlier, I believe said they are useful players? We have young fresh n blood players screening to get in the squad and these two average joes are stopping them. Davenport who I thought started poorly (nervous) closed down and looked double the players the crabs do. Enough of the loyalty Tony and get rid of them!!

We will need to keep one of Evans or Smallwood. I guess probably Evans. So we will go into next season with Travis, Davenport, Evans, Buckley as the central midfield options. Looking at that it does seem like we might need one more experienced head. 

Guess key question is are we going to sell Bennett, Mulgrew, Smallwood and Evans or keep and crowbar them in.

I think Mowbray could stomach selling Smallwood, and the recent dropping of Mulgrew suggest we might try and find a way to sell him if anyone's daft enough to take him. But Evans and Bennett will be sticking around. So I can see Bennett getting played in central midfield a fair bit.

 

[roversfan99]

Looking at what I think we need, with a couple of suggestions (maybe some of them are pretty limited and hopefully Mowbray can find some better alternatives whether domestic or on the continent, to which I dont really know any suggestions)

GK: Definitely need a new number 1 with Raya as back up (initially). Carson and Darlow have been suggested and arent bad shouts. Leutweiler well out of his depth.

Full back: Really short, Bennett and Williams well out of their depth here, need one of each as first choices as Nyambe has had a iffy season and has a way to go, and Bell isnt up to it but will be needed as back up. Ivo Pinto has been released at Norwich, dunno if hes worth a look for RB? Reece James albeit he may be an unrealistic loan.

Centre back: Lenihan I think is not without his faults but he is a good player and can be in our starting 11 next season. Williams is ok to have as a third/fourth choice back up, we need a good quality partner for Lenihan and maybe another back up, Mulgrew is past it and needs moving on. Potential suggestions are Jake Cooper, Grant Hanley and Yoann Barbet.

Central Midfield: Travis has been a revelation but needs a good quality midfielder alongside him with Reeds loan set to expire and Rodwell heading for the exit. Smallwood needs getting rid of too, and if Evans stays he should be a (probably overpaid) squad player. Davenport looks like he can play a part too. Potential targets could be Joe Aribo, a very good midfielder who can get goals too whose Charlton deal is soon to expire, Will Vaulks who shone in a relegated Rotherham side and has recently got into the Wales side, or even look at bringing Reed back.

Attacking midfielder: This is where we have some real assets, Dack, Rothwell, Chapman and Armstrong (only on the right) are full of flair and potential, Butterworth looked really good in his cameo v Bolton, but we perhaps need one more natural winger, especially with Rothwell the natural alternative should Dack be unavailable, and Armstrong with visions of being a number 9. Bennett and Conway arent good enough now and dont fit into this younger, entertaining, high energy,  technical team we hopefully are moving towards. Not really sure who we could bring in, maybe an area to look across the continent like Norwich did with Buendia and Hernandez, Maddison and Lowe continue to get goals and assist in League 1 but can they step up to push for the Championship top 6, not sure, same with someone like Ben Marshall who could be available.

Striker: Graham is an obvious but needs some help, Nuttall and Samuel arent good enough, Armstrong hasnt convinced there and Brereton scored his first goal and got dropped for the last 2 games!

So to conclude, Leutweiler, Mulgrew, Smallwood, Conway, Bennett, Rodwell, Samuel, Gladwin, Nuttall all for the chopping board, plenty of experience to be replaced too, a goalkeeper, at least one centre back, a full back for each side, a central midfielder, winger and a striker. We probably wont get all that but as close as possible please.

[Waggy76]

11 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

We will need to keep one of Evans or Smallwood. I guess probably Evans. So we will go into next season with Travis, Davenport, Evans, Buckley as the central midfield options. Looking at that it does seem like we might need one more experienced head. 

Guess key question is are we going to sell Bennett, Mulgrew, Smallwood and Evans or keep and crowbar them in.

I think Mowbray could stomach selling Smallwood, and the recent dropping of Mulgrew suggest we might try and find a way to sell him if anyone's daft enough to take him. But Evans and Bennett will be sticking around. So I can see Bennett getting played in central midfield a fair bit.

 

Why daft ,?? Been a very good player for Blackburn Rovers has Charlie Mulgrew ..

[blueboy3333]

I'd still like us to sign Alan Judge. He's the kind of creative Att Mid we could do with. 

 

 

[den]

General thoughts.

 

Not sure where we go from here. Squad has so many weaknesses and very few strengths. Not much to build on. The squad needs dismantling and rebuilding. Without that we’ll go backwards. It’s a big job. We simply have to become much harder to beat, we have such a soft centre it’s untrue. Don’t like saying it, but we need to start looking at how Burnley got out of this league. It was by being very professional, by having solid pro’s. By having a manager who was consistent with his players and his tactics. Don’t forget, if you don’t go forwards you’ll go backwards - that IMO (again) is where we are at.

Is Mowbray the man to bring that mindset to the club? I don’t think so. I see very little of what’s needed to be a force in this league.

Edited May 5, 2019 by den

[joey_big_nose]

1 hour ago, Waggy76 said:

Why daft ,?? Been a very good player for Blackburn Rovers has Charlie Mulgrew ..

His stats this year have been horrendous, we've only won about 10% of the games he has played in, ultimately resulting in him being dropped for the last run of games. He gets beaten frequently in the air and on the turn. He's a huge liability sadly and the number one culprit in our horrendous form in February and March until he was dropped in April.

He's finished I think. Gone from first name on the team sheet to barely a squad player. I don't take any pleasure in saying it, and thank him for his service, but he has no future at the level I would say.

[joey_big_nose]

36 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

I'd still like us to sign Alan Judge. He's the kind of creative Att Mid we could do with. 

 

 

Third time lucky! But in all seriousness why would we focus on signing a player like him when we have Dack, Rothwell, Armstrong, Chapman, Butterworth all vying for attacking midfield roles? Our need is much greater in other areas. With limited resources we need to focus on defence and strikers.

[joey_big_nose]

36 minutes ago, den said:

General thoughts.

 

Not sure where we go from here. Squad has so many weaknesses and very few strengths. Not much to build on. The squad needs dismantling and rebuilding. Without that we’ll go backwards. It’s a big job. We simply have to become much harder to beat, we have such a soft centre it’s untrue. Don’t like saying it, but we need to start looking at how Burnley got out of this league. It was by being very professional, by having solid pro’s. By having a manager who was consistent with his players and his tactics. Don’t forget, if you don’t go forwards you’ll go backwards - that IMO (again) is where we are at.

Is Mowbray the man to bring that mindset to the club? I don’t think so. I see very little of what’s needed to be a force in this league.

I think you're being a tad harsh. We have a lot of good young attacking quality that other teams in this league will be jealous of. We desperately need some solid defenders and strikers but the nucleus of an exciting squad is there.

 

[47er]

59 minutes ago, den said:

General thoughts.

 

Not sure where we go from here. Squad has so many weaknesses and very few strengths. Not much to build on. The squad needs dismantling and rebuilding. Without that we’ll go backwards. It’s a big job. We simply have to become much harder to beat, we have such a soft centre it’s untrue. Don’t like saying it, but we need to start looking at how Burnley got out of this league. It was by being very professional, by having solid pro’s. By having a manager who was consistent with his players and his tactics. Don’t forget, if you don’t go forwards you’ll go backwards - that IMO (again) is where we are at.

Is Mowbray the man to bring that mindset to the club? I don’t think so. I see very little of what’s needed to be a force in this league.

If we are to be promoted I agree that TM will have to drastically change his methods and approach. I don't know whether he can but I fear the alternatives, given Venkys past record.

Its a real dilemma.

However Venkys make the decisions and they seem to rate him highly so I bet he will remain manager for sometime yet whether he wakes up or not.

[Neal]

1 hour ago, den said:

General thoughts.

 

Not sure where we go from here. Squad has so many weaknesses and very few strengths. Not much to build on. The squad needs dismantling and rebuilding. Without that we’ll go backwards. It’s a big job. We simply have to become much harder to beat, we have such a soft centre it’s untrue. Don’t like saying it, but we need to start looking at how Burnley got out of this league. It was by being very professional, by having solid pro’s. By having a manager who was consistent with his players and his tactics. Don’t forget, if you don’t go forwards you’ll go backwards - that IMO (again) is where we are at.

Is Mowbray the man to bring that mindset to the club? I don’t think so. I see very little of what’s needed to be a force in this league.

I think that's a bit harsh, got some good young players coming through, Rothwell, Dack and Lenihan are 3 decent players for us, I also think the same for Arma. There's a lot of crap, no arguments there but there some reason for optimism. 

[blueboy3333]

55 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

Third time lucky! But in all seriousness why would we focus on signing a player like him when we have Dack, Rothwell, Armstrong, Chapman, Butterworth all vying for attacking midfield roles? Our need is much greater in other areas. With limited resources we need to focus on defence and strikers.

Rothwell AA and Chapman can play wide. None of those are consistently good. We need better than AA and Mogga has never fancied Chapman as a starter. I'd be surprised if he doesn't sign another wide player this summer after missing out on Freeman and Celina last summer. 

 

[ChrisPriceBaldSpot]

Next season I would like to see

New 

Nyambe Lenihan New New

Travis New

New Dack Rothwell 

New

Raya Williams Bell NewCB NewRB Davenport Evans NewCM Armstrong Chapman NewCAM Graham Brereton 

[blueboy3333]

2 hours ago, den said:

Not sure where we go from here. Squad has so many weaknesses and very few strengths. Not much to build on. The squad needs dismantling and rebuilding.

Reading some of the posts on here you'd think we had Liverpool's forward line. We certainly have some potential but we don't have anywhere near the quality of Norwich, Villa, Derby etc. Dack and Graham are proven quality at this level, none of the rest are. Rothwell has the most potential but he will need a full season in the team to see if he can provide goals and assists on a weekly basis. I think Chapman will continue to be an impact player and that AA has about 1 really good game in 5 and lots of very average ones in between. BB is not proven. 

The midfield has Evans, EB, Davenport and Travis. Evans and Bennett are average Championship players and the other two have the potential to be quality but are nowhere near proven over a season. They are both young and their form will dip as it mostly always does with young lads. 

At the back we are very average. Lenihan is quality IMO, the rest go from bad to mediocre.

The GK's simply aren't good enough.

So, agree to some extent with your post but there are SOME quality players to build a team around, just not many. The spine needs strengthening massively and we probably lack at least one quality creative midfielder and a top quality striker to replace the ageing Graham. 

Mowbray has stressed the need to bring in quality 1st teamers so he probably mostly agrees with you. He has also stressed the need to bring in experienced players to go with the young lads of which there are many. There aren't many in their prime in that squad, they are mostly all young or the wrong side of 30. 

Edited May 5, 2019 by blueboy3333

[nathan_rovers1]

On 03/05/2019 at 14:42, 47er said:

Why?

 

I mean, the lads get promoted and then you just don't given them an opportunity to prove themselves? Why would you not do that? 

[Mattyblue]

The one’s he thinks can step up, of course, get games at a higher level.

The one’s that aren’t good enough are moved on. Fairly obvious Smallwood was a lower league battler, nowt wrong with that, he did a good job in League 1, but you must be ruthless, ‘deserve’ doesn’t come into it.

Edited May 6, 2019 by Mattyblue

[joey_big_nose]

8 hours ago, ChrisPriceBaldSpot said:

Next season I would like to see

New 

Nyambe Lenihan New New

Travis New

New Dack Rothwell 

New

Raya Williams Bell NewCB NewRB Davenport Evans NewCM Armstrong Chapman NewCAM Graham Brereton 

There's absolutely no way we will be able to sign 10 players better than we have. If we get 4 we will have had a very good window.

[den]

9 hours ago, Neal said:

I think that's a bit harsh,

Well maybe, but it possibly depends on what we want. I’m talking about having a squad good enough for promotion and I think we’re a long way from that. 

[blueboy3333]

10 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

Third time lucky! But in all seriousness why would we focus on signing a player like him when we have Dack, Rothwell, Armstrong, Chapman, Butterworth all vying for attacking midfield roles? Our need is much greater in other areas. With limited resources we need to focus on defence and strikers.

Further to my earlier post....

Crosses per game - 16  (joint 2nd lowest in the league). Sheff Utd put in the most crosses with 25 per game (Billy Sharpe is delighted with that stat - easy to score tap-ins when the ball is fizzing across the 6 yard box regularly).

Not only do we not put many crosses in, when we do they are very, very poor. Armstrong can't cross it, Rothwell always runs inside, Chapman will be lucky to start - so it's left to our full backs - none of whom can cross it. We have lots of central attacking midfielders but none that are natural out wide ( apart from Chapman who will never start). I think we are crying out for an Alan Judge-type, someone who can deliver quality into the box. Beside Conway (who is probably off) there is no-one in the team who can do it. 

 

 

[47er]

3 hours ago, nathan_rovers1 said:

I mean, the lads get promoted and then you just don't given them an opportunity to prove themselves? Why would you not do that? 

I don't mind "giving them an opportunity". The problem is that the 'opportunity" lasted the whole season or most of it.

And it came at the expense of younger players who proved they could do better.