That *was* the January Window

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

3 hours ago, TheRevAshton said:

Think at the very least we need...

A keeper, a CB, full-back cover, a right-winger and a senior striker - all whilst not having a pot to piss in, lovely 😶

Our situation to a Tee.

[RoversClitheroe]

3 hours ago, TheRevAshton said:

Think at the very least we need...

A keeper, a CB, full-back cover, a right-winger and a senior striker - all whilst not having a pot to piss in, lovely 😶

Which makes the £500k bid for O'Riordan so surprising.

We must have money?

[Mercer]

37 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

I would suggested defending properly, mark our opposition players better and putting the ball into the box would be better suggestion plus appoint Mike Sheron as set piece coach or someone

 

This is the second time you have advocated making Mike Sheron our set piece guru.

Just what makes you think he'd be any good in that role other than, IMO, no one could be any worse than the hapless Benson.

Edited January 2, 2024 by Mercer

[EgyptianPete]

19 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Which makes the £500k bid for O'Riordan so surprising.

We must have money?

Its the hope that keeps us going

[Wheelton Blue]

49 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Pears is back very shortly

I would suggested defending properly, mark our opposition players better and putting the ball into the box would be better suggestion plus appoint Mike Sheron as set piece coach or someone

 

Or perhaps, get in a keeper who has the ability to marshal and organise the defenders in front of him.

There wasn't much wrong with our defence until Whalstedt appeared on the scene.

[chaddyrovers]

29 minutes ago, J*B said:

On loan, yes. So that would be Hill out, Cresswell in on loan, O'Roirdon in permanently. 

Nixon say possible permanent signing of Cresswell if Carter goes 

27 minutes ago, JHRover said:

There isn't a problem with it if done in moderation to supplement and bolster your squad.

When it is the cornerstone of your recruitment it is a problem.

Anyway, you said there was 'nothing Rovers can do' about Bournemouth recalling him. Whilst that might be correct if we'd have signed our own CB to replace the outgoing Ayala then we wouldn't need to worry about such things.

It wasn't the cornerstone of our recruitment this summer. We signed 2 loan players and 5 permanent signing. 

We all what happened this Summer and we wanted Batth permanent and our owners wouldn't allow it

27 minutes ago, CambridgeRover said:

The priority is upgrading the keeper imo. In advance of any other position

I would say commanding centre back, full back and right winger with pace is more of the priority for me. 

14 minutes ago, Mercer said:

This is the second time you have advocated making Mike Sheron our set piece guru.

Just what makes you think he'd be any good in that role other than, IMO, no one could be any worse than the hapless Benson.

Benson should be focusing on working with keepers, improving them and sorting out their weaknesses 

Sheron is just a suggestion. 

[chaddyrovers]

3 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Or perhaps, get in a keeper who has the ability to marshal and organise the defenders in front of him.

There wasn't much wrong with our defence until Whalstedt appeared on the scene.

Just put Pears back in or back Wahlstedt to come good and worked on his weaknesses ASAP. 

It would be interesting to see who your keeper signing would be

[RoversClitheroe]

1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

Just put Pears back in or back Wahlstedt to come good and worked on his weaknesses ASAP. 

It would be interesting to see who your keeper signing would be

You said Pears was better than Kaminski last season lol.

[Wheelton Blue]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Just put Pears back in or back Wahlstedt to come good and worked on his weaknesses ASAP. 

It would be interesting to see who your keeper signing would be

I have no idea who my keeper signing would be, cos I pay zero attention to players of other clubs, nor do I play computer games.

What I do know through my own eyes though, is that Wahlstedt is a shocker.

[jim mk2]

How many points has Wahlstedt cost us this season - 10 to 15? I've lost count of his mistakes but he alone could be the difference between us staying in this division or going down. 

Sell Travis and whoever and make Rotherham an offer for their keeper. 

[tomphil]

23 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

Benson should be focusing on working with keepers, improving them and sorting out their weaknesses 

 

I fear that kind of weakness might be inherant.

Even if it's just the wobbles whilst adjusting to a better more aggressive league it will take time and experience to iron out, alongside the right coaching.

See Raya for example.

[only2garners]

2 hours ago, Herbie6590 said:

The BRFCS POTM stats for December….

Joint 4th place on that chart - Leo Wahlstedt.

[Mattyblue]

He looked to be improving after an iffy start but there were still signs in other games that an error was never far away, then Watford onwards his form/confidence has fallen off a cliff.

Edited January 2, 2024 by Mattyblue

[Mercer]

34 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Benson should be focusing on working with keepers, improving them and sorting out their weaknesses 

Sheron is just a suggestion. 

When will the penny drop about Benson?

He has no professional football experience as a player.  He has not lived or breathed the work of a goalie.  He has nothing in the memory bank about the trials and tribulations of a goalie.  Just how on earth can you coach a Championship goalie if you have not been through the ringer yourself?  As for being our set piece 'guru', it is the height of absurdity.

As for set pieces and defending, I find it incredulous that with 5 coaches (JDT, Remy, Lowe, Johnson and Benson) we struggle so much defensively both generally and specifically from set pieces whilst offensively, I see nothing imaginative with our set pieces.  Just what the feck do these 5 guys get paid for?  If there aren't up to scratch they shouldn't be here.

Edited January 2, 2024 by Mercer

[RoverInverness]

15 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

How many points has Wahlstedt cost us this season - 10 to 15? I've lost count of his mistakes but he alone could be the difference between us staying in this division or going down. 

Sell Travis and whoever and make Rotherham an offer for their keeper. 

If he was playing for us we would have won yesterday - comfortably.

I see he’s 25, 90 Championship games, 1 cap for Sweden. Transfermarkt rates him at €3million. Seems he’s contracted until end of next season and ‘news’ stories are linking him to Sheffield Utd. 

Rotherham’s keeper is probably out of grasp I am sorry to discover! Shame, I thought he looked great.

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Which makes the £500k bid for O'Riordan so surprising.

We must have money?

If Hill goes back that might free up 10k a week.

[pick32]

Get someone like Timo Horn in, big tall and experienced keeper

[MarkBRFC]

2 minutes ago, tomphil said:

If Hill goes back that might free up 10k a week.

Already covered with Buckley coming back.

[Angry_Pirate]

In (recent) years I've been adamant about getting quality loans in. Not doing so previously has cost us probably 2 top 6 finishes (at least!)

This season already seems a like a Mowbray special dead rubber... 10pts clear of bottom 3, and 8pts off (a strong) top 6.

Don't get me wrong, there is work to be done to stay up - Gallagher, Hedges, Dolan, Hyam, Wharton, JRC, Buckley and Pears all to return should likely be enough for a top 20 finish. We need what, 5 wins minimum from 20 games (assuming they pick up a handful of draws too!) - about 20-25pts to be certain of safety?

Maybe this IS the year to be going for the speculative in signing £500k lads from Crewe? Maybe they will be better than James Hill in 12 months? Rovers wanted Hill when he left Fleetwood for £1M a couple of summers ago... I wonder how much was paid to Bournemouth to "loan" him? A good chunk of that I'd imagine.

There'd be little point loaning in a "Prem Ace" for £1m+ (like O'Brien last year) when we're likely not even competing to sniff the top 6 (sure as shit not getting promoted this year with Leeds, Leicester and Southampton to name 3 teams we can't even compete with!). Spending money loaning a player in to get this team up from 17th-19th to 12th-10th, isn't worth it.

This squad is good enough to stay up this year, but is also not going to threaten the playoffs, and has Raya money (+) coming in the summer! So not much point in loans, when they still have fees attached.

I'd rather spend that money on permanent fees. £200k Hedges, £500k Markanday type deals (hope for better!) Let's have a gamble on an actual long term player. Better than paying 5x that for shit on loan (Morton, Mola, Hirst!).

[bluebruce]

16 minutes ago, RoverInverness said:

If he was playing for us we would have won yesterday - comfortably.

I see he’s 25, 90 Championship games, 1 cap for Sweden. Transfermarkt rates him at €3million. Seems he’s contracted until end of next season and ‘news’ stories are linking him to Sheffield Utd. 

Rotherham’s keeper is probably out of grasp I am sorry to discover! Shame, I thought he looked great.

So we bought the wrong young Swedish keeper with exactly 1 international cap.

[LDRover]

4 hours ago, Sparks Rover said:

He decided to go back weeks ago and he didn't want to get injured.  Big few months ahead for young James.  We are a basket case.

That would suggest that, as I have suspected, all is not well within the squad and maybe the players have stopped playing for the manager? It would explain a lot.

[Rover8T4]

5 minutes ago, LDRover said:

That would suggest that, as I have suspected, all is not well within the squad and maybe the players have stopped playing for the manager? It would explain a lot.

This fallout with Travis has got to be damaging the squad behind closed doors. Manager and captain should be the main vocal support any team needs. One has to go....

[bluebruce]

3 minutes ago, Rover8T4 said:

This fallout with Travis has got to be damaging the squad behind closed doors. Manager and captain should be the main vocal support any team needs. One has to go....

The fallout that may not have happened at all?

[tomphil]

20 minutes ago, Angry_Pirate said:

In (recent) years I've been adamant about getting quality loans in. Not doing so previously has cost us probably 2 top 6 finishes (at least!)

This season already seems a like a Mowbray special dead rubber... 10pts clear of bottom 3, and 8pts off (a strong) top 6.

 

I'd rather spend that money on permanent fees. £200k Hedges, £500k Markanday type deals (hope for better!) Let's have a gamble on an actual long term player. Better than paying 5x that for shit on loan (Morton, Mola, Hirst!).

Markanday will never cut it at this level that's pretty clear by now and if we'd loaned him at first then that wouldn't have been 500k down the tubes.

Hedges they should have loaned him for that few months then got him for nothing in summer like was already pre agreed.

There is a flip side to loans especially if it's loan to buy, we certainly could have done with having a look at Leo first !

[Mattyblue]

Markanday, Leonard etc would be on loan right now if this was a normal football club. We wouldn’t be hoping for another piss poor keeper to get back from injury to be our saviour either.

What a bloody mess.