January Transfer Window.

[Danny O.Brien]

Yeah as said previously him having his future set out might actually help him and us on the pitch. He's been off the boil for months now. I doubt it will be agreed before the end of the season, maybe just an offer in principal. While there is any chance at all of us going up, he'd be daft to sign his future away. When he could go on and get promoted, score however many goals and command a better wage/signing on fee. 

[Ossydave]

Never seen Undav play but going off stats alone just get him in, NOW.  His goals for column makes for impressive reading wherever he's played.

I'm under no illusions whatsoever that we'll make the play offs but I just want to see us score a few goals FFS and provide at least some entertainment for the remainder of the season.

There is also talk that WBA, Norwich, Sunderland and Millwall are interested though so take your pick which one of those he will actually join.

[Polky]

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned already.

Stoke are looking at Gelhardt as a replacement for Liam Delap. 

[AllRoverAsia]

5 hours ago, J*B said:

The 8 million pound gamble fails dramatically. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. 

From a football perspective and after a period of serious doubt the gamble worked brilliantly.

Sadly we are owned and run by fools who deliberately or by oversight or design forgot to cash in the chips.But yes, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, deary deary me.

Good luck Ben, your better off out of the Ewood Circus.

Edited January 18, 2023 by AllRoverAsia

[benhben]

I actually think Brereton will turn out to be fairly mediocre. La Liga is probably a good move for him as I dont think he would ever be a regular goalscorer in the prem. Our mistake was not accepting any bids in the summer.

On the other side, if the club offered him another 5 year deal 2-3 years ago when I thought he was garbage Id have thought why? Seems to be a more common thing now of players refusing to sign contracts. Even happens at top clubs e.g. Pogba, Sterling. They know they can get higher wages if the new club isnt paying a transfer fee, leaving the selling club without much leeway.

[AllRoverAsia]

26 year old Undav cost BHA 6 million Euros on a 4 and a half year contract at PL wages.

And he's coming to learn in the Championship, and we can afford any loan fee and wage contribution whilst still paying a player who may well have committed elsewhere.

A work of fiction.

This is not happening unless BHA are secret Rovers fans and willing to do the deal for buttons on a promise.

[TheRevAshton]

Looks good this Undav doesn't he? Definitely a bagger - exactly what we're crying out for.

He'll thrive at WBA/Norwich.

[Torgeir]

5 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

26 year old Undav cost BHA 6 million Euros on a 4 and a half year contract at PL wages.

And he's coming to learn in the Championship, and we can afford any loan fee and wage contribution whilst still paying a player who may well have committed elsewhere.

A work of fiction.

This is not happening unless BHA are secret Rovers fans and willing to do the deal for buttons on a promise.

Looks like Gelhardt and Undav are both expensive options, but have a feeling Undav is on lower wages. Could be a case of moving a bit of money from one club to the other by Bloom who owns them both. Not getting my hopes up on either tbh.

[AllRoverAsia]

2 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Looks like Gelhardt and Undav are both expensive options, but have a feeling Undav is on lower wages. Could be a case of moving a bit of money from one club to the other by Bloom who owns them both. Not getting my hopes up on either tbh.

Good point, I hadn't spotted the Bloom connection.

[roversfan99]

2 hours ago, JoeH said:

He's head it and kick it. He's a younger Dan Ayala. Very good box defender who can handle the physicality well and lead a team. Whereas I think to progress under JDT, we need to be able to play out of the back. We need Tosin's, to slot in alongside Hyam's or Ayala's (who we already have enough of).

He probably goes alongside Ayala in a pecking order, perhaps with no Champ experience initially just below. More physical and rough than Wharton but then Wharton has that left footedness that is like gold dust at the minute.

We need to be able to defend, Tosin is a Premier League player and on our budget, being too concerned about a defenders ball playing ability will likely sacrifice defensive ability.

Also, left footedness is not like gold dust when the player it is attached too is such a liability when he plays at the moment.

[glen9mullan]

Undav will do for me, a bit older; more experienced and has scored goals where he has been. 

[roversfan99]

The Brereton potential pre-contract situation is an absolute farce, and I cannot fathom how so many defend the owners.

We will have kept aside over £12m for a season of Brereton (subconsciously not as committed for 6 months no matter what he says) and 6 months of a very uncommitted Rothwell. 

For context, we have spent about £20m in the 5 seasons since promotion, give or take. We have recouped about £18.5m, maybe less allowing for clauses.

Even if Venkys are willing to invest enough to make that £12m insignificant, which the figures above over a 5 period show that they are not, they can't be so flippant anyway because of FFP.

The same people defending the above decisions will be the ones bemoaning FFP the next time we inevitably can't spend even if we want to. It has also left us so reliant on too many academy graduates (some ready, some not) and whatever loans we can get in for the cheapest price, leaving us with a thin squad.

And the main 2 decisions coupled with the incessant reliance on loans is proof that talk of a long term project is a load of bollocks. How people cannot see through it, I have no clue.

Edited January 18, 2023 by roversfan99

[Mattyblue]

‘We can’t spend owt because of our shit crowds’ etc 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Aren’t you in our scouting team? Or do I have the wrong man?

You may be thinking of Andy Watson, who I have done a lot of work with as a friend online. I don't work for Rovers

[JHRover]

Brentford had less than 10,000 every week at Griffin Park and next to no corporate or non-matchday income. Yet they had player trading and contracts down to a fine art, ensuring all their assets were under long term deals, enabling them to command big fees when richer clubs came calling, and promptly reinvesting the proceeds to sign replacement quality across their squad and go again.

Not necessarily easy but they had a plan and followed it and now look at them. They didn't hide behind excuses about crowds, income and FFP, they just found a way to overcome those disadvantages by trading very very well. The money recouped from selling the likes of Benrahma and Watkins vastly outweighing a few thousand fans more every other week.

What we have at Rovers has never been and probably will never be remotely close to what Brentford did, Lenihan, Rothwell, Diaz prove that. You can make up whatever excuses you like on behalf of the owners and their underlings but it would never have happened at a sensible football club.

Yet Waggott will be out at the next Forum meeting to deliver his analysis of why we can't spend and why we struggle and why we need to put prices up on season tickets to meet the shortfall. 

They're having us on and always have done. 

[TheKitGuy]

La Liga is properly half a step up from the Championship. However who would ever turn down the chance to play against Barca and Real Madrid? Absolute no brainer. What a story for the kid who 3years ago was clowned week in week out here and on the terraces. 

[roversfan99]

Half a step up from the Championship? The standard of this league is shite.

A no brainer for Brereton and a no brainer in a different way from our owners.

[G Somerset Rover]

47 minutes ago, JoeH said:

You may be thinking of Andy Watson, who I have done a lot of work with as a friend online. I don't work for Rovers

Apologies Joe, thought I could have been wrong and I was!

[Sweaty Gussets]

Rovers have signed quite  few of their 'assets' to long term contracts since GB/JDT came into the club. Surely that's something to be applauded. 

BBD was never going to sign a contract here. He's been offered one and turned it down.

If the club had sold him last January then there would have been uproar on here and elsewhere that we were selling our only goalscorer when we were 2nd in the league. 

Let's hope JDT/GB are now looking 1 or 2 years ahead and making sure when we do sell someone for a lot of money we have already identified replacements.

And Venky's need to leave them to it and let the football people decide the transfer strategy. I'm hoping that is what has now changed with the appointment of a DoF.  

[Mattyblue]

33 minutes ago, TheKitGuy said:

La Liga is properly half a step up from the Championship. However who would ever turn down the chance to play against Barca and Real Madrid? Absolute no brainer. What a story for the kid who 3years ago was clowned week in week out here and on the terraces. 

*Given a load of support on the terraces.

[Leonard Venkhater]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

‘We can’t spend owt because of our shit crowds’ etc 

OMG...I can hear him saying it!

Could someone from The Trust drill these three words into his skull?

Self-fulfilling prophesy.

You could be forgiven for thinking it was a deliberate strategy to run down the club...

Get out of our club!

[superniko]

No sell-on fee could be something that haunts us here, as well as the actual fee we're missing out on for selling him. We think he's a £10m-£15m player now.... 1 good season in La Liga and you can double that to £30m.

[Mattyblue]

2 minutes ago, Leonard Venkhater said:

OMG...I can hear him saying it!

Could someone from The Trust drill these three words into his skull?

Self-fulfilling prophesy.

You could be forgiven for thinking it was a deliberate strategy to run down the club...

Get out of our club!

Plenty of the support says it too.

Unfortunately the club’s narrative of ‘we’ve done all we can, unfortunately we’ve no fans, so FFP’ has pulled the wool over the eyes of many to the club’s incompetence over contracts and transfers.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Mattyblue

[jim mk2]

Bolton are averaging more than 18,000 this season - bigger town but that's with United and City next door

So as a club what are they doing right that we're doing wrong? 

[Mattyblue]

£219 season tickets (our half STs cost more).

Edited January 18, 2023 by Mattyblue