That *was* the January Window

[bluebruce]

Anyway, anybody know much about this Chrisene? Not seen much opinion proferred about the actual player rather than transfer policy and his age. I get none of us have likely seen him but usually someone has at least heard something.

LT article says he has 1 FA Cup appearance and has been part of the PL matchday squad on several occasions. I see he also played a League Cup game for Exeter at the age of 15 years and 7 months, against Coventry. A League Two sub appearance for them, and 3 EFL Trophy games, before Villa bought him.

Had a season-long loan to Kilmarnock last season, made 13 SPL and 3 cup appearances before tearing his medial ligament and missing the rest of the season. Not sure how long ago he regained fitness after that injury, hopefully not something that recurs.

That seems to be the extent of his professional experience. His total game time across all club levels U18 and upwards appears to be 63 games, with 4,287 minutes, equivalent to about 47 full matches. 2 goals, 4 assists, all for Villa at youth level. Has spent a little bit of time playing LM, 10 matches, not sure at what level of competition. Capped at England youth (U15s, U16s, U17s and U19s), 18 times in total, none of which included in the above stats.

The Egg says:

“He will bring additional pace and physicality to our backline, and he is very comfortable in possession.

“Ben has spent the first half of this season training with Aston Villa’s first team squad and we are delighted that he has chosen Blackburn Rovers to continue his development.”

[Paul Mani]

I’m not saying the wider picture here isn’t very worrying. There’s an obvious managed decline here and we know where that ends…

But, how can the Travis situation shock anyone? Anyone with a set of eyes can see that Travis simply cannot do what JDT wants his pivot to do. They’re expected to play on the half turn, recieve the ball from the cb’s and be very comfortable on the ball. I fully expected him to be replaced at the first opportunity. Trondstadt has done that and the emergence of Wharton put the top hat on. But let’s get it right, Trav isn’t even first sub in that position.

Now onto the move. They can’t sell him if no one wants to buy him but it makes no sense keeping the player on huge wages and not playing him. The manager has said that Ayari isn’t his replacement. I reckon it’s O’riorden, a CM and a winger to go.

[tomphil]

It has all the hallmarks of the end of Bowyers tenure that lead to Coyle, fire sales big wage reduction, nothing coming in capable of replacing the outgoings and then relegation.

When Broughton stood there in summer and said BBD, Dack, Ayala, soon to be Kaminski etc leaving  with no suitable replacements pending it wasn't about cost cutting he lied.  

And that was before the budget was cut even further due to investigations in India.

They were taking the opportunity even then to make the most of that situation with c50k pwk finding its way off the wage bill, no intention of going like for like whatsoever.

[47er]

8 hours ago, JHRover said:

How do you know this? 

It's also convenient how these things always seem to get taken out of the club's hands by the player 'wanting out'. See Lenihan, Nyambe etc.

Perhaps there should be questions (if true) about why on earth he'd rather go and move to Suffolk to sit on Ipswich's bench than continue his time as captain.

Maybe Rovers' conduct leaves a lot to be desired.

Imagine if they treat the players with half the disrespect they offer to the fans. Suspect they'd all want to go elsewhere.

Bang on.

[Mattyblue]

And yet more 19/20 year olds get lent to us for a bit so they can develop. In you come lads. Thats nice for them and their club.

How about the development of Blackburn Rovers? Remember when that used to be the point.

[47er]

9 hours ago, Hi Mack said:

What are we becoming?

Stockton Rovers?

[BigBar]

27 minutes ago, Atko's Engine said:

Pickering signed a new & improved deal last month, you really think we're looking to offload him??

It's a problem area in that when Pickering was out, we only had Brittain or Travis or JRC to replace him. Clearly Jake Batty isn't considered ready, so a body to cover for (or compete with) Pickering makes sense. But if you think Pickering is going anywhere you're going to be disappointed!!

No I don't think they will offload him, wouldn't be that lucky but I'd settle for him being the backup. Don't rate him at all, hasn't been as bad this season to be fair but he is so limited. 

Really is a sad state of affairs that we have multiple players playing above their level because of shitty ownership and a horribly run club.

[BigBar]

36 minutes ago, goozburger said:

Pickering has been good this season in my view. His pace is a problem but I think his positional sense has improved massively to compensate. Solid player for us.

Not for me, no pace and doesn't offer enough going forward. Need better.

[47er]

9 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

I’m not saying the wider picture here isn’t very worrying. There’s an obvious managed decline here and we know where that ends…

But, how can the Travis situation shock anyone? Anyone with a set of eyes can see that Travis simply cannot do what JDT wants his pivot to do. They’re expected to play on the half turn, recieve the ball from the cb’s and be very comfortable on the ball. I fully expected him to be replaced at the first opportunity. Trondstadt has done that and the emergence of Wharton put the top hat on. But let’s get it right, Trav isn’t even first sub in that position.

Now onto the move. They can’t sell him if no one wants to buy him but it makes no sense keeping the player on huge wages and not playing him. The manager has said that Ayari isn’t his replacement. I reckon it’s O’riorden, a CM and a winger to go.

There's a number of players who can't do what JDT wants them to----score for a start!

This has nothing to do with playing style, its about freeing up a wage. 

The fact that it weakens our squad is of no interest to those who hold the reins.

[JHRover]

'Huge wages' now for Travis that presumably we 'can't afford' yet in reality he was offered and signed that deal not long ago whilst we were a mid-table Championship club, fully aware of our income levels and FFP restrictions. 

This is how they shift the narrative. Making out he's a luxury that we cannot afford when in reality that just isn't the case on either front were it not for their extreme cutbacks.

So we've either handed out unaffordable deals recently knowing we were going to get into trouble....if so why and why is the CEO still here.....or these aren't unaffordable deals and he's simply on the going rate, but the owners are electing to cut right back to the bone (again).

If they don't want to spend what it takes I have a good idea. Clear off Venkys and save everyone the hassle. 

[Hasta]

53 minutes ago, tomphil said:

I get your drift but in regards to Mowbray he often did over complicate things needlessly it was one of his admittedly few major drawbacks.

 

By the second season back in the championship absolutely. He started setting us up to try and nullify the opposition including weird formations and team selections. In league one he just treated it like we were the better side and let them worry about us.

[wilsdenrover]

2 hours ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Would t surprise me to see Szmodics go to Ipswich..

Less than 20 miles from his home town.

[LDRover]

Struggling to believe this, are our owners refusing to sign cheques?

[J*B]

4 minutes ago, LDRover said:

Struggling to believe this, are our owners refusing to sign cheques?

How often do you read this message board out of interest?

[LDRover]

1 minute ago, J*B said:

How often do you read this message board out of interest?

Apologies. Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.

One of our self proclaimed ITKers used to trot the opposite out to quite the amount of (deserved) derision. 

[rigger]

3 minutes ago, J*B said:

How often do you read this message board out of interest?

I think there might have been a hint of sarcasm in the reply.

[Exiled_Rover]

24 minutes ago, tomphil said:

It has all the hallmarks of the end of Bowyers tenure that lead to Coyle, fire sales big wage reduction, nothing coming in capable of replacing the outgoings and then relegation.

When Broughton stood there in summer and said BBD, Dack, Ayala, soon to be Kaminski etc leaving  with no suitable replacements pending it wasn't about cost cutting he lied.  

And that was before the budget was cut even further due to investigations in India.

They were taking the opportunity even then to make the most of that situation with c50k pwk finding its way off the wage bill, no intention of going like for like whatsoever.

Broughton didn't lie, he was lied to. So was JDT. 

JDT had an opportunity to leave in the summer - he stayed because he thought they'd be allowed to reinvest the wages saved from Dack, Ayala, Kaminsky and Brereton-Diaz. 

[Darrenbot]

We're on a terrible run of form rapidly dropping down the table and the way to stop that is to get in 2 young players still developing and get rid of the captain,there's dark time coming soon if that's the best the owners can come up with.

[tomphil]

14 minutes ago, Hasta said:

By the second season back in the championship absolutely. He started setting us up to try and nullify the opposition including weird formations and team selections. In league one he just treated it like we were the better side and let them worry about us.

I have to respectfully disagree there he did some strange stuff and there were some awfully disjointed performances but yes the strength of the squad allowed for tinkering.

Look at the first two games an those formations then he changed it and the Graham / Dack axis began to click but every  3 or 4 games he'd make changes or try to go 3 at the back again and we'd struggle. Then there was the famous doubling up at home on Rochdales full back !

He was a tinkerman for sure but yes he was pragmatic and experienced enough to get the job done.

[Exiled_Rover]

2 hours ago, simongarnerisgod said:

not to get a fee for travis is completely moronic even more moronic is replacing him with another baby

carter will be next,are we replacing him???????

pretty sure we`ll lose out on o`riordan if we keep fannying about over how to pay

rovers going back to the keane era chaos,with idiots in every department making totally wrong decisions

How do you know we didn't get a loan fee for Travis?

[tomphil]

3 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Broughton didn't lie, he was lied to. So was JDT. 

JDT had an opportunity to leave in the summer - he stayed because he thought they'd be allowed to reinvest the wages saved from Dack, Ayala, Kaminsky and Brereton-Diaz. 

Nah i'm not having it at all despite his 'same budget' talk i think his remit was always to get the wages down but make it look favourable in doing so.

No doubt they all had the rug pulled with the further sudden cut though.

[G Somerset Rover]

1 hour ago, islander200 said:

Broughton also wanted experience he spoke about it in the summer .

Broughton is an employee,it's the owners who put a stop to Batth 

Yep. The no experience mandate is solely on the owners. I’d be stunned if their stance has changed between the summer and now too given we’ve brought in two more kids just days into the window. 

Happy days eh?

[Mattyblue]

21 minutes ago, JHRover said:

'Huge wages' now for Travis that presumably we 'can't afford' yet in reality he was offered and signed that deal not long ago whilst we were a mid-table Championship club, fully aware of our income levels and FFP restrictions. 

This is how they shift the narrative. Making out he's a luxury that we cannot afford when in reality that just isn't the case on either front were it not for their extreme cutbacks.

So we've either handed out unaffordable deals recently knowing we were going to get into trouble....if so why and why is the CEO still here.....or these aren't unaffordable deals and he's simply on the going rate, but the owners are electing to cut right back to the bone (again).

If they don't want to spend what it takes I have a good idea. Clear off Venkys and save everyone the hassle. 

The ‘big wages’ sliding scale. I’m sure it was the likes of Dack and Ayala, before that Danny Graham, Mulgrew etc that were the unaffordable millstones around our neck. Once we had shut of them we’d be a lean machine and would have that famous wiggle room to wheel and deal.

Now it’s second division steady eddies like Lewis Travis that are luxuries we can’t afford and need moving on.

Think we know where this all ends.

 

[Judge21]

2 hours ago, Hi Mack said:

I blame all this on Broughton. Can’t stand the man. He is well and truly out of his depth. JDT has quite blatantly asked for experience and we ship Travis out and sign 2 kids.

Not sure what Broughton can do when his criteria has changed due to the owners. They are solely to blame for this mess

[Hasta]

10 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Look at the first two games an those formations then he changed it and the Graham / Dack axis began to click but every  3 or 4 games he'd make changes or try to go 3 at the back again and we'd struggle.

I’ll agree up until the Oldham away debacle he didn’t know how best to set us up.