Summer Transfer Window

[Paul Mani]

5 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I'm struggling with the logic that letting 7 senior players leave and to date signing 0 cannot impact on our ability to perform.

I wholeheartedly agree that of those released the majority were not good enough for anything more than a bottom half season but the fact remains that these were senior experienced pros who were in the squad as options for use. This probably applies more to the likes of Graham and Downing than Hart and Smallwood. But the point remains - if we are away from home at a hostile ground and need a goal or need to defend a 1-0 lead I would have absolute faith in Graham coming off the bench to do his thing or likewise Downing using his experience to guide us through than the alternative which is currently making do with what we have. The alternative being chucking one of the young lads on. Are they really going to be able to do what Graham does on a rough night at Millwall or Barnsley?

The problem with your plan for the defence is we will have to get shut of those players before being allowed to sign the replacements. There is unlikely to be much interest. Once we are rid we are upon the new season under immense pressure to quickly sign people having offloaded yet more. 

I expect two players for every position. Therefore 2 people who can play LB, RB and 4 who can play CB. Lose Mulgrew or Williams or both and whilst we might not be bothered the fact remains they need replacing and quickly. Including Wharton we would still then need 2 x CB, 1x LB, 1 x GK and ideally 1x RB 

I'm not expecting us to go out and blow teams over with offers. Clever clubs don't need to - they identify bargains and get them quickly before others. But I would have expected a lot more progress than we've had. One incoming not yet confirmed and not available for a fortnight. We need a lot more and i am worried about getting the time we have, our manager's track record and what I am hearing to be totally honest.

We didn’t sell them mate, their contracts ran out and we didn’t want to renew.

i can see why you’re worried at this particular moment but the noises coming from the manager and Sharpe who isn’t bullish unless he’s very confident seem to indicate that the keeper is done and defenders are (finally) coming! The defenders we’ve been linked to are all upgrades on what we have.

imo we need a first choice keeper and a cb by weekend and before start of the season at least. The reserve keeper, 3rd cb, lb and CM can come any time before the window closes to help us get the best deals.

Having dealt with administrators over the years, if Kipre doesn’t move you’ll get him for peanuts in that last week...

[islander200]

12 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I'm struggling with the logic that letting 7 senior players leave and to date signing 0 cannot impact on our ability to perform.

I wholeheartedly agree that of those released the majority were not good enough for anything more than a bottom half season but the fact remains that these were senior experienced pros who were in the squad as options for use. This probably applies more to the likes of Graham and Downing than Hart and Smallwood. But the point remains - if we are away from home at a hostile ground and need a goal or need to defend a 1-0 lead I would have absolute faith in Graham coming off the bench to do his thing or likewise Downing using his experience to guide us through than the alternative which is currently making do with what we have. The alternative being chucking one of the young lads on. Are they really going to be able to do what Graham does on a rough night at Millwall or Barnsley?

The problem with your plan for the defence is we will have to get shut of those players before being allowed to sign the replacements. There is unlikely to be much interest. Once we are rid we are upon the new season under immense pressure to quickly sign people having offloaded yet more. 

I expect two players for every position. Therefore 2 people who can play LB, RB and 4 who can play CB. Lose Mulgrew or Williams or both and whilst we might not be bothered the fact remains they need replacing and quickly. Including Wharton we would still then need 2 x CB, 1x LB, 1 x GK and ideally 1x RB 

I'm not expecting us to go out and blow teams over with offers. Clever clubs don't need to - they identify bargains and get them quickly before others. But I would have expected a lot more progress than we've had. One incoming not yet confirmed and not available for a fortnight. We need a lot more and i am worried about getting the time we have, our manager's track record and what I am hearing to be totally honest.

I presume you think we should close the academy?

We are short in areas no disputing that.But you were saying earlier in the week that Smallwood and Samuel hadn't been replaced etc.Smallwood didn't play a game for us last year and Samuel played a few but over his time here you would have to agree he didn't meet the standard required.Im a big fan of Graham but on his contribution last year you can't say he will be a miss this season.

No point having an academy if you believe that we don't have a few in our under 23 group that ain't capable of bettering the contribution of the 3 players mentioned above.

The goalkeeper came about out of nowhere so we really have no idea what is going on behind the scenes to be fair.

[JHRover]

Just now, islander200 said:

I presume you think we should close the academy?

We are short in areas no disputing that.But you were saying earlier in the week that Smallwood and Samuel hadn't been replaced etc.Smallwood didn't play a game for us last year and Samuel played a few but over his time here you would have to agree he didn't meet the standard required.Im a big fan of Graham but on his contribution last year you can't say he will be a miss this season.

No point having an academy if you believe that we don't have a few in our under 23 group that ain't capable of bettering the contribution of the 3 players mentioned above.

The goalkeeper came about out of nowhere so we really have no idea what is going on behind the scenes to be fair.

Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis, Buckley, Rankin Costello, probably Wharton - all academy products, all likely to be used with regularity this season. So no, I wouldn't say closing the academy is the right thing to do. By the same token you don't just get shut of everyone else and throw in academy products across the pitch because that will only end one way.

I don't know what is going on behind the scenes. I do know that as of 26th August  just over 2 weeks before our first league game we haven't yet signed a player and have let 7 go. Unless that changes significantly and quickly we will be in a weaker position than we were last season.

[DE.]

8 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Having dealt with administrators over the years, if Kipre doesn’t move you’ll get him for peanuts in that last week...

The problem is that the lower the price goes the more clubs will be interested. If the asking price does go down to six-figures then I would imagine there will be strong interest from a number of teams, some of which are likely to be able to provide better offers than us in terms of his contract. Obviously in an ideal world you'd get the lad for as cheap as possible, but I don't think leaving it to the wire is going to benefit us. 

Edited August 25, 2020 by DE.

[JHRover]

4 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

We didn’t sell them mate, their contracts ran out and we didn’t want to renew.

i can see why you’re worried at this particular moment but the noises coming from the manager and Sharpe who isn’t bullish unless he’s very confident seem to indicate that the keeper is done and defenders are (finally) coming! The defenders we’ve been linked to are all upgrades on what we have.

imo we need a first choice keeper and a cb by weekend and before start of the season at least. The reserve keeper, 3rd cb, lb and CM can come any time before the window closes to help us get the best deals.

Having dealt with administrators over the years, if Kipre doesn’t move you’ll get him for peanuts in that last week...

Didn't want to renew, or couldn't renew?

I think in the case of Downing it is the latter. I also genuinely believe that if he had scope to do so Mowbray would have given Samuel new terms. But given the financial circumstances imposed from upstairs he has had to let them go and doesn't expect to be in a position to get Downing back. 

[islander200]

21 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Didn't want to renew, or couldn't renew?

I think in the case of Downing it is the latter. I also genuinely believe that if he had scope to do so Mowbray would have given Samuel new terms. But given the financial circumstances imposed from upstairs he has had to let them go and doesn't expect to be in a position to get Downing back. 

23 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Lenihan, Nyambe, Travis, Buckley, Rankin Costello, probably Wharton - all academy products, all likely to be used with regularity this season. So no, I wouldn't say closing the academy is the right thing to do. By the same token you don't just get shut of everyone else and throw in academy products across the pitch because that will only end one way.

I don't know what is going on behind the scenes. I do know that as of 26th August  just over 2 weeks before our first league game we haven't yet signed a player and have let 7 go. Unless that changes significantly and quickly we will be in a weaker position than we were last season.

Agree we need a few signings but none of the fringe players are losses.

You thought the other week we wouldn't make a cash signing in the goalkeeping or defensive department.

Through our owners lack of interest it takes time to get deals done, the Tosin transfer being the prime example.

Tosin big loss and on last seasons showing Downing is a big loss but he is at that age it could go at anytime we need money spending on a few key positions, the rest of the players let go their contribution was minimal and I think we have enough talent in our youth to adequately replace them

Edited August 25, 2020 by islander200

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

8 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Didn't want to renew, or couldn't renew?

I think in the case of Downing it is the latter. I also genuinely believe that if he had scope to do so Mowbray would have given Samuel new terms. But given the financial circumstances imposed from upstairs he has had to let them go and doesn't expect to be in a position to get Downing back. 

Let's hope it's focused Mowbray's recruitment because Samuel was a waste of space.

[philipl]

Let's not forget we have lost all gate money when we are doing transfer budget calculations.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

4 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

We have a black hole at LB.

And at CB, we need both. Mowbray said after the match tonight we need a Cb as priority. He's right.

[JacknOry]

Yup, still need a CB and LB as priority. Possibly 2x CB is Mulgrew and Williams leave.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

We've not lost anyone worth keeping IMO. Downing possibly but if it's a financial choice then a CB is massively more important than 'Stewy'. 

Signing a GK, A CB and a LB is the absolute minimum we can get away with this summer. In an ideal world we'd sign two of each, get rid of Bell, Mulgrew and Williams and send the young CB's (except Wharton)  and one or two of young GK's out on loan. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Hoochie Bloochie Mama

[Mercer]

4 hours ago, Paul Mani said:

We didn’t sell them mate, their contracts ran out and we didn’t want to renew.

i can see why you’re worried at this particular moment but the noises coming from the manager and Sharpe who isn’t bullish unless he’s very confident seem to indicate that the keeper is done and defenders are (finally) coming! The defenders we’ve been linked to are all upgrades on what we have.

imo we need a first choice keeper and a cb by weekend and before start of the season at least. The reserve keeper, 3rd cb, lb and CM can come any time before the window closes to help us get the best deals.

Having dealt with administrators over the years, if Kipre doesn’t move you’ll get him for peanuts in that last week...

The trouble is, there'll then be a number of monkeys fighting for the peanuts!

[JacknOry]

38 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

We've not lost anyone worth keeping IMO. Downing possibly but if it's a financial choice then a CB is massively more important than 'Stewy'. 

Signing a GK, A CB and a LB is the absolute minimum we can get away with this summer. In an ideal world we'd sign two of each, get rid of Bell, Mulgrew and Williams and send the young CB's (except Wharton)  and one or two of young GK's out on loan. 

2 of each ideally yes, especially when you consider how injury prone our backline is. Nyambe, Lenihan and Williams usually miss quite a few games each season.

Could get away without a backup keeper i would imagine for now (watch Kaplinki go and get injured now I said that).Bell could do as a backup for now too. So LB and two CB's at a minimum for me.

[Paul Mani]

6 hours ago, JHRover said:

Didn't want to renew, or couldn't renew?

I think in the case of Downing it is the latter. I also genuinely believe that if he had scope to do so Mowbray would have given Samuel new terms. But given the financial circumstances imposed from upstairs he has had to let them go and doesn't expect to be in a position to get Downing back. 

Argh, come off it mate. We cut 6 of them loose and offered Downing a reduced package in order to make room for the players we want. The clearing of ‘deadwood’ has been satisfying to watch.

They have been open in saying which positions they want to fill with recruitment and then squad fillers come from the u23’s instead of the Harts, Smallwoods and Mulgrews of this world.

Sign one experienced CB along with Kaminski before Sat. Then push to get Cunningham in and basically we’ve got the first XI covered. Then get cover keeper and the squad is basically complete.

Get to the end of the window and see who has gone. Mulgrew is expected to go. I don’t think they’ll let Del go until they have another chance lined up

[JacknOry]

3 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Argh, come off it mate. We cut 6 of them loose and offered Downing a reduced package in order to make room for the players we want. The clearing of ‘deadwood’ has been satisfying to watch.

They have been open in saying which positions they want to fill with recruitment and then squad fillers come from the u23’s instead of the Harts, Smallwoods and Mulgrews of this world.

Sign one experienced CB along with Kaminski before Sat. Then push to get Cunningham in and basically we’ve got the first XI covered. Then get cover keeper and the squad is basically complete.

Get to the end of the window and see who has gone. Mulgrew is expected to go. I don’t think they’ll let Del go until they have another chance lined up

I'd be happy with that. The CB really should be of starting standard though, big hole to replace with Tosin gone and with just Williams and kids as backup, we need someone with experience of this league if possible. Then look at some euro freebies as backup/competition.

[Paul Mani]

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

The trouble is, there'll then be a number of monkeys fighting for the peanuts!

Hmm I’m not sure. Only clubs with parachute money or a benefactor model (like us) will be spending any money on fees imo. That’s because those clubs outside of the above who run clubs based on affordability won’t have the cash to do it.

We have the cash to give Wigan a million quid for Kipre because we have billionaire owners, it’s just how stringently we wanna walk the ffp line.

My prediction is that we’ll likely fill the positions we want to and STILL make a Venkys style last minute punt on a striker like Hoffman at the end of the window.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Paul Mani

[Paul Mani]

8 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

I'd be happy with that. The CB really should be of starting standard though, big hole to replace with Tosin gone and with just Williams and kids as backup, we need someone with experience of this league if possible. Then look at some euro freebies as backup/competition.

Absolutely. Needs to be Kaminski, an Ayala, Kipre or Lindsay style cb before Saturday and Cunningham before 12th Sep. I’d be happy with that.

Then get the rest on a good deal and replace any sales accordingly.

Its definitely a buyers market and losing those 7 out of contract couldn’t have come at a better time. 

[JacknOry]

6 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Hmm I’m not sure. Only clubs with parachute money or a benefactor model (like us) will be spending any money on fees imo. That’s because those clubs outside of the above who run clubs based on affordability won’t have the cash to do it.

We have the cash to give Wigan a million quid for Kipre because we have billionaire owners, it’s just how stringently we wanna walk the ffp line.

My prediction is that we’ll likely fill the positions we want to and STILL make a Venkys style last minute punt on a striker like Hoffman at the end of the window.

Didnt somebody say Hoffman would cost 4 or 5 million? Another huge gamble at that price IMO. 27 now so not so much resale value and previously failed in the Championship with Brentford.

[Stuart]

4 hours ago, philipl said:

Let's not forget we have lost all gate money when we are doing transfer budget calculations.

5000 Bolton ST holders

0 Rovers ST holders

We didn’t have to lose all gate receipts.

[Paul Mani]

6 hours ago, DE. said:

The problem is that the lower the price goes the more clubs will be interested. If the asking price does go down to six-figures then I would imagine there will be strong interest from a number of teams, some of which are likely to be able to provide better offers than us in terms of his contract. Obviously in an ideal world you'd get the lad for as cheap as possible, but I don't think leaving it to the wire is going to benefit us. 

Let’s see how it pans out. In the current financial climate I think a lot of good players will have to lower their wage expectations to get contracts. There’s a LOT of supply in the free transfer pot now and COVID has reduced the demand.

The shorter window and financial constraints will mean players have to readjust their expectations. There’s a possibility we might do really well out of that situation.

[Stuart]

3 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

Didnt somebody say Hoffman would cost 4 or 5 million? Another huge gamble at that price IMO. 27 now so not so much resale value and previously failed in the Championship with Brentford.

Another post that sums up modern football - or maybe just Rovers change in fortunes. Past it at 27 m, and resale considered before their contribution on the pitch.

[Hoochie Bloochie Mama]

3 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

Its definitely a buyers market

Only if you've got money. The rumour is we can't afford Kipre.

[AJW]

7 hours ago, JHRover said:

So lets believe that we have £3 million to cover everything this summer including wages. Bear in mind that we have in Downing, Graham, Samuel, Smallwood, Leutwiler,  Hart, Walton and Tosin shed probably possibly in excess of £100,000 a month off the wage bill before bonuses, appearance money and signing on fees. That's probably a saving of £1.5 million straight away.

Not really much of a budget after you take the above into account.

If Mowbray is really now having to offload either Mulgrew or Williams to raise the cash for a Kipre to come in then we are in really dire straits. Having lowered the wage bill substantially even with a well paid goalkeeper we should be well below what we were last season. We have next to no options in defence and yet the plan to bring a defender in is to offload what experience we do have left at the back? Scary.

A proper experienced keeper and a proper experienced CB should have been done and dusted by now. We've known about those positions for 6 months or more. We should now be putting the finishing touches by getting in a back up CB and GK, and another option up top.

But how many of our current squad would you like to offer new improved contracts/pay rises to ? Dack Armstrong Travis Nyambe ??? Some of the youngsters maybe ??  Where does that money come from 

[Paul Mani]

19 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

Didnt somebody say Hoffman would cost 4 or 5 million? Another huge gamble at that price IMO. 27 now so not so much resale value and previously failed in the Championship with Brentford.

I did say ‘like’ Hoffman but if he’s still available at the end of the window his price won’t be anything like €5m 

[Paul Mani]

17 minutes ago, Hoochie Bloochie Mama said:

Only if you've got money. The rumour is we can't afford Kipre.

Let’s see...