Summer Window - Rating /10

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

12 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Thanks - hadn't previously seen the quote from Semir. Certainly seems confident in his own ability.

As for Hill - there are plenty of players who have U20/U21 caps that have amounted to nothing. Harry Chapman for one. I'm not overly concerned by the Hill signing as I don't think he'll play many games at all.

I'm more worried at the fact that unless Sigurdsson is top drawer - we've gone backwards from last season. 

Lowe captained the England U-21 team and he was beyond shite.

[RoverDom]

Like a lot of people I'd split my rating in 2

One for what we've achieved with both hands tied behind their backs, the rug pulled from underneath them and the general shit show of how our club is run - 7/10 

The blackburn rovers transfer window as a whole 1/10. The club have done Broughton and GB a dirty, wait for them to let the top earners go in Dack and Ayala and then tell them there's no money. 

 

Unknowns that could affect the ratings

- One negative is lack of experience especially in defence. Whose fault is it that we didn't get Batth? 

- Not replacing buckley with another body in any position. Again who is at fault for this? 

 

Overall, I think we've enough for JDT to work with and we could be outsiders for a play off push but we could have made his job a hell of a lot easier. I think we're desperately short in defence in terms of depth.

Signings are largely unknown, the striker could be the next best thing or the next Hirst. 

[J*B]

Trying to do this in context, so I'm based this off..

Transfers Out

Thomas Kaminski

Ashley Phillips

Ben Brereton Diaz

Bradley Dack

John Buckley

Daniel Ayala

Jack Vale

Tyler Morton

Dan Butterworth

Tayo Edun

James Brown

Clinton Mola

In red I've put players who played an active part in our season. I make that eight first team players out, two squad players out and two players that made no impact (where on loan) out. So I'll base it on ten squad players leaving.

Transfers In

Leopold Wahlstedt

Sondre Tonstad

Niall Ennis

Semir Telalovic

Arnor Sigurdsson

James Hill

Andy Moran

All of which assumed to be squad players at least. 

 

Therefore I'm basing my assessment on losing ten squad players and gaining eight squad players - a -2 deficit. 

1) Kaminski - Wahlstedt: Hard to judge any success yet, but exactly what the 'system' is about so in principle a good signing.

2) Phillips - Hill: Replaced one promising youngster with another, although we don't own this one. It sounds like we got the best deal we could for Phillips, so no qualms there. A shame we haven't replaced with a perm signing, but Hill could easily be as effective as Phillips was for us. A good signing in principle, but unfortunately a short term signing. 

3) Brereton - Sigurdsson: In principle Arnor has a better worldwide reputation and we've done well to sign him. There's some confusion as to whether we're going to get Arnor perm after his 12-month deal. If we do, in principle this is could well be a good signing. If he leaves next year then we've not managed to replace our best player. 

4) Dack - Moran: Replaced an experienced player on a big salary that has had injury issues with a highly rated loan for 12-months. A good short term answer, but I can't see a world where we sign Moran so this will need filling again next year. 

5) Buckley - Tronstad: Tronstad has good pedigree, but hasn't shown much yet. Buckley is a different player than Sondre, so this signing seems to be a change of direction. I'm not convinced as yet.

6) Ayala - Not Replaced: A huge hole in our squad. Whilst Ayala had injury issues, the defence is lacking in experience and we're already seeing lack of depth in this area becoming and issue. A bad decision.

7) Vale - Telalovic: An unknown player replaces a player which I don't think is anywhere near good enough. Hopefully this was cheap. Not a bad decision based on the fact that Vale wasn't good enough to start with. 

8 ) Morton - Not Replaced: Would in principle be fine if we had kept Buckley, despite Morton not setting the world on fire we've essentially replaced two 'creative' central midfielders with one 'defensive' midfielder in Tronstad. A worry I'm sure we would all agree. 

9) Ennis: We needed more strikers and Ennis comes in to fill that gap. In principle a good signing, he was Plymouth's best player when fit and comes on a free. His injury record is a concern especially considering his start here. 

In principle I make that a 6/10 window. I think we've signed some decent players, although there's a lot of short term thinking - which makes sense given the owners financial issues. The biggest issue is we're at least two key players down (Ayala, Morton) although we're one up as a striker (Ennis) and three of the players (Sigurdsson, Moran and Hill) are potentially short term.

[roversfan99]

The key issue with direct comparisons to last year is that last seasons squad was the smallest in the league, it wasn't big enough. We slipped away in last couple of months, again.

[J*B]

1 minute ago, roversfan99 said:

The key issue with direct comparisons to last year is that last seasons squad was the smallest in the league, it wasn't big enough. We slipped away in last couple of months, again.

Yes I agree, a small squad has been made smaller by one (-1 defender, -1 midfielder, +1 striker). 

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, J*B said:

Trying to do this in context, so I'm based this off..

Transfers Out

Thomas Kaminski

Ashley Phillips

Ben Brereton Diaz

Bradley Dack

John Buckley

Daniel Ayala

Jack Vale

Tyler Morton

Dan Butterworth

Tayo Edun

James Brown

Clinton Mola

In red I've put players who played an active part in our season. I make that eight first team players out, two squad players out and two players that made no impact (where on loan) out. So I'll base it on ten squad players leaving.

Transfers In

Leopold Wahlstedt

Sondre Tonstad

Niall Ennis

Semir Telalovic

Arnor Sigurdsson

James Hill

Andy Moran

All of which assumed to be squad players at least. 

 

Therefore I'm basing my assessment on losing ten squad players and gaining eight squad players - a -2 deficit. 

1) Kaminski - Wahlstedt: Hard to judge any success yet, but exactly what the 'system' is about so in principle a good signing.

2) Phillips - Hill: Replaced one promising youngster with another, although we don't own this one. It sounds like we got the best deal we could for Phillips, so no qualms there. A shame we haven't replaced with a perm signing, but Hill could easily be as effective as Phillips was for us. A good signing in principle, but unfortunately a short term signing. 

3) Brereton - Sigurdsson: In principle Arnor has a better worldwide reputation and we've done well to sign him. There's some confusion as to whether we're going to get Arnor perm after his 12-month deal. If we do, in principle this is could well be a good signing. If he leaves next year then we've not managed to replace our best player. 

4) Dack - Moran: Replaced an experienced player on a big salary that has had injury issues with a highly rated loan for 12-months. A good short term answer, but I can't see a world where we sign Moran so this will need filling again next year. 

5) Buckley - Tronstad: Tronstad has good pedigree, but hasn't shown much yet. Buckley is a different player than Sondre, so this signing seems to be a change of direction. I'm not convinced as yet.

6) Ayala - Not Replaced: A huge hole in our squad. Whilst Ayala had injury issues, the defence is lacking in experience and we're already seeing lack of depth in this area becoming and issue. A bad decision.

7) Vale - Telalovic: An unknown player replaces a player which I don't think is anywhere near good enough. Hopefully this was cheap. Not a bad decision based on the fact that Vale wasn't good enough to start with. 

8 ) Morton - Not Replaced: Would in principle be fine if we had kept Buckley, despite Morton not setting the world on fire we've essentially replaced two 'creative' central midfielders with one 'defensive' midfielder in Tronstad. A worry I'm sure we would all agree. 

9) Ennis: We needed more strikers and Ennis comes in to fill that gap. In principle a good signing, he was Plymouth's best player when fit and comes on a free. His injury record is a concern especially considering his start here. 

In principle I make that a 6/10 window. I think we've signed some decent players, although there's a lot of short term thinking - which makes sense given the owners financial issues. The biggest issue is we're at least two key players down (Ayala, Morton) although we're one up as a striker (Ennis) and three of the players (Sigurdsson, Moran and Hill) are potentially short term.

Think you've miscounted the incoming there, it's 7 in, not 8.

[Exiled_Rover]

On 03/09/2023 at 00:00, Crimpshrine said:

Terrible window.  2/10

I think most people who have commented on this thread are saying the same thing.

We needed to replace the experience and goals of the departed players. We haven't.

There would have been uproar if we didn't sign a striker so we plucked one from the German 4th tier just to placate the masses. We'll see how that turns out.

Buckley leaving was for the owner's financial benefit, not the good of the team. We could have done with him today - even just as an option from the bench ( which is looking very thin already )

The whole ethos of this transfer window was to spend as little as possible in order to tread water in the Championship. 

On this experience point - is the argument that if they don't specifically have Championship experience then they're rubbish?

To me it's about talent - there's nothing special about the Championship, it's just a long grind. Several of the players we brought in have played at a significantly higher level than this league. 

[Exiled_Rover]

On 03/09/2023 at 13:02, davulsukur said:

Difficult to judge right now but that in itself starts it off with a low score. None of our signings have made much impact and only Moran has featured really.

Tronstad might be getting up to speed with things but he was poor on his debut for the best part of 40mins and now he can't displace Travis or Wharton for a start and Garrett's getting subbed on before him.

Others have either been injured/unfit or signed on deadline day so haven't had a chance to play. 

If Leo can't get the gloves off Pears after yesterday, he never will.

Really hanging our hat on the new striker to be able to hit the back of the net with Sigurdsson and Moran to come good on the wings.

It could be a 4/10 or it could be an 8/10 but we won't know till later on in the season.

Right now it's a 4/10 with room to improve as the season goes on.

 

Pretty much - we've been very unlucky with injuries to Sigurdsson and Ennis and obviously nearly half of our transfers have only been here a week (or less). Jury is very much out until we see them on the pitch - but people arguing that the squad is weaker / the bench is thin are ignoring the fact that 4 of our 7 were unavailable against Plymouth. 

[Exiled_Rover]

22 hours ago, J*B said:

Trying to do this in context, so I'm based this off..

Transfers Out

Thomas Kaminski

Ashley Phillips

Ben Brereton Diaz

Bradley Dack

John Buckley

Daniel Ayala

Jack Vale

Tyler Morton

Dan Butterworth

Tayo Edun

James Brown

Clinton Mola

In red I've put players who played an active part in our season. I make that eight first team players out, two squad players out and two players that made no impact (where on loan) out. So I'll base it on ten squad players leaving.

Transfers In

Leopold Wahlstedt

Sondre Tonstad

Niall Ennis

Semir Telalovic

Arnor Sigurdsson

James Hill

Andy Moran

All of which assumed to be squad players at least. 

 

Therefore I'm basing my assessment on losing ten squad players and gaining eight squad players - a -2 deficit. 

1) Kaminski - Wahlstedt: Hard to judge any success yet, but exactly what the 'system' is about so in principle a good signing.

2) Phillips - Hill: Replaced one promising youngster with another, although we don't own this one. It sounds like we got the best deal we could for Phillips, so no qualms there. A shame we haven't replaced with a perm signing, but Hill could easily be as effective as Phillips was for us. A good signing in principle, but unfortunately a short term signing. 

3) Brereton - Sigurdsson: In principle Arnor has a better worldwide reputation and we've done well to sign him. There's some confusion as to whether we're going to get Arnor perm after his 12-month deal. If we do, in principle this is could well be a good signing. If he leaves next year then we've not managed to replace our best player. 

4) Dack - Moran: Replaced an experienced player on a big salary that has had injury issues with a highly rated loan for 12-months. A good short term answer, but I can't see a world where we sign Moran so this will need filling again next year. 

5) Buckley - Tronstad: Tronstad has good pedigree, but hasn't shown much yet. Buckley is a different player than Sondre, so this signing seems to be a change of direction. I'm not convinced as yet.

6) Ayala - Not Replaced: A huge hole in our squad. Whilst Ayala had injury issues, the defence is lacking in experience and we're already seeing lack of depth in this area becoming and issue. A bad decision.

7) Vale - Telalovic: An unknown player replaces a player which I don't think is anywhere near good enough. Hopefully this was cheap. Not a bad decision based on the fact that Vale wasn't good enough to start with. 

8 ) Morton - Not Replaced: Would in principle be fine if we had kept Buckley, despite Morton not setting the world on fire we've essentially replaced two 'creative' central midfielders with one 'defensive' midfielder in Tronstad. A worry I'm sure we would all agree. 

9) Ennis: We needed more strikers and Ennis comes in to fill that gap. In principle a good signing, he was Plymouth's best player when fit and comes on a free. His injury record is a concern especially considering his start here. 

In principle I make that a 6/10 window. I think we've signed some decent players, although there's a lot of short term thinking - which makes sense given the owners financial issues. The biggest issue is we're at least two key players down (Ayala, Morton) although we're one up as a striker (Ennis) and three of the players (Sigurdsson, Moran and Hill) are potentially short term.

You missed out Sorba Thomas on your list.

Also our model is to rely on the Academy (we do invest about £3m into it each year) - so A. Wharton, Garrett, Leonard and Batty should be on your 'in' as they barely (or didn't) featured last year. It looks like Bloxham and Gilsenan are very close to the first team too. 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Exiled_Rover

[chaddyrovers]

India, Danny Batth and a summer of restrictions - inside Blackburn Rovers' transfer window

India, Danny Batth and a summer of restrictions - inside Blackburn Rovers' transfer window - LancsLive

[J*B]

3 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

India, Danny Batth and a summer of restrictions - inside Blackburn Rovers' transfer window

India, Danny Batth and a summer of restrictions - inside Blackburn Rovers' transfer window - LancsLive

A good article but my main takeaway is that none of you can complain about the minor ads on BRFCS.

[roversfan99]

18 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

On this experience point - is the argument that if they don't specifically have Championship experience then they're rubbish?

To me it's about talent - there's nothing special about the Championship, it's just a long grind. Several of the players we brought in have played at a significantly higher level than this league. 

Have they played at a higher level? Unless a few minutes counts.

Ennis - no.

Telalovic - no, unless a couple of minutes counts.

Sigurdsson - mixed bag. Tiny bit of game time in Serie A but couldnt make the team of a side that went down in a brief spell. Swedish league, definitely not. Russian league probably lower too albeit occasional Champions League games.

Tronstad - unsure how the Dutch league compares.

Wahlstedt - no.

Hill - a cameo in the Prem, otherwise League 1 and SPL.

Moran - barely any senior football.

 

[sabino]

1 hour ago, roversfan99 said:

Have they played at a higher level? Unless a few minutes counts.

Ennis - NO.

Telalovic - YES.

Sigurdsson - YES.

Tronstad - YES.

Wahlstedt - YES.

Hill -YES.

Moran - NO

 

Just to simply your answers.

[roversfan99]

28 minutes ago, sabino said:

Just to simply your answers.

If a couple of minutes in the Bundesliga counts, why doesnt Moran playing a similar amount in the Prem count? But Hill does? In reality, their combined top flight game time wouldnt make 90 minutes.

And there is a valid question as to whether the Dutch league is stronger than the Championship, never mind the Norweigian league.

[Exiled_Rover]

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

If a couple of minutes in the Bundesliga counts, why doesnt Moran playing a similar amount in the Prem count? But Hill does? In reality, their combined top flight game time wouldnt make 90 minutes.

And there is a valid question as to whether the Dutch league is stronger than the Championship, never mind the Norweigian league.

Is the Europa League stronger than the Championship?

[aletheia]

2/10 overall

7/10 given lack of cash, SWAG, Venky’s etc etc

Necessity is the mother of invention. Thus, good to see the net being cast beyond the usual suspects from certain agents.

Lots of ifs in the squad now. Here’s hoping.

[roversfan99]

35 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Is the Europa League stronger than the Championship?

That could potentially explain Wahlstedt if Odd have been in there. But not why Hill has, Moran hasnt and Telalovic has.

[M_B]

Listened to radio Lancs earlier, Steve Eyre said he'd coached Tronstad at Huddersfield, never really saw him as good enough for Championship football. He thought Rovers would have been better keeping Buckley and putting the Tronstad money towards a forward. 

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

2 hours ago, Exiled_Rover said:

You missed out Sorba Thomas on your list.

Also our model is to rely on the Academy (we do invest about £3m into it each year) - so A. Wharton, Garrett, Leonard and Batty should be on your 'in' as they barely (or didn't) feature last year. It looks like Bloxham and Gilsenan are very close to the first team too. 

Totally agree - we can't complain about players blocking the path way for A Wharton etc - and then watch new players block their progress (obviously not the case in this window)

In truth this window could go either way - there are so many players we have brought in with huge question marks against them. But when you look at the players we have lost - most were fringe players either because of injury or in Diaz case, lack of form post Christmas (I think Diaz is our biggest loss, as he was the one player that could do something different, score a goal from nothing). 

One thing is certain - we will find out how good Greg and our scouting network is - as we need a high % of these new players to be at the very least useful. The one thing I will say, given our financial restrictions, I think the signings show a certain amount of imagination. Based on reputation I think Sigurdsson could be the best of the bunch - but Moran and Ennis have both looked good,

As for Buckley - the one positive I can see, is that in theory we now have a space in our wage budget for a unattached player to be brought in. As time passes - those players will become increasingly willing to lower their wage demands - could this be something we are banking on ? 

 

[ItsRoverZ]

16 minutes ago, M_B said:

Listened to radio Lancs earlier, Steve Eyre said he'd coached Tronstad at Huddersfield, never really saw him as good enough for Championship football. He thought Rovers would have been better keeping Buckley and putting the Tronstad money towards a forward. 

Hopefully he's improved over the years, otherwise it's another poor choice for us

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

21 minutes ago, ItsRoverZ said:

Hopefully he's improved over the years, otherwise it's another poor choice for us

First time I saw him I thought - the new Tom Trybull.

[M_B]

18 minutes ago, ItsRoverZ said:

Hopefully he's improved over the years, otherwise it's another poor choice for us

I like listening to Eyre, he also said he coached Hill early on. Said he thought he might revert to full back from centre back because of his long throw. 

[islander200]

1 hour ago, M_B said:

Listened to radio Lancs earlier, Steve Eyre said he'd coached Tronstad at Huddersfield, never really saw him as good enough for Championship football. He thought Rovers would have been better keeping Buckley and putting the Tronstad money towards a forward. 

In fairness though the budget cut happened after Tronsted was signed.Maybe if we had had the reduced budget from the off Tronsted wouldn't have been brought in and the budget would have been used differently.

When the 3 initial signings were made Broughton believed he still at the very least had some healthy room in the wage budget to add in other areas.Not saying you personally are digging Broughton out but that's why I don't personally level any blame toward him with the way the budget has been used positionally 

[M_B]

9 hours ago, islander200 said:

In fairness though the budget cut happened after Tronsted was signed.Maybe if we had had the reduced budget from the off Tronsted wouldn't have been brought in and the budget would have been used differently.

When the 3 initial signings were made Broughton believed he still at the very least had some healthy room in the wage budget to add in other areas.Not saying you personally are digging Broughton out but that's why I don't personally level any blame toward him with the way the budget has been used positionally 

Yeah, that's a fair comment, the goalposts were moved halfway through. 

[Mercer]

Ultimately, proof of the pudding is in the eating, however, the Rovers' pudding seems under prepared, thrown together a bit and lacking in quality ingredients.

At the outset, think it's widely recognised we needed to replace goals and we needed some experience (those who've been around the block a few times, know how to win and carry a bit of a nasty streak).

Wahlstedt - could be the quality of keeper we need.  A Swedish international who has to be a big upgrade on Pears (though it would be difficult to find a keeper who wasn't).

Hill - another body in defence, arguably no better than anything we have, certainly not experienced.

Tonstad - jury well and truly out on this one

Sigurdsson - think him and the goalie could be our best two signings, just hope we haven't signed a 'sick note'; must have known about his groin issue when we signed him - unbelievable

Moran - the lad has something in his locker, not sure he's strong enough for a full season of Championship physicality

Ennis - seems he rocked up way below par for fitness, a damning indictment for a professional athlete (particularly when joining a new club).  Does not seem the most robust of footballers and think he's destined for long periods of unavailability.

Telalovic - a 'last dance' signing when desperation has taken over

Broughton has, yet again, not covered himself in glory and the Buckley loan is farcical - should either have been sold (for reinvestment) or stayed at the club.  Never been convinced by Broughton and I think he is a man well and truly out of his depth.  His communication is abysmal.

Sadly, for me, it's a 3/10 window and a window I think that will well and truly have p1ssed off JDT and hastened his journey to the exit door.