Summer Transfer Window

[K-Hod]

8 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

And yet he delivered Adam Armstrong and Bradley Dack who if sold would both fetch fees well in excess of their purchase price.

And if he has to sell those two, the money he has spent on Gallagher and Brereton had better start bearing fruit, as they probably won’t fetch fees well in excess of their purchase price....

[Bigdoggsteel]

£1 million fee for Goode. No doubt that's going to be a bargain. 

They wanted Wharton on loan. Surely we could have struck some deal with them involving him going there on loan and us signing Goode.

Ya, things aren't GOOD here. Not good at all. 

Queue the "we weren't interested in him anyway" brigade. If Brentford were, the general rule of thumb these days is that we should have been, especially at that price. 

[Richard Oakley]

11 minutes ago, Mashed Potatoes said:

And yet he delivered Adam Armstrong and Bradley Dack who if sold would both fetch fees well in excess of their purchase price and 25 also rans who wouldn't.

There, corrected it for you.

[RevidgeBlue]

11 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Somebody offers £750,000 for Scott Wharton I'd definitely consider it, I'm not saying definitely sell, but you have to assess it on its merits.

We're paying let's say £260,000 a year anyway just to have him on the books and not playing for our first team, plus a £750,000 transfer fee, that's a million pounds onto the budget. If that million is the difference between being able to afford Dillon Phillips' transfer fee or not, its a no brainer. A million onto the budget is a Bradley Dack if you get your recruitment right.

But sadly we don't know how small or large that budget is, and on a footballing/emotional level, you'd probably rather keep Scott Wharton around because you never know what he could become. And of course we'll never know how and when that money received will be spent/used.

Or you could play Wharton and you have a player available for the next 7-8 years at a far cheaper cost than paying a separate loan fee for someone every 12 months, and he will probably appreciate substantially in value as well.

Won't happen. Far too obvious.

[Exiled_Rover]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Cheaper - yes, midtable - unlikely.

Let's be honest, it's a crap league and Mowbray is incredibly wasteful with money.

Midtable is extremely plausible, with the right man in charge. Our Academy supported by a few shrewd signings would guarantee that.

I just hate the idea of Mowbray leading that charge / Rovers settling for midtable mediocrity in the bloody Championship with billionaire owners. If that's their aim, why don't they just fuck off and let someone local take over? At least they'd allow the club to have some pride again and, hey, maybe even something resembling a professional internal structure.

Just a thought. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

Quotes from the Brentford manager on Goode. Like the reference no non-league. Also, sounds EXACTLY like the player we need. £1 bloody million. Ridiculous. 

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank said: “I’d like to welcome Charlie to the club. Charlie is a player I really like; he is an aggressive defender and a big aerial threat in both boxes, which is a big thing for us. He has good quality on the ball which we feel we can develop further within our style of play.

"The pathway through the non-league and lower leagues develops you hugely as a person and builds your character in ways that I really like. I feel Charlie can add something to the team in that regard, especially given his leadership qualities.

"We are sure that he will grow and develop further with us over the coming years and that, in turn, he will help us go forward as a Club too.”

[Russ]

5 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

£1 million fee for Goode. No doubt that's going to be a bargain. 

They wanted Wharton on loan. Surely we could have struck some deal with them involving him going there on loan and us signing Goode.

Ya, things aren't GOOD here. Not good at all. 

Queue the "we weren't interested in him anyway" brigade. If Brentford were, the general rule of thumb these days is that we should have been, especially at that price. 

The video showed us exactly why Tony was never interested...

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, Russ said:

The video showed us exactly why Tony was never interested...

Clearly a bad boy 

[Bigdoggsteel]

Mowbray doesn't know his budget yet. I think that is fairly apparent at this point. 

[savage90]

I expected some early business this summer because we've known what's needed for well over 2 years now. It had to be busy and is already going to waste. Not only that the positions we need players in are key and need time together. We're on course for a disaster of a summer yet again!! 

[CambridgeRover]

30 minutes ago, JoeH said:

Somebody offers £750,000 for Scott Wharton I'd definitely consider it, I'm not saying definitely sell, but you have to assess it on its merits.

We're paying let's say £260,000 a year anyway just to have him on the books and not playing for our first team, plus a £750,000 transfer fee, that's a million pounds onto the budget. If that million is the difference between being able to afford Dillon Phillips' transfer fee or not, its a no brainer. A million onto the budget is a Bradley Dack if you get your recruitment right.

 But sadly we don't know how small or large that budget is, and on a footballing/emotional level, you'd probably rather keep Scott Wharton around because you never know what he could become. And of course we'll never know how and when that money received will be spent/used.

1 million pounds we will never see again. I have zero trust that Mowbray could spend that 1 million to bring in more talent than Wharton. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by CambridgeRover

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 minute ago, savage90 said:

I expected some early business this summer because we've known what's needed for well over 2 years now. It had to be busy and is already going to waste. Not only that the positions we need players in are key and need time together. We're on course for a disaster of a summer yet again!! 

You would imagine a keeper would have been signed early at a normal functioning club. 

[Bigdoggsteel]

1 hour ago, rigger said:

Or we could just keep Wharton and play him.

We still need another centre half 

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Let's be honest we are never going to be offered 750k plus for Wharton.  He'd be 250k at best. 

[davulsukur]

10 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Mowbray doesn't know his budget yet. I think that is fairly apparent at this point. 

I think he knows.

He knows its £0 (or more likely £5m- )

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, davulsukur said:

I think he knows.

He knows its £0 (or more likely £5m- )

You reckon? Hard to know. No doubt there is something bad happening if after releasing all those players, we can't get the Downing contract sorted. I don't think even Chaddy could deny that. 

Urgh.......

Edited August 19, 2020 by Bigdoggsteel

[markhayhurst]

Is our scouting extending to the local pub leagues? IMO this is where our market will be. Maybe we could trade Bennett??? 

[davulsukur]

Just now, Bigdoggsteel said:

You reckon? Hard to know. No doubt there is something bad happening if after releasing all those players, we can't get the Downing contract sorted. I don't think even Chaddy could deny that. 

You're spot on with both counts. 

Hard to know because our owners are totally silent. We hear nothing and have no real idea why they still own us or what their plans for the club are.

Something bad is happening - most likely. Had we got a signing over the line by now, things might have calmed down a bit but the longer we go without signing a number 1 keeper, the more concerning it gets, even more so when you think we actually need 2. You'd imagine we'd have this wrapped up early doors as its been on the cards for long enough to plan ahead but even the tabloid rag links have died off. 

Also with regards to Downing, should have been fairly straightforward, even if we were offering reduced terms but its all gone quiet there too.

[RevidgeBlue]

3 hours ago, Kamy100 said:

There is very little money to spend.  I have heard that Venky's will continue to fund the club (to meet current liabilities) but they want to reduce overheads as much as they can with money spent on transfers being one of the key cost reduction areas, even if we sell players, some of that money will be used to reduce overheads.  

This has been coming for a few years, there had to come a time when the Venky's made the decision to reduce spending, the hope is that they can transition to this new model of working in a controlled way but I very much doubt that will happen as I have little or no faith in the executive structure at Ewood to be able to successfully manage such a transition.

Maybe they've finally seen the light and being conned into keeping Smallwood and Hart on full pay for another month for doing nothing was the final straw.

Neither perhaps do they want to top up Downing's pension pot for another 12 months for being a bit part player. (Well hopefully not anyway)

If they want to save costs there's an obvious place to start.......fire off Mowbray, Lowe, Venus, Benson, and promote Damien Johnson and allow him to bring in his own assistant.

Can't see what Waggott brings to the party either other than shielding Mowbray, does Greg Coar still work at the Club?

On the pitch, everyone keeps telling me how good Evans supposedly is, so if that's the case, surely he'd fetch a decent fee and would represent a considerable wage saving. Ditto Bennett, he is absolutely indispensable in the manager's eyes so if he's half as good as the Mowbray thinks, there must be a queue of Clubs round the block who'd take him on for a modest outlay. Another huge wage saving.  We're also paying Mulgrew a fortune to do nothing, a lot more has to be done to find a solution that will see him depart and save us some money.

Let's have a bit of a spring clean and stop all this codswallop about "slow builds" from people who have no interest in that oncept from the point of view of success on the pitch but merely in  hanging on to their positions for as long as possible from a financial perspective. Let's try to do as well as we possibly can for every possible minute of every possible game instead of aiming for marginal pregression and see how far that takes us.

If finances dictate that we need to promote youth and give them a proper chance as opposed to cameo roles or emergency appearances as a result of an injury crisis whilst underperforming senior players receive contract extension after contract extension like sweeties then fine I can live with that. I could even buy into being relegated with a very young side that was clearly improving and had huge potential. However I can't buy i the current shambles of protecting underperforming players and spending a fortune to  loan in others just to limp in in mid table season after season and then end up back at square one every 12 months whilst our few better players depart to cover costs.

If Venky's are making a decision prompted by the financial crisis, it may actually long term be the best decision they've made since promotion .....if they get it right.

Mowbray is not the man to oversee it!

 

 

[davulsukur]

The LET is so devoid of Rovers news its made a starting 11 of players we have been linked with as we are closing in on a full calendar year without making a signing.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18660001.rovers-transfer-xi-going-11-months-without-signing/

[Ossydave]

Gonna have to stop reading social media as its now getting right on my tits hearing about other teams making signings and us seemingly just twiddling our thumbs.

Its hard to blame just Mowbray as we don't really understand the difficulties he has when it comes to spending money on players, its unimaginable to think its an easy process though!  I wish he'd just come out and be brutally honest and admit that though.

[LDRover]

As an earlier poster alluded to, what is the point of billionaire owners if this is their strategy?

Furthermore, we have posters such as @Paul Mani nailing their colours to the mast saying there is a budget yet Kamy (who definitely has a line into the club) suggesting the polar opposite.

In regard to what the truth is, well, I know where my money would be. All hail the stagnation years fellas, regression is on it's way.

[Mashed Potatoes]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

Maybe they've finally seen the light and being conned into keeping Smallwood and Hart on full pay for another month for doing nothing was the final straw.

Neither perhaps do they want to top up Downing's pension pot for another 12 months for being a bit part player. (Well hopefully not anyway)

If they want to save costs there's an obvious place to start.......fire off Mowbray, Lowe, Venus, Benson, and promote Damien Johnson and allow him to bring in his own assistant.

Can't see what Waggott brings to the party either other than shielding Mowbray, does Greg Coar still work at the Club?

On the pitch, everyone keeps telling me how good Evans supposedly is, so if that's the case, surely he'd fetch a decent fee and would represent a considerable wage saving. Ditto Bennett, he is absolutely indispensable in the manager's eyes so if he's half as good as the Mowbray thinks, there must be a queue of Clubs round the block who'd take him on for a modest outlay. Another huge wage saving.  We're also paying Mulgrew a fortune to do nothing, a lot more has to be done to find a solution that will see him depart and save us some money.

Let's have a bit of a spring clean and stop all this codswallop about "slow builds" from people who have no interest in that oncept from the point of view of success on the pitch but merely in  hanging on to their positions for as long as possible from a financial perspective. Let's try to do as well as we possibly can for every possible minute of every possible game instead of aiming for marginal pregression and see how far that takes us.

If finances dictate that we need to promote youth and give them a proper chance as opposed to cameo roles or emergency appearances as a result of an injury crisis whilst underperforming senior players receive contract extension after contract extension like sweeties then fine I can live with that. I could even buy into being relegated with a very young side that was clearly improving and had huge potential. However I can't buy i the current shambles of protecting underperforming players and spending a fortune to  loan in others just to limp in in mid table season after season and then end up back at square one every 12 months whilst our few better players depart to cover costs.

If Venky's are making a decision prompted by the financial crisis, it may actually long term be the best decision they've made since promotion .....if they get it right.

Mowbray is not the man to oversee it!

 

 

Firing people who are on fixed term contracts does not cut costs because the club will have to pay up what is due to them until the end of that term.

[Bigdoggsteel]

2 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

The LET is so devoid of Rovers news its made a starting 11 of players we have been linked with as we are closing in on a full calendar year without making a signing.

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/18660001.rovers-transfer-xi-going-11-months-without-signing/

Jesus, what an article 

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, Mashed Potatoes said:

Firing people who are on fixed term contracts does not cut costs because the club will have to pay up what is due to them until the end of that term.

Apart from the one off hit, substantial cost savings would be made going forward though.