To be fair Jude Bellingham went straight into the Birmingham City team after eight months of U23s. Ash Phillips is in the same levels - started in U23s in Jan. Could start playing August. If he's exceptional he can play first team football at 16.

TBH if we go into the season starting six or seven academy players it reeks of incompetence from a management perspective but will be quite exciting for the fans. Also - without really having reviewed any data my feeling is it's not usually teams with a bunch of kids playing who get relegated. Its usually teams full of jaded journeymen. That's my copium anyway

Team Id like to see versus Celtic Kaminski Brown. Carter. Wharton. Pickering Travis. Wharton Dolan. Buckley. Brereton Gallagher What worries me is that defence.

Bottom line is I just don't think we have enough runway between the pretty late appointment of JDT and the early start of the season this year. It's certain we're going to crash into the start of the season very unprepared. Weird thing about football is sometimes that sort of thing doesn't actually lead to worse results. In the chaos things can be found out that were not known before. But also there is a big risk it turns into a disaster. Feels like we will start the season with a bench made up of the U23 squad. Maybe one or two signings.

343 worked really well for us first half of last season. However it really was very dependent on Rothwell picking up the ball centrally and driving forward, Van Hecke running the show from the middle of the back three, and Lenihan playing down the right of the centre backs. With all of those gone it will be a totally different proposition. Also it means Buckley/Dack will only get in as false 9s. And, as you say, we haven't really got any good wing backs. It seems more logical to me for us to go for 4231 as it suits the players we have left imo.

The one thing in our favour is he has literally never played a competitive game for Liverpool and joined for only £500k. So could be looking for very little for him.

Yes. Or take him on loan with option to buy and pay £20k with Liverpool topping him up. Hes literally never played for Liverpool and it doesn't sound like many clubs are in for him so this sounds like a potential go-er.

What's depressing is if we offered him that a year ago I'm pretty sure he would have signed.

I guess one possibility is that JDT and Broughton want to do an ultra homegrown strategy and that's what they've signed up for. Feels that's possibly Broughton's outlook, but JDT strikes me as wanting short term impact.

I agree with your analysis on what sort of players we need. But realistically the absolute maximum number of players we've been able to bring in over the years in a single window has been about 4 perms and 4 loans. So eight signings is the max achievable imo. it's also worth saying is even the best managers do well to get more than 60% of their transfers right. So while it's cathartic to say sell Ayala, Gallagher and Hedges I don't think it will be wise to move out more players when we already need to sign eight or so before they leave. Plus I think under new management they may improve. It's worth giving them a chance to see if that's the case.

Yeah, but 12/18 months is a loooong time in football. No sign of current interest by top flight clubs as far as a quick Google can find.

Further - looking at his wiki I really can't see why he would be out of our league? Only 15 appearences for Bordeaux, who are not a major force in France (as evidenced by their relegation), no sign of Prem, La Liga, Serie A interest etc. Seems very doable? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anel_Ahmedhodžić

Feels like the sort of transfer that could happen due to the managerial connection. We're likely to offer a decent salary improvement compared to Malmo and competitive with smaller clubs in League 1. One to watch for me.

Agree it's all a mystery. If JDT goes 442 as suggested by those analytical reports I think he will be a bit confused by Gallagher. Gallys physique screams a player whose attacking style is 70% back to goal linking up play, 30% running into the box to get on the end of crosses (great for 442). But his way of playing is actually 100% running with the ball at feet (despite not being very good at dribbling) It's just so weird. And not great for 442.

Selling Dolan would be madness, he's one of our top young players., and while there is a risk he may not improve there is a decent chance he will. His contract is long enough for us to find out. I'm sure a lot of people would have sold Brereton last summer for 3m or 4m (me included) but with young players it's always worth giving them a chance to improve if they seem to have the capability. Incidentally at 19/20 Dolan has looked a lot more impressive Brereton did at that age.

I'd be absolutely amazed if we could get anywhere near a number that would entice him to stay. He knows any sort of move will 4x or more his pay. He also knows if he stays and gets injured or his goals dry up (as they did second half of last season) suddenly his opportunity for Prem footy goes too. So he's gone, just a case of where. The club's after him will want to leave it late in the window and scare us to drop the price. We want to play the various clubs off one another to push the price up. Will run and run.

Give it 6 months, I'm pretty sure he will get another Championship gig.

Well if that's true I guess things could improve with Broughton & JDT. But it just feels to me that the source of the bizarre way we operate is far more to do with Venkys that Waggott and therefore I will be surprised if Broughton and JDT really manage to change it.

I understand the above is to do with the owners not being engaged/willing to signoff contracts? Is that right? Do you expect this aspect - lack of forward planning due to lack of signoffs from Venkys to approve new contracts - to change under Broughton/JDT?

There's also a side to it that if you "football" your way out of the Championship you end up in the Prem - which is great - but when you're there most teams can out football you and you get murdered and relegated. See Fulham or Norwich in recent years. You want a team that can find a way to defend and get a result against better teams. Winning ugly against better teams is a big part of football, and we want to be good at it.

I guess the point is until he establishes himself for Rovers we shouldn't rely on him. Carter fourth choice initially sounds about right to me but if he quickly proves himself, then he can move up the order. I think we should also exclude Ayala from the defensive calculations, he just isn't fit enough. He should be regarded as a bonus (if we can't find a buyer) So for me it should be : 1 Wharton 2 New Signing 3 New Singing 4 Carter 5 Phillips There's a decent upside there as I think both Carter and Phillips could make an impact this season, but we wouldn't be reliant on them. I do wonder however if Venkys rumoured requirement that we don't pay a fee for defenders will remain in place?

Which blog is that?

The club said Broughton was selected by a specialist recruitment agency hired to do it. That said the way it came together it does feel like Broughton was offered very last minute when another candidate (Steve Walsh?) fell through. Broughton himself said - I think, need to look back at the interview - that he was offered a couple of days after being approached. So while he may turn out to be a very good or bad appointment he wasn't one of the initial targets.

I loved Dunn, great player for us, should have had a better career. But he's nowhere near the orbit of the likes of Grealish or Foden. Grealish is a very similar player and - to me anyway - obviously much better. Quicker, more technical, better with his weaker foot. Much as I love him I don't think Pep would be signing Dunn. The former Rover this team desperately needs is Tugay. If that is what we need we could just put Grealish in central midfield. He'd carry the ball forward very effectively from deep. But like with Joe there's a trade off - loses the ball in dangerous areas, lacks postional discipline, not physical enough. That said given how unimaginative our midfield has been, and that we don't have a Tugay, I wouldnt be against Grealish being given a shot centrally.

I'd say weve got a lot of those - Grealish, Sancho, Foden, Bellingham, Sterling all love running with the ball and are good at it. For me it's the passing that's the issue.