That *was* the January Window

[Ossydave]

2 hours ago, rovers11 said:

Some clubs doing some really good business this window, most notably Hull and Millwall. Meanwhile, we have signed two teenagers on loan and are looking in the bargain basement of the lower leagues of Europe.

We are on a very fast trajectory towards league one at the moment. Downgrading the squad every window now and the budget being cut at every turn. Sad times for this great club.

I remember the new Hull owner being introduced to their fans before we played them the other season. They've been on an upwards trajectory ever since.

Imagine, competent fucking owners.

[neophox]

Port Vale signed 22 year old Liverpool centre half Rhys Williams on loan today and later confirmed Dan Gore from Manchester U on loan not a bad day for Jason Lowes team....

[Upside Down]

9 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Sympathy for Gallagher? You have to be joking. He's an overpaid waster who can't even be bothered  to attack the ball and get himself in positions from which he'd be more likely to score.

Even Mowbray told him in Public he needed to "get between the posts" more often years ago. 

To no avail.

Hopefully his sale is simply being delayed until after the Court hearing after which it will be the sweetest £1.5 - £2m we'll ever receive if it goes through imo.

You don't often get a second Christmas at the end of January.

If only you could direct such venomous criticism towards the real cause of all our problems instead of one of our hardest working players.

[Theaxe15]

12 minutes ago, neophox said:

Port Vale signed 22 year old Liverpool centre half Rhys Williams on loan today and later confirmed Dan Gore from Manchester U on loan not a bad day for Jason Lowes team....

[neophox]

We have actually signed a player in the January window...Sigurdsson🇦🇽

[simongarnerisgod]

1 hour ago, Ricky said:

I just can’t see how the Wahlstedt thing happened. There’s no way he could have been properly scouted. From day one he looked very questionable on crosses. Surely that would have been spotted if any scouting was done.

non existant scouting,most likely watched him on social media,imo he was signed on reputation and the fact he has an international cap,would`nt have got in the building in a competent regime

[Glosrover]

5 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

non existant scouting,most likely watched him on social media,imo he was signed on reputation

because one of Waggott's agent mates called in a favour......

and the fact he has an international cap,would`nt have got in the building in a competent regime

 

[Upside Down]

12 minutes ago, Glosrover said:

 

Highly likely. Especially at this club.

[bluebruce]

27 minutes ago, neophox said:

We have actually signed a player in the January window...Sigurdsson🇦🇽

Well I think if we're being technical, he's still on loan but signed to a pre-contract for when his deal expires.

[JHRover]

JRC, Gallagher and Pears like new signings though. Dolan and Hedges too.

There's no doubt they'll play that old chestnut when deadline day comes with no business done. Unless Brighton or someone send us a kid for nothing for us to develop in our relegation scrap.

 

[Tom]

19 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Well I think if we're being technical, he's still on loan but signed to a pre-contract for when his deal expires.

And to be pedantic the agreement was in December as well!

[joey_big_nose]

2 hours ago, neophox said:

Wahlstedt was about to sign for Bröndby and we hijacked the deal....he could go on for European football instead he choosed to come and try it in England ....

We explicitly said he was our number 1 target too. Leo obviously wasnt signed to sit on the bench.

I think generally the recruitment has been pretty good in defence and midfield, but up front and in goal it's been disastrous and those are the two most important positions.

Still I wouldn't write Leo off long term. The way its been at Rovers with keepers is we'll all slag him off on here and then he'll be playing in the prem getting highlight reels on his stella performances on MOTD in a couple of seasons.

[tomphil]

21 minutes ago, joey_big_nose said:

We explicitly said he was our number 1 target too. Leo obviously wasnt signed to sit on the bench.

I think generally the recruitment has been pretty good in defence and midfield, but up front and in goal it's been disastrous and those are the two most important positions.

Still I wouldn't write Leo off long term. The way its been at Rovers with keepers is we'll all slag him off on here and then he'll be playing in the prem getting highlight reels on his stella performances on MOTD in a couple of seasons.

I think in this case its been way more justified than some of the others and to be honest i feel sorry for him and i'm furious at those whose judgement was so poor in bringing him.

It can't be a coincidence now that every keeper who looks poor here suddenly looks better a few months after they've been trained and managed somewhere else. For all Kaminskis nice words about the coach here even he was going backwards at a rate of knots before he left but look at him now.

There is something fundamentally lacking here in that dept and alongside maybe the coaching it's the consistent failure of the managers and head coaches ability to organise and implement a decent defence for them to play behind.

[tomphil]

2 hours ago, neophox said:

Wahlstedt was about to sign for Bröndby and we hijacked the deal....he could go on for European football instead he choosed to come and try it in England ....

Again it's the curse of just looking at players first and foremost as a young investment just to put games and value into. GB has only been here 5 mins and beyond securing our players on contracts and maybe overseeing targets we were already first in line to sign, after being scouted by the previous regime, his talent spotting ability is already in serious question.

Leo and Ennis ?   That's 2 monumental cock ups already one costing 800k and the other a 4 year contract commitment.

[roversfan99]

I wonder if it is a flaw in using data so heavily nowadays when you are looking at players in leagues whereby the comparative standard and also the general style is so different. You are comparing apples and oranges.

I have no doubt that Wahlstedt will have been a stand out in the league he was in but theres no way you can judge how inferior the league is in comparison to the Championship. You also look at his main weakness, he is so bad from set pieces and crosses. Look at the goal against West Brom, will he have ever really faced a long throw like that in Norway, or a lump like Rotherham had beating him to a cross? His save to shot ratio and his passing stats might have stood out at that level but thats only part of a goalkeepers job.

[tomphil]

People are paid a lot of money to know the difference in standard and the pitfalls of operating the policy we now do. They clearly bought Leo as an instant number 1 competitor and the chance of him having to be thrown straight in was always there.

Really a lad like him should have been brought in and shipped straight out on loan for 3-6 months to get him up to speed. Failing that then straight into the U21s for plenty games to get to grips with how the club plays and the more physical nature of British football.

A championship club should always have a competent number 1 and 2 to call on not be playing Russian roulette across half the team at once with kids.

Edited January 24 by tomphil

[RevidgeBlue]

10 hours ago, Upside Down said:

If only you could direct such venomous criticism towards the real cause of all our problems instead of one of our hardest working players.

"Hardest working players?" 

Do give over.

Gallagher is all for show. He'll make a run after a lost cause now and then to create the illusion he's doing something but that's about it.

Does he impose himself physically on the opposition? - that'll be a no.

Does he get into danger areas? - that'll be a no. Obviously in answer to some comments yesterday  he can't cross the ball and get on the end of it as well  but he shows no appetite to get on the end of anything when the ball's coming in from the other side of the pitch either.

Does he win anything in the air? - That'll be a no - wins the occasional header in the middle of the park and directs it out of play or to no- one in particular but in the opposition box jumps about 5 foot 8.

Can he hold the ball up? - That'll be a no - couldn't trap a bag of cement and second touch is a tackle.

Did we win upon his much heralded return to the side? - That'll be a no.

Did he score upon his much heralded return to the side - That'll be a no as well. (Unsurprising given his career stats)

I wouldn't worry though as you're obviously a fan I'm sure the Club will get it completely wrong and pass up the chance to get a fee for him this window. Maybe even extend his contract and keep us all suffering until the last possible moment.

Possibly not the worst striker ever to wear the blue and white halves bearing in mind infamous incumbents like Paul  Mckinnon and Chris Brown and the fact that Broughton seems to have unearthed another two of them at the same time but probably one of the worst and certainly pound for pound one of our most over-rated ever players to rank alongside other luminaries such as Jason Lowe and Corry Evans.

Roll on the contract extension.

[RevidgeBlue]

7 hours ago, tomphil said:

People are paid a lot of money to know the difference in standard and the pitfalls of operating the policy we now do. They clearly bought Leo as an instant number 1 competitor and the chance of him having to be thrown straight in was always there.

Really a lad like him should have been brought in and shipped straight out on loan for 3-6 months to get him up to speed. Failing that then straight into the U21s for plenty games to get to grips with how the club plays and the more physical nature of British football.

A championship club should always have a competent number 1 and 2 to call on not be playing Russian roulette across half the team at once with kids.

People go on about Wahlstedt as if he's a young 18 year old who needs to go out and get experience.

He's not, he's 24 and is as good ( or in this case bad) as he's ever going to be. If he can't even catch a ball or do any of the other basics right by now that suddenly isn't going to change. There's nothing to work with, he has no natural ability.

[BigBar]

8 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

We explicitly said he was our number 1 target too. Leo obviously wasnt signed to sit on the bench.

I think generally the recruitment has been pretty good in defence and midfield, but up front and in goal it's been disastrous and those are the two most important positions.

Still I wouldn't write Leo off long term. The way its been at Rovers with keepers is we'll all slag him off on here and then he'll be playing in the prem getting highlight reels on his stella performances on MOTD in a couple of seasons.

I think they thought it was a Kaminski style signing. Come in, have some very good traits with a few things to iron out and polish up a bit and then we would have a gem. Didn't come close to happening and turned into an utter disaster.

[Mattyblue]

Don’t remember ‘all’ on here slagging off Raya and Kaminski…

[RoryRoversIreland]

[Polky]

10 minutes ago, RoryRoversIreland said:

Nice to see our Klarna application has been accepted 😊

[roversfan99]

"Possibly not the worst striker to pull on the blue and white halves."

Hes the 4th worst in the current first team.

[TheRevAshton]

28 minutes ago, RoryRoversIreland said:

Perhaps the court hearing in India has happened then?

I'd assume so, since we've been cleared to spend money...

Edited January 24 by TheRevAshton

[ageoftherover]

Keeper is such a mental game. It's impossible to know whether a promising youngster will grow or shrink when the blowtorch of a big league is applied to them. Theres never going to be significant data points to support that, so you just have to prepare as best you can, ideally treating young prospects with care. But no matter what there will be a risk factor when a young keeper is really tested.

If I had to guess, I'd say the the scouting team saw promise in Leo, likely evidenced in the data somewhere and the idea was to have him spend this season acclimatising in the 21s, cup games and in general amongst the squad. Unfortunately, Pears injury meant he was thrown in the deep end and didn't handle the pressure. You can see he has something about him, his reflexes and shot stopping is there, he's just crumbled in his decision making and especially in commanding his box. Hopefully this experience hasn't broken him.

In any remotely sane world, $800k odd shouldn't really be a big risk either. Theres a whiff of Stockholm syndrome in people claiming he's our big money/marquee signing tbh.