January Transfer Window.

[wilsdenrover]

4 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Was busy last night, wow, just wow. Where to even start with this?. I think many posters have expressed themselves brilliantly on this so apologies if I'm   repeating many of the same points.

1) The Club "Statement". That should be a stackable offence in itself without even going into the fine detail of what happened. How did that even get passed for general release? In the first place the Club are in a very sticky situation on this to say the least, and they can't even be bothered putting out a grammatically correct statement that looks professional and reads so as to make sense.

2) Far more importantly however the thing I found most astonishing about the "statement" is the complete absence of contrition. Not the merest hint of an apology to either the supporters or the players involved who have had their careers wrecked in the short term. A real "Fuck you, we've dropped a monumental bollock here and badly affected the lives of a couple of players but we dont give a shit as we still get paid at the end of the month" if ever there was one.

3) I would say Rule *1 in a situation like this is if you-ve made a mistake, come completely clean, own up to what's happened and apologise. It might not change the outcome and you might still deserve and get the sack but at least people will respect the fact you had the balls to admit the mistake. Instead we get this whiney sort of tale of self pity insinuating the EFL are at fault for being too pedantic. I fully expected something like this would be coming but it's none the less unedifying for being entirely predictable. WE filed incorrect paperwork and missed a crucial deadline. No-one else. End of. Waggott sounds like a middle aged Vicky Pollard:

"Yeah but no but yeah but no but it isn't even our fault, we didn't even do anything!"

4) The lack of communication with the fans about what is going on should come as no surprise whatsoever. It's nothing new. The Club tried to sneak the Brockhall plans in under a veil of secrecy and only commented when an Eagle eyed fan (Matty Blue off here) spotted the planning application which had been submitted to RVBC. It took us over a week to comment on the departure of the previous manager after he indicated he was leaving, and we've had the wall of secrecy about what happened at the end of the window. All indicative of a complete disregard for the supporters.

Sack the lot of them apart from JDT and his assistant and start again.

Typo or has this brought back Derek Shaw memories?

[47er]

1 hour ago, arbitro said:

swaggott@rovers.co.uk

Ask him if he's ever confronted the fear that the jobs too big for him!

[47er]

12 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I've just been told by one mon on Twitter that if it wasn't for Venkys owning us we wouldn't be linked to signings of O'brien's quality. You really couldn't make it up.

Well here's that post in the LT I referred to earlier and finally found (part of it anyway)

Plant or Plank----you decide!!:

Damned if they do, and damned if they dont. It sounds like we made an all out, last ditch attempt to pull off what would have been a couple of very ambitious pieces of business which may yet come to fruition. Reading these and earlier comments, the board must be wondering why they even bother to try to give the fans what they want. Such ingratitude is purely disrespectful.

!

Edited February 3, 2023 by 47er

[Mattyblue]

‘A couple of very ambitious pieces of business’… one was a teenager from a club on the verge of non league.

[OldEwoodBlue]

3 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

‘A couple of very ambitious pieces of business’… one was a teenager from a club on the verge of non league.

At least he was able to get a shirt (as a momento).

[arbitro]

8 minutes ago, 47er said:

Ask him if he's ever confronted the fear that the jobs too big for him!

In the email I sent I told him that, as CEO he should be considering his position. 

[Mattyblue]

2 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

At least he was able to get a shirt (as a momento).

He should donate it to one of those mascots that missed out.

[lraC]

It struck me as I pondered this morning, that, if it wasn't for the announcement that he had "signed" that none of us would have ever known about this and the club would have simply covered it up. This got me thinking about how many other huge mistakes have been made that have never come to light?

Looking back, when the Coyle appointment was announced, who knew that Warnock had already been promised the job, until the Warnock himself, made his statement, along the lines of one club does not know what they are doing. That in turn brought about other things about it being brought into the open about it and as history has now shown us, Warnock got the team he did joined promoted and Coyle, helped us towards relegation.

Perhaps the owners are still being badly advised, but here is some free good advice. Send someone competent in and make sure you rid yourselves of every single chancer and hanger on, especially those that still seem to be there, from the very start of your  tenure.

[glen9mullan]

10 minutes ago, lraC said:

It struck me as I pondered this morning, that, if it wasn't for the announcement that he had "signed" that none of us would have ever known about this and the club would have simply covered it up. This got me thinking about how many other huge mistakes have been made that have never come to light?

Looking back, when the Coyle appointment was announced, who knew that Warnock had already been promised the job, until the Warnock himself, made his statement, along the lines of one club does not know what they are doing. That in turn brought about other things about it being brought into the open about it and as history has now shown us, Warnock got the team he did joined promoted and Coyle, helped us towards relegation.

Perhaps the owners are still being badly advised, but here is some free good advice. Send someone competent in and make sure you rid yourselves of every single chancer and hanger on, especially those that still seem to be there, from the very start of your  tenure.

They are out of their depth, its like that cancelled concert last year , where they sanctioned the use of the ground, let all the marketing be done at Ewood etc.

To then nearly have to pull it themselves before the organisers did as they'd not asked for planning position or seaked permission from the council.

It wasnt rovers event, but its their ground.

To top it off they didnt do due diligence and these people have disappeared off the map, refunds have not been issued and contact details are no longer active.

£££££s over sense 

[Mike E]

48 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I've just been told by one mon on Twitter that if it wasn't for Venkys owning us we wouldn't be linked to signings of O'brien's quality. You really couldn't make it up.

He's right in a sense. It would've been a signing beneath our dignity in the Hughes years.

[den]

7 hours ago, DaveyB said:

Not excusing the incompetence from those responsible at Rovers, but no one will ever convince me that such a hard & fast deadline, with seemingly no grace for either human error nor technical issues, is the best system that those running football could have come up with for these things. 
 

Rovers have lost out on 2 players, Rochdale (and to a lesser extent Forest) have lost out on vital income, O’Brien is going to lose 6 months of his career and the young lad from Rochdale is losing out on his big move - all for the sake of a few seconds??

Again, I’m not seeking to excuse the mess that Rovers have made of this - but there just doesn’t seem to be any common sense applied at all (and there are other clubs and other players in a similar situation too)

Surely all that should matter is was the deal agreed between the 3 parties before the deadline? If it was, and a player posing for a photo with the shirt of his new club would suggest that it was, then the paperwork being a few seconds, or even a few minutes, late, shouldn’t cause the deal to be quashed. It just seems overly pedantic to me 🤷‍♂️

Rovers had all of January to sort out loans. There has to be a deadline that applies to all clubs and the league will be obliged to apply that strictly to every club otherwise the lawyers will be at them. I don’t think Rovers failings here have anything to do with the rules.

 

[Upside Down]

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

I've just been told by one mon on Twitter that if it wasn't for Venkys owning us we wouldn't be linked to signings of O'brien's quality. You really couldn't make it up.

That's true. We'd be looking at players of a far superior quality.

[Dolly blue]

15 hours ago, Tricky said:

Jeez is it really that big of a deal... 

Might be a blessing in disguise. 

??????…where have you been all these years ?
Its not “ the deal “ it’s the headline / flashing light / siren that says 

“ We are a dysfunctional club “…..look at the bigger picture man …

[lraC]

2 minutes ago, Dolly blue said:

??????…where have you been all these years ?
Its not “ the deal “ it’s the headline / flashing light / siren that says 

“ We are a dysfunctional club “…..look at the bigger picture man …

Exactly this and even if he had been the biggest flop in our history, the fact that the can balls it up so much is the biggest worry.

I know if would never have happened, but imagine if the had made a pigs ear of the Shearer signing. A whole different history of our club, may well have ensued.

 

[bigbrandjohn]

A lot of pondering going on today. I am pondering whether it would be acceptable for all concerned to unbundle the 10 million bit and do a straight loan for the good of the player if nothing else. Then have a gentleman’s agreement to do the right thing if we get promoted. 
 

Probably sets a precedent that the EFL doesn’t want.
 

Another alternative is for Forest to release O’Brien and we pick him up and pay all his wages which I am sure we are not doing. I don’t even know if we have paid fully for Bretherton yet. Who knows?  
 

There must be a way to ensure a good player doesn’t twiddle his thumbs for half a season. Nobody wants this situation. Especially the Player ‘s union.  

[Exiled_Rover]

8 hours ago, AllRoverAsia said:

Page 302 of this thread has a copy of Nixon's patreon post that gives a timeline and includes that Rovers had agreed to cover full wages in the loan part of the deal.

That's full PL wages .... no mention of any loan fee.

So, if Nixon and a Google search are correct, we agreed to pay wages of £65k per week as a skint Championship club when also failing to get a proven goal scorer ... I am in need of some suspension of disbelief.

Also goes to show the gap between the PL and the rest.

We've battled to the 5th Round of the FA Cup which, so far, has been worth £333k in prize money for us which isn't an insignificant sum.

It's just over a month's salary for a player Forest deem surplus to requirements 6 months after spending £9m acquiring him. Mental.

[Exiled_Rover]

12 minutes ago, bigbrandjohn said:

A lot of pondering going on today. I am pondering whether it would be acceptable for all concerned to unbundle the 10 million bit and do a straight loan for the good of the player if nothing else. Then have a gentleman’s agreement to do the right thing if we get promoted. 
 

Probably sets a precedent that the EFL doesn’t want.
 

Another alternative is for Forest to release O’Brien and we pick him up and pay all his wages which I am sure we are not doing. I don’t even know if we have paid fully for Bretherton yet. Who knows?  
 

There must be a way to ensure a good player doesn’t twiddle his thumbs for half a season. Nobody wants this situation. Especially the Player ‘s union.  

He'll go on loan abroad.

[Dolly blue]

10 hours ago, glen9mullan said:

The strange thing for me, if I was to rank the latest episode it would rank a lot down the table in terms of the "darkest hours" under Venkys.

However the reaction to this is off the scale in terms of supporter opinion, im struggling to find (since the statement) a single person not baying for blood.

I didnt see this sort of reaction on two relegations

Who'd of thought?

Well said Glen….the difference is … many of us , you particularly, knew of the illness in the club in the early days of V reign…nothing moved  the fan base ….most chose to remain in denial ….it takes a public clanger, like this one,  to get them to finally accept the levels of incompetence and neglect at Ewood .…

Maybe the fan base has turned …. years too late …but, I will take the turn .

[Inferi]

I guess the details regarding the verdict from the appeal panel will be public knowledge after a decision has been made? Will Waggott claim that the paperwork could not be completed in time because he was in Birmingham? Will he claim that we ran out of time because it took so long to complete Markanday's loan departure? Will he claim that we need more time than other teams because of our amateur adminstrators?  

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

53 minutes ago, den said:

Rovers had all of January to sort out loans. There has to be a deadline that applies to all clubs and the league will be obliged to apply that strictly to every club otherwise the lawyers will be at them. I don’t think Rovers failings here have anything to do with the rules.

 

For me this potentially stops with the CEO. There should have been proper planning prior to even the start of the window - going through each potential scenario with dummy runs to ensure requirements fully understood, estimate timings etc. It ain't rocket science. Also, even if not directly involved, swanning off to Birmingham on transfer deadline day is unbelievable. Even allowing for the farce of what happened  - what if one of our earlier targets became available at the last minute, and he is stuck on the M6 ?

I will add one caveat to this (based on what is currently happening in wider industry). The owners could be directly at fault (besides choice of staff) if they have cost cut administration staff to a level that makes it difficult to do their jobs to the appropriate level for times like this. Though even this would also involve the CEO

Edited February 3, 2023 by DavidMailsTightPerm

[Exiled_Rover]

11 minutes ago, Dolly blue said:

Well said Glen….the difference is … many of us , you particularly, knew of the illness in the club in the early days of V reign…nothing moved  the fan base ….most chose to remain in denial ….it takes a public clanger, like this one,  to get them to finally accept the levels of incompetence and neglect at Ewood .…

Maybe the fan base has turned …. years too late …but, I will take the turn .

When was the last time a fan protest resulted in a change in ownership? 

Just look at Man U - despite vigorous protesting they ended up creating a new club because the Glazer's have the kind of wealth that makes you untouchable - like apparently the Rao family does.

I've no idea why the Venkys continue to own us, but we're powerless to stop it.

[islander200]

29 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

He'll go on loan abroad.

Is there many countries with their windows still open?

[Upside Down]

5 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

When was the last time a fan protest resulted in a change in ownership? 

Just look at Man U - despite vigorous protesting they ended up creating a new club because the Glazer's have the kind of wealth that makes you untouchable - like apparently the Rao family does.

I've no idea why the Venkys continue to own us, but we're powerless to stop it.

The only thing that we can do as fans is to try and get the laws around how the game is controlled and organised so that we have input.

Without the fans football is just 22 lads kicking a bag of wind around on a field.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

When was the last time a fan protest resulted in a change in ownership?

It adds to the pressure. It adds a strong message to the owners that they are onto a losing situation if they carry on as they are. In time, it could have an effect. A protest is more about voicing your  disapproval of something when you have no other means of getting through.

I'm almost certain that Venkys would pay no heed, nor even be aware, but I don't think that is a reason to not do it. Make your stand if you believe that something is wrong and you're powerless to change it yourself. At the very least, it raises awareness.

[lraC]

10 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

When was the last time a fan protest resulted in a change in ownership? 

Just look at Man U - despite vigorous protesting they ended up creating a new club because the Glazer's have the kind of wealth that makes you untouchable - like apparently the Rao family does.

I've no idea why the Venkys continue to own us, but we're powerless to stop it.

Blackpool.

My one vote will not change the outcome of the next general election, but mine along with everyone else's will.