National League North is obviously not a high level, but Montgomery has been a consistent starter across both his loans this year (17 starts with Marine and 6 starts + 1 sub with Chorley) and bagged a couple goals (including that screamer). He's turning 21 at the end of next month, so the thinking may simply be he'll need to show if he's anywhere near first-team level pretty soon. This season has obviously gone off the rails, so perhaps give him a couple sub appearances as the season winds down... O'Grady-Macken and Edmondson are a couple years behind him. https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/february/02/kristi-signs-new-deal/ He's signed through to 2025-26, plus an option. Even if he's only flogged off to a L1/L2 club in the end, that's still a relative success for the Academy (and him!). Small beer, I know...

While there's still some 'hope' (had a glance and bookies have us at 16/1 for playoffs at the moment...), I'm so checked out about the season... I was sceptical of Eustace (and the sustainability of what he had managed to start the year), but he was starting to win me over, and then... Ismael, bah, more a symptom than the root cause. Amid all that, how the loanees and Academy lads are doing at least remains a topic of relatively optimistic interest! Some positives: - Markanday: recent lack of minutes a bit concerning. Hope it's just an outlier. Overall, he's still had 8 starts in 12 league games with 2 goals in L1, plus the obviously successful L2 loan - Batty: injuries still a concern, but he's managed 22 appearances with Accrington, which is a positive? - Duru a regular with L2 Barrow with 8 apps so far. 3 games in a USA U20 call-up too. - Olson immediately becoming a regular starter with Altrincham in NL (now at 13 starts) is a good sign - any potential there? That seemed to come out of nowhere. - Obviously a low level, but Edmondson apparently did well with 7th tier Macclesfield as a 19yo (3 goals in 14 apps) and has again made our bench a couple times. There was a bit of hype about him last year too. - 14 games for Atcheson at NLN Marine as a 17/18yo can't hurt, and has made our bench a few times. Presumably some promise there. NI U19 call-up too... - Montgomery's been a steady starter for both his NLN loans (21 league starts), but he is turning 21 in a couple months, so... On the negative side: Vale blighted by injury (albeit probably running down his contract/trying to showcase him for a low fee sale at this point); O'Riordan maybe salvaging things a bit with Crewe in L2, but hard to ignore the disappointment of the L1 Cambridge loan; poor-ish loan for Gamble for NL Fylde (but perhaps not much of a prospect to begin with); simply looking like a disastrous loan season for Garrett; Harrison Wood's scored 4 in 6 Academy games yet has struggled for minutes at both his Scottish L1 and NLN loans (5 starts, 6 subs, 1 goal, left on the bench 5 times). Guessing he wasn't much of a prospect in the first place given his age (turning 21 in the summer) and the level of those loans? Mafoumbi loan looking more like offloading a signing that didn't work out (baffling if that took up an international slot). Saadi, bah who cares haha. Also, while I agree that the slew of low non-league loans look odd - I'll admit to ignorance at just how low a level those leagues are! - I also suspect they're more 'give a lad a handful of games against men in local non-league/work experience'-style loans rather than full-blown loans. Many have just been for one month, and they've often still played Academy games during the loans. I'd also guess some of those lads weren't really promising prospects in the first place...

Treating this as the general 'former Rovers on podcasts' thread 🙂 Benno on I Had Trials Once: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/elliott-bennett-dealing-with-imposter-syndrome-super/id1459117353?i=1000698548123 Decent listen. Always was a likeable guy, and at least honest about his limits as a player! Ultimately scrapped together a heck of a career. Interestingly contrasts himself with his much more skilled younger brother, who got stuck in L1/L2 and maybe got to used to dominating with the ball, while Benno was a steady Championship player who managed a couple PL seasons through graft. Main Rovers tidbits: - Coyle was the worst manager he ever had, repeats stories we've heard from Graham/Conway/Mulgrew etc about what a joke he was re: training/tactics (IHTO hosts mention Willem Tomlinson told them that the young players loved Coyle's training because they didn't know any better, while the vets were fuming). Playing for Coyle made him hate football. - Loved Mowbray (a breath of fresh air after Coyle...) and being at Rovers in general. Felt being honest about his bad start with Rovers helped win the fans over early. Some stories about Dack, Graham, Mulgrew, etc. Recounts the story of Dolan blowing away the senior players when he first joined as Preston reject. - Usual Rovers contracts nonsense (I didn't exactly follow the numbers detailed below!): Recounts the story of the senior players' 33% Covid wage deferral. He and his agent tried offering to turn his deferral into a permanent wage cut in exchange for a contract extension. Mowbray on board with it. Then - surprise - 'the board' come back offering to cut the wage of his remaining year in half in exchange for another year at a 50% cut, so effectively play an extra year for free... He and his agent miffed. For his final year, Mowbray informs him he's not allowed to let him get over a certain number of appearances as it would trigger a 1-year extension at his prevailing wage. Bennett frustrated that his offer to take a wage cut for an extra year would've nullified that, but Rovers are still only offering a 50% wage cut for both years, so he barely plays. At the end of the year, Rovers offer a one-year extension at a 50% wage cut. All left a sour taste in his mouth, so declines that and goes to Shrewsbury at an 80% wage cut.

O'Riordan's goal was a decent strike (er, perhaps given a bit too much time to settle the ball by L2 defenders haha...): Duru's goal poking in a header off a corner (first highlight below):

Argh, can't find that video of Jason Lowe running the ball out of play under no pressure...

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/24963259.blackburn-rovers-connor-oriordan-scores-barrow/ - Wouldn't be surprised if O'Riordan's cast off in the offseason, but regular L2 football is probably better than PL2 football + mostly sitting on the bench the rest of the year. 21 is still quite young for CB... For comparison, Scott Wharton was 22 (turning 23) in his last L2 loan the year before breaking into the squad in 2020-21 (and then tearing his achilles...). Carter was also 22 (turning 23) in his final L1 loan at Portsmouth. Moving to another tier of talent, Tosin was 22 during his loan. In contrast, THB and Branthwaite were 18, albeit obviously not ready at the time... Lenihan was 20 during his Burton loan. It's certainly been a disappointing year for O'Riordan, but I think it'd be harsh to rule him out already. A Cambridge supporter told me he thought he looked talented, but had some bad luck with a few key mistakes amid a freefalling squad. --- - The article also includes a quote from Leyton Orient's manager - Rovers head coach contender Richie Wellens 😉 - on Markanday: “The squad is good. You only have to look at the likes of Dilan Markanday, he has been unbelievable since he came in. “It has been difficult to get him on in the last couple of games because of the physicality of the opposition and the way the games were going. “You look at Lincoln and Wrexham – every time the ball goes out of play, it is in your box. Every time it is a long throw, a corner, you need to match them up size-wise. It has been difficult for Dilan but his time will come.” Perhaps not a huge endorsement that he doesn't think Markanday can handle the most physical sides, but certainly some kind words and at least it's clear that he's not been outright frozen out.

Yeah, I don't think Ribeiro's gotten enough notice, which is fair enough given his quieter role, but he's really impressed me. I don't think he's put a foot wrong so far. Looks like a very solid veteran and has managed 90min in back-to-back games with no sign of flagging. (I suspect having to scrape some cash together to bring him in as cover for Pickering made our transfer window that much more skint...) While I can understand fan frustration with the whole organisation, it does strike me as grasping at straws when someone like Lowe gets targeted on occasion. If he puts cones in the right places, shouts at players in training at the right time, and the players like him and trust him as a confidante to vent about the manager or whatever, what's the issue? (I've sometimes wondered the same about Benson, but at least there's a fair debate there about how we've developed keepers)

If anyone wants to jump on this bad boy before it skyrockets in value...: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313520791543 ❤️

One odd tidbit from one of Jacksons' recent Eustace stories was something about a 'break down in communication' / miscommunication about the health of an u21 player. Jackson makes a point of not naming who the player was... but would have to think Gilsenan is a candidate. Just strange (and feel sorry for the lad as he does seem to have enough talent for a decent look at some point).

Stray thoughts on the lineup (obviously Eustace's potential exit hangs over all this...) - Whatever you think about our transfer window, this is a welcome opportunity to give some competitive minutes to Dennis, Kargbo, and Ribeiro - That said, odd that Woodrow isn't included. I'm surprised Cantwell's been given a start instead given he looked to be carrying a knock on Tuesday (or at least that better be his excuse for that performance...), but perhaps hard to fit Woodrow into that front 4 - Might as well give Buckley some more game time, even if my hopes for him turning it around are rather faint these days... Forshaw, well, might as well expose how bad he is - Yeesh, what's the plan if Batth or Hyam go down? While I thought Sanderson's reasonable cover in place of McFadzean, and while we wait on Carter's return, it's a shame he's cup-tied for this very game... Do you really want, I dunno, Ribeiro/Trav/JRC as an emergency CB instead of, say, Litherland or Pratt on the bench? - Haven't been happy with his performances this year, but happy to see JRC at RB to give Brittain a rest, whose been one of our best this year and I'm worried he's getting run into the ground. - Good for Toth to get another opportunity with Pears teetering a bit.

Certainly don't mind Gueye wanting to take the penalty (as per below, he's 8 for 8 in his career!). It was just something about Travis' body language that bothered me. Looked no different than him trying to wind up an opponent rather than 'leading'... perhaps he was annoyed that Gueye should've known it wasn't his to take? Anyway, Travis has been great this year overall, so I'm not questioning his captaincy! Just happy Dolan buried it... Gueye seemed to react okay after sulking for a second. Happily celebrated the goal and had his best spell for the next 5min or so... So probably a nothingburger in the end! --- Had me curious about our squad's penalty taking record (counting league and cups, all according to fbref): Woodrow: 13 for 15 Gueye: 8 for 8 Forshaw: 5 for 6 Cantwell: 2 for 2 (I'm surprised this year have been his only senior PKs! He's 3 for 3 in PL2) Ohashi: 3 for 3 Sigurdsson: 2 for 3 Dolan: 1 for 1 (does fbref have that wrong? I could've sworn he's taken one before...) Buckley: 1 for 1 Dennis: 0 for 1 Plus a few with a PK record in PL2: Leonard: 3 for 3 Vale: 3 for 3 ACD: 2 for 4 JRC: 0 for 1

Yeesh, that was pretty awful. Away end view at Loftus Road is pretty great anyway... Will have to rewatch that 2nd goal as looked like a rocket to me (from the other side of the pitch!) that I wouldn't judge Pears too harshly on, but don't think anyone covered themselves in glory on that one. Also to double-check if Hyam had any culpability on either goal, as I thought he was solid tonight (one terrible pass aside). Surprised no commentary on Gueye and Travis having a bizarrely animated fight about taking the penalty. Glad Dolan buried it, but almost seemed like Travis was winding Gueye up rather than being a leader. Strange. Seemed to wake Gueye up for a few minutes after, but he was quite poor after some solid performances of late. Cantwell was terrible. If he's not carrying a knock (certainly looked like it!), he should be ashamed of that performance (and if he's hurt, why is JE bringing him on as an earlyish sub??). Weimann completely anonymous. Has had his moments this year, but some games sure do pass him by... To try to be kind to Hedges, he certainly does his defensive duties, but just offers nothing with the ball. Did some really good work winning the ball a couple times and then immediately gave it away. Think Brittain needs a rest... heck, probably the whole squad. Get those new bodies into the lineup fast. Ha, I'd actually say Forshaw did nothing wrong in his brief minutes. Good for him. Random views from a couple neutrals who joined me, fwiw: not impressed with Gueye, one thought it looked like Buckley has talent (I was sure to tell him how he's unfortunately flattered to deceive for 2-3 years now... tonight, I thought he was awful in the 1st half but ok in the 2nd). Dolan hit-and-miss. One, who follows a L2 club, was laughing at how amazed he was at how well we and QPR passed it around, reminding him that he usually watches pretty awful football haha

Was just reviewing the Athletic article on the saga: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5252239/2024/02/06/blackburn-rovers-duncan-mcguire-transfer/ (sorry paywall). Not like there's much else to read at the moment... Yup, that's the general reported story. We had agreed on ~£3m + add-ons that could bring the total to £5m (after some early loan offers were rejected, only offered a permanent deal once the Wharton sale was almost done), plus a sell-on for Orlando. McGuire left Orlando's Mexico camp for NYC the morning before deadline day. That's when Venky's informed Waggott, Broughton, and JDT there's no money for the deal (LET also confirmed this). GB apologetically called Orlando saying the deal was off. Orlando tried calling McGuire back, but he left for Manchester. His agent sent McGuire to that Sheffield hotel as a Sheffield Wed deal was looking more likely. Apparently, his agent then called GB asking if they were still interested with the Wharton sale done. GB said they could still only do a loan. Orlando, wanting money upfront to make their own deals, insisted on a sizeable loan fee. Agreed on a £550k loan fee + £5.5m purchase option + £2m add-ons + Orlando sell-on. So, potentially £3m more than the previous agreement, including the add-ons (LET, for their part, said these figures are 'inflated'). Agent still haggling between Blackburn and Sheffield Wed. GB used some data to make the final sell. McGuire and agent went to Blackburn to sign the deal...

As an aside, wasn't the rumour that Mowbray was referring to Marcus Maddison and/or Erhun Oztumer with that comment? In retrospect, it looks like he made the right judgement on those two (particularly in regard to the character of the former, yeesh). Or am I misremembering? (Ronan Curtis, maybe? He never made the jump from Pompey, then unfortunately did his ACL...)

What's particularly silly about that excuse is that it essentially admits that we do have a cashflow problem, despite at the same time insisting the owners have no restrictions on sending cash over...

Markanday wasn't impressive last year, but, after excelling for Chesterfield in L2 and now off to a great start with Leyton Orient in L1, we should obviously at least take up the option on his contract and reassess in the summer. Just had a look and he's already at 1,971 L1/L2 minutes this year (+62min in cups) vs only 765 min last year (+290min in cups). His loans have turned out exactly as you'd hope for a young player in need of starts, so surely the hope is he'll be much better on his return. If not, we can probably at least flog him off for a few hundred k based on his loan performances. Similar to recent debate about Morton (not that I expect him to return...), I get that some weren't fond of him - he certainly had his inconsistencies/growing pains during his Rovers loan, but, on a macro level, 30 starts+10 subs on a 7th place team for a 20-year-old who JDT put in a very challenging MF role is pretty impressive - but surely he's since improved as a 22-year-old who made 35 starts+4 subs for a 7th place (ha) Hull last year (whose fans seem to rate him) and now often on Liverpool's bench (if somewhat stuck in purgatory at the moment).

Yeah, I was about upper-middle in the away end and had a great view of: a) Buckley's rocket - maybe it looked closer than it actually was, but I was surprised that didn't make the 2min highlights! He's had some poor long shots here and there (yesterday an example), but he does have that 'in his locker'; see Birmingham a couple years ago (took some hunting, oddly struggling to find it on YouTube, but it's on Rovers' FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/1Rovers/videos/buckos-rocket/2274552452710855/ Part of the problem with Buckley is having to scour a fair bit to find those bits of magic from him...) b) it was clearly a deflection on the free kick (but couldn't tell it was Beck's head!)

We could be getting close to challenging this bench from 2 Dec 2023: https://www.skysports.com/football/sheffield-wednesday-vs-blackburn-rovers/teams/484926: Hilton, Gamble, Markanday, Garrett, Atcheson, Telalovic, Bloxham, Montgomery, Duru. (Leonard aside - not to pick on him - at least had a semblance of a starting XI) (JDT obviously deserves some criticism, but he had almost zero depth to work with in the latter stages...)

Maybe O'Riordan won't turn out (fwiw, a Cambridge supporter told me he thought COR has talent, but a few major mistakes early on, amid Cambridge plummeting, sealed his fate for that loan...), but I can't fault signing a 20 yo CB with a £500k release clause who already had 79 games of pro experience (in L1/L2/Scottish Champ). (Whether spending £500k on COR that window meant we chose not to strengthen in another position, and therefore got that much closer to relegation, is a fair counter!) You can get in trouble if relying on bringing L1 'stars' into the Championship, but there is merit in scouring L1/L2 for young (and affordable...) talent. Dack the obvious hit, Pickering's been good overall, mixed feelings on Rothwell but can't deny he was a good pick, Bell a mixed bag (a PL-er!), Edun a miss, Ennis a bad miss (if somewhat salvaged). (not counting Szmodics/Brittain given they were in the Championship the season before, but they highlight tracking relegated carcasses!)

If Forshaw was brought in to replace a McFadzean-like case, where the outgoing player had barely played at all, and bring strong dressing room qualities (to be fair to him, perhaps he is a good in the room), maybe there's some sense having him on the bench instead of some youngster whose probably nowhere near first-term football yet. But Baker started seven games for us, roughly 1/3 of the games he was around for, and came on as a sub 6 of the 14 times he was on the bench. (And Mark Robins has had him play 90min in both games since his recall). It's a clear downgrade for a squad player, not a backup, which matters a hell of a lot when 1-2 of your midfield options go down.

My tally of our current loans by level: Scottish Prem: Vale (Motherwell) - recently returned from a long injury with a couple subs. League One (3): O'Riordan (Cambridge) - Odd he wasn't immediately recalled like Garrett given he hasn't even made the bench in recent games. Perhaps lining up another loan first. League Two (4): Batty (Accrington), Markanday (Chesterfield) National League (5): Gamble (Fylde), Goddard (Ebbsfleet), Olson (Altrincham) National League North (6): Powell (Chorley) Northern Premier League (7): Eastham (Ashton), Edmondson (Macclesfield) (possible this loan has now ended after being extend to 'January'; will see if he's in tonight's line-up) Northern Premier League Div One (8): Honor (Atherton Collieries) Cyprus First Division: Saadi (Ethnikos Achna) Atcheson was on the bench for 6th tier Marine on 1 Jan but his loan was due to end that day. Had made 13 starts + 1 sub for them. Montgomery's loan there also due to end on 1 Jan, but he hasn't been in their lineup for over a month. Not as if he was totally frozen out though as he did manage 17 starts on his loan there. (edit: Atcheson and Montgomery both in the lineup for the U21s PL Cup match tonight v Bamber Bridge) Loans that were also originally due to end in January were Mullarkey-Matthews at 7th tier Bamber Bridge (seems he only made 4 apps there, and hasn't shown up there since Sept) and Harrison Wood at Scottish 3rd tier Annan (5 league apps + 1 cup app, but hasn't shown up there since Oct - edit: Wood also in the lineup for the U21s tonight)

I hereby vow that I will stand up in defence of Pears the next time he has a howler/bad game.

lol, every Dolan touch has been either 1/10 or 10/10.

Hmm, I was under the impression the exact fee/terms are disclosed if the tribunal needs to make the final decision, but perhaps not as the exact terms of the Elliott case were merely confirmed by Liverpool/well-covered by the media, not directly published by the PFCC. In contrast, seems the exact terms of the Mahoney compensation were publicised by the PFCC: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11743/11375683/bournemouth-ordered-to-pay-blackburn-425000-for-connor-mahoney-transfer, which may be a somewhat closer comparable for Finneran in terms of stature, although Mahoney was 20 and at 21 appearances... Mahoney compensation ended up being £425k + £100k for every 10 first team appearances up to £500k + 20% of any sell-on profits + £250k if he got an England cap. Appearances fees + England cap didn't hit, of course (Mahoney now plying his trade in League 2), but going by the reported £1.1m fee for his following sale to Millwall, that suggests we got £425k + 20% * (£1.1m - £425k) = £560k for Mahoney in the end.

Thanks again, @KentExile, we all owe you a pint/coffee! Randomly met a Cambridge supporter who said he quite liked O'Riordan when he started, but the team was in free fall to start the year and a number of key mistakes made him an easy cut. Now on a 3-game win streak, so hard to see him getting back in the lineup soon... they have a couple cup games next week, so perhaps he'll at least get some game time for those. This article from last week: https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/sport/boss-backs-o-riordan-to-take-his-next-opportunity-9388487/ (newsletter-walled, I accessed it by disabling javascript) suggests Monk hasn't completely iced him out, or at least he's still being complimentary about him in public. On the multitude of low non-league loans, I've also been curious about them, but most are only 1-month loans where they're getting a handful of games against 'men', which is perhaps a helpful change of scenery compared to u-18/u-21 football, and usually relatively local, so I wonder if they're still training with/under the watchful eye of Academy staff and probably still able to live at home? Have to assume some are players who probably aren't up to snuff anyway and/or have agents/parents impatiently pushing for loans. (Jackson, if you're reading this, perhaps a question to pose to the Academy staff to get their take!)