January Transfer Window.

[martonrover]

3 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Iv'e no doubt he's ambitious and has good ideas but i also think once hes been here a while.  He'll fall into the comfort zone of the rest of them when hes sussed it all out and realised just do enough and that's enough.

Then he'll be off somewhere else when the opportunity arises.

I think the jury is out about Broughton’s ideas. I’m struggling to get past his reasoning for not signing an experienced midfielder, (and he seems to have the same idea further up the pitch).
He has no pedigree, is cutting his teeth as a DOF and will only get offers elsewhere if he does well at Rovers.

[den]

5 minutes ago, rover23 said:

I do think some people’s expectations in here are a little unrealistic. 

When all is said and done we’re a small town club. We get 13k fans in the ground on a good day, and the only reason we ever got into the top flight was a dedicated owner who pumped his own money into the club before there was any kind of regulations. 

Currently we’re spending what we can, the owners can’t put any more money in than they are doing, so the only possible way we can push forward is by using our academy. 

Do we need experienced players? Yes of course. Is the stubbornness of the owners to not sell nearly out of contract players hurting us? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, what sets us apart from other mediocre clubs in the Championship or League 1? Not a lot, other than a history that was bought for us by Uncle Jack.

Sometimes we need to think about how lucky we are. 

How many championship clubs have owners who’ve put in around £250m over 13 years and are still doing it?

[callumrovers]

4 minutes ago, den said:

Are you saying the plan is now different? I haven’t heard that interview. How is it different?

Of course it’s different.

1st year we got relegated we bought players who were established/ high earners. Didn’t get us anywhere with the nameless man in charge.

The donkey from down the road was the same- didn’t focus on youth.

infant I can’t think of a manager we have had since Mowbray/JDT who bought young players with re sale value and developed them.

that’s a clear change in plan.

[callumrovers]

7 minutes ago, briansol said:

Funny you mention Brentford. They spent 6 seasons in the Championship, improving year by year before getting promoted. The way they did it was with a strategy and "project". They put in place great scouting which was highly data-driven and bought young talent they could improve and sell-on. Which they did with a number of players being sold for 9m+ over the years like Mephan, Konsa, Gray, Hogan, Benharama and Watkins. They had a lot of turnover as they don't have an academy, and also bought quite of lot duds, but they were offset with the gems they uncovered.

Another success was that any manager they hired had to adapt to their structure and setup and not to another reboot of style and players. 

 

The Brentford model should sound a bit familiar to what we are trying to achieve here. With a sporting director, great academy and using player trading to up the level of the squad. It might take time, but probably the only long-term solution for the club. 

 

Bang on the money.

This is the only solution for the club.

[arbitro]

3 minutes ago, rover23 said:

I do think some people’s expectations in here are a little unrealistic. 

When all is said and done we’re a small town club. We get 13k fans in the ground on a good day, and the only reason we ever got into the top flight was a dedicated owner who pumped his own money into the club before there was any kind of regulations. 

Currently we’re spending what we can, the owners can’t put any more money in than they are doing, so the only possible way we can push forward is by using our academy. 

Do we need experienced players? Yes of course. Is the stubbornness of the owners to not sell nearly out of contract players hurting us? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, what sets us apart from other mediocre clubs in the Championship or League 1? Not a lot, other than a history that was bought for us by Uncle Jack.

Sometimes we need to think about how lucky we are. 

Just remind me where we were when these owners rocked up? Harry Redknapp called us the best run club and an example to every other PL club. How many season ticket holders did we have? A really good commercial department, excellent senior management, great players and huge tv payments from Sky and many other aspects of the club to be proud of. And then it came to a shuddering halt.

How lucky we are indeed.

[CambridgeRover]

9 minutes ago, den said:

How many championship clubs have owners who’ve put in around £250m over 13 years and are still doing it?

If they left us and we went broke and down a division or two i.e bolton and got taken over we would soon be in a better position than today. They are a plague on this club

[Miller11]

8 minutes ago, rover23 said:

I do think some people’s expectations in here are a little unrealistic. 

When all is said and done we’re a small town club. We get 13k fans in the ground on a good day, and the only reason we ever got into the top flight was a dedicated owner who pumped his own money into the club before there was any kind of regulations. 

Currently we’re spending what we can, the owners can’t put any more money in than they are doing, so the only possible way we can push forward is by using our academy. 

Do we need experienced players? Yes of course. Is the stubbornness of the owners to not sell nearly out of contract players hurting us? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, what sets us apart from other mediocre clubs in the Championship or League 1? Not a lot, other than a history that was bought for us by Uncle Jack.

Sometimes we need to think about how lucky we are. 

We are a small town club who happen to be about the tenth most successful club ever in English football. And we were regularly getting in the playoffs before Jack put his money in - something we’ve never managed under these cretins. Our bad crowds are a result of 12 years of terrible ownership.

Jack didn’t just “buy us history” - really disrespectful to him and all that went before him that, by the way - he put us on a really good footing. He built they academy we are now so reliant on for starters. He also allowed us to be a sustainable Premier League team for a decade after he passed away.

They don’t spend all they can at all. They can’t even be arsed keeping the stadium in good order. They aren’t interested enough to sack underperforming employees, and despite being completely disinterested it appears they also interfere on footballing matters which they don’t have the first clue about.

[Leonard Venkhater]

4 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Just remind me where we were when these owners rocked up? Harry Redknapp called us the best run club and an example to every other PL club. How many season ticket holders did we have? A really good commercial department, excellent senior management, great players and huge tv payments from Sky and many other aspects of the club to be proud of. And then it came to a shuddering halt.

How lucky we are indeed.

I wonder how long until the majority of the fanbase concurs that Venky's just have to go.

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Fully staffed by the experts that signed Hirst.

Most of the current recruitment staff wasn't in place for the last window as many scouts left during last season and the summer. 

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

How many Premier League goals had Lukaku scored when Chelsea signed him ?

and what a waste of money he was for Chelsea despite his record in the PL. He was never the right fit for them before they signed him before

1 hour ago, roverandout said:

Sign some decent players in this window.  We are in desperate need of reinforcements 

So why don't let Rovers get on with it instead of complaining cos we aren't sign anyone yet. They will be plenty of reasons why we haven't sign anyone yet. People need to patience 

54 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

As others have said, there has been talk of plans before. I get that we all hope that things will be different and something good will happen, thats what we do as football fans. But for me the jury is still out, dont think the first window of the plan was impressive, so will just judge from here on in.

I also appreciate that some decisions seemingly are taken away from people below Venkys ie player sales when I judge Broughton but ultimately for a plan to work it has to work from the top.

I judge on what is done rather than what is said but some peoples optimism seems to come from those words which I get. But talk about not signing players due to a fear of blocking pathways combined with measuring the manager based on academy graduate minutes does not IMO suggest that promotion is the primary focus.

So what are going to judge on when alot of the work he is doing will be in private away from public? 

[arbitro]

3 minutes ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

I wonder how long until the majority of the fanbase concurs that Venky's just have to go.

Honestly Leonard I don't think that will ever happen. Some still see them as knights in shining armour who are keeping us going. The best analogy is that it's like being run over by one of their Bentley's, being critically injured and on a life support machine and they are paying the electricity bill to keep the machine switched on.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

4 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Most of the current recruitment staff wasn't in place for the last window as many scouts left during last season and the summer. 

and what a waste of money he was for Chelsea despite his record in the PL. He was never the right fit for them before they signed him before

So why don't let Rovers get on with it instead of complaining cos we aren't sign anyone yet. They will be plenty of reasons why we haven't sign anyone yet. People need to patience 

So what are going to judge on when alot of the work he is doing will be in private away from public? 

Have you ever asked yourself why ever since the Chicken Chokers arrived we have had a constant churn of backroom staff ? People leave here on a regular basis, most of them as soon as they get another offer, some for jobs further down the football food chain.

[den]

1 minute ago, callumrovers said:

Of course it’s different.

1st year we got relegated we bought players who were established/ high earners. Didn’t get us anywhere with the nameless man in charge.

The donkey from down the road was the same- didn’t focus on youth.

infant I can’t think of a manager we have had since Mowbray/JDT who bought young players with re sale value and developed them.

that’s a clear change in plan.

I started watching rovers in 1962. We didn’t have an academy then. Rovers A and B teams played at Livesy Branch road. That’s where any trialists had to turn up and show their skills. We brought through many, many top class (some world class) players. At that time there was no freedom of contract so we could keep any player we liked. Because of that I and many others saw promotions, cup finals and what I regard as the best Rovers team ever.

Then came freedom of contract. Rovers fell from grace into terrible times. We still developed youth players though. The (huge) difference was that we could never keep any of the best lads. A sniff of the top League and they were off. 
 

Since then rovers have still developed youth players - and some superb youth players at that. However, we couldn’t keep them. The argument that we could sell them on and reinvest the profits into good experienced players that could strengthen the team was around then. Some fans believed it, (fell for it) some didn’t. We’ve been trying to run this project for how long? It never got us anywhere. The money we got from the sales was never fully reinvested. It isn’t fully reinvested now under Venkys. 

 

when we were a PL club I’d have cringed at the idea of someone like Warnock managing us. I’d bloody jump at it now. Someone who knows the lower leagues inside out, knows players, knows what’s needed to get clubs up and out of this league. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Somebody who can get the blood pumping around the bodies of the players wearing the shirt. Not easy I know but somebody out there should be able to do it. JDT isn’t doing it at the moment.

[chaddyrovers]

9 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Have you ever asked yourself why ever since the Chicken Chokers arrived we have had a constant churn of backroom staff ? People leave here on a regular basis, most of them as soon as they get another offer, some for jobs further down the football food chain.

people get better job offers with more money or better role you move on. You can't blame owners for that. Just normal life 

[jim mk2]

39 minutes ago, rover23 said:

I do think some people’s expectations in here are a little unrealistic. 

When all is said and done we’re a small town club. We get 13k fans in the ground on a good day, and the only reason we ever got into the top flight was a dedicated owner who pumped his own money into the club before there was any kind of regulations. 

Currently we’re spending what we can, the owners can’t put any more money in than they are doing, so the only possible way we can push forward is by using our academy. 

Do we need experienced players? Yes of course. Is the stubbornness of the owners to not sell nearly out of contract players hurting us? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, what sets us apart from other mediocre clubs in the Championship or League 1? Not a lot, other than a history that was bought for us by Uncle Jack.

Sometimes we need to think about how lucky we are. 

Leave off

If  third division and fourth division clubs like Bournemouth / Brentford / Watford / Brighton can survive and thrive in the Premier League then so can Rovers 

Burnley were up for 7 (??) years and are going back again. 

All it needs is very good management, confidence, ambition and a bit of money, 

[den]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

Leave off

If  third division and fourth division clubs like Bournemouth / Brentford / Watford / Brighton can survive and thrive in the Premier League then so can Rovers 

Burnley were up for 7 (??) years and are going back again. 

All it needs is very good management, confidence, ambition and a bit of money, 

Don’t forget Blackpool.

[Gav]

12 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Leave off

If  third division and fourth division clubs like Bournemouth / Brentford / Watford / Brighton can survive.

The 1970’s are long gone, these are no longer 3rd division sides as we also were back 70’s.

Brentford and Brighton especially are superb sides, built on good foundations with people that care, light years ahead of us.

Even you can join the dots surely….

Edited January 15, 2023 by Gav

[Miller11]

Let’s look at Venky’s master plan so far shall we…

“We plan to focus on leveraging the global influence in establishing Blackburn Rovers as a truly global brand," - complete failure. The only thing global has been our embarrassment.

"We will absolutely respect the Jack Walker legacy and will be actively supporting the organisation to ensure that Blackburn Rovers remain one of the best-run clubs within the Premier League." - Continue to piss all over his legacy. Turned us into one of of the worst run clubs in premier league history within a matter of weeks.

“We will make £5 million available to Sam Allardyce for transfers in January. We won’t need to buy expensive players, we can always lease them. We don’t expect to be in the top 5 of the premier league. We will be happy to be in the top 10 or 12.” - Sacked Allardyce before well before then. Millions went on agents fees rather than transfer fees. “Leasing” was accurate. No need to comment on the league position.

 

"Initially there will be 5 million pounds put in straightaway to buy players but of course if we have to do more then we will. There will then be much more investment and we have devised a spending strategy already for the next three years that will see the manager given significant funds to buy players," - Obviously Rochina and Formica were already earmarked, hence the 5 million. That last 3 year plan went well didn’t it?

 

"I am not promising that we will be a top four team but I can promise we will try. And that is what we will aim for. We are committed to improving the performance of the team and when the situation is right there will be investment," - How much stock can anyone with a functioning mind put in their promises and assurances? All utter bollocks.

 

"There is a new generation of boys aged between 10 and 17 in India that are football mad but lots of them support Chelsea. I believe at this time we can make the market for football in India grow. Having Indian owners in EPL will create a lot of interest and I think we can try to create a whole nation of Blackburn Rovers fans," - Not sure how that nation is coming along, but they’ve turned off local supporters in their droves. 

 

"The takeover has made the front pages of all of the newspapers (in India). That shows the interest that is there. My dream is to make Blackburn Rovers an even bigger brand in India than Venky's," - seem to only want to distance themselves now.

 

"We will be taking a very hands-on role in the way that the club is run because we are passionate about making this a big success. My brothers will be very much involved in the running of the club. I will be coming over soon with my family. - turned up a few times acting like royalty. Haven’t been seen in years though. Should be ashamed to show their faces but are too arrogant to feel any guilt.

 

"Please tell the fans that we are totally committed to them and to the club. We are fully committed to Blackburn Rovers. This is not just another investment to us. We are fully committed to the success of the club. That is how my family is with every venture we take on," - Bollocks.

 

So yeah, I’m not holding out too much hope for any of their plans coming to fruition.

[Andy]

49 minutes ago, CambridgeRover said:

If they left us and we went broke and down a division or two i.e bolton and got taken over we would soon be in a better position than today. They are a plague on this club

There is absolutely nothing more than sheer good thinking to suggest that this would happen.

Things could be a LOT worse than what they are for us, right now.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, callumrovers said:

My  own thoughts are that we haven’t had any direction for the first 5 years. Only started to get a direction of where we wanted to go when Mowbray came in. He talked all the time about developing players and selling them on, he had the right idea but didn’t have the tools to do it. Since he’s gone and we have recruited the sporting director who has started implementing the “plan” I hope things start to improve both on and off the pitch.

the way I see things playing out. 
 

1st season - they see this as a free hit, no one expects us to get promoted rightly or wrongly.

2nd season - gain the consistency this season has not offered and be in and around the top six.

3rd season - in the playoffs/ promoted.

4 season - same as above. 

JDT will be given time and if he doesn’t reach the targets set in the future, then he needs to be removed and a new coach replaces with the same philosophy and ideas as the plan. 

Maybe they should warn the fans that the season is a "free hit" before they want us to fork out for an above average priced season ticket.

It is unfounded anyway. If the first season is seen as the foundation setting of a new project, they would have sold Brereton. As it is, the reset button will need to be pressed again in the summer.

1 hour ago, rover23 said:

I do think some people’s expectations in here are a little unrealistic. 

When all is said and done we’re a small town club. We get 13k fans in the ground on a good day, and the only reason we ever got into the top flight was a dedicated owner who pumped his own money into the club before there was any kind of regulations. 

Currently we’re spending what we can, the owners can’t put any more money in than they are doing, so the only possible way we can push forward is by using our academy. 

Do we need experienced players? Yes of course. Is the stubbornness of the owners to not sell nearly out of contract players hurting us? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, what sets us apart from other mediocre clubs in the Championship or League 1? Not a lot, other than a history that was bought for us by Uncle Jack.

Sometimes we need to think about how lucky we are. 

The sort of lowering of expectations that is the legacy of being owned by these cunts.

This nonsense about putting in every available money is unfounded. But even if we are to a penny on the limit of FFP, it is there interfering with player sales that is hindering any ability to further improve the squad.

1 hour ago, briansol said:

Funny you mention Brentford. They spent 6 seasons in the Championship, improving year by year before getting promoted. The way they did it was with a strategy and "project". They put in place great scouting which was highly data-driven and bought young talent they could improve and sell-on. Which they did with a number of players being sold for 9m+ over the years like Mephan, Konsa, Gray, Hogan, Benharama and Watkins. They had a lot of turnover as they don't have an academy, and also bought quite of lot duds, but they were offset with the gems they uncovered.

Another success was that any manager they hired had to adapt to their structure and setup and not to another reboot of style and players. 

 

The Brentford model should sound a bit familiar to what we are trying to achieve here. With a sporting director, great academy and using player trading to up the level of the squad. It might take time, but probably the only long-term solution for the club. 

 

Brentford were competitive at the top end of league for years before promotion by repeatedly needing to sell key assets and immediately replacing by reinvesting much of those fees. Had they missed out again, Toney would have been sold, theyd have bought someone else for a decent chunk and continued. No nonsense about free hits and no summers of austerity.

Why dont some people see that it is the total opposite to what happens here. We bought 3 youngish forwards and 2 were developed well by Mowbray. We then kept hold of them (with a season or two of treading water) before selling one and reinvesting zilch. We then had more assets that we could have sold, the owners blocked that, allowed them to run their deals down and provided a small amount of reinvestment but on players that wont make us any money. Its a random mess and it stops in India.

All this shite about adding value makes no sense with how we continue to be run. 

42 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Most of the current recruitment staff wasn't in place for the last window as many scouts left during last season and the summer. 

and what a waste of money he was for Chelsea despite his record in the PL. He was never the right fit for them before they signed him before

So why don't let Rovers get on with it instead of complaining cos we aren't sign anyone yet. They will be plenty of reasons why we haven't sign anyone yet. People need to patience 

So what are going to judge on when alot of the work he is doing will be in private away from public? 

I will judge based on what happens, what happens in private is irrelevant to those judgements. So far, one at best average window, so the jury is still out.

[Boroblue]

2 hours ago, CambridgeRover said:

My great plan although no one asked.

Gelhardt in , vale out on loan
Porteous in ,  carter out on loan
Vetlesen in , a.wharton out on loan

Diaz will leave for free in summer no matter what.  So if possible we should be looking for a replacement but if one does not materialise I think this would improve the spine of the team a lot

Mine geldhart in Gallagher out to Sunderland 

porteous in Ayala out spent half the time her injured whether true or not and I’m sick of his killer passes

vetlesen in Morton back to Liverpool he can get his education there rather than slowing our play down and not tackling. 

[K-Hod]

1 hour ago, rover23 said:

I do think some people’s expectations in here are a little unrealistic. 

When all is said and done we’re a small town club. We get 13k fans in the ground on a good day, and the only reason we ever got into the top flight was a dedicated owner who pumped his own money into the club before there was any kind of regulations. 

Currently we’re spending what we can, the owners can’t put any more money in than they are doing, so the only possible way we can push forward is by using our academy. 

Do we need experienced players? Yes of course. Is the stubbornness of the owners to not sell nearly out of contract players hurting us? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, what sets us apart from other mediocre clubs in the Championship or League 1? Not a lot, other than a history that was bought for us by Uncle Jack.

Sometimes we need to think about how lucky we are. 

Expecting the players to work hard, to not get battered and to at least have a go at getting back into matches when we go a goal down isn’t unrealistic- it’s the bare minimum!

[Boroblue]

1 hour ago, callumrovers said:

My  own thoughts are that we haven’t had any direction for the first 5 years. Only started to get a direction of where we wanted to go when Mowbray came in. He talked all the time about developing players and selling them on, he had the right idea but didn’t have the tools to do it. Since he’s gone and we have recruited the sporting director who has started implementing the “plan” I hope things start to improve both on and off the pitch.

the way I see things playing out. 
 

1st season - they see this as a free hit, no one expects us to get promoted rightly or wrongly.

2nd season - gain the consistency this season has not offered and be in and around the top six.

3rd season - in the playoffs/ promoted.

4 season - same as above. 

JDT will be given time and if he doesn’t reach the targets set in the future, then he needs to be removed and a new coach replaces with the same philosophy and ideas as the plan. 

So I have to wait another 4 or 5 years for a chance at promotion. That’s a minimum of 16 years to get it right. Burnley one year and you believe this is a great sell.

What about this we are in a play off spot let’s roll the dice and go for it. If we get it wrong then we can take the next five years to put it right. Then I’m happy to sit and wait. I’m sick of this gravy tomorrow idea it is a bag of shite. Under that philosophy thr good ones we produce will be sold and then we wait again.

im sorry and it’s not personal but what a bag of bollocks.

 

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

Our club has been systematically plundered and neglected by these owners for twelve years now and people have faith in them over the next few years to deliver a plan or project. It won't happen and despite the rhetoric from Broughton and Tomasson these errant owners are the big stumbling block and the main reason it won't. They are the worst thing that has ever happened to our club and still, unbelievably some think they will come good.

So now it's Jam in 4 or 5 years. Best keep the lid tight on the jar or it'll go well off.

Rovers Jam - got to be a very runny jelly hasn't it.

I think we've had a FaceBook invasion.

[roversfan99]

It wouldnt even take a big roll of the dice. Sell Brereton, buy a striker and a couple more with the proceeds and it benefits us short and long term. 

Project my arse.