January Transfer Window.

[chaddyrovers]

7 hours ago, DE. said:

In regards to replacing BBD being a supposedly impossible task, players who have scored more or the same as him this season so far:

Chuba Akpom - bought for £2.75m

Viktor Gyökeres - Undisclosed but considering he was bought by Coventry it couldn't have been much at the time

Óscar Estupiñán - free transfer

Carlton Morris - bought for £2.8m 

Zian Flemming - bought for £1.7m

Iliman Ndiaye - bought for £200k

Ross Stewart - bought for £350k

Jay Rodriguez - youth team graduate

Josh Sargent - bought for £9m

Will Keane - free transfer

Jerry Yates - bought for £200k

Oli McBurnie - bought for £17.5m

Scott Hogan - bought for £2.8m

Wages probably not eye-watering for most of those either (Rodriguez, Sargent and McBurnie aside). So no, I don't buy the idea that BBD is irreplaceable unless we spend a fortune. He actually has the lowest goal conversion of all of the players who have scored or or the same as him at just 17%. To replace him would of course require some decent scouting and recruitment, but that is exactly what Greg is being paid for. He would have known the BBD contract situation as soon as he arrived, so no excuse at this point not to be on top of it. Sourcing a replacement, presuming he will leave either this month or the summer, should have been #1 priority. 

Thanks for sharing that info but the question is how we replace him and do we need 2 players to replace like number 9 goalscorer and wide left attacking player

6 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Lets hope he is talking out of his arse again, we don't need cover, we need to improve the first team.

Same as last winter, in a great place, let the assets run down and sign a few bodies to make up the numbers. Who will be Zeefuik MK2?

Lots of pleading poverty and moaning about money. Little wonder when we piss money down the drain on letting players run their contracts down.

 

I think we need full back cover cos we already have good players in those positions who are first choices in Pickering and Brittain when fit. 

on a striker point, It will be interesting who we look at and sign for this position. Do we sign a player who will start or back up to Gallagher. 

 

6 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Lots of pleading poverty and moaning about money. Little wonder when we piss money down the drain on letting players run their contracts down.

The constant underpinning issue is how Venkys run the club though, that removes basically any scope to bring players in.

Its 4 players that have decided not to renew their contract while we have tied down a number of players within the squad to long term contracts. 

We had this BBD sitaution throughout the summer. Some people like yourself would have sold for those lower offers we received whilst some of us keep him until we received the offer we want. Now we are 3rd in the league and its whether we sell him which could have negative affect the team and we don't get top 6 or we keep him and take the risk of him leaving on a free but getting a playoff place and maybe promotion. I would keep him unless we get 10 million plus for him and it will be use to bring in 2 replacements for him. A striker and wide left attacking player

[chaddyrovers]

4 hours ago, imy9 said:

Why would you advertise that you have money???

I’ll wait and see who we actually sign by the end of the month.

 

exactly there imy9

4 hours ago, JoeH said:

It's mad how different people can see different games. Thought he defended well and looked sharp on the ball. If not good, he was at least average and for me far from out of his depth.

I thought he was very decent in that Birmingham from Memory 

[roversfan99]

2 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Thanks for sharing that info but the question is how we replace him and do we need 2 players to replace like number 9 goalscorer and wide left attacking player

I think we need full back cover cos we already have good players in those positions who are first choices in Pickering and Brittain when fit. 

on a striker point, It will be interesting who we look at and sign for this position. Do we sign a player who will start or back up to Gallagher. 

 

Its 4 players that have decided not to renew their contract while we have tied down a number of players within the squad to long term contracts. 

We had this BBD sitaution throughout the summer. Some people like yourself would have sold for those lower offers we received whilst some of us keep him until we received the offer we want. Now we are 3rd in the league and its whether we sell him which could have negative affect the team and we don't get top 6 or we keep him and take the risk of him leaving on a free but getting a playoff place and maybe promotion. I would keep him unless we get 10 million plus for him and it will be use to bring in 2 replacements for him. A striker and wide left attacking player

Why would any team with genuine aspirations of promotion to the Premier League opt to try and sign an inferior player to Sam Gallagher who himself is average? We need to sign players who can improve us, not squad fillers.

As we seemingly intend to piss over £12m down the drain in 18 months, there can be no moaning about FFP. Self inflicted.

[chaddyrovers]

10 minutes ago, JHRover said:

And wages? After all, we're supposed to believe we made Lenihan a top earner offer here which they subsequently blew out of the water. He won't be top earner there I wouldn't think so care to calculate how much they are shelling out a year each year on wages.

As clubs know all too well having a few thousand extra bums on seats every other week for 25 days a year doesn't pay that much in the scheme of running a football club.

You will have to look through their 5 years of accounts on companies house website for wages. I did the transfer fees for you even tho we have already done before. 

[Sparks Rover]

2 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

You will have to look through their 5 years of accounts on companies house website for wages. I did the transfer fees for you even tho we have already done before. 

Companies House won't tell you who was paid what...🤷‍♂️

[Dreams of 1995]

17 minutes ago, Sparks Rover said:

Companies House won't tell you who was paid what...🤷‍♂️

No. But it will tell you their revenue

But FFP is a complicated system. There’s a lot of exemptions to be considered. I don’t get it myself - SwissRamble on Twitter does a lot of financial unpacking

Tbh, and this ain’t at you Sparks, I’m bored of the Boro comparisons. It’s every transfer window. They can spend more than us because they make more. When we break it down it really is that simple 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Dreams of 1995

[Fraserkirky]

21 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Boro have spent big money because they aren't as brainless with player contracts as we are.

In midfield, its not about numbers, its surely about quality. It would be a real statement of intent to get someone like Ben Pearson, Lewis O'Brien, Jack Colback or Dan Barlaser who would be a considerable upgrade on what we have. You then can decide whether to have 6 and some good strength in depth or move someone on, either sending Morton back or loaning out Garrett or even Wharton, but likely the former, ready to be a strong option next season.

Regarding an attacker, the focus has to be a central striker. We currently have Gallagher who isnt prolific and is always injured, Dolan isnt prolific and is equally useful out wide and Vale clearly isnt getting regular minutes for a side serious about promotion. 

I think ideally we would probably sell Brereton for maybe 10m and reinvest half on a striker and get a few more on top with the rest, including a left sided wide man and a central midfielder.

I'd walk over broken glass to get Lewis O'Brien. Hands down the best midfielder in the league last year.

[chaddyrovers]

14 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

 

In midfield, its not about numbers, its surely about quality. It would be a real statement of intent to get someone like Ben Pearson, Lewis O'Brien, Jack Colback or Dan Barlaser who would be a considerable upgrade on what we have. You then can decide whether to have 6 and some good strength in depth or move someone on, either sending Morton back or loaning out Garrett or even Wharton, but likely the former, ready to be a strong option next season.

Why would you send Morton back when he is the key midfielder and when he plays Rovers play well. I don't think we need anyone in midfield

14 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I think ideally we would probably sell Brereton for maybe 10m and reinvest half on a striker and get a few more on top with the rest, including a left sided wide man and a central midfielder.

No one offered 10 million up front for BBD in the summer so why would they now? 

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Why would any team with genuine aspirations of promotion to the Premier League opt to try and sign an inferior player to Sam Gallagher who himself is average? We need to sign players who can improve us, not squad fillers.

I think Gallagher is a good championship striker. Its all depends what's available in the market and the budget so see who we sign. None of us know tbh, who we looking at. Do we look at striker playing in Germany, Belgium or Scandinavia or in the championship( like Blackpool striker Jerry Yates perhaps) or someone on the fringes of a PL side/under 23's squad.  

4 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

As we seemingly intend to piss over £12m down the drain in 18 months, there can be no moaning about FFP. Self inflicted.

Would we be in 3rd without BBD this season? 

[roversfan99]

5 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Why would you send Morton back when he is the key midfielder and when he plays Rovers play well. I don't think we need anyone in midfield

No one offered 10 million up front for BBD in the summer so why would they now? 

I think Gallagher is a good championship striker. Its all depends what's available in the market and the budget so see who we sign. None of us know tbh, who we looking at. Do we look at striker playing in Germany, Belgium or Scandinavia or in the championship( like Blackpool striker Jerry Yates perhaps) or someone on the fringes of a PL side/under 23's squad.  

Would we be in 3rd without BBD this season? 

Ive got no idea which striker we can get, weve supposedly got an in depth recruitment team to find one. But if our intention is to get someone as back up to Sam bloody Gallagher then that doesnt show any intention of a genuine promotion push.

I think you are practically alone in thinking so highly of Morton, and all 4 midfielders I mentioned would be our best in the position and a serious upgrade in quality which should be the aim of the window, an injection of quality not a bit of padding.

[DE.]

23 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Thanks for sharing that info but the question is how we replace him and do we need 2 players to replace like number 9 goalscorer and wide left attacking player

It might be easier to find two players who are specialists in their positions than one player who can do a bit of both, but if we had to focus on one position I'd say a striker who actually scores goals at this level is crucial. We have players in the squad capable of providing assists - A. Wharton, Dolan, Bucko, Hedges, Dack, etc - but outside of BBD no genuine goalscorers and therefore that has to be the focus. In fact I'd probably go as far as to say I'd rather we bring in two decent strikers than a striker and a wideman. 

[Mercer]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

It might be option if we can sign a quality left sided player like Cantwell or Dembele

 

I honestly don't get your obsession with Cantwell.  

Any promise he showed earlier in his career has well and truly gone.  If he aint good enough for a poor Norwich team then he certainly isn't good enough for us.

27 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Why would you send Morton back when he is the key midfielder and when he plays Rovers play well. I don't think we need anyone in midfield 

and therein lies the problem!

Morton is nowhere to be seen when we are in a battle or struggling - it's then you need your midfielders to dig deep.

As I posted earlier, Morton is not one you would want in the trenches with you - players who are only effective when the opposition are in retreat are no good to us.

[47er]

9 hours ago, DE. said:

Then you sell them before it gets to the point where they can walk for nothing. Otherwise the model doesn't work, and indeed it hasn't really worked for us so far outside of AA. If you're relying on players to sign any new contract offered and to only sell when it's most convenient for the club then I think we can conclude from the past few years this is not sensible. Either we are not adhering to the model in question, or the people in charge of the operation were completely incompetent in executing that plan. The players running down their contracts is irrelevant as any worthwhile plan will factor contract length into account and ensure arrangements are made to either renew well ahead of time or sell if there's little hope of a renewal and only a year or eighteen months left.

There will be cases when for whatever reason the player can't be sold or refuses to leave, but we already know that wasn't the case with Rothwell or BBD, and there have been bids in for Lenihan in the past so I am sure we'd have gotten something for him if we'd made him available. Nyambe I'm less sure about, but the point is the club had options in most cases. We chose, and with BBD are seemingly continuing to choose, to let players leave for nothing rather than sell them when appropriate.  

Nail on head!

[ItsRoverZ]

Chaddy can we forget about cantwell? He's close to joining rangers 

Swansea are in talks to loan that striker from Leeds too. Gelhart? 

[Torgeir]

Hugo Vetlesen has been mentioned on here before and I've said previously I rate him higher than the man he replaced; Håkon Evjen. Works hard and would suit our current system well, and enjoys playing in the pocket between midfield and striker. Yes please. 

[Torgeir]

6 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

Anybody know anything about Hugo Vetlesen? A Norwegian central midfielder that plays for Bodo Glimt.

He is supposedly one of the players that GB spoke with last week, according to the same couple of people who claimed we had interviewed three potential signings.

I don't know how good he is or how realistic the move is, but the Bodo link makes it sound like a plausible rumour.

Do you know the names of the other two? Does the information come from multiple sources? 

[Ossydave]

Looking like Dexter Lembikisa may be available on a loan, probably not a priority position now JRC is looking decent, how long is Brittain out for?

[Admiral Nelsen]

Just now, Ossydave said:

Looking like Dexter Lembikisa may be available on a loan, probably not a priority position now JRC is looking decent, how long is Brittain out for?

 

Was meant to be about 8-10 weeks I think - so still at least about a month away. 

[Ossydave]

Blimey it's a good job JRC has shaped up then, Carter looked as good has he ever has yesterday too at RB, looked a lot more mobile than when I've seen him there before.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Mercer said:

I honestly don't get your obsession with Cantwell.  

Any promise he showed earlier in his career has well and truly gone.  If he aint good enough for a poor Norwich team then he certainly isn't good enough for us.

and therein lies the problem!

Morton is nowhere to be seen when we are in a battle or struggling - it's then you need your midfielders to dig deep.

As I posted earlier, Morton is not one you would want in the trenches with you - players who are only effective when the opposition are in retreat are no good to us.

A guy on the Norwich site was saying Cantwell hasn’t scored a goal or made an assist in two years. Exactly what we need.

[SuperBrfc]

2 hours ago, Torgeir said:

Do you know the names of the other two? Does the information come from multiple sources? 

I don't know the names, just that, supposedly, one is German and one is Scandinavian. One of the three is an attacking midfielder. If Vetlesen doesn't fit that description, then one of the other two is an attacking mid. It is also being claimed that a midfielder that was being shown around is going to sign. Don't know if that is Hugo or not, it would be quite surprising if it was him.

It appears the info is coming from different sources, as they both had slightly different versions of the BBD/Simms-Everton story, and both have separately mentioned Vetlesen, with one alleging he was one of the three that was spoken to.

Again, we are going off what a couple of fans have heard, so it could yet turn out to disappoint, but it seems to be the only transfer speculation we have at the moment. If it is true that Vetlesen is one of the trio, then that is encouraging. To make it happen though would be more impressive, that's what most of us want to see.

[bigbrandjohn]

Ipswich seem to be getting deals done. Looks  a good buy. 
https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/ipswich/sport/ipswich-town-complete-signing-of-everton-striker-nathan-broa-9293028/

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, bigbrandjohn said:

Ipswich seem to be getting deals done. Looks  a good buy. 
https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/ipswich/sport/ipswich-town-complete-signing-of-everton-striker-nathan-broa-9293028/

Another striker...maybe Hirst isn't going to be guaranteed games there either. Unless they've sold someone, are changing formation, or have truly dogshit strikers at present.

[M_B]

The squad balance is looking perfect for what Tomasson was brought in for. 

The cull of last season has enabled him to give our own youngsters game time in the cup games, rather than having to give older squad players the game time. There's no doubt this has resulted in better Cup performances, I'm struggling to think of even 1 older player who has been left out of either league squad or cup squad,yet the Cup teams have been largely made up of academy players. 

Far from leaving us light on numbers, that cull has been the  perfect situation for Tomasson, leaving him a young, hungry squad whilst still leaving him room to add his own signings( with very mixed results). 

If JDT and GB can pull out a couple of rabbits, we'll be in a great position to continue a play off push during the second half of the season. 

 

[Torgeir]

8 hours ago, SuperBrfc said:

I don't know the names, just that, supposedly, one is German and one is Scandinavian. One of the three is an attacking midfielder. If Vetlesen doesn't fit that description, then one of the other two is an attacking mid. It is also being claimed that a midfielder that was being shown around is going to sign. Don't know if that is Hugo or not, it would be quite surprising if it was him.

It appears the info is coming from different sources, as they both had slightly different versions of the BBD/Simms-Everton story, and both have separately mentioned Vetlesen, with one alleging he was one of the three that was spoken to.

Again, we are going off what a couple of fans have heard, so it could yet turn out to disappoint, but it seems to be the only transfer speculation we have at the moment. If it is true that Vetlesen is one of the trio, then that is encouraging. To make it happen though would be more impressive, that's what most of us want to see.

I'd say Vetlesen likes to play box to box, but could be deemed as an attacking midfielder as well. That might be the role Rovers are looking to fill as we're struggling to score and create chances at the moment. Hugo is good at pressing and positionally sound, but doesn't like to get stuck in. Agile and good at carrying the ball and can feint both ways.

But the price is around £4.5-5m so could it be that we're sounding out targets and if we get the right answers then BBD leaves?

[Danny O.Brien]

I wish everyone would stop raving over Morton. He's decent yes but had got one assist and no goals in twenty starts. You'd think he was pirlo the way some people go on about him. If we could get better we should absolutely end the loan. But doubt we can or will.