January Transfer Window.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

7 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Prep for Ayala leaving is sensible (although if Wharton, Carter and Phillips kick on might not really be necessary), but if we are signing a CB from 'abroad' with 6 months on their deal, I'd rather pay no fee at all and sign him for the summer. Ayala is still here now and another CB would leave us crowded there. Unless we have an interested party in bidding for Ayala though.

Even then, just sign him to a pre-contract and then once it's sealed you can still offer to expedite the deal to now, at which point they'd likely take an even smaller offer.

Anybody watching Ayala yesterday would have left before then end.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Ask Gregg

[CambridgeRover]

9 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Anybody watching Ayala yesterday would have left before then end.

In that he was awful? didnt see much of yesterday

[rigger]

10 hours ago, callumrovers said:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/ryan-porteous-hibs-transfer-latest-28956976.amp
 

6 figure bid going in….

Do we need another center-back ?

[Waggy76]

19 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Anybody watching Ayala yesterday would have left before then end.

He was laboured at best yesterday . Sky said he hadn't trained much but anno domini is approaching rapidly..

[arbitro]

5 minutes ago, Waggy76 said:

He was laboured at best yesterday . Sky said he hadn't trained much but anno domini is approaching rapidly..

I praised Hyam last week but yesterday him and Ayala were fine exponents of walking football. At times it was embarrassing as they played their own little passing game between themselves.

[Bbrovers2288]

23 minutes ago, rigger said:

Do we need another center-back ?

Plays as much midfield than centre back tbf 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

30 minutes ago, CambridgeRover said:

In that he was awful? didnt see much of yesterday

He was poor but obviously so was everybody else. He looked like he didn’t want to put a foot in. Maybe he wasn’t 100%.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

12 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I praised Hyam last week but yesterday him and Ayala were fine exponents of walking football. At times it was embarrassing as they played their own little passing game between themselves.

And all the time Rotherham were dropping back and getting into defensive shape.

[AJW]

29 minutes ago, Waggy76 said:

He was laboured at best yesterday . Sky said he hadn't trained much but anno domini

Quote

 

is approaching rapidly..

he will probably go past Pickering with ease then 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, AJW said:

he will probably go past Pickering with ease then 

Pickering's lack of pace is frightening for such a young lad. Any winger with an iota of pace has a field day with him. Just knock it past him with ease and force a central defender out of position.

[rigger]

13 minutes ago, Bbrovers2288 said:

Plays as much midfield than centre back tbf 

If he is a capable midfielder, then fair enough. If he is a center-half, who can do alright in mid-field , not so good. 

[dingles staying down 4ever]

35 minutes ago, Waggy76 said:

He was laboured at best yesterday . Sky said he hadn't trained much but anno domini is approaching rapidly..

To be honest I didn;t see much difference than any other Ayala preformance. He is slow and plays too deep. I still maintain Rovers  play 10 yards further up the pitch when he does not play.

I know I maybe in minority but we need to replace him.

[Torgeir]

4 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Pickering's lack of pace is frightening for such a young lad. Any winger with an iota of pace has a field day with him. Just knock it past him with ease and force a central defender out of position.

Puzzled by that signing. 

[dingles staying down 4ever]

17 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

And all the time Rotherham were dropping back and getting into defensive shape.

To be fair if strikers had taken their chances at the back end of the first half this wouldnt have happened. If Diaz is to go we need someone who can take chances.

[J*B]

2 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Puzzled by that signing. 

Haven’t you considered his xG and xD and xA? What about his completed passes or his high speed possession retention numbers?

[alcd]

2 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Puzzled by that signing. 

Probably the slowest full back I've ever seen in a blue and white shirt. Even Ben Arentoft was quicker. Whoever scouted him for Rovers should be sacked. 

[Ossydave]

6 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Funnily enough as that ball went in for their first goal i knew nobody would clear it they were all ball watching for that. As a centre back surely the first instinct is to meet the ball and clear it but no it was watched then Hyam just stuck a foot out. The tone was set for the day right there, good finish by the lad but he shouldn't have been anywhere near that ball.

On Rathbone i thought he must've grown up to be a dingle he was like a man possessed yesterday. According to their fans he's always like that but my god could we do with some of that.  Why is it that successive Rovers manager seem terrified to have a few physical bully boys in the team ?

We are trying to play polished football with kids and average players and it's plain silly because 50% of the time we come off second best.  You learn from defeat they say, well our lot should be on triple A level+ standard already, what they seem to be learning is to accept defeat far too easily.

Morton consistently backs out of challenges or literally turns his back on them. Now I think Morton is a decent player, and its probably an age thing to be fair, but midfielders in this team should be fully committed to tackling. They aren't, and we keep getting twatted. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Puzzled by that signing. 

I remember there was quite a buzz surrounding his signature at the time. He was billed as somewhat of a star. We were also prepared to wait for him for half a season while we sent him back on loan to Crewe as part of the deal.

Yesterday, I said "I don't think it's the players that are the problem". That might have been a bit reactionary. JDT has to take full accountability for our dire performances this season, but I think we overstate how good our players actually are. Pickering. Travis. Gallagher. Ayala. Dolan. Szmodics. We are quite average on paper when I take off my blue and white-tinted spectacles.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 minutes ago, goozburger said:

I remember there was quite a buzz surrounding his signature at the time. He was billed as somewhat of a star. We were also prepared to wait for him for half a season while we sent him back on loan to Crewe as part of the deal.

Yesterday, I said "I don't think it's the players that are the problem". That might have been a bit reactionary. JDT has to take full accountability for our dire performances this season, but I think we overstate how good our players actually are. Pickering. Travis. Gallagher. Ayala. Dolan. Szmodics. We are quite average on paper when I take off my blue and white-tinted spectacles.

I remember the “ highlights “ reel somebody showed at the time. All passes and crosses, shots at goal etc. I pointed out at the time - no tackles on flying wingers.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I remember the “ highlights “ reel somebody showed at the time. All passes and crosses, shots at goal etc. I pointed out at the time - no tackles on flying wingers.

Then Pickering is being used wrongly because we rarely see him getting forward.

His cross for Dack yesterday was great. We need that repeatedly during every game. Once or twice is nowhere near good enough. You only play a wing-back system if you feel that the wing-backs are going to create chances. Ours rarely do.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, goozburger said:

Then Pickering is being used wrongly because we rarely see him getting forward.

His cross for Dack yesterday was great. We need that repeatedly during every game. Once or twice is nowhere near good enough. You only play a wing-back system if you feel that the wing-backs are going to create chances. Ours rarely do.

We’ve had players who are really “ wing backs “ being asked to play as out and out full backs yesterday.

[tomphil]

15 minutes ago, Ossydave said:

Morton consistently backs out of challenges or literally turns his back on them. Now I think Morton is a decent player, and its probably an age thing to be fair, but midfielders in this team should be fully committed to tackling. They aren't, and we keep getting twatted. 

Tidy player on the ball and he tries to make things happen but his thinking is often out of sync with those around him.

Just plainly not what this team needs, he's a play maker yes but we need a ball winner in there. If he had one next to him it might help as him and Travis showed promise at one point. You cannot have midfielders at championship who can't/won't tackle and especially not when the rest of the side is so weak.

[Guest]

Porteus would be a very good signing, but if we blow our entire budget on him whilst I have to watch Gallagher and Morton for another 5 months then questions will be asked about Broughton. We have 3 good centre backs on the books currently. (Although a -4 goal difference is starting to suggest otherwise), we need goals and steel in midfield. I’m clearly not as good a football brain as Klopp is, but I’d love to know why Morton’s been given a new deal. I can name some league one midfields he wouldn’t currently get into.

[ben_the_beast]

11 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

He fits the bill of Hedges style signings ie players with 6 months left on their deals. But a centre back is right down the list of priorities.

Having listened to the GB podcast this type of signing makes sense. I'm pleased too. It's about time the club did some proper forward planning. 

It's clear Ayala won't see another season with us. He'd need replacing. If this fella is good, then centre back is absolutely sorted for years to come. 

Myself included, fans seem to look very short term. Every season we say, "the championship has never been this weak, this is a golden opportunity". If I'm being realistic, regardless of our league position, I don't think we have the quality to be promoted this season. So even though centre back isn't the priority today, in 6 months time it would be. 

I'm sure at time Brentford fans had their frustrations. They sold Maupay, Ollie Watkins, Benrhama. Others too I'm sure. The key was forward planning and a process. They knew if they didn't win promotion in one particular season, they were well placed to do it the next season.

Our conundrum in this is that we need to start selling our assets when they have value. If we could sell Diaz this window and be confident that we have an quality replacement lined up, then I'd do it. I think most on here feel promotion this season is unlikely, we need to have half an eye on next season already.